Employee celebrates 50 years with Air Force

  • Published
  • By Amy Welch
  • Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
After 50 years of Air Force service, Paul Barber shows no signs of slowing down.

“I don’t want to quit unless I absolutely have to,” said Barber, an electrical equipment repairman in the Maintenance Directorate commodities division here. “I am 67 years old, and I’ll be 68 in July. I still feel good, and I guess that’s the reason I’m still going.”

Barber, who joined the Air Force in 1953, was honored with a special ceremony May 5.

According to Barber, longevity and loyalty run in the family.

“My dad was always that way. He never did want to quit work,” he said. “He finally had to because of a bad knee, but I thought he was going to lose his mind the first few months after retirement because he just didn’t know what to do with himself.”

Born and raised in Tyler, Texas, Barber came to Oklahoma with his father after graduating from high school. At 17 years old, he already had his eyes on the future.

“I wanted something I could make a career out of and sure enough, I did,” he said.

Barber said his family influenced him to join the Air Force.

“I had a bunch of cousins in different branches of the service, and it just seemed like a pretty good life to me,” he said. “Plus, I always liked the Air Force.”

His airman career took him all over the United States and to Europe and Asia. Twenty years and three commendation medals after joining the military, the then-master sergeant retired from active duty while stationed here.

A few civil-service assignments later, Barber returned to Tinker to work in maintenance, where he has been ever since.

Barber’s immediate supervisor, Joe Hughes, said everybody thinks the world of Barber.

“He’s the best employee you could ever have,” Hughes said. “Everybody loves him. He’s the father figure of the shop.

However, Hughes said, Barber does have at least one little quirk.

“He’s a chow hound,” Hughes said. “His whole locker is full of food. It’s like he thinks we’re going to get snowed in here for 60 days. When he opens his locker door, everything starts to fall out, it’s so full.”

Barber’s coworker, Linda Burrows, said he has a good reason for wanting to keep a few extra munchies around.

“One year, they had to spend the night during an ice storm,” she said. “All the roads were locked down, and nobody could leave the base, and he said, ‘I was starved!’ From then on, the groceries started coming in.”

But his dedication to work remains key in his life.

“I really love my Air Force career,” Barber said. “(The military) was the best 20 years of my life. I’ve always worked around good people. I do now, and I did then.

“If you work around good people, it’s worthwhile,” he said. “And I have always been blessed by working with good people everywhere I’ve been. I have no regrets.”