{"id":34868,"date":"2017-09-09T18:01:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T18:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/09\/air-force-maintainer-retires-after-41-years\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:04:20","slug":"air-force-maintainer-retires-after-41-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/2017\/09\/09\/air-force-maintainer-retires-after-41-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force maintainer retires after 41 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On his 60th birthday, and a remarkable 41 years after he enlisted in the Air Force, Tech. Sgt. Robert Wegeman retired from the career he loved so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wegeman, who retired on Aug. 14 but will be honored at a retirement ceremony Saturday, was a quality assurance aircraft inspector with the Air Force Reserve\u2019s 919th Special Operations Maintenance Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Air Force personnel officials couldn\u2019t say specifically how many airmen retire with this many years of service, but they confirmed that a career spanning more than 40 years is a rare achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout his career, Wegeman worked on a whopping 16 aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Wegeman joined the Air Force, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.919sow.afrc.af.mil\/News\/Article-Display\/Article\/1278565\/reserve-airman-bids-farewell-after-41-years\/\">profile written about him<\/a> by Air Force Reserve Command, Stars Wars didn\u2019t exist, gas cost 60 cents a gallon, the A-10 Thunderbolt was less than a year old, and the Air Force\u2019s primary fighter was the F-4 Phantom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His first memory of military planes was when he was a child and his Air Force father was stationed at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe very first airplane I remember seeing was a B-36 Peacemaker, all 10 engines of it, coming in the final approach into Kelly,\u201d Wegeman told Air Force Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next two he remembers seeing were B-47s landing at nearby Randolph Air Force Base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile I was there, I got to see some of the airplanes that I was going to work on at 19 years old,\u201d he said, which included the F-102 and the F-106.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"498\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman2.JPG.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman2.JPG.jpg 600w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman2.JPG.jpg?resize=300,249 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tech. Sgt. Robert Wegeman was a crew chief on the F-106 Delta Dart starting in the 1970s at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wegeman didn\u2019t know it at the time, but he would fall in love with the fighter community once he graduated high school and joined the Air Force in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His first assignment was with the 48th Fighter Interceptor Squad at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, as a weapons loader, where he worked with the F-106 Delta Dart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe camaraderie of fighting units is untouched,\u201d Wegeman said. \u201cWe\u2019re a family. We all stick up for each other. That\u2019s why I chose the Air Force as my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He spent 10 years on active duty before transitioning to the Louisiana Air National Guard, where he maintained F-15s with the 159th Fighter Group. After 11 years of doing that, he became an air reserve technician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even though he worked on many different aircraft \u2014 including fighter jets, T-33s, EB-57s and A-10s \u2014 his favorite was the F-106 Delta Dart interceptor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1078\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman1.JPG.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman1.JPG.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman1.JPG.jpg?resize=300,202 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman1.JPG.jpg?resize=768,517 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman1.JPG.jpg?resize=1024,690 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wegeman1.JPG.jpg?resize=1536,1035 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tech. Sgt. Robert Wegeman served in the Air Force for 41 years. (Tech. Sgt. Sam King\/Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat airplane was way ahead of its time, and performance-wise it was comparable to the F-15,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could reach speeds that the F-15 could, but we could do it on one engine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1991, an F-106 he worked on as a crew chief was picked to be displayed permanently at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wegeman said he\u2019s looking forward to his retirement ceremony on Saturday in Nashville, which is part of the F-106 reunion put on by the 48th Squadron Association every two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m starting to get excited,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing some friends I haven\u2019t seen in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tech Sgt. Robert Wegeman worked on 16 different aircraft during his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["good-news-report","newsletters","retirement-e-report"],"primary_category":"good-news-report"}}},"categories":[101,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2954],"class_list":["post-34868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"T7TAB2LVUNHRLGYYEDJGNDPARI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2017\/09\/09\/air-force-maintainer-retires-after-41-years\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Air Force maintainer retires after 41 years - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tech Sgt. 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