First historian of program finds calling in 'the vault'

  • Published
  • By Airman Jacob Corbin
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
It's gone through a variety of jobs in its long career, from a vault for classified materials to a storage room for unwanted equipment.

Now though, the room called "the vault" is home to the first Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training full-time historian and history office.

John Murphy, the first ENJJPT historian, began his new job Sept. 6, and hit the ground running.

Mr. Murphy said he took over the job from years of part-time and additional duty historians at the 80th Flying Training Wing. His predecessor, Master Sgt. Mark Masman, inherited "the vault" and found countless volumes of historical data strewn amongst used printers and other office junk.

The last full-time historian at the 80th FTW was in the mid 1970's, before it became home to ENJJPT, Mr. Murphy said.

A historian's main job is to maintain a corporate memory of the organization, the historian said. While a given organization may not have records on how many sorties it did past two years for instance, the history office will.

In fact, the 80th FTW history office has written histories for the units going back as far as 1966, Mr. Murphy said.

In addition to its day-to-day historical responsibilities, the history office also takes on a variety special projects. These include the various displays of artifacts located throughout the 80th FTW buildings.

Currently, Mr. Murphy is working on a new display consisting of ENJJPT class patches. He said he was "just in the right place at the right time" when he received this historical treasure trove of patches. During pre-operational readiness inspection cleaning, they were found in an office and were going to be thrown away.

Inheriting the ENJJPT history program isn't with out its challenges though, according to Mr. Murphy.

"For me, the biggest challenge is to bring the office up to the level of a regular history office," he said. "(Over the years,) a lot of things have fallen through the cracks."

Also, Mr. Murphy said another challenge is "teaching" people what the history office does.

"It's hard trying to get people to understand that I'm not a spy," he explained. "Whether it's good or bad (information), its history."

Since taking over the history program, Mr. Murphy has decided on a few goals for his tenure as historian.

"I'd like to bring the historical awareness at the wing up a level," he said. "It might be trash (that you find), but at least half of it I could archive or save for a rainy day."