AUBURN – The hills surrounding the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport look very different from those surrounding Tuscon – or Port Au Prince, Haiti or Baghdad, for that matter.

John McGonagill, the new manager of the airport, is familiar with all of them. And he never would have imagined calling the hills around Auburn his home.

“My wife and I, we wouldn’t have thought of Maine,” he said. “I turned down three job offers with defense contractors for this, and they would have paid a lot more.”

But they wouldn’t have given him what he gets here, he said. Here, he has a good and growing airport, a safe community and time to spend with his family.

“Those other jobs, they would have been more of the same – more time on the road than at home,” he said.

McGonagill took over the controls at the airport in October, ending a 20-year career with the U.S. Air Force.

Managing a municipal airport is new, but not unfamiliar territory. McGonagill has been a pilot since he was 16. He got his commercial pilot license when he was 18 and became a certified instructor at 24. As a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, he knows aviation.

Until this year, McGonagill flew Air Force Pave Hawk helicopters on rescue missions. Pave Hawks are modified Black Hawk helicopters with enhanced navigation and communication tools. They are adept at getting in and out of tight battle situations.

McGonagill would orbit air battles, waiting to swoop in and rescue pilots downed by enemy fire.

“I’m not trying to sound egotistical, but I got pretty good at it,” he said. “I was one of the better people at it in the world.”

The Air Force moved him around a lot, stationing him in 13 different places over a 20-year career. He took his family all over the United States, and to Italy, Korea and Iceland. He flew over Bosnia in the mid-1990s and in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. He helped quell unrest in Haiti last January.

He was perfectly satisfied with his job, until Haiti. That tour happened to coincide with his daughter Naomi’s 12th birthday. And once again, he had to send her birthday wishes over the phone.

“And she said, You promised me you wouldn’t miss any more birthdays,'” he said.

That moment ended his military career.

“I loved my job, but it was like a switch turned off that day,” he said.

He told his commanding officer and began looking for a civilian job.

Months later, he found himself in Auburn giving Naomi a tour of his new command. The two took a day off in October, first touring the area in his 1940s-era Cessna. They flew over their house and her new school.

Back on the ground, he drove her around the airport, taking a moment to chase away a flock of turkeys that had wandered onto the airport’s main runway.

That made her chuckle, he said.

She told him, “A month ago, you were chasing terrorists. Now, you’re chasing turkeys.”

Always something

The job may not be as exciting as piloting a Pave Hawk, but it hasn’t been quiet. As Central Maine became a campaign target during the waning months of the presidential election, more and more national dignitaries chose to come through the Auburn airport.

They included President George W. Bush’s Chief of Staff, Andrew Card; Elizabeth Edwards, wife of vice presidential candidate John Edwards; and plenty of Secret Service agents.

Then, just days after the election, the Federal Aviation Administration sprang a surprise inspection on the airport. They passed muster, just, McGonagill said.

“It’s seems like it’s always going to be something,” he said.

Currently the “something” is the airport’s master plan, outlining proposed growth for the next 20 years. He’ll talk to area economic and municipal leaders over the next few months before filing the plan with the FAA.

“I’m really looking forward to doing something here, so that in 10 years we can all look around this airport and just be amazed at what it’s become,” he said.

He loves the job. With his daughter settling in at St. Joseph’s School, he loves the area.

“I plan on staying for a while,” he said. “I told the board when they interviewed me, I’m not looking to run Logan (airport). If I like my work, you’ll probably end up burying me here.”