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So Who are these people anyways???!!! Welcome to the Staff Page
Mike Gawell - Owner/"Base Commander"/All round self-proclaimed Aviation Enthusiast I guess I can speak in the first person here. I was born in Hampton VA., in 1963 a son of a United States Air Force Officer. (That would be Mr. Gawell). I am married, to Tanya and we have 2 sons, Duncan and Justin. After my father was stationed in various portions of North America, we settled in Brookings, South Dakota. I went to college on a full ride academic scholarship in Grand Forks, North Dakota at the University if North Dakota, and graduated with a B.A. in BS (Speech/Broadcasting) in 1985. I spent 4 years in the United States Army as an Officer. Three of those years were spent stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in the 1st Battalion 12th Field Artillery which at that time was a Lance Short-Range Tactical Nuclear Missile unit. I was fortunate to be able to "give the order" twice in live fire demonstrations. The first time was the first ever-live dual air-mobile fire mission conducted with the system. (Needless to say, I had a first rate platoon, and an even better Platoon Sergeant). My last year, due to an unexpected tragedy, I was posted to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver Colorado, and spent the time as the Public Relations Officer for the Directorate of Engineering and Housing. For the past 10 years I have been working with the General Services Administration Regional Office in Denver, Colorado and currently am a Real Estate Specialistand Federal Contracting Officer doing commercial real estate transactions for the Federal Government in six western states to include operations pertaining to the 2002 Winter Olympics. When not working, modeling, flying, or otherwise doing anything, I am involved with Boyscouts of America, Youth Soccer, am a director for Airpower West, a warbirds squadron, and Past Vice President of the Denver Metro/Rob Wolfe IPMS chapter. My interest in aviation definitively came from my father who always took us to see the local airplanes that were gate guards, or flying out of such places as Mather AFB, Sacramento, CA, Winnipeg, Canada, and I still remember my visit to Dayton, OH to Wright - Patterson AFB to the Museum of Museums, and walking through an actual B-17. My first model was a Hawk SBD-5 Dauntless, that my dad built for me in 1968, and I still have it. I started model building at an early age, and only put it down for a while to discover all the things young lads usually discover in the teenage years. About 5 years ago while going through a divorce, I picked up a Tamiya A6M2 zero kit that had been sitting in the closet for a number of years, and after outfitting with the airbrush I ALWAYS wanted…I started to build again. Since then 400 kits purchased later, and especially since joining the IPMS, I have improved to the point I really like the finished products. Now if I ever have enough time to finish all the kits…. There is nothing better than holding history in my hands. The web page. This was one of those ideas that sort of fell into my lap. As a frequenter of Dave Pluth's www.j-aircraft.com, I had watched with interest to his forming the idea for the site. I at the time was considering building a page for Airpower West. He then approached me at some point to take it over. It languished for about a year and a half until I had enough resources, and my wife had enough information to launch it. It is my intention that this is a place I would enjoy frequenting, and discussing a passion of my own with others of like mind. I am hoping it will become a clearing house for all aspects of United States military aviation, a place of academic research for both the professional and the newly interested, and a place that anyone can engage in some "free for all" analysis of all that aviation, and the world has to offer. I am only the humble collector of the information, it is you the user who we need to contribute the information, and stories, photos, and other stuff that history has completed. Contributions are what will make this a great web page. Other interests I have are political thought, discussion, music of all types, medieval and renaissance historical re-creation, computer aviation gaming, hockey, soccer, and of course, first and foremost my family who's love, devotion, and patience makes all this possible they are the ones who get dragged on all of "dad's" incessant trips to Colpar Hobbies, and the summer airship circuit. Enjoy your visit, come often, and stay for a while. Make yourself at home…I did! Mike
I was born in New Jersey, at Exit Number…… (just kidding), and a Lady never gives away her age… I am the MIS/CIO of R.M. White and Associates, a CBIZ owned company in Englewood, Colorado standing at the gates Of Centennial Airport. The largest civil airport in the world. I am co-partner, Budget Administrator, Computer Network engineer, and all round Girl Friday. After living in such diverse areas such as New Jersey, New York City, Mississippi, and Florida, I moved to Denver to find an environment that better suited me. I attended Penn State and graduated from Colorado Christian College in 2000 with BS in Computer Information Systems Management (3.79 GPA). I also hold the designation as a CNA and am working on my webmastership with this site. While web sites are fun to build, my heart lies with networking, server maintenance, hardware, software and peripherals. In the last 3 years as an intern, I have replaced routers, 3COM switches, hubs and a UPS. I also run CAT 5 cabling and solve end-user problems from “Why doesn’t my mouse work?” to “My computer won’t turn on!” As MIS, I support 23 PC users locally and another 22 in a satellite office in San Jose, California. Among my co-workers, I am commonly referred to as “IT!”. I am pursuing my A++ certification next and then on to complete the MSCE track. I also build Microsoft Access databases and know Visual Basic programming. If you like this site or have technical questions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. My interest in aviation comes from my Grandfather owning a light aircraft. I still enjoy the four legged variety of travel most however. I also enjoy playing and listening to music (I am a classically trained organist/pedagogy), Renaissance re-creation, researching my family history (Clan MacQuarrie) horseback riding, jumping out of perfectly good aircraft, white water rafting, hiking, playing with my kids, being a "soccer mom", and hanging out with my computers (Yes I speak geek fluently.) I have indicated to the "Base Commander" that if he ever gets another bright idea like this one, I am gonna cream him. (You all have NO idea of the honey do's this web site has cost Mike….:) Tanya (Lady T) Gawell
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