Air Force and NASA veteran gives advice to VGCC Students

A Durham native talked about the importance of education as a guest speaker at Vance-Granville Community College on April 2. Clinton J. “Clint” Green (pictured above, speaking to students), an official with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), spoke to students in a Study Skills class taught by Marian Dillahunt-Andrews, who were joined by students from several other classes. Green emphasized to students the importance of determination, motivation, career preparation and goal-setting. He sought to broaden students’ horizons by offering his own life story.

As a child, Green said he “daydreamed about airplanes and spacecraft” and was inclined toward math, science and design. His goals changed several times as he attended North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. Green joined the ROTC program and graduated in 1977 with both a degree in Industrial Technology and a commission in the United States Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. His Air Force career took him across the country and to Korea. He eventually rose to the position of Chief of Logistics for the 42nd Bombardment Wing at Loring Air Force Base in Maine by the time he was medically retired from the Air Force in 1989. At that point, like many VGCC students, Green needed to go back to school in order to start a new career. With his veterans’ education benefits, he returned to North Carolina A&T, this time graduating with a Master of Science Degree in Human Resources and Counseling. Green then joined NASA as a personnel staffing specialist, but ironically, his career at the space agency took him back into the logistics field that he had enjoyed in the Air Force. Today, he is the Transportation Specialist and Equipment Storage Manager at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “I actually wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, and I almost got there!” Green said with a laugh. “I had many different twists and turns in my career, but I wouldn’t let anything stand in my way.”