Men and women in uniform carry out different duties in service to their country, from serving in war to performing many of the everyday jobs necessary for supporting the armed forces.

Lawrence Stabler is among those who fall in the latter category.

As a teenager growing up in South Williamsport, he served in the Civil Air Patrol.

By the time he was 18 in 1954, it perhaps seemed almost natural that he join U.S. Air Force.

But he had no idea that he would end up looking inside the mouths of people.

“That’s what the Air Force wanted,” he said as he sat in the kitchen table of his South Williamsport home with photos of his military days spread out on a table.

Following basic training at Sampson Air Force Base, Stabler was sent to the U.S. Dental Technical at the Great Lakes Training Center in Illinois.

His first permanent base was Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware where he spent about two years before being sent off to London, England.

Stabler said the overseas assignment was the only one he was unable to have his wife accompany him.

His duties were pretty much the same as his stateside duty: cleaning teeth, taking x-rays, performing administrative work.

Basically, Stabler had no complaints, figuring it was the assigned job he was being paid to do.

“It was better than washing dishes or slinging hash,” he said. “I had regular hours.”

Stabler was stationed in England at an Air Force hospital from January 1958 to May 1959 before returning to stateside duty in Plattsburgh, New York.

“In Plattsburgh, I lived in base housing near the runway,” he said.

At the time, the base was the home to B-47 planes and later B-52’s.

He recalled his wife’s stepfather would often watch the planes landing and taking off.

In Plattsburgh, his duties changed somewhat.

“I was in charge of dental supplies,” he said. “I made staff sergeant.”

He spent four years there and thought about making the military a career, but decided to get out of the Air Force when he learned reenlisting might result in him being sent to a remote air base in Labrador, Greenland or Iceland.

When he left the Air Force in 1963, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

Jobs for dental technicians in the civilian world didn’t exist, he recalled.

Back in Lycoming County, he started a gas station with his brother in Williamsport.

He later worked for area car dealerships and as service manger at an auto parts store.

For many years, he taught automotive technology at Williamsport Area Community College.

Looking back on his nine-year military stint, Stabler said there was no particular duty station he liked best of all.

As for the job itself, he said, “To me, it was just like a 9-to-5 job,” he said. “I enjoyed it.”

He said the military taught him to discipline.

He remains active in veterans groups, including Post 617 American Legion in South Williamsport and VFW Post 7863, DuBoistown.