Craver retires after 30 years in Air Force
By John Joyce
Published in News on January 17, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Chief Master Sgt Jeffrey Craver stops to compose himself during his retirement ceremony at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Friday. Craver retired after 30 years of service.
With an impact certain to reverberate across the entire U.S. Air Force community, and throughout Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and Wayne County, Command Chief Master Sgt. Jeffrey Craver retired from active duty Friday after 30 years of service.
Craver made a career of setting the correct example for his troops -- and sometimes for his supervisors -- to follow, 4th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Mark Slocum said in his address.
"He teaches 'til the very end," Slocum said.
The ceremony was attended by more than 500 friends and family members, active duty and retired Air Force personnel, dignitaries from Goldsboro and Wayne County and -- as Craver would later remark, "those who heard there would be cupcakes."
Craver, who began his career in 1986 with the intent of serving only four years, leaves behind a distinguished and storied career. Along the way, he met his wife, Kelly, who also served, and had three daughters, each of whom were presented with plaques of their own honoring their sacrifice.
Craver saw the world as he climbed the ranks, and everywhere he went he would lead from the front.
On his first performance evaluation, or EPR, his supervisor wrote Craver was the "cream of the crop." On each evaluation since, something similar has been scribbled which, if read alone, they might tell the character of the man the Air Force handed back to his family, Friday.
Comments such as "Sgt. Craver is one of the best NCOs I have ever encountered," and "Well ahead of his peers," would follow.
Craver worked in one of the less heard of career fields in the Air Force, but one that is essential to the mission. Examples of his accomplishments might serve as the best description.
While a staff sergeant, serving in a voluntary role in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, Craver was the sole U.S. serviceperson attached to a Canadian outfit in an air operations exercise known as William Tell.
His job was to control missions pitting fighters and supporting aircraft from one group of nations against a coalition of enemies from his post on a radar scope.
Craver won "Top Scope" and to this day remains the first and last enlisted controller to win that award. He was recognized for his efforts by the Canadian Parliament. And he won ACC NCO of The Year.
While in Japan, Craver helped contribute to the recovery effort of a downed pilot.
"His calm, meticulous approach to weapons control ensured vital downed pilot information was forwarded, and the 35th Fighter Wing pilot was recovered who ejected from his airplane," Slocum read from yet another EPR.
"That's making a difference," he said.
He was promoted to tech sergeant, became a first sergeant, and he earned the honor of NCO of The Year for the second time in his career.
"When you got to war, he is the one you want beside you," Slocum again read from remarks from one of Craver's past supervisors. "He is ahead of his peers. Place him in any key leadership position."
After a jaunt to Korea, Craver then transitioned to Mt. Home AFB, Mt. Home, Ind. Not long after his arrival the squadron deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan and conducted 180 days of uninterrupted radar surveillance and controlled 5,069 missionss, including directing close air support to assist U.S. forces actively engaged with the enemy 79 times. He personally controlled 1,800 missions that prosecuted 17 high value targets.
"What does that mean? That is 17 really bad people that our government puts on a very high target list to get those people recovered or get those people taken out," Slocum said.
"And Craver exhibited exceptional leadership while under attack, continuing to lead his team and save Americans outside the wire, while he and his team were taking rockets inside the wire," he added. He also earned NCO of The Year honors for a third time.
After returning from deployment, Craver and his family again packed up and moved, this time to Germany. Now a Senior Master Sgt., Craver attended the Senior NCO Academy earning Distinguished Grad honors. His first EPR after he made Chief Master Sgt. read, "Make him command chief as fast as possible," Slocum said.
Craver went on to work his way toward command chief with stops at Aviano Italy and an engagement in Lybia, where he earned the compliment of that operation's commander as "the best command chief I have ever seen."
But along the way -- in between breaking things and blowing things up -- Craver was still a husband and a father. Kelly worked with spouse groups and helped care for the airmen, especially those without families, at each base they went to.
Slocum told a captive audience that, while in Italy, Craver kept his daughters from learning Italian, eliminating 80 percent of the threat from boys in one fell swoop.
"He said, 'The other 20 percent, I could scare them away just by my last name and being the Chief,'" Slocum said.
The crowd fell in on itself in laughter time and time again listening to stories about the Chief, but it was during Craver's remarks that the emotion of the day finally took hold.
Once officially retired, and after bestowing his retirement flag unto his wife -- it was first passed from one airman to another representing each rank he held in his career, from airman first class to chief master sergeant -- Craver brought the audience to tears.
He had been told his emotions would not hit him until he looked up, he said.
"So I am not going to look up."
But Craver did look out into the audience as he individually thanked his parents and in-laws, his siblings and friends, other chiefs and all those who had supported his career.
And then his eyes fell upon his wife and he asked Kelly to look beside her, where their three daughters were seated.
"I know you have said that I could have done it all without you, but that is simply ridiculous," he said. "Please look at the three seats to your right and tell me I could have done it all without you."
After 30 years, countless deployments and PCSings, one last move awaits the Craver family, the return home.
"We are going to go back to Ohio and kind of get feelers for a month and a half and do nothing -- reconnect with family and friends. And then we will start seeing what the good Lord has for us," he said. "We are going to find something that we can stay connected, and still continue to serve."
Command Chief Master Sgt. Shane Wagoner will step into Craver's role, Monday. He has large shoes to fill, but is suited to the role, Slocum said. As for Craver, his efforts toward the mission and toward each individual airman he came in contact with will be sorely missed, Slocum said.
"It is tough to replace a man like Chief Craver. What he has done for these airmen, what he has done for these families, it is truly remarkable," Slocum said.