Military service runs in the family for 30-year-old University of Oregon post-graduate student Jason Chambers. Enlisting in the Air Force followed the paths of both his father and grandfather.
For Chambers, carrying on the family legacy had little to do with his decision to enlist. Citing economic reasons, he saw the Air Force as a way to pay for college.
“After high school, I didn’t have enough money for college,” Chambers said, “but I knew I wanted to go for something, I just didn’t know what. I really didn’t have a good handle on how to fund it.”
He said the types of jobs offered in the Air Force are typically more technical and advanced, citing these as a reason to why he chose the branch.
But the day he found himself sitting in the lobby of the Air Force’s Military Entrance Processing Station@@checked@@ waiting to swear an oath to service and find out what job he would choose — that day was not any normal day. It was Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was sitting there watching the whole situation unfold on TV,” he said. “It made me really mad and gave me more inspiration to do the right thing. At that point, my enlistment became less about funding college and more about making America safer.”
After a stint with Explosives Ordinance Disposal, colloquially known as the “bomb squad,” Chambers landed on logistics.
“I was basically in the Air Force’s FedEx – except our packages were Apache helicopters and tanks,” he said.
He served two tours in Kuwait and Iraq loading and unloading Air Force transport planes packed with a plethora of equipment, vehicles and packages. Even though his job kept him on base and out of direct fire from the enemy, the harsh realities of war were not distant.
“Anything the Iraqis had near the border at the start of the 2003 invasion, they would launch at our airport in Kuwait to try to damage our logistics supply,” he said.
Incessant mortar and rocket rounds left logistics’ soldiers routinely scurrying for cover, and as a result, Chambers left the Middle East at the end of his second and final tour with severe back problems.
“Every time the emergency sirens indicating incoming fire would sound,” he said, “we had to run for cover. That meant I had to drop what I was doing or carrying and leap off forklifts and plane ramps constantly. All that jumping hurt my back, not to mention carrying loads that should have probably been carried by a few people.”
Following his second tour, he retired from military service in September of 2005. He moved around a couple times with his wife and earned a bachelor’s degree in plant and soil science@@what?@@ from Middle Tennessee State University.@@checked@@
“My wife and I always talked about moving out to either California or Oregon,” he said. “We knew people in Portland who loved it, and only heard good things about Oregon.”
After graduation, Chambers was offered a job in Eugene and accepted, but due to his back problems from military service, he was unable to continue work in plant science.
He decided to change careers all together and did so by enrolling as a Master’s student at the UO, a scholastic career funded by the Veteran’s Association. He is currently studying accounting, working towards another bachelor of science degree  and his CPA.
“I figured accounting would be a good career for someone with back problems.” he chuckled. “It doesn’t require a whole lot of manual labor.”