Air Force retiree takes helm of Veterans Museum

By Karen Middleton
karen@athensnews-courier.com

ATHENS June 29, 2009 12:33 pm

— Three weeks into the job as director of the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives, Sandra Thompson said she awakes each morning looking forward to getting to work.
“Everyone is so happy here,” she said. “I could have gone into the corporate world, but I want to wake up each morning and say, I can’t wait to get to work.”
Thompson, a Wabash, Ind., native, worked several jobs between graduation and joining the Air Force when she was 21. She was to spend the next 21 years in the Air Force, retiring in April 2007.
While in the Air Force, Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree in human resources from Park University in Parkville, Mo., and a master’s degree in human services from Capella University in Minneapolis.
Overseas duty during her 21 years in the Air Force was spent first at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of South Korea; RAF Mildenhall, England, and Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany.
“I started out as a cook for four years and that was not for me,” said Thompson. “Then I became a training manager. The military is run like a business and you are told to stay within a 2-percent margin. People say, ‘What do you mean? You’re the government. You always have money.’
“I worked for Security Forces, for maintenance, for hospitals, for logistics and for headquarters at AMC (Air Mobility Command),” she said. “As a training manager I could work at any location.
“My last job was at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas working on college loan repayments.”
Thompson said it is a little known fact that enlistees can get as much as $10,000 of their student loans paid.
Thompson is married to Eric Hertzig, who works for Computer Sciences Corp., and the couple has a 12-year-old son, Andrew. Thompson said the family for years has been avid museum visitors whenever they can.
In the past three weeks, Thompson has been learning the museum collection and getting the museum’s name out into the community.
“There are so many fascinating things here,” she said. “I start out at one end on my way to the back and I get distracted by displays along the way and forget what I was going to do. A man came in recently for something and wound up spending an hour here. He said when he was leaving, ‘You’re the best kept secret in Athens,’ and he is from Athens.”
Thompson said it is a large part of her mission to increase the visibility of the museum in the community. She has begun by working with Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful.
“The museum has adopted a mile on Elkton Street from Athens State to Elm Street,” she said. “We get to have our name on a sign and we will be out there on workdays with volunteers picking up litter.”

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