Veteran's Day Post about Jim:
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You probably knew Jim as the martial artist, coffee shop nomad, data scientist, machine learning engineer, guy dancing in the pit at punk shows, final fantasy nut, philosopher, smartest guy in the room (but never knew where his debit card was), Jim.
But did ya’ll know that Jim started his career (and in my opinion his adult life) in the US Air Force?
I feel like this is a lesser known Jim factoid. I always loved when it would come up in conversation with friends who had known us a long time. The look of pure shock on their face, the questions that followed. I would stand there laughing and confirming these facts to be true. Yes, Jim, this Jim, our Jim, was in the Air Force. And not only was he in the Air Force, he was kind of a total badass while he was there.
So I wanted to take a moment today, on Veteran’s Day, to share a bit about Jim’s military career. Because he never really talked about it, or bragged about it, even though he would have been well within his right to do so.
Jim joined the USAF in 2005. He was very intentional about joining the military. He didn’t want to just join any branch and get dumped in any position. He did his research, asked a lot of questions, and sought the advice of former Air Force and military members before he made the decision.
Of course, to no one's surprise, Jim tested off the charts on his entry tests. He went through basic training, and eventually got stationed at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. This was also the beginning of Jim’s long history and deep love of the state of Florida.
Jim joined the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) in the highly competitive 9S100 reporting identifier. During his time at the Center, Jim worked in the Atmospheric Verifications Branch of the Materials Technology Directorate supporting its global nuclear treaty monitoring mission. His job was as a “Nuclear Debris Collections and Analysis Technician.”
Jim was chosen to lead his team on a deployment to Okinawa, Japan in response to North Korea’s declared nuclear test. There, they discovered North Korea did indeed set off a nuclear test. At the time, we had no idea what he was doing. We just knew he was in Japan and loving it.
So, yes, Jim was just casually using data science to analyze atmospheric particles and save us all from nuclear war. Sounds very Jim Devine if you ask me.
Jim received many awards while in the Air Force. He was selected for the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency’s 2007 Airman of the Year. He also was awarded Annual Wing Airman of the quarter, and the Air Force Commendation Medal.
On the personal side, Jim made some very close friends in the AF. He lived off-base with Mike Turner, Alan Hifko, and their unofficial roommate the late Daniel “Row” Roberts. This is when Jim bought his signature green Jeep Wrangler, and became a regular at Cocoa Beach.
Those roommates would become Jim’s lifelong friends.
Hifko and Jim were on the same team in the Air Force and shared these accomplishments together. They were known as the doppelgangers with their striking resemblance to each other. He was one of Jim’s closest friends until the end, and someone the Devines consider family.
Row, a fellow punk kid from Titusville, Florida, was the person who introduced Jim and I to “Against Me!” and told us about the Fest in Gainesville. Row, Jim, and I were 3 peas in a pod. Row passed away in 2021, and I like to think Row was probably one of the first people Jim got to see on the other side. It’s hard for me to come to terms with them both being gone now.
From our family’s perspective, we didn’t see any of the seriousness that was happening in Jim’s Air Force work life because, well, that shit was classified at the time. But we were so proud of him, and made several visits to see him graduate basic training, to his house in Melbourne, and various other times when he was active military. One year, Jim and my dad ran the Air Force Marathon together. We still joke to this day about the sheer amount of ice cream Jim ate after he got out of basic training after being deprived of it for 6 weeks.
One time, Matt, Amanda, and a bunch of my friends from PGH flew down and spent a week at Jim’s house. This is when I started to love Florida, too. I couldn’t believe there were photos from this trip, but I am so glad they exist. This was before every cell phone had a camera. We had a blast just simply hanging out together. We would drink every night, and the guys would have to get up super early and report for work. Rinse and repeat. They never missed a day.
As Hifko put it, “Looking back the contrast between the seriousness of the work we did compared to the social lives we lived is hilarious.”
Jim had shared a story with me recently about him and Row. Here it is in his own words from the text he sent me:
“I won a 600 dollar bet with Row one time over if our rental Hummer was red or blue. He was berating me at the shop in front of everyone because how could I be so stupid to not even know what color the hummer was.
He was so confident that I was actually uncertain for a bit, but then bet him some crazy amount like 600 bucks.
He instantly accepted, which was even scarier.
So we are all going to lunch, everyone is in on this bet, following us to the parking lot to see what color this thing is. He was so sure it was red and I was an idiot thinking it was blue.
Anyhow we get to the lot, it's blue.
He just looks at the car and says "I'll be damned, it's blue"
He totally followed through on the bet. We ended up saying instead of 600 bucks, he could just buy me lunch everyday for a year or something silly. And he sure as heck did it too”
Eventually, Jim started taking college classes and transferred to the University of Florida, and thus the Gainesville chapter of our lives began. He was in the military for 4 years active, 2 years inactive. I remember on the very last day of his official service, he was so excited to close that chapter and not have the government have any further say in what he did. He was always grateful (and so were we) for how the USAF got him out of Johnstown, taught him to be an adult (kinda), and got him started on his life and career.
When Jim was a little kid and people would ask “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Jim would say “a nuclear physicist.” I think it’s pretty dope that he basically got his dream job at such a young age.
I always admired how Jim never lost his sense of self while in the military. He always had his wit and sense of humor and maintained who he was. I think this story Hifko shared basically sums it up:
“For an entire trip to Japan, Jim was responsible for writing a daily summary which he did every day in the form of a haiku”
That was Jim!
Jim Devine
We miss you every second of every day, Brother.
(PS - TY to my cousin Amber and her daughter Andrea for prompting me with Qs about Jim’s service for a Veteran’s day school report, and inspiring me to write all of this out)
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