Matt Willoughby AFKN - 1976

I joined the Army in 1973 with a guaranteed enlistment for DINFOS. I tried to join before to go to Vietnam but my brother was a helicopter pilot over there then and they wouldn't let me go because of the sole surviving son rule. So when I could join they weren't sending anyone to Vietnam anymore. I grew up in the Panama Canal Zone watching SCN and decided to go into broadcasting since I had some radio experience in Arizona when my parents retired. I met my wife Kim at DINFOS and we got married. I was first assigned to SCN but when the Army learned we were married it assigned us to Korea. She was assigned to the Public Affairs Office and I to AFKN. I did radio and television news until 1976. But I convinced Bob Zix to let me do a half hour album rock show with him and others that was recorded and aired late nights. We each DJed our own show. Bob liked my show but the brass didn't like the format and it was canceled. After processing out of the Army in 1976 I went on to jobs in television and radio in Arizona, Washington, D.C..and North Carolina. I am now retired and recently got a job working part time at a Cabelas store in Garner North Carolina. Kim became a teacher and is now retired as well.

It would be interesting if anyone remembers this patch some of us made up.

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