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[Kathryn Wirkus and Kathy Jackson at Dining In, 1978]

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[Kathryn Wirkus and Kathy Jackson at Dining In, 1978]

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Title	[Kathryn Wirkus and Kathy Jackson at Dining In, 1978]
Date	1978
Subject headings	United States--History--1969-
Era	Post-Vietnam, Panama, Grenada (1975-1989)
Service branch	Air Force
Item description	Kathryn Wirkus (right) poses with her roommate Kathy Jackson (left) before a "Dining In" formal dinner at Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in 1978. Both women wear the air force mess dress uniform with white summer jacket.
Veteran's name	Wirkus, Katherine Faustine
Veteran's biography	Lt. Col. Kathryn Wirkus of Miami, Florida, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 to 2006 . Kathryn F. Wirkus was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She graduated from Coral Gables Senior High School in 1970 and went on to attend the University of North Carolina at Greensboro [UNCG]. She graduated in 1974 with a degree in childhood education and returned to Miami, where she taught kindergarten for a year. In 1976 Wirkus returned to UNCG to work towards a master's degree in communication and broadcast journalism, and was employed with the Greensboro magazine "This Week in the Triad" . Wirkus enlisted in the air force and attended Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in summer of 1978. Her first assignment was to the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Headquarters at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, where she worked in the ROTC office scheduling cadets and writing curriculum for two years. Wirkus was then transferred to Headquarters, Air Force Office of Special Investigations in Washington, D.C., where she worked as an education training officer. She was next stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico as the education training officer for the 1550 Combat Crew Training Wing . After being passed over for promotion to major, she left the air force and joined the Air National Guard. She married Tom Lott, an air force security forces officer, and worked as a juvenile probation officer in downtown Albuquerque. During this time she underwent treatment for kidney cancer and earned a master's degree in guidance and counseling. Next, she and her husband moved to Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California, where Wirkus as a served social actions officer on base and later worked as a Spanish-English teacher for an elementary school. Eighteen months later, she and her husband moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and she went inactive for a year. When the couple moved to March Air Force Base in California, Wirkus worked in a reserve position as the Individual Mobilization Augmentee. She was sent to Panama Canal and worked at Howard Air Force Base as the Air Force Reserve Program Manager for Headquarters U.S. Southern Command. In 1997, when the U.S. Southern Command relocated to Miami, Wirkus returned to active duty as Air Force Reserve Program Manager." In 1999, she transferred to the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, Colorado, where she worked as the chief of career management in the directorate of assignments for the air force reserve. From October 2002 to March 2003, Wirkus was deployed to Bogotá, Columbia, as deputy for the training mission. Her last assignment was as program manager for the Air Force Reserve at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Wirkus retired from the U.S. Air Force in April 2006.
Place	San Antonio (Tex.)
Type	image
Original format	photographs
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	WV0403 Kathryn Wirkus Papers
Collection summary	2007 oral history interview; white mess dress jacket, blouse, skirt, cummerbund, necktie, studs and epaulets; copies of photographs; 7 postcards and letters from friends and family, 1978; Assignment list, Commander's Call, Command's for flight DPR; retirement ceremony invitation January 6, 2006, weekly training schedules during officers' training school, 1978; Officer Training School graduation Program 29 September 1978; Program for Officer Training School "Dining In" 1978; Women Warriors: A Vision of Valor" DVD , 2014, Kathryn Wirkus, Executive Producer.
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Additional rights information	IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the rights holder noted above for permission to reuse.
Object ID	WV0403.6.020
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/
OCLC number	900815226

[Kathryn Wirkus and Kathy Jackson at Dining In, 1978]

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