Thomas H. Maxwell U. S. Air Force 1961-1983

The Biography of Thomas Maxwell, written by Kaylin Prochaska and Atlantah Foulke in 2022.

Thomas H. Maxwell was born May 10th, 1943, in Beloit, Kansas. He grew up just outside of Beloit on a farm. He also has one sister three years younger than him, and she married a man from Beloit who was in the Air Force too. Tom’s mother cooked at the elementary school in Beloit, and his father worked as a farmer and a plumber. Growing up, Tom enjoyed fishing, hunting, farming, riding horses, and spending time with his dad. He and his father were very close. Tom attended and graduated from Beloit High School and said he was never really a troublemaker. “I was not a huge fan of school, but I did like certain things about it.”

Tom was not drafted; he chose to enlist when he was eighteen. He became interested in the Air Force while talking to an Air Force recruiter during his junior year of high school. He decided that he wanted to be in the Air Force because he did not know what else he wanted to do with his life at the time.

Tom received basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The airmen were awakened around 5:00 or 5:30 A.M. on their first day, went to breakfast, received haircuts, and then they received the following uniforms: two sets of dress uniforms, four sets of class B uniforms, four sets of fatigues, two sets of boots, and a set of dress shoes. They had to fit them all in a duffel bag and get all of the clothes back to their dormitory. They did not always have the best places to sleep, and their temporary homes were old rooms that were built before WWII. While at basic training, Tom chose the mechanical career field. Then he later received orders to work on jet fighter airplanes.

While in basic training, the conditions varied. Sometimes in the mornings, the airmen would wake up and there would be snow on the floor of their rooms. If the fire alarm was going off, they had exactly seventeen seconds to get outside before the building would burn down; all the men had to practice these drills to be safe. They were also issued green fatigues to wear to work every day, dress blues for special occasions, and khaki uniforms they did not wear much. The airmen cut notches in the heels of one pair of their boots so they would know whether or not they were changing them every day. (The Tactical Instructor checked every day to be sure they were changing their boots.) The men also had to shine their boots every night. If they did not do what they were supposed to, they would get a gig. A gig is a demerit. If they received too many, they would have to march the track on Saturdays as a punishment.

After basic training, Tom received more specific job training at the Aircraft Maintenance School at the Amarillo Air Force Base in Texas. Aircraft Maintenance was a twelve-week school, and it started the first week of January. During training, the airmen received good food. They had really small rooms to stay in though, and there were two people assigned to each room. The weather conditions varied depending on where Tom was, but it was cold in the beginning and then it warmed up later in the year. In the mornings he had to be to school by 6:00 A.M. and lights were shut off by 9:00 P.M.

After Tom’s training was completed, he worked in aircraft maintenance. He was the person in charge of fixing airplanes. Tom stated, “As long as the airplane was on the ground, it was my responsibility.” If something was broken on the airplanes, he had to make repairs, and he also had to fill the airplanes up with fuel.

Tom was stationed in many different locations during his service. He was stationed in Oxnard, California, from April 1962 until July 1963. Then, he went to Lakenheath, England, until December of 1965. He was next stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho for the year 1966. Then, he had to go to Vietnam from January 1967 until January 1968. From Tan-Son-Nhut, Vietnam, he and his wife Mary went to Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. They were there from the end of January 1968 until August 1972; this was where they welcomed their two oldest sons into the family. Following that stay, they went to Hahn Air Base in Germany, where they welcomed their youngest son. They resided in Germany from 1972-1976. After that, Tom and his wife went to Offutt Air Base in Nebraska for two years. Then Tom went to Osan, Korea.

Tom explained what it was like to be in Vietnam. He first flew on an airplane from Travis Air Force Base to Vietnam. His first impression of Vietnam was not that it was pretty, but that it smelled. “I never could figure out what the smell was,” said Tom. He was in the 16th Tactical Fighter Squadron. It was organized with a commander, First Sergeant in Chief, and a flight line chief.

In Vietnam, there was not a front line. Instead, there were North and South Vietnamese soldiers who sided with the North. They were everywhere; no one could tell who was who. Tom’s scariest experience was the night he had spent in a sandbag bunker while the security police and the Army were trying to hold off the Vietnamese. A security policeman had to shoot an enemy soldier off the back of his revetment. During Tom’s experiences, he said he never feared he was going to die.

Tom explained some of the conditions during the war. All of the airmen in Tom’s squadron lived off base in an old monk monastery; there were three buildings with a big wall around them. The weather in Vietnam was extremely hot and humid and all the uniforms were the same as they were in the states. Also, the airmen had “alright-tasting” food during the war.

Tom met many civilians while in Vietnam. Every time he saw them, they always asked for money. The money there was strange. In a way, it looked like Monopoly money to Tom.

Tom had several memorable experiences in the Air Force. A funny experience was when one of Tom’s friends could not fit into his fatigues, and they were extremely big on him. The friend always made jokes about how big they were and got in trouble all the time for being a comedian. A sad experience for Tom was when he was sleeping one night and was suddenly awakened. The flight officers told him to get to the flight line in a hurry. One of their airplanes had crashed; in the crash, a twenty-eight-year-old man, who was the pilot, had died. That man had a wife and three children.

Tom was stationed in multiple places before the war, but when he was stationed in southern California, his grandmother passed away. His commanding officer felt very bad, so he did everything he could do to get Tom back home. He had to make many calls, and finally, on his last call, there was an airplane that could take Tom home. When Tom was flying home for his grandmother’s funeral, a female colonel had talked to him. Later, she became the first female general officer in the Air Force. When Tom first began aircraft maintenance, women could not be in that career field.

After the war, Tom worked on airplanes from 7:30 A.M. until 4:30 P.M. most days, but after he got off work, “all the time was his.” He only received thirty days of leave though if anything came up. While in Germany, his family had a Volkswagen camper, so Tom and Mary’s parents both visited and they were able to travel around Europe.

After the war, Tom stayed in the Air Force for fifteen more years. When he returned home to the states, there was not much of a homecoming. The only person waiting there was Mary. His “official homecoming” was only a few years ago when he was honored to go on an Honor Flight back to Washington, D.C. with other veterans.

While Tom had to stay and help in the Air Force, Mary was working as a nurse at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas. After he finished at Osan, Korea, he went back to the Air Force Base in Offutt, Nebraska, for four more years. In all, this made twenty-two years of service to his country. “My favorite place I was stationed was in Hahn, Germany, because of how beautiful it was,” Tom stated.

While Tom was in Korea, Mary and their three sons moved to Beloit, and his boys went to school at Beloit Elementary School. Their youngest son was not in school yet, so he went to daycare while Mary worked as a nurse in Beloit.

Tom made many new friends during his service. “Since Mary and I were so far from our families, the people in the Air Force became our family.” One man Tom remembers was a person he met in Vietnam in 1967, and they spent ten years together. He also went to Alaska and spent five weeks with one of his friends, and then his friend came down and spent five weeks with Tom in Kansas. Tom and his wife have also been to Virginia to visit more of their military friends a couple of times after his service ended.

When Tom’s tour ended, he was sad. His was not the normal kind of sad though. The Air Force was trying to get him to go back overseas, but he did not want to leave his family again. “I was very nervous to get back into the civilian world because it was such a big change from what I was used to.” He said he would not have done anything differently though. He loved being in the Air Force. Tom was awarded several medals and citations throughout his career.

Tom worked in aircraft maintenance for fourteen years total, before and after the war, and eight years in personal management, working as a First Sergeant. Once Tom returned to Beloit, he moved into the home he is still currently living in. He helped his father-in-law with farm work, was an auctioneer, and also worked at Beloit Motors.

Tom eventually retired again. Currently, Tom is a member of the VFW, the American Legion, and is also a youth group leader at the Beloit First Christian Church. He enjoys hunting, fishing, and spending time with family. He says he likes to fish more than hunt.

When asked what he wants our generation to know, Tom replied, “I want everyone to be aware of the reason we go into war, and for everyone to know what they did to protect the freedoms we have today.” He especially would like for everyone to know why we went into WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Thank you, Tom, for your service. You are a hero, and we thank you for everything you have done for our country. We will never forget you and your service to our country.