43
He participated in several deployments and humanitarian missions
Photo
Brent Davis, recently retired public-affairs officer for the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, sports a beard and mustache he didn’t have when he was a civilian Air Reserve technician and a member of the Air Force Reserve.
AUSTINTOWN
In his Air Force career, active duty and reserve, enlisted and an officer, Brent J. Davis had a top secret clearance at 20 while working on nuclear weapons, and then taught airmen how to protect themselves in chemical warfare.
“That builds confidence,” said Davis, who was a major and the public affairs officer at the 910th Airlift Wing when he retired from the Air Force Reserve on Oct. 11.
On Nov. 21, he left his position as a full-time civilian Air Reserve technician at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, where he managed a public-affairs staff of nine.
Davis, who has a liberal-arts degree with an emphasis in political science from the State University of New York at Albany, is contemplating civilian life, perhaps, he said, in a public-affairs position for a government agency or in community relations and fundraising and volunteering for nonprofit organizations.
After 12 years of enlisted experience, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve, February 1999, through the Deserving Airman Commissioning Program.
Before joining the Air Force Reserve, he served on active duty in the regular Air Force in the nuclear weapons and emergency management career field.
He was deployed to Insurlik, Turkey, in 1993 for two years as part of a combined task force in support of Operation Provide Comfort.
In 2005, Davis deployed to Al Yudeed Air Base, Qatar, to provide support to international media supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom; and in September 2008, he deployed to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in support of humanitarian aerial spray relief operations after Hurricane Ike providing support to local and national news media.
In April 2010, he worked with several media outlets, including the Discovery Channel, covering the 910th’s response to the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
It was when he came to the 910th working as a civilian in disaster preparedness that he became aware of public affairs and wondered what it was all about.
He soon found out.
In 1997, he said he jumped into the job and said, to his surprise, when he was commissioned he was put in charge of 910th public affairs full time, a position he said provided him many special moments and skills.
Davis participated in humanitarian missions to the Dominican Republic and Guyana, South America, where he was part of the 910th’s Civil Engineering Squadron that built a school from scratch.
“The kids were so excited to be getting a school, and I was so proud of the squadron,” Davis said.
His three-month deployment to Qatar in 2005-06, included several days in Iraq.
“Iraq was an eye-opener. You can hear about it, but until you are there you don’t really know. Unlike Qatar, in Iraq everyone had a weapon with them all the time. This was a no-kidding war zone,” he said.
“I overcame my fear of death with my faith, and my absolute fear of public speaking because of the Air Force,” he said.
In his public-affairs position, he said he received civilian and military dignitaries, gave speeches and gave briefings on the 910th Airlift Wing’s mission to “anyone and everyone.”
“I had to grow on the job,” he said.
Reflecting on his military career, Davis said serving in the military made him a better person.
“I worked with top-notch people who were so accomplished and intelligent. I learned how to follow and to lead,” he said.
“When you serve in the military, you become a part of something bigger than yourself, and you feel like you are making a difference in some small way,” Davis said.
“I have no regrets. I will miss the friendships and camaraderie that is unique to the military.
I am proud to have worn the uniform and served my country,” he said.
Davis, 47, and his wife, Sonya, live in Austintown. They have two children, a daughter, Lainne of Cleveland, and a son, Justin, a student at Kent State University.