Kenneth E. Fisher

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Kenneth E. “Ken” Fisher was born in Alberta, grew up in Arizona, and enlisted in the Arizona Air National Guard in the mid 1950’s. After completing Basic Training he was sent to technical school for Avionics Maintenance at Scott AFB, IL. The Guard unit was the last unit in the Air Force to fly the F-51 Mustang fighter.

Following a year of college he left Arizona for California and a job as a Radio Mechanic with American Airlines. Subsequently, he enlisted in the Regular Air Force, and was stationed at Kirkland AFB New Mexico.

He participated in the last U.S. conducted atmospheric nuclear weapons tests at Kirkland AFB, Indian Springs in Nevada and Eniwetok Atoll. Subsequently he participated in atmospheric radiation monitoring in Libya, Australia, several South Pacific islands and Point Magu NAS, California

In 1962 as an A/1C he was selected to attend Air Force Officers Candidate School in class 63A starting April 1962. At that point he was married to Alta Kaye and had one child. Ken advanced to first classman but near graduation failed to satisfy the academic standards and was reverted to his enlisted status.

Ken remained at Lackland AFB for a while then received assignments to Charleston AFB, McClellan AFB, and two tours in Vietnam all as Avionics Tech Supervisor and Air crewman. During his first Vietnam tour, he was assigned to the Air Commandos and worked on B-26 and AT-28 aircraft. On his second tour he participated in the first shoot down of a North Vietnam aircraft by a USAF pilot while serving as an EC-121 air crewman.

When the government passed the Cold War GI Bill, Ken decided to leave active service and complete his degree at California Polytechnic State University. While attending school he was employed by National Center for Atmospheric Research, (1967-68) as an air crewman in Santa Barbara, California.

With his degree in Electrical Engineering and several years experience he headed to Texas and General Dynamics/ Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth. In his work with General Dynamics he served as a design engineer, Project Manager and Chief Engineer and worked as such projects as the F-111, AFTI/F-16, the VISTA/F-16, and some spook projects.

He was assigned to Cannon AFB, New Mexico, Beauvachain AB, Belgium and Taiwan. He remained with that company until 1998 when he retired.

While in Texas he joined the Air Force Reserve at Carswell AFB from which he traveled (summer encampments) to Nellis AFB, Nevada, Gulfport, Mississippi and Norvanich, Germany. This unit flew the F-105D Thunderstick II aircraft. He retired in 1981 (in Belgium) in the grade of MSGT.

Ken and Alta are settled now in Weatherford, Texas. Their son Bill is on the Air Force Lt Col’s promotion list and flies the F-15E. He is currently assigned to Qatar in a staff position. Their daughter Machele is a director of teachers of hearing-impaired children and is a speech pathologist in western Kansas.

In Ken’s spare time he teaches computer fundamentals to Senior citizens with an organization known as SeniorNet.