Dear readers, especially National Guard members and veterans: Our “Hero of Handy” this week is one of you. As I am writing this, he is making one last trip to the Utah National Guard headquarters to register for his retirement. His service in both Missouri and Utah included two year-long deployments to Iraq alongside various other calls to duty during times of natural disaster.
Doug Adair’s interest in the National Guard was encouraged by his dad and his uncle, Jim Probst, with an eye toward the guard's college scholarship program. He did not even wait until after high school graduation to join. In March 1984, two months before graduation, he visited a recruiter and stated his preference for an engineering unit.
The Missouri Army National Guard accommodated him, and that summer he took basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood. While college-bound recruits had the option to wait until the following summer for Advanced Individual Training (AIT), Doug opted to postpone college until his second semester so he could proceed directly to AIT. This meant entering college mid-year and ultimately resulted in a five-year college track. In due time, however, he graduated from Missouri Western State University with a construction engineering degree. That same day, he announced a job offer from Emery-Sapp Construction in Columbia. This job tied in perfectly with his National Guard military occupational specialty, and his military career was off and running.
In his initial job search, Doug had mailed his resume to many prospective employers. Although he was happy working at Emery-Sapp, he was intrigued by a response from one of those out-of-state employers inviting him to fly to Las Vegas for an all-expenses-paid interview. The job was at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Even though Doug initially thought the dry desert terrain resembled a “bombed-out drive-in theater,” the offer persuaded him to make the move. That is how he came to transfer from the Missouri Army National Guard to the Utah Army National Guard.
Throughout his 25-plus years of service, Doug was either a college student or employed full time. Commitment to the guard had to be 100%, even if it meant a long drive on a Friday night after a full week at his regular job. While living and working in the Las Vegas area, that commute to his unit was a 400-mile drive with his full uniform and regular gear in tow.
His two-week annual training sessions found him working in varied climates such as Honduras, Panama and South Dakota—wherever Army engineers were needed most.
Watch for my next column, in which I will recount Doug’s activation for Iraq.
Comments and memories can be shared with Maggie Adair via email at maggie.adair@icloud.com.
Editor's Note: This article was updated at 10:42 a.m. July 19 to correct a mispelling of Doug Adair's first name.
