After an outstanding successful career in the Air Force, our own Scott Pilkington has embarked on an second career with the United Nations. For the past eight years, Scott has been working for the United Nations as the Senior Technical Advisor, running landmine clearance teams. Scott is currently in Kyrgyzstan.

Scott says, his job has been to start up programs, raise funds from donor nations like Japan, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, UK, and US, get demobilized soldiers trained to international humanitarian standards (meaning land is cleared and QA'd to 100%), organized into operational and logistic support units, equipped with good stuff, and working in the right places for post-conflict economic recovery (mainly clearing mines so farmers and herders can use the land safely) and refugee resettlement. It's been a real pleasure. I started with the UN in Bosnia in 1998, then 3 years in Yemen, 1 year with the Kurds in northern Iraq, and 3.5 years in Ethiopia. I had more than a thousand Yemenis, 4500 Kurds and 1200 Ethiopians doing landmine clearance. Its a very clean type of development work where one can see the result immediately in terms of mines found and destroyed, numbers of victims decreased, hectares of land being plowed, and goats, sheep and camels grazing in previously unusable land resulting in framers and herders becoming independent of UN / donor food assistance.

My wife (Susan) of almost 39 years (ring dance and graduation date) and our
youngest daughter have been with me in Yemen and Ethiopia and will join me
here soon.

Its not likely I'll make the reunion. I only get back to the USA at Christmas and for a couple of weeks in the summer and spend every minute with the 3 older children and grandchildren - all in Alabama. I'll see you at our 50th.

Thanks Scott for the superb work - we are all proud of you and your family.

Steve Mish, who replaced Scott at HQ TAC, submitted this story.