Alvin Nelson helps veterans with complex paperwork
District 5 City Commissioner Alvin Nelson is a proud veteran of the United States Air Force.
Nelson joined the Air Force in 1983 at the age of 20. After training, his first orders sent him to Suwon Air Base, South Korea, to work in Systems Logistics. Suwon AFB was used to deploy aircraft and crews for training throughout the Far East.
Nelson says he remembers his first day at Suwon like it was yesterday.
When he finally arrived at the base following an arduous journey, he was unceremoniously hustled into a jeep while the base emergency alarm blared.
Nelson was rushed directly to an office filled with people in protective gear huddled under desks.
“A guy gave me this chemical gear,” said Nelson. “I was straight out of training. I didn’t know anything about chemical gear. They had to give me a crash course.”
He and his fellow airmen were eventually led into an auditorium and given an explanation for the emergency protocol. A North Korean fighter pilot had defected in a fully armed MiG fighter jet and flown over the base.
American fighter pilots scrambled into the air.
“If one of those bombs had dropped, it would have taken out an area from the (Waycross) mall to the college (South Georgia State),” said Nelson. “The pilot had his landing gear down and was rocking his wings, which is a sign of surrender. Had those planes not gotten up and saw those wings rocking, he would have been shot down.”
Nelson was stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah after Suwon where he also served in Logistics. From there he was sent to Sondrestom Air Base in Greenland.
Nelson
