Photo By Airman 1st Class Paula Arce | Chief Master Sgt. Michael Kumiyama, 22nd Maintenance Squadron senior enlisted leader,...... read more read more
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MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. - Jakob Harris was just a toddler when his dad decided to join the Air Force for the long-haul. However, for most of Harris’s childhood, the military felt like a distant and foreign concept. Harris was born and raised in one Teneessee town while his dad had multiple duty locations and deployments.
Harris’s father is Chief Master Sgt. Michael Kumiyama, 22nd Maintenance Squadron senior enlisted leader. Kumiyama’s 20-plus-year Air Force career has taken him across stateside bases, overseas deployments, and a range of roles. Through all of it, he left a lasting impression on his son, even from afar.
“I knew he wore a uniform and that he was gone a lot,” said Senior Airman Jakob Harris, 22nd Security Forces Squadron patrolman. “But I didn’t really know what he did.”
Once finished with high school, Harris realized that college wasn’t going to be his next move in life. This is when Harris decided to speak with his local recruiter and took the job with the quickest ship date – security forces. Now, he’d be wearing the same uniform as his father.
“Oh, I was super pumped,” Kumiyama said. “I never pressured him to go. It was a decision that he chose, and I was super pumped he was going to join the squad.”
Harris graduated basic training, technical training and moved to his first duty station. When it came time to leave his first location, Harris began filling out his base of preference sheet. Florida bases were among his top choices, but a supervisor mentioned they had enjoyed their time at McConnell. Harris knew his dad was stationed somewhere in Kansas, but didn’t realize that “McConnell” was the name of that base. He listed it without thinking twice.
Shortly after, orders to McConnell were in Harris’s hands.
“It finally clicked,” he said. “Oh my god, my dad is there. It was just all crazy, completely coincidental.”
The event brought them together and now they are working every day a few minutes from each other’s workplaces.
Despite their job differences, this father and son duo share remarkably similar traits. The apple didn’t fall far from the extroverted and outgoing tree. They try to find a way to bring positive energy to each of their career fields.
“In both of our fields, there's a stigma,” said Kumiyama. “But Jakob and I have that glass half full mindset. We know how to take a bad day and find the good in it. We need to know everyone's story, and can become friends with people in two seconds. People gravitate toward that.”
For Kumiyama and Harris, the full circle moment for them is a testament to the strength of connection despite the distance that many military families endure, reflecting a legacy and tradition from one generation to the next.
| Date Taken: | 06.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.12.2025 08:48 |
| Story ID: | 500380 |
| Location: | MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, KANSAS, US |
| Hometown: | CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Full circle moment: father and son serving together at McConnell AFB, by A1C Paula Arce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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