Thomas Vane Higgins II, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Retired)
December 07, 1964 – September 21, 2024

Lt Col Ret Thomas Vane Higgins II of Enterprise, Alabama, passed away Saturday, September 21, 2024, at his residence surrounded by family. He was 59.

Memorial services will be at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, in the chapel of Sorrells Funeral Home & Crematory in Enterprise. The family will receive friends prior to the service beginning at 2:00 pm and continuing until service time.

Thomas II was born December 7, 1964, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to the late Thomas Vane and Geraldine Valentino Higgins. This new family lived in North Fond du Lac, next door to his paternal grandparents, for the first couple years of his life. Then, as employment moved, so did the family to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Beaver Dam is where Tommy, with his younger sister, grew up, went to school, dated and dreamed. Tommy graduated from Beaver Dam Senior High in 1983.

Tommy, an unconventional learner, found the structure of mainstream school to be stifling and embarked on a different direction of technical school and gained two vocational degrees – one in Airframe and Power Plant and another in Aviation Electronics. His first job after school was for a helicopter repair company. He wasn’t there long when he was invited to ride along on a flight. It was instant love. He had to learn to fly these things.

Through considerable finagling with an Army recruiter, he finally convinced the recruiter that the only way he was going to join the Army was if he did it through the flight school program. The Army was going to pay him to learn how to fly. As Tommy said, “A no brainer.” Then Tommy learned that the Army would also pay for continuing education. Another, “no brainer.” Tommy got his bachelor’s degree in Professional Aeronautics with a dual masters in Aviation Management and Aviation Safety. I guess Tommy grew into the conventional school idea after all. After 10 years in the Army his promotions were exhausted and Tommy retired from the Army with the intent to embark on a civilian life.

Civilian life didn’t last long for Tommy, when he learned the Air Force was looking for his specific skill set. Tommy then re-enlisted and stayed in the Air Force teaching others how to fly until his ultimate Military Retirement in 2017.

Through his military career he’s been stationed in numerous places, Louisiana, Texas, Washington DC, Washington State, Alabama, Montana, and Japan. He’s done tours in Honduras, Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm as well as taught flying in Afghanistan. Most places he was able to bring his family, with obvious exceptions. A difficult life but truly an adventurous one.

There’s also the softer side of Tommy. Tommy met Ana in 1990. She wasn’t sure she should trust him so he told her to call his mother for a reference. Whatever Mom said, did the trick because in 1995 they were married. Ana brought her daughter, Joana, into the relationship and Tommy embarked on 2 new roles in life, husband and father. A year later Tommy III was born, and almost 7 years after that, Nicole was born. Tommy’s new family was complete.