As the Memorial Day weekend approaches, my friends at Y-Country Radio are wrapping up a month-long tour of American Legion Posts VFW Halls and other veteran’s centers as part of their “May We Say Thank You” campaign. Radio Show Hosts Matt Malone,Lindsay Kay and Brad Allen have been visiting a host of sites thanks to the sponsorship of Boss Heating & Air and other supportive businesses in the region.
At Boss Heating & Air of Coloma co-owner Jerry Street has welcomed into the fold a great American veteran who is near and dear to him in the form of his brother Jeff Street, who recently retired from 20 years in the United States Marine Corps. Jeff is the new Business Manager at Boss and to say his own career in the U.S. military has been an adventure would be a classic understatement.
He has been an artillery mechanic, a combat veteran, a war time aircraft recovery expert, worked with the United States Secret Service including at the White House, and a whole lot more.
It all started 20 years ago when Jeff graduated from Dowagiac High School in 1997. That summer he enlisted in the Marine Corps and headed off to boot camp, training and various assignments that took him to Hawaii for three years, a year in Florida, three more in North Carolina, another four in Hawaii and his final eight years on Okinawa in Japan.
While those were his bases of operations, Jeff was also dispatched multiple times across the globe including deployments to Iraq in 2003 for the liberation of that nation, Aghanistan a year later and back to Iraq in 2007. His entire body of work in the Middle East was disarming bombs. He says he could tell us “a million stories, but most would not be appropriate” for this piece on Moody on the Market.
Jeff launched his military career as an artillery mechanic, but after three years changed jobs to Explosive Ordnance Disposal – essentially the military’s bomb squad.
Jeff notes that he has great pride in his combat tours, but he is even prouder of other things he accomplished in uniform including his work with a unit called the Defense POW/MIA Personnel Accounting Command, or DPPA, to recover the remains of U.S. service members that never returned home from previous wars.
Jeff went with the DPPA to Germany and excavated two U.S. WWII plane crash sites where aircraft had been shot down during combat operations and the pilots and crew were listed as missing in action. His team successfully recovered part of the remains of the pilot from the first site and those of the crew from a second site.
He later traveled to Laos to excavate a U.S. plane crash site from a downed aircraft in the Vietnam War. Those pilots and crew had been listed as missing in action, but Jeff’s crew successfully recovered their remains and personal effects from that site.
Having met the daughter of the pilot recovered from the crash site in Germany, Jeff was invited to his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery and tells me, “It is an amazing honor to have had the opportunity to bring U.S. service members home after years of being listed as missing in action and provide closure to their family.” He adds, poignantly, “It always made me feel good knowing that if I was ever missing in action, someone would come find me someday.”
Equally rewarding was Jeff’s work with the U.S. Secret Service, which has no bomb squad of its own so they tap the military for assistance when needed. He has worked on protective detail for five U.S. Presidents and their families as well as numerous foreign heads of state and other dignitaries.
As a result of that connection to the Secret Service, Jeff had the chance to work at the White House for a month as one of their bomb squad teams. In fact, while there he says, “I responded to a suspicious bag that was thrown over the fence onto the White House North Lawn.” He points out, “Luckily, it was not a bomb. It turned out to be a dead squirrel.”
Jeff Street’s “last hoorah” in the Marine Corps was during President Trump’s Inauguration. He says, “I went to D.C. for a week and worked out of the Blair House during the Inauguration festivities.” That’s where the President-Elect and his family stayed prior to moving to the White House following the ceremonies.
Jeff retired earlier this month at the rank of Master Sergeant, and says, “As much as I enjoyed traveling the world and fighting wars, I am glad to be home.” He tells me, “I missed a lot of family time over the years, and I am looking forward to sitting at my desk and running an office.”
I can assure you that Jeff’s brother Jerry and the entire team at Boss Heating & Air shares the feeling that they are proud and happy to have him home and on the team, too. He actually started his work part time in helping with the HVAC contractor’s online presence from afar, working from his home in Okinawa until moving back permanently this month.
Welcome home, Master Sergeant Street, and on behalf of a grateful nation, May We Say Thank You for your service to our nation and its people.
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