State Rep. Antonio Parkinson works hard for the people.

In May of 1986, after attending four high schools between my eleventh and twelfth grade years, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I was in Port Arthur, Texas at the time after being kicked out of my second high school. 

Immediately after my senior year of high school, I enlisted in the United States Air Force.  I became close to my recruiter, a young staff sergeant who guided me through the process of the ASVAB test and additional paper work that was required. I would show up to the recruiter's office almost daily to hang out and assist him where I could to recruit other candidates to join. I was also homeless at the time and very thankful to an adult cousin named Charles who allowed me to live with him until it was time for me to leave for Air Force boot camp. We worked out a strategy that went like this: on the day I would leave for boot camp, he would fly to Kansas City to visit his family that he hadn't seen in a very long time. He purchased his ticket and set up his vacation to time with my departure to the Air Force. I really appreciated him for taking me on and my older brother (Drag) alike during this defining period of my life. 

The Day My Life Took a Turn

One day after showing up to my Air Force recruiters office as I normally did, there was a different recruiter in the office who I did not recognize. I asked him where my recruiter was and to my shock and disbelief he informed me that my recruiter was killed in a car accident the night before! My heart sunk to my stomach after hearing the news as I had become quite fond of my recruiter and we had began to forge a relationship. After a few minutes of the thought of the accident, it dawned on me that this could cause a delay in my leaving for the Air Force. I asked the recruiter what this meant for me leaving for boot camp and his response made me feel even sicker. He said, "Well obviously this puts everything on hold."  I immediately thought about my older cousin who I was staying with and his arrangements to go on vacation and that I would be homeless and in the streets again. I didn't know how to tell him. I felt like he had already done so much for us. But I told him anyway and understood when he told us he would have to lock his house up and we'd have to find another place to stay due to the delay. 

While the recruiter was discussing the delay with me, the Marine Corps recruiter was listening to the conversation we were having in the recruitment office hallway. After the Air Force recruiter went back into his office, the Marine Corps recruiter motioned to me to come into his office. For me it was always the Air Force or the Marine Corps. He sat me down at his desk and told me that he could get me out of there in a week and a half. He also said that he would have to transfer my test scores from the air force over to the Marine Corps and get me to sign some additional papers. I agreed to the deal with one extra caveat; he would have to fly me to bootcamp in San Diego but also fly my brother to Los Angeles to his father's house. He agreed to the deal. We drove from Port Arthur Texas to Houston Texas to find my mother to get her to sign the papers for me. I was set to go into the Marine Corps. The interesting thing about the deal was when I signed my contract to go into the Marine Corps I signed under an open contract which meant that they could give me any MOS or job that they saw fit for me to have. I was told that I was an alpha candidate based on my ASVAB scores. 

I left for boot camp in San Diego and my brother was flown back to LA to live with his father. The Marine Corps recruiter came through on all promises of the deal. While in bootcamp I excelled and was promoted meritoriously to private first class. I was also offered Officer Candidate School (OCS) while I was in boot camp. This would've required an additional 8 year commitment outside of the four-year commitment that I had already signed up for. They proposed to send me to college and Officer Candidate school based on my ASVAB scores. Boot camp was great for me! I excelled, met new friends, and went really hard because I felt that if I failed I would have been put outside of the gates and become homeless again. I was deathly afraid of being homeless again. On close to the last day of boot camp they began to read our orders and where we would be stationed. The orders were coded with a four digit number. All of the numbers were sounding the same as they read each individual's name and their MOS number. So I assumed that my number would be the same as most of the other numbers which were starting with 03. Most of the 03 MOS' were those for infantry and other things associated with fighting wars. When they got to my name, mine was coded with the number 73. The drill instructors looked around bewildered as I did  also and wondered what the 73 code meant. After a little research they realized that I was being sent to air traffic control School in Millington Tennessee. I had never heard of Millington and heard very little about Memphis. 

Needless to say, I was on my way to Memphis Tennessee. I went to air traffic control school and air crash firefighter school in Millington.  I did four years in the Marine Corps and got out. I would later be recalled and put on standby as part of the Desert Storm war campaign. 

As God would have it I became a Shelby County firefighter for 25 years and later became state representative in Memphis Tennessee for District 98. 

Happy Memorial Day everyone. God knew the plan. Semper fi!