|
|
|
|
Tom Simmons
After graduating from WRHS in 1960, Tom worked for a time at the
printing shop that had been the old Warner Robins Press newspaper
owned by the Smith family and later went to work at the US Postal
Service for 3 ½ years. In
1966 he entered the law enforcement field with the Houston County
Sheriff’s Office, subsequently moving to the City Police Department
in Perry,
GA, thus beginning a 33 year career in law enforcement.
Tom entered the US Army in June 1967 in the Military Police
Corps and served in
Vietnam
from 1968 to 1970. He
became an Army Criminal Investigator serving in MO and
Germany
before completing a two year training program leading to assignment in
the US Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory where he served in Ft
Gordon, GA, Ft Gillem, GA, and Japan. In 1986 Tom and Arlene
were married in
Oakland,
CA. They have a blended
family of three boys and one girl, and a total of six grandsons. Tom
retired from the US Army in 1989 upon returning from
Japan
and moved to
Pensacola,
FL
to work with the Florida Dept of Law Enforcement Crime Laboratory
until early retirement in 1999. For
the next eight years Tom and Arlene lived in their Airstream travel
trailer traveling the east coast from FL to VT, with many trips out
west to Arizona, Utah, the Dakotas
and Arlene’s birthplace in Colorado. Tom’s
free time has been spent on many hobbies from art to flying, once
owning a 1942 Taylor Craft two-seater.
In more recent years they have enjoyed bowling, golf, touring
Japan
on motorcycles, sailing the
Florida
coast, and trout fishing. They
have been very active in the Wally Byam Caravan Club (an International
club of Airstream owners), Tom having served as President of the
Pensacola,
FL
Unit (1999) and Arlene as President of the Tennessee Unit (2008).
They can still be seen in campgrounds around the country in a
vintage 25-foot Airstream. They
currently live on the Cumberland Plateau in
Crossville,
TN
where Tom is pursuing a life long dream of learning to play guitar,
singing bluegrass/gospel/country music and life on the internet. Arlene and
Tom in Japan
-
1988
|
