This week in Fence Post we are recognizing several of our FSA veterans . We say thank you to all of our veterans for your service to this country.
by Latawnya Dia, FSA public affairs specialist
Oscar Rivera was honored to continue his family tradition of serving in the military. His father served in the Army during WWII in the Panama Canal zone while seven of his uncles served in the Army — two of them made it their career. Oscar followed suit. After serving 25 years in the U.S. Air Force, Oscar retired at the rank of major, making him the third person in his family to retire from the military.
Oscar began his military career in 1982 as an E-3 enlisted soldier at the MacDill Air Force Base basic training camp in Tampa, Fla. As an enlisted soldier, Oscar worked as a contracting officer until he became an officer through his college’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program, better known as AFROTC. He is the first in his family to become an Army officer.
When the first Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) began in January 1991, Oscar was station at the U.S. SOUTHCOM in Miami, Fla., which is a joint command post of more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel that represent the armed forces and other federal agencies. He, along with other soldiers, volunteered to backfill for soldiers who were sent to Kuwait and Iraq.
A strange and funny thing happened to Oscar during his time at SOUTHCOM. He was tasked to be part of a Critical Action Team (CAT) to pull a 24-hour alert in which he had to monitor all incoming communications inside the secured bunker location inside a cave. With his high-level security clearance, he was proud to have access all the way to level 50, which was a pretty big deal to him — so he thought; however, next day after the alert was over, he noticed personnel coming out of deeper areas of the cave with access levels of 80-99. “I thought I was a big dog with my level 50 access to the cave,” said Oscar, “to only find out that there were many others with higher clearances than mine. What a humbling and funny experience.”
Once, Oscar was at the bar in the Officer’s Club. He met a gentleman — fellow soldier no doubt – and began telling him everything that he felt was wrong in the Air Force and explaining to the gentleman how to fix things. “It’s always nice to be able to get things off your chest, especially when someone is willing to listen as this gentleman was,” he thought. The next day in the staff meeting, Oscar found out that the gentleman at the Officer’s Club was a visiting four-star General. “My facial expression was priceless – I’m sure,” says Oscar, “but he told everyone about our unexpected encounter and that he was going to take my good ideas back with him.”
Recently, Oscar met a new employee trainee that was thinking about resigning his Air Force commission to dedicate his time fully to his FSA training. Oscar advised him not to give up his commission. He explained to him that he can do both and that FSA and the Air Force will receive the benefits. So far, he’s still doing both.
Oscar Rivera is a district director in Albuquerque, N.M.
