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July 10, 1943 – January 21, 2008

Lt. Col. Thomas Joseph Makal Jr. was born in Florence, Alabama, on July 10, 1943, and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1961 he graduated from Dominican High School in Milwaukee. He was a distinguished graduate of the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the University of Wisconsin and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in math and political science in 1965. Lt. Col. Makal was commissioned as a regular officer in the United States Air Force on June 7, 1965. He entered active duty as a second lieutenant on Aug. 1, 1965, at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, where he attended the Communications-Electronics Technical Training Course.

His first operational assignment was to the 1913th Communications Squadron at Langley AFB, Virginia. In a four-year tour there from 1966-69, he held several duties in communications operations and rose to serve as the Chief of Tactical Air Command Post Communications, where he was principally responsible for the flow of communications supporting Southeast Asian deployments. In that capacity, he completed a command voice alerting system that continued unchanged until he replaced it 23 years later while assigned again to Langley AFB.

Lt. Col. Makal was married to Marilyn Terese Obenberger of Fox Point, Wisconsin, on Sept. 17, 1970 at St. Eugene’s Catholic Church in Milwaukee. He attended the Air Force Institute of Technology (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio) in 1970-71, receiving his Master of Science degree in logistics management with honors.

In 1970, Lt. Col. Makal served a combat tour with the 1964 Communications Group, Tan Son Nhut AB, Republic of Vietnam, where he performed theater-wide duties in navigational aids maintenance until appointed Executive Officer of the 11-squadron, 5,000-person organization.

Following this one-year tour, he flowed to Headquarters, Pacific Communications Area, then at Wheeler AFB, Hawaii, where he managed a number of maintenance functions as well as logistics support for residual U.S. equipment in Vietnam. While in Hawaii, Lt. Col. Makal and his wife welcomed the arrival of their twin daughters, Katherine Anne and Jennifer Lee, on Aug. 3, 1973.

From Hawaii, he moved to Headquarters, Air Force Communications Command, first at Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri, then at Scott AFB, Illinois. Assigned to the Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics, he served as Assistant Director of Maintenance, Chief of Maintenance Management and Logistics Plans Officer. He was the author of the engineering and installation wartime prepositioning system, consolidated engineering and installation depots at Tinker AFB, and began the process of streamlining Air Force Manual 66-1 maintenance management philosophies to fit the needs of small communications squadrons.

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