From Terri’s CaringBridge web site, with her family’s permission to share, including AFC4A website posting.
Terri Dee Gonderman, Lt Col (Select), Retired, USAF
Gone, but NEVER forgotten
Terri Gonderman, 45, of Salinas, passed away Thursday, November 19th at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula after a courageous battle with metastatic breast cancer.
Terri was born June 9, 1964 at Lemoore Naval Air Station in CA. A class of 1982 graduate of North Salinas High School, Terri also attended CSU Chico. Her distinguished and very successful career in the US Air Force totaled more than 23 years. In August, Terri’s retirement ceremony was presided over by her mentor, Lt. Gen. William T. Lord, Chief of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, the Pentagon.
Lt Col (Select)Terri D. Gonderman was the Chief, Coalition Warfighting Interoperability Demonstration Section; International Warfighting and Experimentation Directorate; Command, Control, Communications and Warfighting Integration Directorate, Headquarters European Command, Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany. She spent fourteen months keeping multimillion dollar programs on track and funded for integration with current and emerging systems to better enable command and control of theater operations.
Lt Col (Select) Gonderman enlisted in the Air Force through Basic Training at Lackland, Air Force Base, Texas, on 27 December 1985. She worked in Aircraft Maintenance as an Instrument, Autopilot, and Inertial Navigations Technician, renamed Guidance and Control Technician, on heavy aircraft, such as; Airborne Warning and Control, C-141, C-5 and finally C-130 Special Operation Aircraft. In 1994, she earned her Community College of the Air Force Associates Degree and her Baccalaureate Degree through the Bootstrap program. She earned her commission on 5 May 1995 at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. She quickly earned her Master’s of Science Degree. Lt Col (Select) Gonderman has served at Squadron, Group, Center, Headquarter Air Force and Secretary of the Air Force in the Pentagon, and at the Joint level. She has served in three overseas assignments in Japan and Germany. Her stateside assignment locations include Florida, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Washington D.C., Kansas and her home state of California.
She never allowed her illness to impede her drive for clear and consistent communication between all branches of the service; especially when it involved the health of our service men and women going through their own devastating illnesses at Walter Reed Medical Center. The changes she influenced as a patient are evident today.
She was passionate about her career, her friends, and her family. Terri has developed life-long friendships throughout her life that span the globe. Throughout her life, she has been the anchor for many friends and family members during life-altering events and crisis. Her love for family directed her to research her family genealogy, and in the process formed a large network of kinship. Her loss is deeply felt by all who knew her.
Terri is survived by her loving parents Floyd (Joyce)Gonderman and Sheri Pacheco; her twin sister Tina (Robert) Lind and nephew Brandon Lind; her sister Tisha (Paul) Schoch and nephew Jonah Schoch and niece Kylie Schoch; her brother Dennis Pacheco and her nieces Amanda and Monica Pacheco, her step-brother Eddie Estrada, step-sister Sandra Estrada, her little princess and travel companion Mona, and many extended family members.
A memorial service will be held on December 4th at the Presidio of Monterey, Defense Language Institute. To request further information on the memorial service, please e-mail tgonderman22@hotmail.com
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to Susan G Komen for the Cure at www5.komen.org or the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.com in honor of Terri Gonderman.