After serving 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, Stanford transitioned to an allied civilian job in airfield management for a further 20-year career.
Technical Sergeant Stanford was subsequently assigned to the Kingdom of Laos, along with Charles Larimore Jones, in early 1966 to advise General Vang Pao on air operations for the Laotian Civil War.
[4] Operation Steel Tiger began bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos on 3 April 1965.
Because no military aircraft were available, Stanford cadged rides with civilian pilots on hire by the Central Intelligence Agency.
"[7] Although he usually directed bombings by verbal description of the terrain, Stanford also resorted to directly dropping hand grenades in glass jars and scrounged 100-pound bombs to mark close air support targets for harried Royal Lao Army troops under attack.
He returned to Vietnam in late 1970 to serve with the 1198th Operational Evaluation and Training Squadron's Project Heavy Chain.
[10] After further assignments in Greenland and Arkansas, Stanford retired as a Senior Master Sergeant on 24 years service in January 1979.
He then worked in airfield supervision at Little Rock Air Force Base as a civilian employee until he retired from that job in 1999.