Life after military is good for Coupeville woman

After enjoying the challenges of a full career and traveling the world, Wendy Amtmann Wasik is now able to settle down in the idyllic town of Coupeville and raise her family.

Wasik is one of many retired military servicemen and women on Whidbey who’ve found a second life after leaving the armed services.

At only 45 years old, Wasik said she’s living the “spoiled” life of parent and community volunteer, all because of a 22-year career in the Air Force.

“I get to spend time with my kids,” she said of her retired life. “That’s very fortunate for us.”

Wasik is the daughter of another retired Air Force veteran, and she grew up with all the family benefits available.

“He didn’t force his views on me or anything,” Wasik said, saying he didn’t tell her much about his time in the military until after she expressed an interest.

“I obviously grew up having military privileges, so I knew what it was like … seeing what kind of privileges were given to families and how people were taken care of.”

Wasik said when she was in high school, she decided she wanted job security and felt the military would give her a “sure job.”

“Air Force was the only way I ever considered,” she said.

A 1987 Coupeville High School graduate, Wasik went to the ROTC program in the University of Washington with an Air Force scholarship.

“It was wonderful,” she said. “It really helped me go from a small school to a gigantic school.”

Michelle Beahm photo
Wendy Amtmann Wasik lives in Coupeville after a career as an Air Force pilot.

She said that around the time she started her pathway to the Air Force, they started cutting back on pilots. She was lucky, though.

“I was awarded one of two spots they were giving out at the time,” Wasik said.

Soon, Wasik was moving to Columbus, Miss., to begin her training.

“I quickly realized I was in a man’s world,” she said. “It was probably the best and hardest part of my life.”

When she completed training, Wasik was granted the opportunity to travel around the world and experience many different cultures firsthand.

Her deployments included Afghanistan, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and more. She went to the Middle East a total of 13 times.

She also took part in the Air Force’s Project Crossbow, a joint UK-US intelligence analysis project, and switched to flying C-130 aircraft from the KC-135s she flew before.

She also met her husband, Donald Wasik, in the program.

“I like to tell people, we got married because we weren’t impressed by the fact that we were pilots,” Wasik joked.

Right after 9/11, she and her husband were deployed together.

After having their first son, Alexander, the couple then moved to Washington, D.C., to work in the Pentagon for six years.

Finally, while serving at the Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, Wasik decided to retire in October 2013.

“I told myself when I joined that I would leave when I was no longer having fun,” she said. “I was still having fun, I still had a fantastic time, but I realized that I had taken so much from my family. I wanted to spend time with my family.”

She said she retired at a good time, since her parents had health issues soon after, and her retirement enabled her to be with them during that time.

Since her husband had retired a year before, they opted to move back to Coupeville  and ultimately ended up buying the house right next to Wasik’s parents’ home.

“I love this area,” she said. “It was only reinforced by seeing other parts of the world. I love the country. I love the people. There was no question in my mind.”

Now, Wasik said that she spends her time volunteering at the schools, participating in the Parent Teachers Association, being a Cub Scout leader and more.

Being retired hasn’t slowed her down at all.

“I’m probably as busy, if not busier, than I was when I was working.”

Wasik said that her career in the Air Force reinforced the close-knit nature of her family.

“Unlike the other services who recruit to get their four years out of a person and then move them on, the Air Force recruits for an entire career, so to do that, they have to take care of entire families,” she said.

“Unfortunately, it’s given us a kind of reputation for being spoiled rotten, which we are.”

Of her family, Wasik says they’re lucky, and they’re spoiled.

“I take each day as it comes,” Wasik said. “I look for new challenges. My kids keep me stimulated.

“We’re really enjoying being able to spend time with the family.”