Flando E. Jackson
Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army
September 28, 1970 – August 4, 2016
Age – 45
Lansing, MI
Operation Inherit Resolve
194th Wing, Camp Murray, Washington National Guard, WA
Died of a heart attack at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar
Lt Col. Flando Elix Jackson passed Thursday, August 4th 2016 while on active duty with the Washington Air National Guard. Flando was a graduate of J. W. Sexton High School. He obtained the rank of Lt Col in the United States Air Force. He had a successful career with the Washington State Department of Correction as a parole officer.
“Flando had a remarkable military career, and served his state and nation with distinction,” said Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty, the state’s adjutant general and commander of the Washington National Guard. “My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, who along with Flando’s fellow airmen and soldiers, are grieving a tremendous loss. They should be comforted knowing that he served his state and nation well, and leaves behind a tremendous legacy for his children.” Jackson’s military career spans more than 24 years, with nearly 10 years spent with the Washington Air National Guard.
Jackson was also a long-time Community Corrections Officer for the state Department of Corrections. “Community Corrections Officer Flando Jackson was dedicated to public safety with the Department of Corrections for over 13 years,” stated Richard Morgan, Secretary for the Washington Department of Corrections. “Officer Jackson was known to have a smile on face and a respectful demeanor for all people he encountered regardless of circumstance or situation. Our agency’s thoughts are with his family during this difficult period of mourning.”
He was remembered on Memorial Day 2017 with the following.
Flando Jackson grew up in a tough neighborhood in Lansing off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. And like that street’s namesake, he learned the word “respect” at an early age.
His mother Mae recalls an incident many years ago on the school bus. Another boy had hit Flando, and Flando hit back. He apologized for the encounter, but warned the boy never to hit him again. But that wasn’t the end of it. A teacher ordered young Flando to apologize to everyone on that bus. Flando stood his ground.
“And he told the teacher, the principal, me and the driver, ‘I did not hit them so I’m not apologizing,’” says Mae Jackson. “And the little fella made up his mind and they looked at me and I said, ‘No, once he makes up his mind, this is it.’ And he’s been that way ever since.”
As a boy, Flando loved airplanes and told his mother he wanted to fly. He joined the Air Force with dreams of becoming a pilot. When he didn’t make the cut, his mother was there with just the right words.
“So, he tried and they said they see something else in him,” she says. “And I said well, honey, evidently that might see a little bit more than you know.”
Maybe it was the needs of the service. Or maybe it was all the times when Flando was forced to stand up for himself. Whatever it was, Flando Jackson became a military equal opportunity officer. The values of diversity and respect he tried to live became the tent poles of his livelihood. Flando found he liked settling problems, and he had a knack for leading training sessions.
“Flando made it come alive,” says Col. Jeremy Horn, the former commanding officer of the 194th. “And so, when you came out of that room, it was almost the fervent of a big tent revival; that he really made you believe that we could make a difference.”
In July 2016, Lieutenant Colonel Flando Jackson deployed to Qatar, a tiny peninsular nation on the Persian Gulf. There he served as his unit’s deputy chief of personnel. The compliments from the airmen he’d helped starting flowing back to his superiors almost immediately. The colonel was held in high esteem in Qatar.
Then one day in August, Flando called his mother for a serious talk. Mae Jackson remembers his tone of voice. “He was having a bad, bad day,” Jackson says. “And we were talking, and he asked me, ‘Mama, why?’ I said, ‘Son, I can’t tell you. When God calls you, then you can ask Him these questions.’” Flando Jackson answered his call that night. He died of a heart attack in his room. He was 45 years old.
Mae Jackson taught her son the meaning of respect, and Flando Jackson taught it to others.