in 1985, shortly after returning from this deployment, he was transferred to the marine recruit depot, san diego. he was initially assigned as the executive officer, 2nd recruit training battalion and later as the director of the drill instructor school, the only aviator to hold the billet. in 1988 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was transferred overseas to okinawa and served on the 1st marine aircraft wing staff in the operations department. in 1989 he returned to the 3rd marine aircraft wing and was assigned to marine aircraft group 50, camp pendleton as the operations officer. shortly after iraq invaded kuwait, he was assigned to marine aircraft group 70 and deployed to southwest asia in august 1990.