Hoosier historians tell Grissom’s past, present Published May 16, 2016 By Staff Sgt. Katrina Heikkinen 434th ARW Public Affairs GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. -- Tasked with maintaining Grissom’s 70-year history, for two Grissom reservists, reading and analyzing consumes the majority of their unit training assembly. In solitude, they can spend hours filtering through hundreds of emails only to use a single sentence to use in a periodic analytical document.Filling in the shoes of a three-year vacant position, Tech. Sgt. Andrew Carr and Staff Sgt. Mike Ziadeh, are the new historians of the 434th Air Refueling Wing. Though both new to the career field, Carr and Ziadeh bring with them more than two decades of Air Force experience.“I came into this career field not knowing what it entailed, but now I know that what we really do is more analytical; we capture relevant statistics to present to our Reserve command so that leadership can make decisions and look at trends to see where we should go in the future,” Carr said. “We make a difference by giving meaningful data to our Air Force leaders.”Carr recently separated from active duty serving as a cyber surety technician. His civilian occupation, and, to an extent his new role as a historian, requires analytical skills – as a computer systems security analyst.“In the new digital format, at least for historians, we capture data and create bibliographies for additional research and analysis,” Carr said. “Base budgetary data, awards, derogatory data, sorties, promotions, command structures – all of that has to be included in our consolidated historical reports,” Carr said.According to Carr, the average annual historical periodical is 100 pages long and, after the final wing commander’s approval, is sent to the Air Force Reserve Command Historian at Robbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.Although the task of maintaining an ongoing repository may be a daunting position, Ziadeh said he looks forward to documenting, learning and spreading the lineage of the 434th ARW.“If we don’t capture data, then it’s lost,” Carr said. “No one will ever be able to go back and determine history unless it’s documented by hands-on eyes-on experience. Someone was there; someone lived that story, and that’s what we’re doing here. Through statistics and documentation, we’re capturing relevant data so Grissom’s history is never lost. Decision makers in the present and 50 years from now will be able to look back at our history and will always know where and who our lineage came from.”
