Blazing a path from Ghana to the AF

  • Published
  • By Ryan Stark
  • Nucleus staff writer
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  It's a long way from Ghana to Kirtland.

To see Eric Amissah, an unassuming, decorated lieutenant colonel -- currently deputy division chief at the Kirtland-based Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center -- one would not sense the journey that took him from Ghana to a successful military career.

Like many boys, Amissah dreamed of flying airplanes as a young man. Growing up in Ghana -- a small nation in west Africa -- he built paper airplanes during a time he calls "not a storybook beginning."

When Amissah was born, his father had already left Ghana to seek out a living abroad. He lived in Ghana's capital, Accra, with his grandmother. He and his brother attended a British-run school and learned English while his father and stepmother worked and saved to bring the boys to the United States.

"I have fond memories (from Ghana)," he said. "Playing with other kids in the village, we ran a lot and played soccer most of the day."

His family eventually made it to America and Amissah became a U.S. citizen. He said his parents' hard work to make a better life for their family still resonates with him.

"I share (my) story freely to highlight the sacrifices made by a lot of people for me to be where I am today," he said. "I am blessed to have had family and people that gave me the opportunities by being selfless."

Among his many benefactors are a strength coach at West Virginia University who helped him train hard to make the football team as a walk-on and the Mountaineers' coach who gave him a ring for a college bowl. And there were many people helped him through ROTC and his Air Force career as well, he said.

But even with that help, Amissah's dream of flying did not pan out.

"I have high pressure in the back of the eye," he said.

There were concerns about blind spots, which disqualified him from flight training candidacy, so he began looking for other ways to serve. He eventually chose space and missiles, and got missile postings at Minot and Vandenberg air force bases, among others, as well as a stint at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

It was during one of those postings in 2005 that he got his MBA in aviation management.

Amissah's service has also involved work in counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including work at the headquarters for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which was very rewarding personally and professionally, he said.

"I've had many great assignments, but (DTRA) was the most interesting," he said. "I could make a difference at the international level."

That assignment also brought him back to western Africa, even once working in Accra. It was there his proficiency in the local languages paid off, he said.

"I was able to communicate the importance of secure borders and strong counter proliferation efforts for African nations," he said.

Here in the Kirtland community, Amissah and his wife, Air Force veteran Tamala, and their four children are quite active. Amissah has a passion for aerospace education. He is the membership chairman for the local chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a nonprofit honoring the legendary World War II aviators. It is through that organization he is able to share his love of science, technology, engineering and math education with the community's youth, he said.

"It comes down to investing in the future of our youth," Amissah said. "TAI has a great team. We are focused on getting the youth interested."

As for the future, Amissah said he would be interested in serving as an ROTC professor of aerospace studies at West Virginia University. Amissah said it is clear that his journey from being a child making paper airplanes in Africa to serving the Air Force has shaped him.

"The experiences I had as a child in Ghana really made me feel like I had to accomplish something significant," he said.

And he quotes a west African proverb: "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward, and so we can understand why and how we came to be who we are today."