Airman Spotlight: Airman 1st Class Shelbee Butterfield

Published Sept. 18, 2013
By Staff Reports
51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --

Unit: 51st Maintenance Squadron

Job title: Crew chief

Job description and its impact on the overall mission: I perform 500 and 1,000 hour in-depth inspections to ensure safety of flight.

Time in the military: One year

Time at Osan: Five months

DEROS: April 2014

Family: My father Larry, my mother Donna, and my younger sister Kendall.

Hometown: Rockford, Ill.

Hobbies: I enjoy photography, camping, fishing, and people watching.

Why did you join the military? My father was in security forces for eight years and I knew I didn't want to go to college right after high school.

Where do you see yourself in 10 or 20 years? In 10 or 20 years I see myself having a PhD and working as a clinical psychiatrist.

What do you do for fun here? Here I like to travel around the country; I've been to Busan and Seoul.

What's your favorite Air Force memory or story? My favorite memory was a time when we had just finished phasing a jet and the engines troop had changed the igniters on the number one engine. When we started it up a huge fireball came out of the APU and it was awesome.

What accomplishment are you most proud of? I'm most proud of making something of my life instead of finding a dead-end job in nowhere Illinois.

Who are your role models? My role models are my father and my old dock chief Tech. Sgt. Ryan Stull.