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Vere Andrew Hotchkiss was born in California and he joined the US Air Force from Boy’s Town, Nebraska. Upon going to Basic Training at Parks AFB, CA, his training flight was made up of seventy-five members of his senior class of boy’s Town High School class of 1955. After basic training, Vere attended the Air Force Tech School and his first assignment was to Walker AFB, NM, where he went Sentry Dog Handler School at Fort Carson, CO. His dog’s name was Prince, and he became Vere’s big pet for the next four years at Walker. From there, Vere went to Earnest Harmon Air Base in Newfoundland, which he thought was the best kept secret in the Air Force due to his assignment and the semi-remote location. While Vere was stationed there, he got to go on a refueling mission around the North Pole and watch the refueling of B-52. That was an experience he has never forgotten. After being in Newfoundland for twenty months, where he had not seen a temperature above fifty degrees, the Air Force sent him to Eglin AFB in Florida in July. That first summer, the heat almost did him in!

While at Eglin, Vere met and married the mother of his two daughters and he cross trained into the field of Manpower and Organization. This was a big change in Vere’s military career and when he left Eglin it was his last assignment to a base level organization. He was next assigned to HQ USAFE in Germany, HQ ADC at Ent AFB, Colorado, and his last assignment was at HQ AAC in Alaska. Vere spent five years in Anchorage, where he retired after twenty-two years and twenty four days.

After Vere retired from the Air Force, he stayed in Anchorage for an additional twelve years and started his second career in the insurance industry. He stayed in this career until 2001 and then retired and moved to San Diego, CA. He later went to the cultural capital Kingsman, AZ before coming to AFRH-W in 2014.