U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Wilchenski has been all over the world but now he and his family call Gilbert home. In this interview with Chronicle Editor Emeritus Jerry Bellune, he shares his story.

Q. Where did you grow up and who influenced your thinking?

A. I grew up in Sodus Point, NY, a small resort town on Lake Ontario. I grew up on a fishing boat catching trout and salmon in the summer and worked at a ski slope in the winter.

Q. Who influenced you?

A. My parents took my brother and me every place, walking miles into the Adirondack Mountains to camp, going to the world cup in Lake Placid or rushing to baseball practice after my parents got off work. We were always together as a family. That has helped me become that type of parent where I try to be involved in every aspect of my kids growing up. This hasn’t always been easy because I’ve been gone so much.

Q. Why did you choose a military career?

A. I have always been fascinated by traveling the world. Every military vet had the same story. They wished they had stayed in 20 years because they would have had their medical taken care of and they could have started a second career after 20 years.

They would always say how good the Air Force was for standards of living.

I came off the boat one day and decided it was time for me to join the military.

I talked to recruiters. The Air Force was my last stop. I told him I was thinking of joining and he told me with a straight face, “If you are not serious about joining, don’t waste my time because I don’t need you.”

I was shocked. If the recruiter was acting like this, the Air Force had to be great, so I enlisted. I asked the recruiter if there were any jobs where I could jump out of air planes, kick doors down and chase bad guys. He told me the Air Force didn’t have any jobs like that, so I signed up to be in security police.

Within the first week of basic, we were briefed by three guys in berets. They showed videos of all the stuff I wanted to do and asked for volunteers. Of course I raised my hand.

Q. Where did this take you and what 3 important lessons you learn?

A. I’ve traveled to 30 countries and 49 of the 50 states. The one state I’m missing? North Dakota.

Even though I was Air Force, most of my duty assignments were army posts. This might sound crazy but it was a great life. I didn’t have to follow the army regulations so we had more freedom than most.

My favorite duty assignments were Germany and Fort Lewis, WA. What changed my career was 9/11. As a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), I was the tip of the spear for the Air Force and most military units. A JTAC provides close air support for any and all ground forces. So, when you hear of bombs taking out enemy positions, a JTAC gave final clearance.

Every one knows where they were during 9/11. I was at Airborne School. That morning the class watched “Band of Brothers” and got ready for our first combat training jump.

Rumors spread fast about the attack. Our class finished the last three jumps and went back to our units wondering what was next.

My unit soon deployed with the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, KY. Our destination was Russia to allow us direct insertion into Afghanistan.

The majority of my work was in Eastern Afghanistan. We played a big part in defeating the Taliban and hunting Al-Qaeda in the mountains.

I received my first Bronze Star with Valor. Our team had been ambushed by over 100 enemy forces in the middle of the night.

Thankfully we survived. One guy was shot in the shoulder and lived to talk about it. The battle lasted almost 3 hours, and I didn’t sleep the rest of the night.

I was in Iraq in 2003 looking for scuds, again in 2007 with a Stryker Unit to clear the Green Zone and Baghdad and back to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2012.

Q. How did you decide on an after-military career?

After I retired, I wanted a fast paced job where I could use my Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate and my BA in Business. I was picked as a crew leader for a major plant start-up for Bridges-tone in Aiken.

Then my father was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer with no benefits as a small business owner. I left the corporate world to sell group benefits to small businesses. I sold supplemental benefits for two years before I became a Carolina Asset Management broker. This gives me the ability to really fill the needs of my customers.

Q. What about your family?

A. I’m married to my beautiful wife Kamala, a Lexington Medical Center nurse. We have two awesome daughters, Ariana a junior at USC in pre-med and Kira, a freshman at Lexington High. We live in Gilbert and love it.