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The United States Air Force held a retirement ceremony for Major Kevin M. Billups on Sept. 6, at Tyndall AFB Florida to honor his 23-plus years of honorable and distinguished service. 

The 1990 Lake Roosevelt High School graduate began his military service shortly after graduation and ended it as the 33d Operations Group Standards and Evaluations Chief of Command and Control (C2) at Tyndall.

Billups is a seasoned combat veteran with over 10 years as an enlisted master munitions craftsman (aka ammo troop) and over 12 years as a rated officer. He is an Air Education and Training Command master instructor, a Senior Air Battle Manager instructor and evaluator.

He logged 309 combat flight hours and 1,369 contingency flight hours on the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation New Dawn, Defense of the Arabian Gulf, Operation Noble Eagle, and Defense of the Alaskan NORAD Region.

Born at Ketchikan, Alaska, Billups is the middle son to Dennis (deceased) and Becky Billups. He and his brothers (Dennis and Casey) grew up in various logging camps and villages throughout Southeast Alaska before moving to Grand Coulee, where he completed high school and enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1990. 

He completed a short tour deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Calm and deployed three times to the Korean Peninsula to deter North Korean aggression.

While assigned to Eielson AFB he also met and married his wife Alexsa. After a handful of years of marriage, they spent their first year apart when he took another remote assignment in 1999 to Kunsan AB, Republic of Korea before rejoining his wife back to Alaska. After only being home for five months he deployed again in support of Operation Northern Watch to Incirlik AB, Turkey. Shortly after returning from deployment Billups separated from active duty to pursue a commission through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

Billups said his decision to hang up his uniform was bittersweet because he loves his job and wanted to stay in the fight, but his responsibility to his family and their needs outweigh his personal ambitions. 

"Service to my country has a time limit, my family does not," he said. "You can be great at any job or you can be great at being a parent; reality is you can't be great at both."