Join the Army and SEE THE WORLD

BY LYNN SCHNEIDER

Theresa (Teri) Romano graduated from Salem High School in Salem, New Hampshire.

“It was toward the end of the Vietnam War, and I wanted to serve the country in some way, and I needed a way to help pay for college,” she said.

“The Army had a civilian intern program. If you committed to work in a position for a certain number of years, the Army would help pay for college,” said Teri. “I applied, was selected and I committed to the program. I was able to continue with school, while I worked for the Army.”

In 1981, at Fort Devens MA, Teri started working in an entry-level civilian financial position. “Quickly, I was promoted to a Budget Analyst position managing financial resources for the Army Intelligence School. I liked that I could serve and get ahead while working on my degree.”

While working at Fort Devens, Teri met Bob Cardin. Bob was the commander of the Moore Army Airfield at Fort Devens. “He had a military plane that I requested occasionally to transport active-duty personnel to temporary duty sites,” said Teri. “Until Bob retired, we worked together at Fort Devens. We never imagined that we would reconnect decades later in Florida.”

“In 1990, the congressional “Base Realignment and Closure Act” closed and consolidated many military bases and caused my job to be moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. I really wanted to stay on east coast. I hoped to continue service in the Department of Defense, so I applied for lots of jobs and took several aptitude tests, including a test to be a military air traffic controller, which really interested me. I was offered an air traffic controller job, pending the results of a physical. I was very disappointed when my physical revealed that the vision in my left eye was not good. I didn’t get the job.”

Almost immediately, Teri received a call from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), asking her to interview for a position in Washington, D.C. “My security clearance level at the time was too low for me be fully informed about what the new job would entail,” said Teri. “They couldn’t talk about the highly classified operations. I didn’t know exactly what I would be doing, but I knew that

I would be directly supporting military intelligence operations, working in the Pentagon, and traveling a lot. I was very excited to continue service in the Department of Defense, while narrowly avoiding being reassigned to Arizona.”

Teri accepted the new job as a Financial Program Manager at DIA and continued working while she pursued her MBA.

“Working for the DIA as a civilian was exciting, but employees understand that the agency needs to be agile and that DIA can assign you anywhere in the world, as needed, and it did!” she explained. “My passport is just amazing.”

Teri spent 17 years of her 30-year career with the military in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the DIA. The OIG is an independent organization within DIA that reports to Congress and the agency Director.

The OIG investigators exposed and investigated incidents of waste, fraud, abuse of federal resources, and crimes against the government. Teri started out as a financial auditor but was ultimately promoted to the OIG Director position, overseeing a team of about 100 criminal investigators and auditors.

“I loved every minute of working with the military!” she said. “I had the coolest jobs!

Teri's Military I.D.

I worked in more than 100 countries, some that people have never heard of! I saw things most people will never see, and some things I wish I could un-see. I was terrified at times, like in active war zones like Bosnia and Iraq, or in dangerous countries like Columbia where kidnappings by rebel groups were common. I was scared when the C-130 cargo plane I traveled in made an emergency landing in Eastern Europe and local military leaders on the ground were very suspicious. On the ground we were surrounded by soldiers, with weapons aimed at us. Eventually, someone convinced the locals that we meant no harm, they helped repair the plane, and we went on our way.”

“A memorable project I evaluated was a Department of Defense program created to help locate the remains of POW/MIA soldiers,” said Teri. “In Thailand and Vietnam residents occasionally provided leads. While I was in Vietnam a resident reported that he discovered parts of a plane and U.S. dog tags. I got in a Jeep with a military investigator and went out into the jungle. A water buffalo emerged suddenly from the bushes. We hit it with the jeep, and sadly, the buffalo died. The animal was a working animal, owned by a local farmer. I had to figure out how to pay for a new water buffalo. Despite the awful accident, we were able to locate the long-lost military dog tags and other evidence, which helped identify the remains of a missing soldier.”

On September 11, 2001, by the grace of God, Teri attended a 9:30 a.m. meeting in a high-rise building not far from her office in the Pentagon. From the building in Arlington Virginia, she could see the Pentagon’s roof. As she waited for the meeting to start, Teri and a young reserve officer silently watched the unfolding 9/11 events at the World Trade Center in New York on a television monitor. Simultaneously, Teri and her colleague spotted a commercial airliner flying in an area that seemed unusual. Teri said “Our eyes were riveted on the trajectory of the plane. We knew exactly where it was headed. In that surreal moment, we watched the plane disappear from our view, we saw a huge plume of flame and black smoke, and we smelled burning jet fuel. Unbelievably, the plane had crashed into the Pentagon. Several of Teri’s DIA colleagues were killed in that moment.

Teri retired from the DIA in 2012 and moved to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where she worked as Human Rights Investigator in the state’s Human Rights Commission, until relocating to Florida in 2014.

“From everything I had been seeing on TV in the states, when I arrived in Vietnam, I assumed that I would be quickly shot down and killed,” said Bob. “Instead, I got off the airplane and boarded an air-conditioned bus and spent three days at the Officer’s Club. Of course, everything was pleasant until you got to your unit—that’s when the reality set in.” graduated in 1968 with a degree in military science and general studies.

Upon graduation, he joined the military and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army where he was stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Following his Army officer basic course, his first duty assignment was the platoon leader in Troop B, 1/18th Cavalry at Fort Lewis Army Base in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of Puget Sound in Washington State.

“I was 23 years old,” said Bob. “From everything I had been seeing on TV in the states, when I arrived in Vietnam, I assumed that I would be quickly shot down and killed. Instead, I got off the airplane and boarded an air-conditioned bus and spent three days at the Officer’s Club. Of course, everything was pleasant until you got to your unit that’s when the reality set in.”

Robert (Bob) Lucien Cardin was born and raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He attended a Catholic high school and matriculated at Providence College, where he was enrolled in the ROTC for four years and

Fort Lewis was part of a joint base that included McChord Airfield. “While I was at Fort Lewis, I met 2LT John Sharky and he changed my life,” said Bob. “He was going to flight school, and he sent me a letter a few months later telling me how great it was. That convinced me that I wanted to attend flight school as well. I spent months in preparation and had my application ready to send when I got flagged for Vietnam. Luckily, my Squadron XO put in a call to a friend at the Pentagon, and that same day I was on orders for flight school. As soon as I graduated flight school, I headed to Vietnam.”

From April 1970 to 1971, Bob flew 150 combat hours with 176th Assault Helicopter Company out of Chu Lai Air Base in Chu Lai, Vietnam.

Following his tour in Vietnam, Bob was sent to Fort Dix, located just south of Trenton, New Jersey, where he served as company commander for two years before being transferred back to Fort Knox. Here he took an armored advance course before being sent to Fort Rucker, Alabama, as an instructor and tactical instructor for pilots of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois turbine-powered helicopters, commonly known as Hueys.