David S. Barera
Capt, U.S. Air Force
1970- 1972
I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on May 2, 1970, (at age 20), the same day I graduated from the University of Michigan with a BBA degree. My initial assignment was to obtain an MBA degree (at my cost) from the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration (now known as the Ross School of Business), which I received in December 1971. I then served as an auditor for the USAF Auditor General, headquartered at Norton AFB, San Bernardino, CA, where I spent the grand total of one day. Though assigned to Norton, I was actually attached, first, to Fairchild AFB, Spokane, WA, and then to Wurtsmith AFB, Oscoda, MI, both SAC bases.
When President Nixon ordered a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam in early 1972, the USAF found itself with too many young officers, causing it to give early-outs (at year-end) to many of us who were not flight-rated. I was then assigned to the Standby Reserve, Air Reserve Personnel Center, Lowry AFB, Denver, CO, from which I was discharged, as a Captain, in 1982. After my active duty was completed, I worked 23 years in corporate banking at what is now J.P.Morgan Chase before retiring and beginning a third career as the Parish Business Manager at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, where I was responsible for “everything but Sacraments”. I retired from that job as of September 2016.
My wife, Monika, and I have been married now for over 30 years, and have two sons, Michael, 28, an archivist in Texas, and Matthew, 25, a high school Spanish teacher in suburban Detroit.
