Plum School District’s Air Force JROTC has new instructor
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Paul Nosek served this nation for more than 27 years in various capacities in the Air Force.
The retired colonel from Northern Virginia has a new place to use his leadership skills and military experience: the Plum School District.
Nosek, 50, was recently named the district’s Air Force Junior ROTC program’s senior instructor.
“I was proud to serve my country in multiple different theaters, deployments and multiple different jobs,” Nosek said. “I am appreciative that Plum gave me an opportunity to continue to serve my country in uniform, even though I’m a retiree, to help inspire and lead the future generation.”
Nosek will work alongside retired Master Sgt. Kevin Butler, who handled all instructional duties last school year after the departure of retired Air Force Col. Richard Peterson. Peterson moved with his family to Virginia.
“I am excited to have a new leader, mentor, and team member that is as enthusiastic as I am to prepare our students for success,” Butler said.
Nosek said he hopes to build on the program that’s in place, and commended Butler for his efforts.
“I don’t want to just make change for change sake just because I’m the new boss,” Nosek said. “I come in, evaluate all the programs and see where they are. If we have the bandwidth to add any programs we’ll do that.
“The core is run by the cadets. If you have a drill team, they run the drill team. If you have an air rifle team, they run the air rifle team. We’re there to supervise. It’s making sure that none of the programs that we currently have are hurt by any new programs.
“If you look at the trophy case, they’ve done very well.”
Nosek said his team will follow any covid protocols the district puts in place and will adapt to any changes in order to provide the best program possible for the cadets.
JROTC programs usually have at least two instructors on hand. It is not considered to be a military recruitment program.
“The purpose is citizenship and leadership,” Nosek said. “That’s what we teach, and there is no requirement for anybody to go into the military if they join JROTC.”
Nosek said he applied to be an instructor at four high schools and interviewed at three before deciding on Plum.
Superintendent Brendan Hyland believes Nosek made the right call.
“We are really so fortunate to bring Col. Nosek to our district,” Hyland said. “His resume and his service to our nation are absolutely incredible.”
Resume
Nosek graduated from Kent State in December 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in general studies. He joined the service as a 2nd lieutenant as a result of the university’s ROTC program.
His active duty spanned from March 1994 through May 1, 2021.
“I had 13 different locations and 18 different jobs during (my career),” Nosek said. “I was assigned to many places.”
He deployed to Afghanistan from 2015 through 2016 and served under Gen. John F. Campbell. Nosek was a liaison to the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
Nosek also worked at the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. as well as an associate deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force.
His last position before retiring was as deputy director of manpower and personnel for the U.S. Space Force.
Nosek said he was instrumental in getting the newly formed military branch off the ground.
“It was pretty amazing,” he said. “It’s a lot of hard work starting a service from scratch. We had to get everybody in, transfer civilians over and transfer any military career fields that were going to go to space into the Space Force. Since I was (human resources), create the new HR structure of the Space Force and the human capital development plan.”
Nosek earned a master’s in human resource development through Websters University, a master’s in national security affairs through the Naval Postgraduate School and a master’s in national security strategy through the National War College.
He was named USAF personnel manager of the year and received the John P. Flynn award, both in 1999.
Other awards include the Bronze Star, Air Force and Army achievement medals, humanitarian service medal, Global War on Terrorism Service medal, service medals for national defense and Southwest Asia as well as the Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service medal with an oak leaf cluster.
Cadets
About 75 cadets are in Plum’s program, including three from Penn Hills.
Penn Hills’ Navy Junior ROTC program was eliminated in 2019 due to a lack of cadets and money. The two districts have approved annual agreements since then in order to let Penn Hills cadets continue their education.
“(The) partnership seems to be going well,” Penn Hills Superintendent Nancy Hines said. “Our kids appreciate the opportunity to finish out the ROTC program they began at Penn Hills.”
Hyland said he’s glad the partnership will continue.
“We are excited to have the students from Penn Hills back in our school district,” Hyland said. “They really seemed to enjoy their time here, and I think it is a win-win for both districts.”
Family service
Nosek is the first officer in his family. Several relatives enlisted their services.
His father, Ted Nosek, was a B-52 crew chief during Vietnam.
Both of his grandfathers, Frank Nosek and John Bowser (Army), served during World War II.
Sept. 11, 2001
Nosek was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, about a corridor and a half from where the plane crashed.
American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C., before crashing into the west side of the Pentagon at 9:45 a.m. The crash’s jet fueled inferno led to the structural collapse of a portion of the building.
All 64 people on the airliner and 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in that part of the terrorist attack.
“We were watching the (Twin) Towers get hit when our emails started blowing up,” Nosek said, holding back tears. “We went into the conference room and watched the planes hit and somebody said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to eat in the center courtyard because if they can hit that, then they can hit us.’
“(Ronald) Reagan (Washington) National Airport flies kind of over the Pentagon. A few minutes later we heard boom. The Pentagon, it’s a huge building.
“You could hear it go whoosh on this side and then whoosh (the other) side. The ceiling tiles blew up and kind of sucked air out your lungs. Everybody was like, ‘What was that?’ You knew what it was but you said it anyway.
”… It was very tragic that those people died, but we were also lucky that that (area) was mostly empty at the time. It was also the newly renovated wedge so they had the new fire suppression systems, the new fire doors and stuff, so it could have been much worse. I try to think positive, but it’s still tragic that that many people died.”
Nosek said he and a group were evacuated and all roads were shut down. The following day, Nosek and others worked in a call center and got non-stop calls from family members and various people seeking and reporting information.
“We kind of had an idea who had died based on calls not stopping that night,” he said. About 27,000 people work at the Pentagon.
Nosek said “a lot” is on his mind as the 20th anniversary of that tragic day approaches, and that still keeps in touch with some of the people he worked with at the time.
Nosek is moving from Virginia to Canfield, Ohio and will be closing on his new home on Sept. 11.