Thomas Jenkins

My Air Force-to-UW story starts in late June, 2010. I had been deployed in central Iraq for 3 months to support Air Ambulance operations for the U.S. Army, helping to transport patients north to the military hospital in Balad, Iraq. Being one of the few “spare” weather forecasters in a convenient location, I was given an assignment to fly by helicopter to another base about 70 miles southeast and repair their automated weather station, which had malfunctioned sometime overnight and was critical to support a similar air ambulance mission. This first photo is of the weather station itself, located in a place called Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq. The view you see is much of what I saw in Iraq: Concrete walls, dust and palm trees.

Working in that 114°F sunshine and eventually flying back to my little corner of Iraq later that day helped convince me that I needed to head back to school. Preferably a school with air conditioning and mild summers! I spent a fair amount of my free time for the rest of the summer looking into universities and community colleges back in Washington state. The next photo fast forwards 3 months later as I was traveling out of Iraq, by way of Baghdad. This photo was taken by a friend of mine in front of the Al-Faw Palace, one of many lavish buildings that remained from the days of Saddam Hussein. I was happy to be on my way home, and to have narrowed down my academic choice to the Environmental Studies program with the University of Washington; I hadn’t yet decided which campus I would apply for, or even if I would apply to all 3. Either way, I had 14 months left to work out the details before I would be discharged from duty and ready to go back to school.

The last photo of me is from July of 2011, over a year after this whole journey started. This picture was taken at a wedding I attended in Idaho, where I met my significant other’s family for the first time; they are all Cougars, so they groaned when I told them I planned to become a Husky. My girlfriend (fiance now!) Charisma Ganders, UW Seattle c/o 2007 (B.S. in Conservation and Restoration Biology) had convinced me to visit the Seattle campus first, and Program on the Environment with it.

I did and initially met with Joe Kobayashi in March and then September of that same year. I knew I had found my next home in the Seattle area, and I felt ready to succeed with a good social network that I had built as well as a department that really welcomed me. The classes I’ve taken have given me a chance to share a lot of the experiences I had before UW with my fellow students, and I have learned just as much from them about study abroad, internships and how classes at 8am are not fun at any age! Program on the Environment and the community within Wallace Hall have been great to work with and learn from as well, and I don’t think I could have picked a better match for the kind of career I want to establish after graduation. Thank you to everyone!

Sincerely, 

THOMAS S. JENKINS, Staff Sergeant (Honorably Discharged), USAF
President, Husky United Military Veterans

Senior, Program on the Environment

Jamie Alfaro

My dad is 1 of 10 children: 9 boys and 1 girl.  Six of the 9 boys joined the Navy.  The photo attached was taken in San Diego, CA in 1987.  My grandparents are seated in the front and behind them are of the 6 who joined the Navy standing in order of age (from left to right: oldest to youngest) all dressed in their uniform.  My dad is standing 2nd to the right.

The Program on the Environment honors students and their relatives for their support and service in the US Military. Thank you for all of your dedication, we truly appreciate it!