OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- In the 1970s, Norton Air Force Base, California, was home to Air Mobility Command, meaning lots of heavy aircraft and even more maintainers to keep its mission going – among the many were Dennis and Ruth Barmore, a machinist and sheet metal specialist, respectively.
While serving in an aircraft maintenance squadron together, they met, fell in love, married and had their first born son, Harley. More than 40 years later, their legacy has come full circle.
While Ruth separated after her first enlistment, their son, now Lt. Col. Harley Barmore, continued to follow his father’s Air Force maintenance career from base to base. Over the years, he developed an appreciation for the craft and planned to follow suit.
But, after some push and shove from his parents, he took the officer route as a navigator. After 18 years of service and more than 3,000 flying hours in various models of C-135 aircraft, Barmore is leaving his flying family for an opportunity to make his boy-hood dream a reality.
“It was completely out of the blue,” Barmore said. “I was serving as the assistant director of operations in the 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron when I got a phone call. They said ‘We’re thinking about moving you and it’s not what you think.’”
He was offered a new position as the 55th Maintenance Group deputy commander. Barmore jumped at the career broadening opportunity and the chance to get back to his maintenance roots.
Following accelerated maintenance officer school, Barmore decided he needed to get his parents involved somehow. After all, they were the ones that brought him to work and to family dinners at the club as a child where he was surrounded by aircraft and people who inspired his love for maintenance.
During an informal ceremony in front of an RC-135 Rivet Joint, Barmore surprised his parents, who were visiting from their home state of Arizona, by asking them to pin his maintenance badge on his uniform – from one maintenance family to another.
“We thought we were going to witness the wing commander presenting him with the badge,” Ruth said. “We didn’t know we were going to be involved. We think it is so cool that he’s come back to his roots and we are very proud of him.”
Barmore said there will be challenges with the transition, but he is eager to serve his new maintenance family.
“I’m dedicated to them just as much as I am to flying,” he said. “I was born of maintenance; I tell my younger troops that…they got to actually see that the other day.”