Fruggiero, Robert, MSgt

PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE AIR FORCE.
I had been fascinated with jet planes since I was a little kid and what better place to go than the Air Force. I was also into electronics and how things worked, so I went to a vocational technical school for electronics; that helped get my ASVAB score up and gave me a choice of what I wanted to do in the Air Force.

WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK. WHERE DID YOU GO TO BASIC TRAINING AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, OR SQUADRONS WERE YOU ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR LEAVING?
When I was in basic training in January of 1982, there was a large drug bust that happened at a Titan II missile base in Arkansas and they needed enlisted crew members, so I was picked for the job. I did that job for five years, until they shutdown the last Titan II site. I was lucky enough to be on the last combat crew to turn over the site for dismantling. My career led me to F-16 avionics, where I started a comm, nav, and penetration aid (C-shop) position at Shaw AFB. I went on to Torrejon Spain and ended my active-duty time at Hill AFB in Utah. The Air Force was drawing down after Desert Storm and seeing that I was a single-parent, I figured I would take the bonus and go home to Rhode Island. Within six weeks I had joined the Air National Guard as a combat communications technician (part-time). I worked full-time for a small computer shop building computers and setting up networks for businesses. This led to a full-time Guard position working in base communications, and then I took an Active Guard Reserve (AGR) job down in DC. By this time I had re-married a woman from upstate NY; when an AGR position came available in Scotia, NY I applied for it and got it. This was where I spent the last eight years of my career as the Communications Team Chief for the 2nd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team; retiring in December of 2006.

IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE WHICH MADE A LASTING IMPACT ON YOU AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY?
My first humanitarian operation was Hurricane Hugo in September of 1989. I was stationed at Shaw AFB in South Carolina and they a bunch of us down to the coast to help out; it was an eye-opening experience that showed me the true power of nature. While stationed at Torrejon Air Base in Spain, we would deploy to Incirlik AB in Turkey to do our wartime training. In August of 1991, we were there training with two squadrons of F-16's when Saddam invaded Kuwait. The Air Force decided to just keep us there, and when Desert Storm kicked off we went into full war mode. I had not been involved in a real mission again until I was on the 2nd WMD-CST in NY. We responded to the attack on the World Trade Center and were also instrumental in finding anthrax at JFK. That job kept us very busy until I retired in 2006.