I have not held many jobs...worked at McDonald's and Wendy's before entering the AF. Also, worked at a Sam's Club for a couple years to make some extra money. Overall my jobs in the AF have been pretty good. Probably the hardest (worst?) jobs I have had to do were while I was in the AF:
1. Was acting First Sergeant during a weekend and received a call from the base command post that one of our squadron members had been in a motorcycle accident. He was at the ER and was in bad shape. He had severe brain/head trauma. That was his only major injusry, although that was enough. He had only scrapes and bruises on the rest of his body...no broken bones, nothing else other than the injury ot his head. The hardest part was having to contact his wife of two weeks (they had just gotten married two weeks prior) and inform her over the phone (she was AF , but stantioned at Elemendorf AFB, AK) what had happened and the condition he was in. When she asked if we was going to be ok, I told her the truth that he was 50/50 and what his injury was and what the docs knew at the time, which was very little. Really hard telling a loved one something like that. The rest of the story: He ended up recovering, lost approx 18-24 months of memory (basically most of the time he and his new wife were together, getting to know each other), had speech, concentration and motor skills issues. Some have gotten better over time with different therapies. He and his wife are together and she has stood by him the whole time. Last I knw he was looking at being medically retired from the AF do to his injury and effects of that injury.
2. Was deployed to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia at Khobar Towers in the Summer of '96. Was there when Khobar Towers was bombed. The other worst/hardets job I had was the next day after the bombing. Next to the building I worked in was a dormitory, which was a few hundred yards away (at the most) from the bomb. I was tasked to a multi-person detail to go to that building and help clean up. Part of the clean up was cleaning handprints off the walls (bloody ones from injured Airmen) and dried pools of blood. Really tough knowing that approx 12 hours prior, there were Airmen in that building who were hurt and scared trying to get out of that building in the dark not knowing what had just happend to them. Wasn't sure if I wanted to tell this story, as I thought it would be kind of depressing. To try to end this on an uplifting note...I did witness extraordinary acts of courage and comraderie as saw/heard about numerous other Airmen running to the site and helping injured Airmen to clinic to receive medical attention. Although there was chance of another bomb, they still ran towards the area to help their injured brothers and sisters. The group I was with tried to go and help but were stopped by security and told to go back to our dorm. I was on the opposite of the compund...those who helped were much closer and within that perimeter set up by security. Also, saw our Army Soldiers in action. My group evacuated to a more secure building, so did some Soldiers. Most AF personnel were not armed, however the Army Soldiers were. They would go by twos and fours back up to their rooms, grab their gear and weapons and setup security posts/DFPs (defensive fighting positions) on as many building as they could. They were definitely well trained and did what they do best!! Although I make fun of the Army and other services, seeing that proved to me that we have the best and most well trained military in world!!