From Crud To Colonel
By: Carson Vaughan | Categories: Featured Stories
Looking back they hint at a little mischief, mumble amongst themselves—something about paint, maybe a cannon.
"I don't know what the statute of limitations is," Cundiff says.
"Just in case I run for office some day...," Aurelio adds.
Cundiff always knew his city friend was "top of the class," but in truth they shared the honor. Bucking tradition, their colonel fought to award two distinguished graduates for the AFROTC class of 1998. And in the blink of an eye, their college years were behind them. They advanced through their career fields from one base to the next. Aurelio slid into acquisitions and later aircraft maintenance, too, heading first to Ohio, then Georgia and D.C., and more. Cundiff, still inspired by the military airplanes that flew low over his childhood home, finally earned his wings at the Columbus AFB in Mississippi. While climbing the ranks, both deployed at various times to the Middle East, adding “one more piece to that puzzle of the shared experiences that keep us close," Cundiff says.
Despite the distance, the years, they never lost touch—not completely. They attended each other's weddings, met up with their mutual Tech friends whenever they could. In 2019, they reunited briefly in Tampa, where Cundiff was stationed. Both had recently been promoted to full colonel, and they laughed about their prospects for group command.
"Could you imagine if we were both in charge of groups in the same place at the same time?" Cundiff asked his friend.
In July 2020, Cundiff was assigned to the Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson, where he now commands the 55th Electronic Combat Group. With five squadrons and 950 Airmen, the 55th provides combat-ready EC-130 Compass Call aircraft, a model specifically designed to jam adversaries' communication signals. Training. Organizing. Equipping. The Mike Cundiff that lived with Aurelio and a dozen other friends back at the Eighth Street Apartments would have been "shocked" by the responsibility.
“I'd have said you're talking to the wrong guy," he said. "You need to be talking to Neil."
Last summer, Cundiff received a cryptic text from Aurelio. He was asking about the housing market in Tucson. Cundiff laughed it off, another joke from an old friend. What he didn't know was that Aurelio had just been assigned to Davis-Monthan, as well, tapped to command the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, an 800-person workforce dedicated to aircraft storage, regeneration, parts reclamation, disposal, and more. Spanning nearly 2,600 acres and housing roughly $34 billion worth of hardware, the Group is affectionately called "The Boneyard."
"As you can imagine, it's a very tough process to get vetted out and make sure you're the right person for the job," Aurelio says. "But to have two Tech grads in one location as group commanders is kind of a cool thing."
"We don't know if that's ever happened,” Cundiff adds. "We're trying to make it look good. We haven't gotten fired yet."
