A lifetime of service: Shelley McCracken’s 20 years in the Air Force

Cowley veteran reflects on the opportunities, challenges and rewards of military service and why young women should consider serving

When Shelley McCracken joined the United States Air Force in May 1971, the Vietnam War was still raging, public attitudes toward the military were often hostile and women served in a separate organization from their male counterparts.

Twenty years later, she retired as an Air Force captain, having served at bases across the country, worked in several career fields and witnessed significant changes in opportunities for women in uniform.

Now, 35 years after retiring and settling in Cowley, McCracken looks back on her military career with gratitude.

“The military was good to us,” she said.

Born in 1950, McCracken grew up in an Air Force family. Her father’s military career took them to Oklahoma, Texas, Germany, France, Mississippi and California.

The family rarely stayed anywhere longer than two and a half years, but she enjoyed the experience.

“It gave me an opportunity to see other cultures, meet new people all the time,” she said. “I got real good at being outgoing and making friends.”

After graduating from Foothill High School in Bakersfield, California, she attended Bakersfield College and Brigham Young University before returning home to help care for her mother following an automobile accident.

Once her mother recovered, McCracken decided to follow her father’s example and enlisted in the Air Force on May 6, 1971.

A different Air Force for women

When McCracken arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, for basic training, women were still organized separately under the Women in the Air Force program, commonly known as WAF.

“We had our own squadron, our own buildings,” she recalled. “They had big signs outside the buildings that said, ‘Off limits to male personnel.’”

Female instructors supervised the women, who completed physical training, hikes, obstacle courses and other requirements.

While some recruits struggled with military discipline, McCracken found the transition relatively easy because she had grown up around the military.

“I’d been around that my whole life,” she said. “I was used to, you know, you have to take orders.”

She remembers basic training as a positive experience.

“It was fun. I had a good time,” she said.

Following basic training, she attended pharmacy technician training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.

There she met another young airman, Don McCracken, who was training to work with Titan II missile facilities. They met in July 1971 and married that September.

The newlyweds initially received assignments hundreds of miles apart, but the Air Force approved their request for a joint assignment, allowing them to begin married life together at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas.

Over their 20-year careers, the military generally worked to keep them together, although remote assignments separated them for a total of two years.

Maintaining two military careers required compromise.

“We did have to make a choice. Whose career were we going to push to the front?” McCracken explained.

They often selected assignments that would benefit Don’s career, making it easier for them to remain together.

Both eventually became commissioned officers and retired as captains. One of Shelly’s favorite memories was administering the oath when Don received his commission.

“I actually got to swear him in as an officer,” she recalled.

Breaking barriers and building a career

When McCracken arrived at McConnell Air Force Base, she was one of only three women serving in uniform at the installation.

She helped establish the base’s first women’s squadron, an experience that reflected the changing role of women in the Air Force during the 1970s.

But the transition was not without challenges.

Working in the base hospital pharmacy, McCracken encountered a male supervisor who, she said, discriminated against her because she was a woman.

She filed a complaint and was able to substantiate the discrimination.

Rather than significantly disciplining the supervisor, the Air Force transferred McCracken into another career field.

“They didn’t do a lot to reprimand men,” she recalled of the era.

She retrained as an audiovisual specialist and later as an education specialist, helping military personnel use their educational benefits.

McCracken also continued her own education, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Kansas Newman College in Wichita. On September 29, 1978, she received her commission as an Air Force officer.

Her career eventually included air traffic control, squadron leadership and executive officer assignments. She served in positions involving personnel, morale, welfare, discipline and military support operations.

Her assignments took her to bases in Kansas, Florida, North Dakota, Alaska, Michigan and Nebraska.

Although she enjoyed the opportunities, she understood that military service meant being willing to go wherever she was needed.

“You’ve got to be willing to move,” she said. “You’ve got to be willing to do the work.”

Service during uncertain times

McCracken entered the Air Force during the Vietnam War, when military personnel were not always welcomed or appreciated by the American public.

She remembers the anti-war sentiment and the negative attitudes directed toward those in uniform.

Her reason for enlisting was straightforward.

“I want to serve my country,” she recalled thinking. “I want to be there for it.”

Although she never served in a combat zone, she understood that military service meant accepting assignments wherever the country needed her.

That possibility became very real near the end of her career.

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, she received word that she might be deployed to Saudi Arabia.

Her response was simple.

“OK, that’s the job,” she recalled.

With retirement only about two months away, she asked whether her retirement date could be extended to accommodate the deployment. She was told it could not, and the assignment never materialized.

McCracken retired in 1991 after 20 years of service, at just 41 years old.

Don, who had entered the Air Force a month before she did, retired with one month more service. The couple moved to Cowley that same year.

Why young women should consider the military

Having entered the Air Force when women faced significant restrictions, McCracken encourages young women today to consider military service.

“I think the military provides many opportunities,” she said. “It’s at least good training, and it’s what you make of it.”

Her own career illustrates that point. She entered the Air Force as a pharmacy technician and eventually worked in audiovisual technology, education, air traffic control and command positions.

But McCracken is equally clear that military life requires discipline, responsibility and personal sacrifice.

“You’ve got to be willing to move,” she said. “You’ve got to be willing to do the work.”

She also believes young people should understand that military life means accepting authority and adapting to circumstances they cannot always control.

There are challenges involving personal behavior and lifestyles that may not appeal to everyone, she acknowledged, but she believes individuals can make choices about the situations in which they place themselves.

For married couples, particularly when both spouses serve, the challenges can be greater.

McCracken said she and Don had to consider how assignments would affect both careers and their ability to remain together.

Military families with children also had to prepare for possible deployments.

“You always had to have who is going to be responsible if you’re gone,” she explained.

She sees that responsibility as part of the commitment military service requires.

The financial benefits were also important. McCracken remembers earning just $97 a month when she first enlisted, before a military pay increase nearly doubled her salary.

By the time she retired as an officer at age 41, she felt the Air Force had provided her with a secure future.

Still, she emphasizes that military service is not simply a matter of receiving benefits. Those who join must be willing to meet the demands placed upon them.

“You have to do the work that’s necessary,” she said.

What Veterans Day means

Military service runs deep in McCracken’s family. Her father served during World War II in the China-Burma-India theater and completed a 20-year Air Force career. Several other family members also served, including her sister Jeannie, who spent six years in the Air Force.

Don McCracken died in 2015, leaving behind memories of a marriage that began in military technical school and continued through two decades of service and retirement in Cowley.

For Shelley, Veterans Day has special meaning because she remembers a time when military service was not always publicly appreciated.

Today, she is grateful when communities recognize veterans and acknowledge their sacrifices.

“It makes you feel really good,” she said.

She particularly appreciates the recognition veterans receive during Cowley’s Fourth of July celebration.

Although proud of her service, McCracken is quick to recognize those whose military experiences involved greater danger and hardship.

“I don’t feel like I made as many sacrifices as a lot of veterans because I never had to go in combat,” she said. “I was support for those who were in the war zones.”

She believes those who faced combat made especially difficult sacrifices, but she also understands that every service member accepts the possibility of being called into danger.

Looking back, some of her happiest military memories are surprisingly simple.

She loved marching in military parades, hearing the music and seeing people cheer for those in uniform.

“I love being in a parade,” she said. “With the music playing and the crowds cheering, it just made you feel wonderful.”

For a woman who grew up in an Air Force family, spent 20 years serving her country and built a life around the opportunities the military provided, those moments of appreciation still mean a great deal.

And when asked to sum up her experience, her answer remains simple.

“The military was good to us.”