Former Kelley Auto Shop Manager Bill Hales understands very well what it means to be called to serve. His 52 years of service to his country began in 1969, when he was drafted into the Army and ordered to report to basic training at Fort Bliss.
That was actually Hales’ second time being called up in the draft. The first time his number was drawn, he failed the pre-selection board. Determined to join, Hales was pursuing his GED when his number was drawn again and this time he received his official induction notice in the mail.
“6:15 sharp was in red,” he said. “It stood out and I remember it very clearly. That was when I had to report.”
Hales attended basic training at Fort Bliss before reporting to aviation school at Fort Rucker. He waited for class to start for over a month, and spent that time working as a fireman in the barracks. Hales explained that he was not the kind of fireman who put out fires, but one who kept them burning.
“I was one of two people who had to keep the fires that were warming the prefabricated metal buildings used for housing facilities going throughout the night,” said Hales.
After aviation school, Hales shipped off to Vietnam where he began working on Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopters. He soon made a name for himself through his “all or nothing” approach to maintenance and repairs.
“Basically, either it works or it's not going to,” explained Hales. ``80 percent or 90 percent, in a helicopter will get you killed. If it's not 100 percent, it's a death trap. You can't pullover and try to fix a cut corner in the air so 100 percent or it didn't get cleared to go"
It was that attention to detail that saw Hales promoted to corporal and moved to quality control and record keeping. Eventually, his reputation earned him an appointment by the Secretary of the Army to be an Army Senior Quality Control Inspector.
Hales recalled a memorable story where a disgruntled officer tried to revoke his position, only to be corrected by their commanding officer who remarked, “no one aside from the Secretary of the Army could remove that appointment.”
That work ethic has carried Hales through 25 years of active duty service before he retired as a Sergeant First Class in 1994 and began a career with the DOD. He continued serving his country and the Stuttgart Military Community through various roles in an information technician (IT) specialist, planer and collaboration support specialist at EUCOM, AFRICOM, SOCEUR and SOCAFRICA, to name a few. After more than 40 years of serving his country, Hales retired from the civil service. However, he wasn’t ready to stop working and began a third career with Stuttgart’s FMWR as an IT specialist.
With so much experience in mechanics and quality control assurance, Hales became an obvious front runner when MWR needed a manager to reopen the Kelley Auto Skills Center last August.
“He has an extensive background that makes him uniquely qualified,” said Daniel Delvalle, the Panzer Speedy Lube Manager and one of the people involved in hiring Hales for the position. “The old cars he’s rebuilt by hand speak for themselves.”
As the manager at the Kelley Auto Skills Center, Hales led the effort of stocking the shop and acquiring tools and equipment from other bases, like Kaiserslautern, when their programs were downsized or eliminated.
“This was an empty building when I walked in, only the ramps had been installed, there were a bunch of cables hanging down, and we had to put everything in here,” said Hales, who completed the project in time for their reopening last summer.
The long awaited auto skills center offers the community a location, tools and expert guidance to safely work on their vehicle, whether for maintenance or as a hobby. With his mission complete, Hales stepped down from his role as the manager last month. But he said he is confident in the “good, well-trained team he is leaving behind and the manager who will take his place.”
And as he prepares to say goodbye, he added he will still be around, to lend a hand and share his experience with anyone who wants to learn.
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