EDUCATION

My college education started at the University of South Alabama in 1991.  At that time, I was also in the Air Force Reserves, after joining in 1989.  This was just before the 1st Gulf War of Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  I was an Aircraft Electrician Specialist / Mechanic in a special operations group, which flew the AC-130 Gunship.  My unit was the only Special Operations Reserves Group in the entire Air Force at that time.  I did not fly in the plane, just repaired it on the ground.  To make a long story short, I suffer from Panic Anxiety and Panic Disorder because of the Gulf War.  In 1998, I came back to the University of South Alabama to study business, music production, and leadership.  I enrolled in the AFROTC program as a civilian and completed classes 100 to 400, with the 400 level being audited.  If I had not audited them, I was told that I would have to be commissioned and be placed back into the Air Force as an officer, once I had finished the classes and graduated.  I took the classes because I felt that the military would give me the best military training for leadership, so that's why I enrolled in the AFROTC program.  Later in 2013, I began having panic and anxiety attacks, which have been attributed to the Gulf War as a Service-Connected Disability.  Although I did not have to fight in the war with a gun, I was an aircraft mechanic.  Our sister flight was shot down in their AC-130, "Spirit 03" and all 14 crew members were killed by a shoulder-launched missile strike in the war.  Somehow that started my issues with panic attacks and anxiety and I have had to deal with them every sense that event.  I completed my time in the Air Force Reserves and got out in 1995 as a Staff Sergeant (E-6).