Kansas Air Force veteran specialized in communications
AUGUSTA, Kan. (KSNW) — Arlene Stika calls Lincolnville her hometown. She graduated from nearby Centre High School in 1971, attended Brown Mackie College in Salina, and bounced around from job to job.
Stika was a custodian at Marion High School when she decided she needed something more. So, in May s1979, she joined the Air Force.
“He’s camera shy,” Stika says about her West Highland Terrier, Louie.
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Stika doesn’t go anywhere without Louie. He sits patiently by her side as she recalls how, before PCs, printers, and fax machines, the primary point-to-point communication devices were the teletype and punched tape.
“They (the Air Force) cross-trained me into another career field, which at the time was as a telecommunications operator, and my first duty assignment after that was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. That was something somewhat similar to being like a computer operator,” said Stika.
Her next assignment was across the Atlantic at Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden, Germany. There, Stika had a top-secret SCI clearance working in the communications center.
“Any chance I could take that I was able to take leave, I traveled because I wanted to see what Europe was like,” she said. “I mean, I got to see Paris and Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Spain, Italy. I mean, I got to travel.”
After two years in Europe, Stika was ordered to Kelly Air Force Base in Texas, where she served brief stints in mobile units.
“We first went to Panama City (Panama) because Howard Air Force Base is stationed out there. In that unit, they sent me to Honduras, and we were living in tents back then,” said Stika.
Stika spent 53 days living in a tent before returning to the States, only to be sent back to Panama for a second time. She worked at night and tried to sleep during the hot days.
Back in the U.S., she was assigned to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma for computer operator school. Upon completing school, it was back to Kelly Air Force Base.
“And there I was, basically a computer operator,” said Stika.
In 1985, Stika received orders one last time to report to Norton Air Force Base in California.
“It was like a hub to wheel, and you have tributaries, and this would be all like your different bases all over wherever. And the messages that came through the computer would be routed through the computer,” she explained. “It would come to Norton Air Force Base, and then because of the routing indicator, the hub would tell it where that message needed to go. And so, that was basically working at one of the centralized computer networks.”
In 1989, after ten years of service, Stika decided to separate from the Air Force.
She returned to Kansas and joined the Air Force Reserves. She was sent to Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base south of Kansas City, Missouri. She said there wasn’t much to do. Not enough meaningful messages were being sent through the small base, which closed in 1995.
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That’s when Stika decided to quit the reserves.
“The most rewarding was that it was doing a job where it is, where I was able to use my brain. That was what was rewarding because you can get so many different jobs that don’t really challenge you, and that one challenge was a challenge,” said Stika.
Stika loves the outdoors. She and Louie spend much of their time living in a travel trailer at federal state lakes around Kansas.
If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, email KSN reporter Jason Lamb at jason.lamb@ksn.com.
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