File Name: 		Roger Blevins.mp4
Transcriptionist: 	Colin Morgan, 2022 January
Interviewee: 		Roger Blevins
Interviewer: 		Dave Gattis
Location: 		San Antonio, Texas, United States
Date: 			2015 March 10
Duration: 		27:50

Speaker Identification:
Dave Gattis:		DG
Roger Blevins:	RB

TRANSCRIPT BEGIN

[00:02] DG: Well, this is Dave Gattis and today is March 10th, 2015. Today we're interviewing Roger Blevins here in San Antonio, so, welcome Roger.

[00:11] RB: Thank you, pleased to be here.

[00:13] DG: Why don't we start at the very beginning and tell us when and where you were born.

[00:17] RB: Where I was born? I was born in Harlan, Kentucky, but I, really my adopted state is Florida, where I grew up starting in the early '50s.

[00:27] DG: Okay, and what were your parents doing that you were going from Kentucky?

[00:32] RB: Coming out of World War II and trying to find a place to start a new life.

[00:38] DG: Okay, so what did your father do in in Florida?

[00:42] RB: Oh, my dad was a blue-collar worker, my mom was a blue-collar person, I grew up in a blue-collar family, and actually was one of the first ones in my family to graduate from college.

[00:54] DG: Okay, and you stayed in Florida throughout your [childhood]?

[00:57] RB: I stayed in Florida up until, you know, we had something called 'a draft' in the 60s. In 1966, I went into the military and served my four years of enlisted time, came out in 1970.

[01:10] DG: Okay, which branch of the service?

[01:12] RB: My first branch of service was the United States Air Force.

[01:15] DG: Okay, and where were you posted during those four years?

[01:18] RB: I was a radar technician, and I was stationed originally at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for my basic training and Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi for my technical training.

[01:29] DG: Okay.

[01:30] RB: Then my first assignment was Patrick Air Force Base with Detachment 15 Eastern Air Rescue and Recovery Center, where we actually launched recovery for the space launch out of Cape Canaveral.

[01:43] DG: Okay, and the reason we had a draft is because we had,

[01:47] RB: We had a war in Vietnam and then I went from Patrick Air Force Base to Clark Air Base in the Philippines until I completed my four-year enlistment and then came home.
[01:57] DG: Okay, and what did you do when you came home?

[01:59] RB: I went to college.

[02:00] DG: Okay, and where did you go to college?

[02:02] RB: I started out with St. Petersburg College, an aviation program.

[02:07] DG: Okay, and is that what you finished up at?

[02:10] RB: I did actually, I completed a two-year program, got my commercial pilot's license, my instrument rating, and my multi-engine rating, and I actually did that for a little bit, flew skydivers, flew used airplanes to buyers, and then decided I needed to go back to college.

[02:31] DG: Okay, and then, so where did you go back?

[02:33] RB: I went to Florida State University, originally undergraduate work in meteorology, then geology and then completed my undergraduate degree in 1974, when I was going to go back into active duty as a navigator in the Air Force and I was waiting for my assignment to go back to O.T.S. Of course, everything with the pipeline was reversed at that time, and the Air Force no longer needed navigators. In the interim, I was offered a job as an entry-level planner, a coastal zone management planner at Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, which had just been spun up, and went to work for Rowan Eastwood and Wayne Daltrey.

[03:14] DG: Okay, now you said you went from meteorology to geology, what was your degree finally in?

[03:20] RB: Undergraduate degree, and actually to finish up quickly, in December of 1974, I transferred over to geography.

[03:27] DG: Geography, okay. And what got you interested in geography? because-

[03:31] RB: Actually, my interest was completing my degree in December of 1974. That was my interest, but I was actually on a track to go into geology and probably would have wound up working with some oil companies someplace or going back into the Air Force with a degree in geology.

[03:48] DG: Okay, so tell me about the work you did at the Water District.

[03:51] RB: Not the Water District, Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council. So actually, that's where I learned what land use planning was, what urban planning was, and regional planning, and became very interested. An opportunity came up to go back to Florida State under graduate assistance. That was funded by the National Science Foundation and went back in 1976, '77 timeframe and did a graduate degree in planning at Florida State University.

[04:21] DG: Okay, do you remember any professors that stood out in your mind?

[04:26] RB: Dr. Edward Fernald stands out in my mind. There's some others, but no, I don't remember all their names.

[04:33] DG: Any classmates that you stayed in touch with?

[04:37] RB: Yeah, Charlie Gottier, and there's a few others. Charlie went on to Division of State Planning.

[04:45] DG: Okay, in Florida?

[04:46] RB: In Florida, yeah.

[04:47] DG: So, you're [a] newly admitted graduate, where'd you go from there?

[04:51] RB: I got picked up by the U.S. Navy in a federal position, they were seriously recruiting at the time. It was an unpredictable opportunity; I didn't know much about it. I went to work for the U.S. Navy, actually went in as a computer specialist working in geospatial information. At that time, that was not a commercial activity, it was more military, and a lot of it was behind closed doors, but it introduced me to a budding field which we now call G.I.S. But at that time, we didn't even call it that.

[05:30] DG: Okay, and how long did you stay in that position?

[05:33] RB: I stayed in that job about one year and then a community planner position up with the Department of Interior in Los Angeles, California. And that was doing the offshore oil leases, outer continental shelf in California, Washington, and Oregon.

[05:53] DG: Okay, and where from there?

[05:56] RB: I went from there to Housing and Urban Development, the Jacksonville area office where I served originally as a community planning development representative handling C.D.B.G. grants, remnants of the 701 program, and then later moved over to the single community planning position for the state of Florida out of U.S. H.U.D. and that was a great job. Actually, the interior job was really interesting in working the impacts of the offshore oil leasing with the communities along the coastal fringes, and then the U.S. H.U.D. job was really rewarding in that you dealt directly with communities that were receiving block grants and subsidy grants that helped them with utilities, utility projects and other city improvements.

[06:48] DG: Any specific projects stand out from that, those times?

[06:51] RB: Oh gee, I guess probably the Liberty City situation, after the riots in Liberty City, that stands out in my mind. I did a lot of work in the North Florida region, there was just a number of those.

[07:07] DG: Okay, and then where from there?

[07:12] RB: There was a change of executive office at the presidential level, and Jimmy Carter had lost the election to Ronald Reagan and U.S. H.U.D. took a major cut. One of Reagan's platforms was a 50% reduction in H.U.D., and we only had 3,000 employees nationwide. So, I got picked up by the U.S. Air Force in Omaha, Nebraska. and that brought me back into the military arena.

[07:38] DG: In active duty?

[07:39] RB: No, that was a civilian job, the U.S. government has professional community planning positions and H.U.D. is one place that you can find those jobs, but there's a handful with the Department of Defense and the Air Force had about, at that time, had about 150 positions nationwide that were community planners.

[08:03] DG: And as a community planner in the Air Force, what, specifically, were you doing?

[08:07] RB: You know, that's very interesting, it's very similar to what one would do with a municipality. You have areas that are restricted use, you have areas which are open for growth, you have office activities, office development, you have industrial development with the flight line and related facilities for aircraft maintenance, you have to deal with a lot of restrictive uses which would be explosive impacted, or aircraft safety impacted, so it was actually very similar
to what I've been doing in southwest Florida and the other agencies.

[08:48] DG: So, essentially, an installation is just like a community.

[08:51] RB: The installation is a community, for the most part, yeah.

[08:54] DG: Okay, you just don't always have public involvement like you would-

[08:59] RB: Well, the public involvement in our case was we had some programs that required us to interact directly with our neighboring cities and municipalities and counties. So, I was a command community planner, so I had responsibility for installations throughout the United States. In Kansas, and Utah, Georgia, and Texas.

[09:27] DG: Okay, and you said it was a S.A.C. command?

[09:30] RB: Yes, Strategic Air Command, right.

[09:33] DG: Okay, and they no longer exist, right?

[09:36] RB: Actually, they've been reformulated now it's Air Force Global Strike Command and it's based out at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana now.

[09:45] DG: Okay, so-

[09:46] RB: It's not the same as the old strategic air command though.

[09:49] DG: Right, right. So, I may not have told you this, but my wife's father was in S.A.C., and so she grew up in [unintelligible].

[09:55] RB: There you go! "Peace is our profession."

[09:58] DG: She grew up in Bellevue, Nebraska as a matter of fact.

[10:00] RB: Bellevue is right off an Air Force Base where I was at.

[10:05] DG: So, after Offet where did you go?

[10:07] RB: Next assignment was a promotion to Air Force Material Command.

[10:12] DG: Okay.

[10:13] RB: And that is more like working for General Motors than it is working for the Air Force. They had several overhaul facilities that are called depots. And those overhaul facilities would take airplanes apart and put them back together and some of the installations worked on things like black boxes, like radar systems and radios and they would take those apart and put them back together and repair them and re-assemble all those components back into a single aircraft. And so, those were in a lot of industrial lines, a lot of industrial chemicals. And having a fairly significant impact on the local community and some of those were very large bases. They would employ anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people and have a significant impact on the local community. But they also still had flying missions, and other operational missions very similar to Strategic Air Command or Air Combat Command.

[11:12] DG: And so, is your responsibility looking at planning and the actual installation activities or working with the local community?

[11:18] RB: Both. Yeah, [our] primary responsibility was to do planning, site planning for industrial facilities in the local area. I mean, on the installation and also to work with the off-base community where there might be some impacts.

[11:34] DG: Any of those facilities and material that stand out?

[11:40] RB: Any of those facilities stand out? Tinker Air Force Base. Well, Tinker Air Force Base stands out, that was a fairly significant location. Kelly Air Force Base, I spent a lot of time down at Kelly working with the off-base community.

[11:56] DG: I've noticed a couple times, you've been here in San Antonio prior to you ultimately coming here.

[12:01] RB: Oh yeah, I probably spent, I spent a great deal of time in San Antonio before moving down here. Spent a great deal of time in Salt Lake City, at Hill Air Force Base. And dealing with off base issues as well as on-base issues.

[12:18] DG: Okay, so after working at Materiel, where did you go?

[12:22] RB: I got a big promotion and came down to San Antonio at the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, which was actually, we were the Air Force Design Group, which was a subset of the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence

[12:37] DG: Okay.

[12:38] RB: Center for Environmental Excellence was set up originally to be a base realignment and closure unit. Our job was a small group of senior level staff that were transferred down from the Pentagon. So, our responsibility was Air Force-wide and my job [taught?] it was Program Manager, Air Force Comprehensive Planning. So, I oversaw, might say all of the Air Force planning that was undergoing at the installations and major commands throughout the United States and the world.

[13:07] DG: Okay, and how long were you in that position?

[13:09] RB: I was in that I was in that job from 1992 to 2005, when I retired from federal service.

[13:17] DG: Okay, any particular projects stand out, that you're really proud of?

[13:20] RB: Well, the Air Force Comprehensive Planning Program was ongoing at the time and very successful and there was a move to provide a more executive version and one that looks very close like and modeled after, most municipalities have a general plan and approved comprehensive plan. So, we came up with a succinct abbreviated version of our comprehensive plans that we did at all of our installations, which were very intense multi-volume documents at that time, hard copy, and migrated them to a succinct, abbreviated executive version which was approved by the leadership of the Structured Command and Air Staff and became the guiding document for future development of the installations.

[14:05] DG: Any other staff members at the Environmental Center that stand out?

[14:10] RB: Well, “stand out,” I worked very closely with Bill Myers, who was in the [Brack?] unit. I was the single community planner, but there was a number of other people that I work with, that were in other professions, other parts of the house.

[14:25] DG: Okay, well we've talked a lot about your planning career. At some point in time, you must have got involved with the American Planning Association or perhaps with the American Institute of Planners part of that, or?

[14:37] RB: I was ori-, I was one of the A.S.P.O. people.

[14:40] DG: A.S.P.O.? Okay.

[14:42] RB: And then I was chartered in when A.S.P.O. and A.I.P. merged and became a charter member of A.P.A.

[14:48] DG: And how did you get into A.S.P.O., who talked [to] you?

[14:51] RB: Wayne Daltrey.

[14:53] DG: So, okay, and then have you been involved in any local section or chapter?

[14:59] RB: Yes, yeah, I served as an officer in the San Antonio section.

[15:02] DG: Okay, and when was that?

[15:04] RB: That was when I first moved here, say in '92, '93, '94 time frame, with Wendell Davis and I.

[15:12] DG: Okay, and became section director or?

[15:17] RB: I think I was secretary treasurer at that time.

[15:20] DG: Okay, how about at the national level, you got involved in any of the things like divisions?

[15:25] RB: Yes, yeah. I'm a member of the Federal Planning Division, member of the environmental, Natural Resources Division, Private Practice Division, and the American Society of Consulting Planners, which is not a division but is a component of A.P.A.

[15:41] DG: Okay.

[15:42] RB: And served as a, in the division leadership for the federal planning division.

[15:50] DG: Okay, and were you involved in the creation of the Federal Planning Division, or?

[15:54] RB: Oh, no. Well, let's see. I was one of the 100 that signed the charter request. Yeah. So, we had, I was one of 100 that said we should have a division for federal planners, but at that time it was a federal installation planning division, and I was a very strong advocate and supportive.

[16:11] DG: And at some point in time, you took the A.I.C.P. exam?

[16:15] RB: I did, probably in the late 80s, early 90s.

[16:21] DG: Okay, and at that point in time it was a written exam?

[16:24] RB: It was a written exam, yes it was.

[16:28] DG: Well, we've been talking to some planners that predate the written exam, so I wanted to clarify that when you were in there, so. Okay, so when we last talked about your career, you were retiring from the federal service?

[16:41] RB: Yeah, 2005, I retired.

[16:43] DG: And?

[16:44] RB: Took a position as a principal for H.D.R. and helped H.D.R. build their military planning unit.

[16:50] DG: Okay.

[16:50] RB: They had a very active and successful civilian planning component, and H.D.R. wanted to build their military planning capability, and I took that on and stayed with H.D.R. for two-and-a-half years.

[17:04] DG: Okay, and were you able to build up the market?

[17:07] RB: I did. We were successful in doing the key acquisitions for consulting firms, design firms and built that, left it in the hands of other folks to carry forward.

[17:20] DG: Okay, when you left H.D.R., where to then?

[17:24] RB: I actually was trying to retire at that point. [laughs] But it didn't take long, it's probably, I was enjoying the time off and not working 60-hour weeks, and when I got a call from a consulting firm that needed my services and I agreed. The original trip was to Honolulu for a client visit and then from there I stayed with them for about a year doing studies for military installations in the Pacific region.

[17:56] DG: Okay, what was the name of the firm?

[17:57] RB: S.A.I.C.

[17:58] DG: Okay, and after that did you finally retire or?

[18:02] RB: I tried to, and then another consulting firm came along and said, "Hey, we'd like to, we could use your help." And I went from the Pacific arena to the United States looking at military installations and doing planning studies for them.

[18:17] DG: And are you still doing that or are you-

[18:20] RB: I am sort of freelancing, I'm trying to get out of the business, but I keep getting calls for help.

[18:27] DG: [laughs] Okay, well in skimming your resumé, there are a few things that we skipped over that I did want to touch on. One, while you were in school you apparently served as an aide in the Florida House of Representatives.

[18:40] RB: I did! That was a really exciting job. Yeah, I was going to graduate school full-time. They called me up, the House of Representatives needed a legislative researcher to work on planning legislation for the state of Florida. And I said, "Well, I'm going to school full time." They said, "We'll work around that, and you can work as many hours day or night or weekends and, you know, put in about 30 to 40 hours a week." And it was great. I wrote the original one stop permitting act for the state of Florida. One piece of legislation I'm not too happy with was what, as a legislative researcher, you do what the committee wants you to do, and you do the research, and you present the findings, and [the] proposed legislation was a modification to the Billboard Act. So, that allowed signage along freeways and like that.

[19:33] DG: Okay, and then you, have you been in the reserves while you've been?

[19:39] RB: Yes, I was going to go back on active duty. The option was whether to go on active duty or to go into the reserves. And I was recruited to go back into the reserves, and I went into the intelligence side of the business.

[19:56] DG: Okay, and how long did you stay in the reserves?

[19:58] RB: I stayed, well, total military service counting my enlisted time was 22 years

[20:02] DG: Okay, and you retired at what rank?

[20:05] RB: Lieutenant commander.

[20:06] DG: Okay, and can you talk about anything that you did while you were in there?

[20:09] RB: I was an intelligence officer, and I worked on many exciting things, and I would encourage anybody who wants to work on many exciting things to go into the intelligence business. I did serve on active duty and several significant reserve assignments. I was active duty during Desert Storm, actually Desert Shield. Called to active duty around July of 1990 and then was released from active duty around June of 1991.

[20:35] DG: Okay.

[20:35] RB: So, I served in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And then came back on some other assignments for the Air Force in Afghanistan, Iraq, Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and then a number of the Western European countries.

[21:00] DG: Okay, did you get a chance to take some of your community planning expertise?

[21:05] RB: Oh, my goodness, yes, yeah, absolutely.

[21:08] DG: And anything that you could talk about?

[21:11] RB: Well, it's, how big is a 135, KC 135? And how big is a C5? And how many can you park on an old Soviet airstrip?

[21:20] DG: Okay, and I assume that some of your geospatial analysis also came into use?

[21:25] RB: Yeah, we were always doing that, yes.

[21:28] DG: Okay, we've jumped around some, but were there any of those positions that we didn't talk about that you want to talk about?

[21:37] RB: Well, I think that probably the most interesting job I had and, actually, most rewarding was my first job and working with Wayne Daltrey down in Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council.

[21:48] DG: Okay.

[21:50] RB: Ehen I left that position to go back to graduate school, I was slated to return, and I think, actually, they held my position open for about two years. And I look back on that and said, "You know, you can go many different ways in your career. You can go moving around the United States and seeing lots of geography or you can stay in one place and suffer through changes in agencies and leadership. But you can do any of those and still come out with a very rewarding career.” Once again, I think I could have stayed in one place and done just as well and been happy and contented and not had to make all those moves. But I'm very happy with the career that I have. I've done many exciting things and it's been very rewarding.

[22:40] DG: Okay. One of my questions, as always, do you have any advice for a young player coming out of school?

[22:46] RB: Don't get hung up on positions. Don't look for someone to be your mentor, look for someone to sponsor you and to assist you as you move through your career.

[23:04] DG: Okay, and you've mentioned Wayne as a mentor. Are there any other mentors in your career?

[23:10] RB: Well, Wayne's boss, Rowan Eastwood, I think he was a mentor. He was a senior attorney who had worked for Del Webb and when by the time he got to be the executive director, he had many, many years of experience, and he was an excellent leader. I've had some good leadership. I had a boss in Dayton, Ohio when I was with the Air Force Logistics Command, Ben Pierce and Ben was, he was an engineer, but he was also a city councilman for the nearby town to the base and he was a mentor and pointed me in the right direction.

[23:49] DG: Of course, that goes both ways. Any protégés or people that you've mentored?

[23:54] RB: I've actually tried to be a mentor to a number of people and guide them through the profession. Try to get people, young planners, training, try to get young planners experience where I could have the opportunity to do that.

[24:09] DG: Anybody that you're particularly proud of, or?

[24:11] RB: Ah well, there's a number of them.

[24:14] DG: Okay, it's not like I'm telling you to pick your favorite child. [laughs] You've learned to fly; do you still fly?

[24:22] RB: Actually, I flew this past year, but that's, I don't get to do it as often as I'd like to.

[24:28] DG: Okay, but your license is still in effect?

[24:31] RB: My license is still in effect as long as I can pass the medical. And I've been able to pass the first-class physicals, which is pretty good.

[24:39] DG: Well, we've talked about your professional career, are there any things that you like to do outside of work?

[24:44] RB: I'd like to spend more time with my two grandchildren, Benjamin and Myron, I just can't seem to find the time to go to Colorado Springs as frequently as I'd like.

[24:54] DG: And how old are they?

[24:55] RB: They are two years old and four years old.

[24:58] DG: Okay, you've been involved in any non-profits or outside work?

[25:05] RB: I try to be, I was involved with the Boy Scouts for a while, my son was an Eagle Scout. My daughter was a Girl Scout, Senior Girl Scout. My wife is very active in the Girl Scouts and is still, even though my daughter is on to her first year of college and my Eagle Scout son is in his second year of college. She still is active in that, and you might say I support her financially so she can do that. The other part of my, you might say, charitable activities is spending time with my 88-year [old] mother who I'm helping her situation medically and in an assisted living facility.

[25:51] DG: Okay, either of your kids going into planning?

[25:55] RB: I tried to get them to go into planning. One of them is going into the multimedia world, and the other one is going into the theater. So, I guess you might say theater is pretty close to planning sometimes. [laughs]

[26:08] DG: Well, we've talked about a lot of things, is there anything you want to talk about that we haven't touched on?

[26:13] RB: Oh no, I think this was a great opportunity. Thanks for doing this, thanks for Christine Kristen putting this together, and David, thank you for the opportunity.

[26:22] DG: Okay, well before we leave, I do want to note that you were ultimately elected to the College of Fellows for A.I.C.P. You want to talk about it?

[26:29] RB: Oh, gee, it was a wonderful thing to be nominated by your peers and to be successful at this level. One is just achieving the A.I.C.P. [which] was for me a mark of the bar that I had set for myself. But then to have your peers anoint you with the fellows was just a wonderful thing.

[26:54] DG: And where was the ceremony when you received it?

[26:58] RB: San Antonio!

[26:59] DG: San Antonio, that was convenient.

[27:01] RB: That was very convenient, yes. Yeah. That my whole family was able to be here, or my immediate family was able to be here for that.

[27:07] DG: Well, it was well-deserved. So, congratulations.

[27:10] RB: You know, I have to say that my spouse has been a real supporter of my A.P.A. activities and without that support, it's very difficult to do all the things that one does for boards and committees and what you're called to do.

[27:27] DG: Just out of curiosity, where did you meet?

[27:30] RB: We met in Dayton, Ohio.

[27:31] DG: Okay, was she in the service too?

[27:34] RB: Oh no, she, no, no, her service connection is her dependent ID card.

[27:41] DG: [laughs] Okay, I know how that works. So, with that I want to thank you very much.

[27:46] RB: Thank you.

[27:47] DG: Okay.

TRANSCRIPT END