Jeffrey Alton Perkins

Maj. (Ret.) Jeffrey Alton Perkins, USAF, a 70-year-old resident of Niceville, passed away at his home on June 27, 2025. He had been in ill health for some time, and had been moved to hospice care several weeks ago.

Maj. (Ret.) Perkins was born at Castle Air Force Base near Merced, California, the son of Alton E. and Ruth Perkins. At Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California, he excelled as a student and an athlete, playing football, wrestling and track and field. After graduating from high school,  Maj. (Ret.) Perkins attended the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, graduating in 1977. He served for nearly 20 years as a navigator and bombardier on B-52s at Grand Forks AFB (SAC) in North Dakota, Mather AFB (SAC), in California, Offutt AFB (SAC) in Nebraska, and Barksdale AFB (SAC) in Louisiana where he retired. Early in his career he showed a skill in computers. He went on to write several programming books and worked as a programmer for Tybrin Corp. of Fort Walton Beach, Florida after retiring from the Air Force. 

Always an outstanding athlete, he competed in cycling races, triathlons, Ironmans, marathons and ultramarathons. He also developed into an outstanding ballroom dancer. He was an avid reader of science fiction and military history, a movie enthusiast and tried his hand at learning to play several musical instruments.

Maj. (Ret.) Perkins was a loving and devoted husband and father. He’s survived by his wife, Leslie; his daughter Laura Perkins and her son Malcolm Mangan of Alamogordo, New Mexico; his daughter Kelly Kildam, her husband Mathias Kildam and their daughters Sally and Lea of Vejen, Denmark; and his sister Valerie (Perkins) Tice and her husband Jeffrey Tice of Fair Oaks, California.