Denver grandparents helping solve the military's manpower problem

DENVER - Don't tell Betty and Joe Tinianow about the military's manpower problem. They've just contributed three grandchildren to the officer corps.

Not grandsons Brandon, Jeffrey or Ryan. The new second lieutenants are Natalie, Tracy and Casey - their granddaughters.

''I just find that a sign of the times. None of the boys wanted to go,'' said Betty. Five of the top ten graduates this year at the Air Force Academy were women.

Tracy was first, Casey sixth.

''I think women are showing that they have the ability to do as well or better in many fields, especially intellectual and leadership fields, as men,'' said Betty.

''I don't know if I will live to see it but I believe there will be a woman president,'' said Joe, 76, whose parents fled Russia during the revolution.

While twins Tracy and Casey, both 21, were graduating at the top of their class, Natalie, 22, managed to graduate with her class at West Point despite blowing a knee on an obstacle course. She has a screw in the injured knee.

''We went to both graduations,'' said Betty. Natalie is the daughter of the Tinianows' daughter, Gerri. The twins are the daughters of the Tinianows' son, Albert.

The twins have always been precocious and Betty wasn't surprised by their performance. ''They are in competition with each other all the time. I thought Natalie did miraculously just to keep up with the class and graduate after her surgery,'' she added.

It's not the Tinianows' first contribution to the military. Son Albert is a colonel and in charge of logistics for the Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs.

Joe was in the artillery in World War II. ''The only women around were nurses.'' He soon married Betty, a nurse.

Betty said the grandparents were able to keep a close eye on Natalie because she lived nearby. ''When she was in 10th or 11th grade she said she wanted to go into the military.

''The twins came down from Montana (where their father was stationed) about a year later and said they had seen a recruiter.''

Betty said both twins knew the hardships of a military life, and that it would mean the first real separation in their lives.

''From the time they poked their noses out they were Air Force brats, and they knew what they were getting into,'' said Betty.

''The Air Force has been wonderful to us. We've grown up in the Air Force, and the people are just phenomenal,'' said Casey on graduation day last week.

''Being a woman is no different than being a man here,'' added Tracy.

Their father, Albert, said, ''I think they wish they could start serving right now.''

Separated into different squadrons at the academy, the twins will be back together this fall. The Air Force is sending them to Northwestern University to become doctors.