Manpower analyst’s lengthy career concludes at JBSA-Randolph

More than 45 years ago, a young man from a small community in Northeast Arkansas enlisted in the Air Force with no guaranteed job.

After completing basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and an unusual two-year stint as a military training instructor, he entered a career field that would provide him with jobs spanning five decades.

That career will come to an end this month when Dennis Carter retires after 10 years as Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency Current Operations Division chief at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.

“It’s been a good ride,” the retired senior master sergeant said. “I’ve enjoyed my career, the work I’ve done. But it’s time for a change, time for a new generation to do this.”

Carter’s arrival at AFMAA came at a time when the agency needed someone with his vast experience and knowledge, said David Zelinski, AFMAA 1st Manpower Requirements Squadron C Flight chief.

“The manpower requirements squadrons had just recently been stood up,” he said. “Dennis almost singlehandedly reinvigorated the management engineering program, which had been essentially nonexistent since the early 1990s. Over his long span as a manpower analyst he has been an exceptional mentor to officers, Airmen and civilians, and provided both guidance and wisdom to those he has worked with, including myself.”

Col. Heidi Paulson, who became AFMAA commander last year, said Carter has become a true friend and valued mentor.

“We are tackling many issues here at AFMAA and he’s been at the core of getting us on a path to becoming more agile and timely as we define manpower requirements for the Air Force,” she said. “Additionally, he is quite literally a legend in the field, having done this business for over 40 years, and his guidance and wisdom is sought out daily by members across the community. We all lean heavily on his expertise and guidance and his retirement will leave a significant gap that will take years to fill.”

Carter, whose father and maternal uncle served in the Army during World War II, was in college when he enlisted in the Air Force as the Vietnam War was winding down. Despite excelling on a language skills test, he turned down an opportunity to study Vietnamese and instead opted for a test program to become an MTI straight out of basic training.

It proved to be an invaluable experience so early in his career.

“Starting my Air Force career as an MTI provided insight and forced a level of maturity not present in more traditional paths,” Carter said. “It was also a good builder of resilience as many senior folks were not in favor of such junior folks in that role, and so we were constantly under the microscope with certain people looking not for your successes but anything that could justify removal from the program. Very few of the original selectees were able to complete the tour.”

After successfully completing his tour as an MTI, Carter took a management engineering test and was chosen for the career field that would be his home for decades.

He took the Air Force Manpower Management Course in November 1974 and started his first manpower job about four months later as a member of the Lackland Air Force Base Management Engineering Team, participating in an ME study of Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center.

Carter’s travels during his 20 years in the Air Force took him to Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida; Sembach Air Base, Germany; Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, and Kirtland Air Force Base, N.ew Mexico, as a member of the Air Force Security Police MET; Military Airlift Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Lindsey Air Station, Germany; Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska,.; and Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

The projects Carter participated in included the first-ever functional review of the military air transportation systems at MAC and a manpower assessment of the co-located operating base system while assigned to Lindsey Air Station as enlisted MET chief. He also served as transition team member in standing down SAC and transferring intercontinental ballistic missile assets to Air Combat Command and as team lead in transferring ICBM assets from ACC to Air Force Space Command.

Carter retired from active duty in October 1992, worked in the private sector and went to graduate school before securing a civil service position in April 1998 as a transportation lead for the Department of Defense Education Activity in Germany.

He came back to the states in 2002 as an ME analyst with the Air Force Reserve Command MET at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, and assumed a position as AFRC MET chief at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, about a year later.

Carter returned to San Antonio – the city where he began his Air Force career – when he became ME division chief at AFMAA.

“The Current Operations Division provides operational oversight for the execution of the Air Force Management Engineering Program, and the chief of current ops is the Air Force program manager for the ME program,” he said. “In short, we are responsible for the development and maintenance of all Air Force manpower standards.”

One of the things Carter has liked most about his manpower career is that every day is different.

“A lot of people come to work and it’s the same thing every day,” he said. “We have hundreds of standards, so it’s never the same thing. Every day brings different challenges.”

Carter’s days will soon be very different.