Ken Allen         

Following graduation, I attended the University of Florida for two years until, with the Draft Board close at my heels, I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.  Two years after enlisting, I was selected for an Air Force scholarship program and returned to college at the University of Wyoming from which I graduated with a BS in General Engineering.  I was commissioned shortly thereafter and entered Pilot Training.  After winning my wings, I spent much of the next twenty years flying various tactical aircraft (F-4C/D/E, OV-10A, F-104G, F-16D and F-15E) in both operational and training units.  I attended Staff College in 1982 and followed that with a very long (it seemed), four year, non-flying assignment in the Pentagon working primarily in the area of Tactical Force Structure planning.  I also earned my MBA at Arizona State University during my off-duty time.

After retiring from the Air Force in 1989, I worked initially for McDonnell-Douglas as a Business Development/Government Relations manager in Washington, DC, before being hired by Martin-Marietta in Orlando, FL., in a similar, but expanded to include International BD/Government Relations, capacity in 1990.  Martin-Marietta (since merged with Lockheed to become Lockheed-Martin) assigned me in 1994 to establish an office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  I remained there until my retirement as Regional Vice-President in 2004, which, as an aside, was the longest my wife and I had lived in the same location since we graduated from our respective high schools.

I met my wife, Lynne, while she was attending Denver University.  We were married after her graduation and while I was still a student at Wyoming.  We have two daughters; one working on her PhD in North Carolina, the other teaching elementary school and dance in Orlando.  We both, as well as our daughters, enjoyed the travel opportunities that living in Abu Dhabi gave us.  The girls joined us for several holidays and we took a number of excursions with them to exotic and enjoyable sites.  Lynne and I have traveled literally around the world five times and have seen basically all of Europe, the “nicer” parts of the Mid-East, much of the Orient and a little bit of Africa.  Now we’re retired to a much quieter life in Fernandina Beach, FL, living in a lovely and relaxing golf community where I play a little golf, do a little kayaking in the sounds and tidal creeks and, of course, we both enjoy our time on the beautiful and uncrowded beaches of Amelia Island.

Lots of wonderful memories of my Gables years, mostly relating to my friends and buddies and the great times we had together before life took us our separate ways.  I’ve been very fortunate to have reestablished contact with a number of them in recent years and talking with them now just makes me cherish our old friendships even more.  I can’t wait to be see them again.