I want to close this with an account of how I retired after what I
consider a wonderful career of government service, both military and
civilian. I was promoted during my later years to Deputy Director of
Communication & Electronics, a super graded position. I liked my job very
much and had no intention of retiring. It seems that the military forces
budget was being reduced and something had to be scaled down, what better
place than research and development. So we had to cut back. We were told
that we had to lose eight people in communications. This was one fourth
of our staff. We had a mix of military and civilian so we let the
military go, which meant they were simply transferred when they could
find another place for them. The civilian positions were clerk/stenos
which were married to military and so no one was really hurt, except we
no longer had the staff to perform the tasks we were assigned. This meant
we had to identify the tasks we could no longer perform and reorganize
the staff to do what we could do. I laid out a program for our boss
general to review that showed what we would no longer do and what we
would continue doing with the staff we had left. He approved it and now
it became necessary to rewrite everybody's job description showing new
duties and responsibilities based on the reorganization. This now had to
be approved by the Headquarters personnel and manpower people,
respectively. The manpower people approved it immediately, but the
personnel people had to review each new job description to be sure the
people now qualified for the new positions, a purely paper-work
shuffling, the incumbents were already performing the duties, but that's
the name of the game. After all this I had to sign off on each new job
description approving the person for the position, all part of keeping
the rules. As I read them I was surprised to see that there was a
provision for early retirement if the person met certain requirements,
such as twenty five years minimum service and age fifty five. No body on
our staff qualified for this except possibly me. I had the necessary
years but at the time I was only forty-nine. (My age when I accepted
Jesus as my Lord and Savior and He healed me of premature atrial
contractions) I went to our personnel office and talked to the experts
about this. The civilian personnel officer and I were friends and he
advised me against even thinking about such a thing. He reminded me that
I had four children in school, one in college, and that I could not
afford to lose two percent of my retirement for every year I was under
fifty five. He told me that at my age the only way I could retire with
full benefits was if I was disabled, and he said I didn't look disabled
to him. He asked if I had any disability that might qualify me. I told
him the only physical problem I had was premature atrial contractions (a
heart problem) which the doctor was treating and felt sure would soon be
alleviated. My friend in the personal office recommend I submit that
along with the doctors diagnosis, and request for a disability
retirement. He assured me it would not be approved but it would now be on
my record should it develop into something serious at a later date. This
seemed to make sense, but I wasn't sure, so I spread the paperwork out on
our bed that night at home and prayed about it asking the Lord what I
should do. I felt the Lord was saying, sign the request and I'll take
care of you. I told Pauline about it, she agreed and I signed the paper,
took it in the next day and gave it to the personnel officer. His comment
was, "You can be sure they won't approve it, but now you'll have it on
your records." Five days later I received a letter from the Civil Service
Commission saying my request for disability retirement was approved. I
took the letter into my personnel officer and asked him what it meant. He
said "it means you are retired, clean out your desk and go home." I went
back to my office and told everyone what happened and that I was going to
stay for the next two weeks to clean up some matters and then I was "out
a here." They threw a retirement party for me that I couldn't believe.
People came from all the services at the Pentagon, the office of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff the Executive Office of the President, NASA, FCC,
and dozens of industry representatives. They filled the Andrews Air Force
Base Officers Club huge dinning room. I never realized I had so many
friends.
I was now a disability retiree with benefits I couldn't believe, like a
$5200 a year automatic income tax deduction. (A few years later this
provision was dropped for all disability retirees) But I was still going
to lose 12 % of my retirement, 2% for every year under 55. When I signed
out I was asked what I wanted to do with all the leave I had piled up and
not used. I could accept a lump sum payment or I could remain on the
active roll until all the leave was used up and officially retire when
that happened. I elected to go on leave until it ran out. I had about
five months leave coming to me, (in those days you could save your leave
for as long as you liked) Now I am on leave for the next several months.
Within the second week I received a letter stating that they were
awarding a cost of living allowance (COLA) and my share in retirement
would be 6%. There was half of the 12% I was going to lose when my leave
ran out and I start receiving a retirement check. About a week later I
received another letter telling me that they were having another
reduction in force and they would like to get me off the books by June
30th and that if I would give up my leave and accept retirement on June
30th they would give me a 6% increase in my retirement. I gave up the
leave and now had the 12% back before I ever went into retirement. My
first retirement pay check arrived and I couldn't believe it, just $20.00
a pay day less than what my regular check was.
But that's not all. The Lord healed me of the premature atrial
contractions. And look how the Lord kept His word and has been taking
care of me. He walked me through a tour in the military, (two
services-the Army and the Air Force) He changed my military career status
and I became an aerial gunner on the most sophisticated weapon system the
world knew at that time. He carried me safely through combat and a mercy
mission. He arranged things so that I had to remain overseas for three
extra months so I would be home at the right time to break up what I
think would have been a bad marriage. He arranged for me to marry the
girl across the street, whom earlier I had never dreamed of marrying. He
gave us four wonderful children. And when my job was about to move out of
state He created another job for me and a very successful career. He set
up an absolutely unbelievable retirement for me. And give this some
thought: ARDC was formed just when I needed a job, and after 28 years
(not counting military time) I retired. One year later the Systems
Command (formally ARDC) was completely shut down, closed up, dissolved..
Do you think all this was coincidence? I don't think so. Can't you see
how He has really been taking care of me-how much He loves me, and my
family too? I am so thankful. There is much more about this relationship
with Him, but that's another story for another time.
Since publishing this account, it has come to our attention that Auts received the decorations shown below. From left to right they are —American Campaign Medal—Solders Medal—WWII Freedom Medal—Air Medal—Military Merit Medal— Freedom USA Medal—and the —Good Conduct Medal. The Air Medal in the middle he considers the most beautiful and his favorite. The Oak Leaf Cluster on the ribbon indicates he received the Air Medal twice. The small blue ribbon with gold frame above the Air Medal is the Presidential Citation ribbon and does not include a medal like the others. Other than his silver wings and the medals, Auts says the rest is window dressings.
Photo of the medals provided by Auts.
"As for me and my house we will serve the Lord"
Joshua 24:15 |
