Welsh traveled the world in the Navy and Air Force

Phil Welsh’s military career spans from 1974 to 2010, serving in Vietnam to an assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Welsh joined the Navy at the age of 18 after living in Durango, Colorado all of his life. He had always had an interest in the Navy and worked on a destroyer. During that time, he was deployed to Vietnam. He served for four years and then got out.

Thirteen years later, he joined the Utah Air National Guard during Operation Desert Storm.. He had talked to the U.S. Army, but they were going to require him to take basic training again. At 37 years of age, he really didn’t want to do that, so he opted for the Air National Guard. That part time gig would send him to active duty overseas more than eight times over the next 22 years. He retired from the Air National Guard as a Chief Master Sergeant.

He was a refueling mechanic in the Air National Guard, which fit in with his skills as Welsh described himself as a backyard mechanic.

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Welsh was called to active duty and deployed to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. Several of the active duty airmen stationed at MacDill had been deployed to Operation Desert Storm and they needed to fill those positions in Florida Welsh was deployed to fill one of the positions where he refueled pumps and filters to return them back to the Gulf War. “They (Air Force) went through those things like crazy,” Welsh said.

When Welsh wasn’t on active duty, he worked in the United States federal civil service, which is the civilian workforce of the United States government’s departments and agencies. His civilian job was the same as his National Air Guard job, an air technician, so he was able to go to active duty easily.

While working in the civil service, Welsh took a course in heavy equipment maintenance at Port Hueneme in California near 29 Palms. He was still attached to the Utah Air National Guard.

While in California, the 140th Wing Air National Guard was attending the annual two-week training in California. He met with the superintendent of the 140th Vehicle maintenance who encouraged him to apply for a position in Colorado.

By the end of 1991, Welsh was attached to the Colorado Air National Guard and working at Fort Buckley, Colorado as a full-time technician in the civil service.

In 1998 he went to Saudi Arabia on active duty. He also went to Osan Air Force Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea to participate in Ulchi-Focus Lens, which is now called Ulchi Freedom Guardian.

In 1999, Welsh was called back to active duty in Curacao in the Aruba Islands to work with an Interdiction Team where they intercepted drug planes from entering the United States.

“That was a fun tour,” Welsh said. “Eight hour days, surrounded by beautiful beaches.”

Each time Welsh was called to active duty and then returned to his Guard unit, he was issued a DD214 - also known as discharge papers. He has around eight or nine he thinks.

In February, 2003, Welsh was called back to active duty during the Iraqi War. He was deployed through Jordan into Kuwait where he was assigned to the Red Tail Express Convoy. The convoy delivered supplies to Baghdad, Iraq. Items on the convoy included food, fuel, weapons, and even bombs were on 40-foot flatbeds, as the Air Force was building up a base near Baghdad.

When they arrived at Saddam International Airport, they had to sleep on cots in sleeping bags in their trucks, as there was no other place for them to stay in Baghdad.

Welsh, while in Iraq, carried an American Flag with him, and took it everywhere. He brought the flag home to his wife, Vicki.

Welsh and his daughter Michelle were deployed at the same time and served together in Iraq. “You always hear of sons and dads deployed together, but how many people can say they were deployed with the daughter,” Welsh said.

To this day, the two have an unbroken bond as she comes to Encampment regularly to participate in the parades with her father.

They were deployed for 189 days, but Welsh was extended and sent to Kuwait and Iraq and returned to the United States after 200 days.

In 2004, Welsh was deployed to active duty for six months in Afghanistan and Iraq. He spent that time flying around the two countries to install armor on to the security police Humvees, as they were all softsided.

In 2006, Welsh was deployed to Chaughcharan, Afghanistan for four months as a lead on the Forward Air Refueling Point (FARP) in the central part of Afghanistan. Welsh was one of four Americans stationed there. The rest of the team members were from the Lithuanian Army and Denmark. Helicopters flew into the small base to be refueled for medical evacuation or the Quick Response Air Force Service.

Welsh volunteered to go on patrol with his Danish counterparts to the little villages in Afghanistan and communicate with the locals who they were and how they were helping their country. Welsh said in many cases, he was the only American they had ever met.

Welsh would be deployed five or six times more between 2006 and 2010. In 2010, he was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan for a one-year tour as a contracting officer representative (COR).

Contractors were hired by the United States to maintain the vehicles they purchased for the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army Corps. It was Welsh’s job to travel all over Afghanistan to the maintenance sites for the Afghan National Police and inspect the sites and make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. The responsibilities of the contractors were to maintain the vehicles.

Welsh was assigned to the Army in this deployment and before going to Kabul, he had to go to Fort Lewis, Washington for training in SERE - Survive - Evade - Resist and Escape. “They (the trainers) capture you, put you in a Conex container and they actually have Afghan and Iraqi people do this to you. - Those suckers are tough,” Welsh said. They had him on his knees with a bag over his head and his hands were tied behind his back. “It was very realistic,” Welsh said.

He then went through six weeks of combat life saver, much like a boot camp in Fort Dix, New Jersey. “We had to qualify on the [firing] range - it was basically combat training,” Welsh said.

As Welsh approved his deployment ending in Kabul, he put in his retirement papers in October of 2011. He returned to Colorado and retired on December 31, 2011.

When asked if he would do it again, he said “absolutely.”

Welsh in all, spent 26 years in the service and 20 years working in civil service.

He moved to Encampment six years ago to enjoy the peace and quiet of his retirement after discovering Encampment and Riverside and camping at the Lazy River Campground.

Welsh takes pride in leading the Woodchoppers’s in June and has manufactured a special flag holder in the back of his pickup truck, which displays the United States Flag, the Wyoming Flag, the Veterans of Foreign War flag and the Missing in Action Flag.