Amos Ben Simmons Jr. joined the Army Air Corps April 17, 1941.  Shortly after this, the Army Air Corps was renamed as the Army Air Forces.  He was stationed at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas and flew in a formation to honor a retiring Air Corps general a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor.  By late April or early May 1945, Simmons was stationed on Le-Shima Island.  On August 10, 1945 (the day after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki), Japanese bombers carrying Japanese officials landed on Le-Shima to discuss surrender and peace terms with General Douglas McArthur. In 1947, the Army Air Force became the United States Air Force.  Also that year, A.B. Simmons Jr. was stationed at Barksdale Field Shreveport/Bossier, Louisiana and became the crew chief for Captain Richard A. Knobloch, a Doolittle Raider.  He continued to serve as a technician and crew member off and on from 1947 to 1954. During the 1950s, Simmons was stationed in Bitburg, Germany with the 22nd Fighter Squadron and the 36th Fighter Wing.  Shortly after, he served as technical sergeant for the Skyblazers Aerial Demonstration Team from 1957 to 1958. In 1960 Simmons attended the Strategic Air Command Noncommissioned Officers Academy and retired from the Air Force five years later in 1965 as a Master Sergeant.