Wings of Character: SMSgt Crothers shares his story

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Liberty Kuhn
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  

For many service members, military life is more than a career. It is a link to the people who first shaped their understanding of duty and strength. And years later, their own paths often begin to mirror the footsteps that inspired them.

Countless service members have family members who also served, and their legacy continues to live on in the military.

It’s not uncommon for military service to be generational in families, like Senior Master Sgt. Adam Crothers, 436th Maintenance Squadron Maintenance superintendent, who was given his birth certificate by his mother around 2009, which read: ‘United States Air Force Dover Hospital.’ Even though Crothers had grown up in the area, he never realized that he was part of a small percentage of people born on a military installation.

“My family and I grew up in the local area while my dad [Robert] was stationed here,” said Crothers. “He was stationed here until 1998.”

After Dover AFB, his father finished out 24 years at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

“I spent 20 years at Dover on the C-5M Super Galaxy,” Air Force Ret. Senior Master Sgt. Robert Crothers said. “I finished my career at McGuire AFB managing a C-141 [Starlifter] unit.”

Although he had been living the military lifestyle since birth, Adam admitted he didn’t feel it was the path for him. However, the different opportunities led him to enlist after high school.

“I remember telling my dad that I respected what he did, but the Air Force isn’t for me,” Adam said. “But college didn’t really interest me, and my dad said that the benefits could set me up for success.”

A little over a year after Adam’s high school graduation, his father decided to retire. While one Crothers’ service in the Air Force was ending, another started his own Air Force journey.

After Robert’s retirement at the Air Mobility Command Museum in January 2001, Adam decided to enlist. On Robert’s last official day in the Air Force, April 1, 2001, Adam was on a bus headed to Lackland Air Force Base to start his own Air Force journey. Adam wanted to travel and see the world, like his father had, as a flying crew chief in the maintenance world.

From that time, Adam served for eight years at Dyess AFB and 14 years at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. He finally made a full circle back to Dover AFB, joining the 436th Maintenance Squadron as the Maintenance flight chief, and later progressing to Maintenance superintendent.

“His mother, Kim, and I are so proud of him, his career, his wife and our grandchildren,” Robert said. “From the deployments to faraway places in support of the war on terrorism, the past 24 years, to his climb up the ranks to senior master sergeant, he’s made his whole family so proud.”

As Adam continues to serve, he has risen to another challenge.

“I’ve got two more years,” Adam said. “If I can make chief, it’s kind of like a thanks to my dad.”

Though Robert’s Air Force journey ended, Adam’s continues, two Crothers, father and son, 48 continuous years in the Air Force.

The return to Dover has allowed the family’s story to come full circle — the place where both of their shared Air Force journey intertwined and, in a way, never truly ended.