It’s a small world: Lieutenant, NCO assigned to the same squadron were friends in college

Published Sept. 29, 2011
By Scott King
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- A little over a month ago, Staff Sgt. Michael Herrington was at the 92nd Medical Group picnic and saw a face from his past in the crowd - it was 1st Lt. Michael Klingshirn, an old college buddy.
     The two lived across the hall from each other from 2002 to 2004 at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.
     Now, seven years later, both are assigned to the 92nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron. Klingshirn is a public health officer and Herrington is a bioenvironmental engineering craftsman.
     "I saw him at the picnic - we were in civilian clothes and he looked familiar to me so I asked him if he ever went to BGSU," Herrington said. "He said yes and recognized me as well. It was fairly surprising to me because when I knew him in college, the Air Force wasn't a thought in either of our minds."
     Klingshirn was surprised to see a familiar face at the picnic as well.
     "It was blind luck that we both ended up here," Klingshirn said. "Mike lived across from me in MacDonald Hall. We did the normal college things for a small-town college. Because it was a geographically small school, you knew everyone - it really is a small world and even a smaller Air Force."
     The two lost track of each other after their sophomore years.
     Following graduation from BGSU, Klingshirn located an Air Force Health Professions recruiter and he obtained a scholarship for a Master of Public Health at University of South Florida in Tampa. Herrington pursued a different career prior to his junior year and left college for civilian work. A few short years after, a close friend of his died in action fighting in Iraq and he decided to enlist in the Air Force. While at BGSU, he was majoring in biochemistry so enlisting in the bioenvironmental engineering field was a good fit for him.
     "It's pretty cool to have an old friend stationed here," Herrington said. "The Air Force is a huge organization - what are the chances of being assigned at the same base in the same unit? Slim at least."
     The two aren't the only two BG alumni roaming the halls of the med group.
     "As a Bowling Green alumni myself, it is fun having fellow BG Falcons in the med group," said Col. Thomas Roshetko, 92nd MDG commander. "I enjoy reflecting with them on our big city, Cleveland-area roots and our rural college campus. In addition, the small college town provided great fun, but limited options. Thus it is really no surprise, that although we attended BG over 15-years apart, the stories I share with them are hilariously similar."