COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Patricia Speights, former 14th Operations Group secretary, retired after 40 years of civil service Aug. 3, 2018, on Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi.
Lt. Col. Ryan Sullivan, 14th OG deputy commander, was the guest speaker for the ceremony and gave the attendants an overview of Speights’ civil service career.
“Ms. ‘P’ had a few rules for [speaking at her ceremony,]” Sullivan said. “She said it had to be casual and funny, so I’m going to do that, no crying and no surprises, and that is not going to happen.”
Speights grew up in Selma, Alabama, near now-decommissioned Craig Field, where she worked in the communication squadron in high school. Sullivan cracked a joke about the layout of the air field being all over the place, and showed the audience that the uniquely-angled runways air field spelled ‘Ms. P’.
After high school, Speights worked as a telephone operator at South Central Bell Telephone Company. Around the same time she married an Airman, Steve Speights, and became a part of the Air Force family.
She and her husband then went to Chanute AFB in Rantoul, Illinois, where she again worked in a communications squadron. Sullivan joked saying that this base is also shut down because Speights had left the base.
After Chanute, Speights made her way to Columbus in 1977. She took six years off of civil service to raise her son, Jamie, before working here.
“One of the things you will notice as I go through here is that [Speights] is one of the very few people who have put in 40 years of civil service and has also touched every part of this base,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan then told the audience about where on Columbus she had worked. He said she started at the medical group, then went to the mission support group as a typist, then to the logistics readiness squadron, went back to the medical group, and finally the now operations group as the secretary since 1992.
“You’ve served in every capacity here at Columbus and we all owe you a deep debt of gratitude for all the service that you’ve done,” Sullivan said.
He then asked the crowd if they had ever seen her parking spot and explained why there are 14 operations group patches. He said each patch represented how many operations group commanders she ‘trained’ since she began working here.
Sullivan said the new 14th OG commander, Col. Derek Stuart, would be the fifteenth but he didn’t want to be known as the OG that “kicked Ms. P out.”
Following Sullivan’s overview of Speights’ service, he revealed that a T-6A Texan II pattern that flew in the vicinity of Selma, Alabama, was named after her for her dedication to the operations group and all she has to done to help produce pilots.
After Sullivan’s speech, the formal retiring of Speights occurred and she took the stand.
“I’m going to miss everyone,” Speights said. “I’m really going to miss [my coworker’s children], they meant a lot to me when they come up see their parents.”
After saying she was going to miss everyone, Speights pulled out a drawing from former 14th OG commander, retired Col. Brett Pennington’s daughter. In 2013, Speights was diagnosed with cancer.
With tears in her eyes, Speights explained how her Air Force family stepped up and helped her in a time of need. She said that she keeps that drawing on her refrigerator to this day as a reminder of how much her Air Force family cares for her.
To complete her speech and ceremony, Speights asked for one thing. She called up Master Sgt. David Pennington, 14th OG first sergeant, and asked him to yell their group chant.
“PROUD TO BE, OG,” yelled the audience.
With that, Patricia Speights, better known as Ms. P, wrapped up her 40 years of service to the Air Force and her country.