Last modified: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 12:32 AM EDT From the military to Mansfield By Rick Foster/Sun Chronicle Staff MANSFIELD -- Col. Charles G. Hughes II, a career Marine Corps pilot, and Lt. Col. Karen Chambers-Hughes, an Air Force maintenance officer and inspector general, were married 11 years ago after they met at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa. Since then, the much-traveled military couple has maintained a partnership despite their separate careers, spending much of their later service years stationed at bases near each other in Virginia and North Carolina. When they retired at virtually the same time in March, they decided to start second careers and a new life in Mansfield, the town where Chambers-Hughes grew up. `` I never considered Mansfield a place to escape from,'' said Chambers-Hughes, who joined the Air Force after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. `` At home, I'd have the town Web site on my favorites list on my computer to see what was going on.'' After considering the alternatives, Chambers-Hughes said she and her husband decided to come back to Mansfield and are building a home on Plain Street -- the same street where her parents Hugh and Rose Chambers still live. Both Hughes and his wife have had eventful service careers dating from the early 1970s, when Hughes served in Vietnam and Japan. He later graduated from Marshall University and re-entered the Marines, this time as an officer and aviator. Much of Hughes's career has involved flying the AV8B Harrier, the Marines' unique vertical take off and landing jet made famous during Operation Desert Storm. Hughes, who later became a Harrier squadron commander, has more time than all but a few military pilots flying the later model of the legendary `` jump jet.'' Hughes, who grew up in West Virginia, is the son of Ellen and Charles Hughes of Milton, W.V. His father and two brothers were also members of the Marine Corps. Chambers-Hughes said a number of factors contributed to the couple's decision to come back to Mansfield: proximity to business and industry as a source of new careers, Massachusetts' lower sales tax and legislation that ends state taxation of military pensions. She also said she's impressed with Mansfield's record of public service. `` At home I'd read the selectmen's minutes, and to me it seemed like people there were trying to make the best decisions to benefit all of the town's residents,'' she said. Hughes and his wife have four daughters: Stephanie, Vanessa, Kristen and Alexis.