Clocking out from the 932nd Airlift Wing's Medical Group one last time
The 932nd Airlift Wing said farewell recently to Lt. Col. Richard Feldmeier as he entered retirement. Colonel Feldmeier credits others for many of his accomplishments. “I had great people like Colonel Wade and Col. Roger Wujek, Chief Master Sergeants Kris McManus and Ron May, and Master Sgt. Brian Eckhardt to guide and teach me. Chief May taught me how to be leader. Chief McManus taught me more than I can say, but thank you will never be enough. Colonel Wade guided my career. Colonel Wujek and Colonel Fletcher gave me a chance to put it all together. What better a role model than Colonel Wujek? He is the leader you personally couldn’t bear to disappoint, need I say more?” Colonel Feldmeier said that as an observer in an Operational Readiness Exercise meeting, he told the group, after a lengthy discussion, to give him 45 minutes to come up with a training plan.
He then went and developed the plan. “I sealed my fate as one of Colonel
Fletcher’s (in) famous Four-Horsemen and realized the faith and trust he
had put in me,” he said with a smile. Colonel Feldmeier said training
for a temporary duty assignment to Belize was the hardest thing he had ever
done. “My right arm was Master Sgt. Connie Holverson without whom the
Belize mission or any of the training exercises I ever planned would not have
happened, successfully anyway. Whenever I approached her about a big undertaking,
all she would always ask was, ‘What do we need to do?’ I may have gotten a lot of credit for putting those things together but, I did it standing on her shoulders.” He said a proud, but surprising moment, came in 2002 as he was named the Air Force Reserve Command’s Officer of the Year. Another highlight was being asked to write a cover story for “Officer” magazine.