Hensel, R., SMSgt

  Keeping busy with my wife Donna, whom I will be married to forty years in July 2009.  We've traveled quite alot having gone to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria in March 2006.  March 2007 we drove my inlaws to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesotta.  What a snow storm we ran into in Madison Wisconsin!  January 2008 we drove to Florida.  Visited some of the old TDY bases Tyndall and  McDill.  I always enjoyed TDY's, and it brings back good memories to go their.  July 2008 we drove to Albuquerque New Mexico for a wedding, then up to Colorado Spings and Denver.  As you can see I enjoy driving, so I took a part time job driving.  One of my "FOX HOLE BUDDIES" Joe Fenton, convinced me to look into parts delivery.  I work three days a week for an auto dealership and have a four day weekend.  WOW,  if I knew it would be that good, I would have done it forty years ago!! 

    When our children were young, it opened up an avenue to our social lives, so do our five grand children.  In many ways re-aquainting us with people we lost touch with.  Its true, you really get to enjoy them so much more than the hectic pace of raising your own.  I finally have two sons!  both are really nice guys and thank God, both marriages seem to be very sound.
 

I graduated from Cape May Vocational Technical Institute in 1966 and went to work for Weaton Plastic Co. in Mayslanding as a design draftsman.  I had a technical deferment from them to avoid the draft and one from my parents' family farm but felt an obligation to serve in the military.  As a child who played soldier with my cousins and admired my uncles in uniform I was inspired to join the military.  The Vietnam War was going on and everyone was saying "don't join", this didn't persuade me .  I joined the New Jersey Air National Guard in August and left for basic in October 1966.  After graduation from Chanute AFB as a hydraulic repairman, I was hired full time by the NJANG as a technician.  From that day on I knew I made the right decision about joining the military.  On January 26, 1968 the 177th TFG was activated for the Pueblo Incident and we were sent to Phu Cat, Vietnam for a one year tour.  After 14 years as a hydraulic technician, I cross trained to flight line and was a crew chief certified on F-106s, T-33s and F-16s.  I retired from my technician job with NJANG on my 55th birthday, December 27, 2000 and stayed on as a triditional Guardsman working in the Maintenance Control section (MOCC).  The first plane flew into the World Trade building at 0910 and by 0925 hours I received a phone call saying we were activated and to report to base ASAP.  I stayed on active duty for two years doing Noble Eagle missions and retired from NJANG military on December 27, 2005 at age 60. 

     From my first day as a technician until my last day as a traditional guardsman, I knew I had a job that was the envy of my family and friends.  Exotic travel to places they only heard about and TDYs to warm climates in January and Feburary always seemed like greener pastures to them and for the most part, they were correct.  I couldn't imagine working any other job and being any happier than with what I was doing in the Air National Guard.