Debra A. (Fakan) Shattuck - Class of 1977
September 01, 2009
Debra A. (Fakan) Shattuck is a 1977 graduate of Vermilion High School. While at VHS, Debra was active in choir, band, and sports. She was inducted into the National Honor Society, voted “Most Athletic Girl,” and graduated in the top ten of her class. She was one of the first two girls ever authorized to wear the coveted Vermilion Varsity Jacket. (Class valedictorian, Chris Novotny, was the other.)
Debra earned an amazing eleven varsity letters in college and graduated with honors from Cedarville College in 1981. She served as a substitute teacher in Vermilion the following year and coached the ninth grade girls basketball team to an impressive 9-1 record.
She was commissioned in the Air Force in 1982 and had a distinguished military career that spanned more than two decades. Debra managed complex military organizations responsible for maintaining a wide variety of cargo and bomber aircraft and several different types of helicopters. She also established the Air Force’s first maintenance unit for the unique CV-22 OSPREY tilt-rotor aircraft. Debra earned a Masters Degree in history at Brown University and taught history at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
She earned two early promotions (to Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel) during her career and served on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. She was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 when the terrorists flew a hijacked jet into the building, killing 184 people. Debra retired from the Air Force in March 2008 and is currently writing the book: Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers for the University of Illinois Press. Debra married Cliff Shattuck in December 1983 and the couple have three wonderful children, David-24, Kristen-22, and Katie-20. Mrs. Shattuck will be escorted this evening by Senior Class President Mallory Roth and Senior Class Vice President Cameron Zima.
