By Kristin Davis

Col. Thomas Waddell, USAF (Ret), never considered any career other than the military. Growing up in the early decades following World War II, he watched movies that celebrated brotherhood, sacrifice, and duty before self.

When Waddell was a high school sophomore, his older brother’s friend came home on leave on his way to Vietnam, where he would fly F-100s.

“That’s when I decided I wanted to be an Air Force guy,” he said.

Waddell earned his commission through Air Force ROTC at Montana State University in 1974, but active duty would have to wait another year due to the drawdown in Vietnam. The career that followed was everything he had hoped for — and then some.

He became a KC-135 navigator during the nation’s bicentennial. Sixteen years later, he flew the first reconnaissance mission in Desert Storm and returned to Saudi Arabia multiple times between 1991 and 1992. Toward the end of the decade, he began to think about retirement, and that’s when he joined MOAA — then known as The Retired Officers Association.

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A year after his 2000 retirement, Waddell went back to work for the Air Force, this time with the Office of the Inspector General, before retiring a final time in 2014.

But his service never stopped. In 2016, he became involved in the Grand Canyon (Ariz.) Chapter of MOAA, where he now serves as both president and legislative liaison. He has also served three years as legislative chair for the Arizona Council of Chapters. His approach to advocacy and grassroots organizing has earned him national recognition. He recently was named the 2025 council-level recipient of the Col. Steve Strobridge Legislative Chair/Liaison Award.

“Once I started getting involved at the chapter level and helping veterans in the local area … I really began to understand that MOAA’s primary mission is protecting the earned benefits of all those who served in uniform,” Waddell said.

The work also felt personal. The MOAA-backed PACT Act — which expanded VA health care and disability benefits to millions of veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxins — “was close to my heart,” Waddell said. “In Desert Storm, I was exposed to burn pits. At 57, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was fairly early onset. In addition to helping other veterans, it was helping me, too.”

“As more legislative issues came up, I saw how important grassroots advocacy was,” he said. “I’ve tried to energize membership not only in the Grand Canyon Chapter but legislative liaisons in other chapters by providing them with materials they could easily distribute to encourage action at both the federal and state levels.”

The work keeps him busy. “My wife thinks I have a full-time job,” he joked.

It has also provided something he missed after leaving active duty: the sense of camaraderie and shared purpose that defined his years in uniform — the same sense of mission that first drew him to military service as a child watching World War II movies.

“It brings back that sense of camaraderie and mission focus that dissipates once you leave the service,” he said. “I just enjoy being around the people. We have a great group of retired veterans, both men and women, up here in Flagstaff and across the state. I’ve met dozens of MOAA members, and I’m really inspired by the folks at MOAA national. The entire staff is motivated by protecting the benefits of those who served.”

Kristin Davis is a writer in Virginia.