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Twenty-four years ago, Chris Marcus graduated from Southeast Whitfield High School and left for the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. On Saturday, he returned to Dalton to celebrate his retirement from the military.
“I was really just looking at getting an education. I wanted to go to college, and the Air Force Academy is a four-year college. It wasn’t only free. They paid you to go there. Plus they gave you a job when you got out. But after I got my commission, I found that I really loved what I was doing,” said Marcus, who retires as a lieutenant colonel.
Family and friends gathered at the Central Church of Christ to help Marcus celebrate his retirement.
“I’m always looking for a new challenge, and in the Air Force they move you around every two to three years. It’s a location, a new job, new people to work with and new challenges,” Marcus said.
His career took him across the world.
“I’ve mostly been in the United States. But I’ve been all over the United States from Alaska to South Carolina to Texas to California to Tennessee to Ohio. I did one deployment to Iraq back in 2008, so I have served overseas. But I’ve mostly served in the United States,” he said.
His most recent assignment was to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in 2010. Marcus has spent most of his career in the medical service corps in health services administration.
Marcus said his retirement from the Air Force marks the end of his first career and the start to his second.
“I’ve been interviewing with the (Veterans Affairs Department) and some hospitals in Ohio,” Marcus said.
Amy Marcus, his wife, says they promised their two children — Austin, 17, and Adyson, 14 — that they would remain try to remain in Ohio until they finish high school.
“We’ve had to move every two or three years, so they’ve changed schools several times,” she said.
Amy and Chris were high school sweethearts who married shortly after he graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1992. She says being an Air Force wife has been both challenging and fun.
“You learn to be a little bit stronger than maybe you thought you could be. You get a little more pride in your country,” she said.
Amy’s mother Betty Nix says she’s glad that the couple will get to settle into one spot for a while.
“They are still young. This is a retirement, but they are moving on to the next phase in their lives,” she said.
But Chris’s mother Lavelle Marcus said that Ohio may not be the final stop for the couple.
“Chris has said that after the kids leave home they’d like to move back south. Maybe not here but to Tennessee or North Carolina,” she said.
Local News
Related Photos
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Lt. Col. Chris Marcus shares a laugh with a friend at Central Church of Christ during his retirement party Saturday. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Discussion
July 29, 2012
Marcus retires after 20 years in the Air Force
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Police and Fire Games: Dalton firefighter snags second place
Mason Martin, back right, cheers on his mother, Serena Martin, an officer with the Dalton Police Department, as she pushes a patrol car as part of an obstacle course to determine the “Toughest Overall” during the Georgia Police and Fire Games on Monday at the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Department’s firing range. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)
A seasoned Dalton firefighter placed second in the Toughest Overall Competitor event at the Police and Fire Games in Dalton on Monday.
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