Communications System Operator

Master Sgt. Michael Heiser, an only child, joined the US Air Force on the ironic date of June 25, 1979. Soon after, he was selected to attend the military academy Prep school in Colorado Springs and after that, moved up on the hill to the US Air Force Academy. He, being one of the oldest members of this class, chose to leave after the first year and went back into the enlisted ranks enjoying a rewarding career as a communications specialist aboard the Gulfstream fleet affectionately referred to as Air Force Three. Many years of world travel finally wound down and the final assignment was when he joined the 71st Rescue Squadron attached to Patrick AFB near home in December, 1995, as a  C-Flight superintendent.

He hadn’t been at the squadron long before he went away to the HC-130 Combat Rescue School at Kirtland AFB, N.M., which is a must for all members of the squadron who participate in rescue operations. He graduated from Kirtland and had only been back in the squadron for a few months before he was sent to Dhahran to put to practice what he spent months learning. They were there to protect The No Fly Zone.

Heiser was new, but he made a good first impression on his flight commander, Capt. Ben Walsh. “When I called him in and told him he was going to be the new flight supervisor, Heiser expressed concern to me that he was too new to do a good job. I told him I knew he could do the job or I wouldn’t have selected him. He was that conscientious.”

Like Adams, Heiser was in the process of settling down in a new house with his fiancée, when he was killed.