Major, NCO reconnect for retirement ceremony

Published Oct. 13, 2006
By Lois Walsh
96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- This is a tale of a career that's come full circle, proving once again that it really is a small Air Force world.

In 1986, Alicia Graham was one of more than sixty cadets commissioned at Ohio State University as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. While a cadet in the ROTC, she studied military customs and traditions. Little did she know that one in particular would factor into her life twenty years later.

Cadet Graham learned that newly commissioned officers give a silver dollar to the first enlisted member who salutes them. She determined her first salute would go to then Staff Sgt. Jack Pio, who was in charge of student records for the detachment.

"I specifically picked Jack because he was the sergeant who was our pal; we would joke around with him," Major Graham said.

For some of the Airmen stationed with the detachment, commissioning day was an easy way to earn a buck. They would go outside, looking for shiny new gold bars and wait for the silver to change hands. Sergeant Pio felt differently.

"I didn't like that, really, so from my first day on I decided not to salute any lieutenants unless they specifically requested I do so, and then I was honored to do it."

So much so that after ten years in ROTC, he has but 15 silver dollars, each marked with initials or a code word to remind him of the events surrounding each presentation. Included in this special box of mementos is the one coin from then-Lieutenant Graham.

Fast forward through the years. Staff Sergeant Pio completed a distinguished enlisted career, retiring in 2005 as a master sergeant. He was hired on as a contractor working for the 951st Electronic Systems Group mission planning office here. The new lieutenant also settled in to military life, and as her last assignment, worked for the same group. It wasn't until April 2006, while working together, the two realized their paths had crossed before.

"Jack and I had to work late a lot and he looked vaguely familiar to me," Major Graham said. "We started talking about our children and our time in college and that's when I realized we were at Ohio State together."

Sergeant Pio didn't remember that fateful exchange more than two decades ago. But Major Graham jogged his memory with a photo showing her first salute on her commissioning day.

"I didn't remember the picture, but that's me; I recognized my watch," he said. "I started looking at my silver dollars and realized I had hers."

Major Graham retired Oct. 5 at a ceremony officiated by James Clark, Air Force Combat Support Office director, at the officers' club in front of family and friends. She reserved her last salute for retired Sergeant Pio, the man who played an integral part in her transition to the officer corps.

Her silver dollar once again changed hands as Sergeant Pio returned it to the major, closing the loop in her military career.

"It's such a small world; how many people can say they found their sergeant who they first saluted," Major Graham asked. "It doesn't feel like 20 years."