LT. Melissa McCrea
U.S. Air Force – Information System Officer
7th Communications Group
U.S. Pentagon – Washington, DC
October 1986 – October 1990
U.S. Air Force – Information System Officer
7th Communications Group
U.S. Pentagon – Washington, DC
October 1986 – October 1990
Melissa McCrea was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1964. Her dad was in the Navy ROTC during college, served his time in the Navy and joined the reserves after his commitment was up. Melissa’s mom and dad met while working for Proctor and Gamble. Her dad landed a job with Xerox, and the job required the family to frequently move within the U.S. This meant the Navy had to find a reserve unit for her dad to join each time they moved; She remembers living “near Rochester, near Chicago and back to the Rochester area”. “I didn’t really consider myself a military child, but dad would be in his uniform and go off and do his thing and I knew a little bit about it”.
Melissa and her older brother moved back to Rochester, New York area just before Melissa’s freshman year in high school. She graduated in 1982 from Pittsford Mendon High School in Pittsford, NY. It was always in the back of Melissa’s mind that she would join the ROTC in college and follow her father’s example. She applied for both an Air Force and Navy ROTC scholarship and received both. Her father advised her to take the Air Force Scholarship because he felt the facilities were nicer and they were more likely to be accepting of women at a time when few women were in the military and even fewer had careers outside of nursing.
Melissa was accepted at Duke University “and the Air Force said I could major in math or computer science”. Melissa majored in computer science and doubled majored economics. Each semester she would have one military class and one day a week she would wear her uniform around campus. On those days they would practice marching or have a physical fitness session. Melissa was very surprised to find half of the ROTC students were women. The Colonel who headed the ROTC program later admitted to the class that he was really concerned with the number of women in the class. He also later told them, ‘it turns out you were the most cohesive group I have ever had’.
Between her sophomore and junior year at Duke, Melissa headed for four weeks of “camp” at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. “You wake up at five in the morning and run a couple of miles, do jumping jack and all that and then you march all over the place”. There was plenty of Physical Training (PT) and mastering the obstacle course proved to be difficult. “I remember mostly that at the end of the obstacle course they threw you a rope and you’re supposed to swing across this pit of mud, and I couldn’t for the life of me catch the rope. I ended up in the pit three or four times.
The drill instructors made sure Melissa had the full military experience with a complement of in-your-face strategies to break down the recruits. They had a two-day survival training where they were left “in the bush” and had one MRE and water to last them two days. “We also got to fly planes. I didn’t take off or land, but I got to fly once we were up…and I did barrel rolls”. Melissa learned a lot about the military in that short time.
In 1986 Melissa graduated from Duke and was commissioned by her dad as a 2nd Lieutenant at graduation. She didn’t receive her active-duty orders immediately and had the summer to herself. Her parents had moved to California, and a friend helped her find a job at Disneyland. She spent the summer in the Magic Kingdom. During the summer Melissa received her orders advising her she was being assigned to the 7th Communications Group, and she would be attending Advance Individual Training (AIT) in Biloxi Mississippi. Her AIT would be Communications Computer Systems School at Keesler Air Force Base. “I didn’t know exactly what I would be doing” at the Pentagon.
Communications Officers can be assigned a wide variety of duties and In AIT “we learned a little bit of everything”. Melissa learned about radar and the basics of setting up air traffic control in the desert. She also learned some aspects of computer science she had not been exposed to in college. “It was pretty interesting”.
Class was from six in the morning until one in the afternoon and then the recruits had free time. Melissa used her free time to take business classes at the University of Southern Mississippi. There were other students from the Air Force in the class, and she found they were also headed for the Pentagon.
When Melissa arrived for her job at the Pentagon, she found she was on her own to find housing - there was no housing for her at area Air Force bases. She wore a uniform, but it felt more like a civilian job than a job in the military. At the Pentagon her organization provided the technical computer communications support for the Air Force personnel in the Pentagon. Because the Air Force systems were the most technologically advanced, her organization also provided the communications for the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Melissa recalled a big room similar to the room depicted in the movie War Games where they showed the various stages of DEFCON.
Melissa eventually found herself in the department managing equipment acquisitions and preparing budgets. She did long term planning for the acquisition of equipment including servers and computers. It was her responsibility to present the annual budget to “to a bunch of generals”. Melissa liked her job but as a taxpayer she was appalled. “At the end of the fiscal year if we had any money that we didn’t spend, we would lose it”. Just before the fiscal year end Melissa would call around to see who might have a need that could use up any surplus.
As Melissa approached the end of her required time in the Air Force, she learned she would be eligible for promotion to Captain. However, that would have required an additional year in the Air Force. At the time Melissa was dating her future husband who had just completed his masters in play writing. He needed to be near New York city and Melissa was ready for a change. In October of 1990 Melissa was discharged, became part of the Inactive Reserve and moved to Westchester County in New York.
Little did Melissa know, that 11 years later at 9:37am on a beautiful September morning, terrorists would fly American Airlines Flight 77 into the western side of the Pentagon and kill her former boss.
Melissa landed a job with a market research firm in Westchester County in New York and worked there for three years. Her next move was to an insurance company in Norwalk, CT not far from their new home in Stamford, CT. In 1997 Melissa took a position in the Legal Technology Department at a large law firm in Stamford. Melissa describes Legal Technology as documents and records management through computer systems, along with systems design, systems communications and procurement. “I’ve been in Legal Technology ever since. It’s been a huge change in the ways things operate because there is less and less paper…technology-wise we’ve had to support that change”. “My husband laughs at me when I start taking about it because I get all jazzed up. That’s a good thing”.
Melissa moved into legal technology consulting for several years specializing in systems communications. She enjoyed herself but she really wanted to work with one company. In 2021 she joined Robinson & Cole in Stamford, CT.
“I’m really happy that I did ROTC. It was a great experience and I’m proud of that. I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t in combat, but you know, someone needed to make sure the Pentagon DEFCON sign was working and that was me”. “It’s the people. I met some really fabulous people. The military does a really good job of getting people to work together”.
Melissa, we all thank you for being part of the 90% of veterans who toil behind the scenes to keep the other 10% down range facing the enemy. If you extended your tour and was stilling working in the Pentagon 11 years later, we wouldn’t be telling this story.
Melissa and her older brother moved back to Rochester, New York area just before Melissa’s freshman year in high school. She graduated in 1982 from Pittsford Mendon High School in Pittsford, NY. It was always in the back of Melissa’s mind that she would join the ROTC in college and follow her father’s example. She applied for both an Air Force and Navy ROTC scholarship and received both. Her father advised her to take the Air Force Scholarship because he felt the facilities were nicer and they were more likely to be accepting of women at a time when few women were in the military and even fewer had careers outside of nursing.
Melissa was accepted at Duke University “and the Air Force said I could major in math or computer science”. Melissa majored in computer science and doubled majored economics. Each semester she would have one military class and one day a week she would wear her uniform around campus. On those days they would practice marching or have a physical fitness session. Melissa was very surprised to find half of the ROTC students were women. The Colonel who headed the ROTC program later admitted to the class that he was really concerned with the number of women in the class. He also later told them, ‘it turns out you were the most cohesive group I have ever had’.
Between her sophomore and junior year at Duke, Melissa headed for four weeks of “camp” at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. “You wake up at five in the morning and run a couple of miles, do jumping jack and all that and then you march all over the place”. There was plenty of Physical Training (PT) and mastering the obstacle course proved to be difficult. “I remember mostly that at the end of the obstacle course they threw you a rope and you’re supposed to swing across this pit of mud, and I couldn’t for the life of me catch the rope. I ended up in the pit three or four times.
The drill instructors made sure Melissa had the full military experience with a complement of in-your-face strategies to break down the recruits. They had a two-day survival training where they were left “in the bush” and had one MRE and water to last them two days. “We also got to fly planes. I didn’t take off or land, but I got to fly once we were up…and I did barrel rolls”. Melissa learned a lot about the military in that short time.
In 1986 Melissa graduated from Duke and was commissioned by her dad as a 2nd Lieutenant at graduation. She didn’t receive her active-duty orders immediately and had the summer to herself. Her parents had moved to California, and a friend helped her find a job at Disneyland. She spent the summer in the Magic Kingdom. During the summer Melissa received her orders advising her she was being assigned to the 7th Communications Group, and she would be attending Advance Individual Training (AIT) in Biloxi Mississippi. Her AIT would be Communications Computer Systems School at Keesler Air Force Base. “I didn’t know exactly what I would be doing” at the Pentagon.
Communications Officers can be assigned a wide variety of duties and In AIT “we learned a little bit of everything”. Melissa learned about radar and the basics of setting up air traffic control in the desert. She also learned some aspects of computer science she had not been exposed to in college. “It was pretty interesting”.
Class was from six in the morning until one in the afternoon and then the recruits had free time. Melissa used her free time to take business classes at the University of Southern Mississippi. There were other students from the Air Force in the class, and she found they were also headed for the Pentagon.
When Melissa arrived for her job at the Pentagon, she found she was on her own to find housing - there was no housing for her at area Air Force bases. She wore a uniform, but it felt more like a civilian job than a job in the military. At the Pentagon her organization provided the technical computer communications support for the Air Force personnel in the Pentagon. Because the Air Force systems were the most technologically advanced, her organization also provided the communications for the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Melissa recalled a big room similar to the room depicted in the movie War Games where they showed the various stages of DEFCON.
Melissa eventually found herself in the department managing equipment acquisitions and preparing budgets. She did long term planning for the acquisition of equipment including servers and computers. It was her responsibility to present the annual budget to “to a bunch of generals”. Melissa liked her job but as a taxpayer she was appalled. “At the end of the fiscal year if we had any money that we didn’t spend, we would lose it”. Just before the fiscal year end Melissa would call around to see who might have a need that could use up any surplus.
As Melissa approached the end of her required time in the Air Force, she learned she would be eligible for promotion to Captain. However, that would have required an additional year in the Air Force. At the time Melissa was dating her future husband who had just completed his masters in play writing. He needed to be near New York city and Melissa was ready for a change. In October of 1990 Melissa was discharged, became part of the Inactive Reserve and moved to Westchester County in New York.
Little did Melissa know, that 11 years later at 9:37am on a beautiful September morning, terrorists would fly American Airlines Flight 77 into the western side of the Pentagon and kill her former boss.
Melissa landed a job with a market research firm in Westchester County in New York and worked there for three years. Her next move was to an insurance company in Norwalk, CT not far from their new home in Stamford, CT. In 1997 Melissa took a position in the Legal Technology Department at a large law firm in Stamford. Melissa describes Legal Technology as documents and records management through computer systems, along with systems design, systems communications and procurement. “I’ve been in Legal Technology ever since. It’s been a huge change in the ways things operate because there is less and less paper…technology-wise we’ve had to support that change”. “My husband laughs at me when I start taking about it because I get all jazzed up. That’s a good thing”.
Melissa moved into legal technology consulting for several years specializing in systems communications. She enjoyed herself but she really wanted to work with one company. In 2021 she joined Robinson & Cole in Stamford, CT.
“I’m really happy that I did ROTC. It was a great experience and I’m proud of that. I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t in combat, but you know, someone needed to make sure the Pentagon DEFCON sign was working and that was me”. “It’s the people. I met some really fabulous people. The military does a really good job of getting people to work together”.
Melissa, we all thank you for being part of the 90% of veterans who toil behind the scenes to keep the other 10% down range facing the enemy. If you extended your tour and was stilling working in the Pentagon 11 years later, we wouldn’t be telling this story.