SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel is a major milestone in one’s career.
For newly promoted Lt. Col. Marta Davies, the 932nd Airlift Wing Operations Group executive officer, the new rank not only seemed surreal but also came with some family legacy.
Davies’s father wore the new service dress rank pinned on during her promotion ceremony when he retired from the Air Force in 1984.
Continuing with the feeling of family, it was important to Davies to have Maj. Rachelle Amado and Capt. Brent Bettis, both with the 932nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, be part of her pinning on ceremony.
“They’ve been great friends, mentors, confidants and leaders the entire time I’ve known them, and they’ve helped me to grow into the person I am now,” said Davies.
Davies added that it was special to make it to the same grade that her father had achieved in his career.
Lt. Col. John O. Davies was a POW in Vietnam from 1967 to 1973 after he, along with 5 other crew members, was shot down Feb. 4, 1967. When he came back from the war he then went to pilot training and became a C-141 pilot and retired after 20 years of service.
“My dad hung up his service coat in the spare room closet all those years ago and left everything intact,” Davies said.
She said that her mom went into the closet and pulled them off his service coat and sent them to her for the ceremony.
“They’re not as shiny as the ones we buy today, they have a little patina, but I won’t change them out for shiny ones.”