A nearly 40-year career in government, military.
Elaine Middleton entered the Air Force in April 1984 and served until May 1991. During this time, Elaine went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, then on to Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi for technical training.
Her initial job was as an administrative specialist, but during this training she was offered the opportunity to cross train (this was called pipelining) in the legal field. Back then, such personnel were not called paralegals, they were legal administrative specialists.
After completing technical training, Elaine went to her first duty station at George AFB in Victorville, CA, in the high desert. She loved the desert. After only 18 months at George, she was transferred to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, in 1986. That’s where she met and married the father of her children, who was in the Marine Corps. Their oldest son, Mark, was born in Okinawa in 1990 (he was in the Navy for four years).
Elaine and her husband were both in the service during Desert Storm but neither was deployed. Elaine got out of the Air Force in May 1991 and her husband got out of the Marine Corps in August 1992. They moved back to Elaine’s hometown, Winchester, Tenn., where their second son, Nick, now a drill instructor at Parris Island, SC, was born in 1993.
Elaine went to work as a paralegal at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee until 1998 when she moved to Florida to work for the United States Attorney’s Office in Tampa. This is also when she decided to join the Air Force Reserve (served from 1998 to 2004 and got out again). In 2007, the U.S. Attorney’s office provided Elaine the opportunity to move to Ocala to open a branch office, which she did.
In 2011, around the time both of Elaine’s sons were joining the Navy and the Marine Corps, they encouraged her to join the Air Force Reserve again, which she did. During her reserve career Elaine was stationed at Columbus, Mississippi; MacDill AFB in Tampa, Patrick AFB in Cocoa and Homestead AFB in Miami.
Elaine retired from the Air Force Reserve in March 2022 and retired from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in February 2023. Almost 40 years of government service.
Elaine currently works for the Douglas Law Firm and North Florida Title and Trust (NFTT). This opportunity knocked when she reconnected with Jeremiah Blocker, a previous military boss that she served with at Homestead AFB. She is the Business Development Coordinator for Douglas and a Title Processor/Closer for NFTT. The firm practices in the areas of real estate, business law, personal injury, criminal law, immigration, family law, estate planning and probate.
Elaine’s husband, Ross, is from New Zealand. They married in 2017. Her stepdaughters, Shannen and Cory, both live in New Zealand. The couple has three grandchildren, Rae (3 years old), Levi (18 months), both in New Zealand, and RJ (8 months) in Parris Island, SC. The couple loves to travel as much as possible and are passionate about classic cars. They have a 1966 Impala, a 1973 Camaro, and 1971 Chevelle and go to shows when they can.
