00:02 - Oh.

00:55 - We're here with jim quigley he served in the u s air force in greenland.

01:00 - During the nineteen sixties up

01:01 - you enlisted in the air force in

01:03 - jan nineteen sixty how old were you at the time you made that decision.

01:07 - I was seventeen when I got out of high school and I was going to join the airforce

01:11 - and my parents said no out.

01:13 - You can't join with that are signature.

01:16 - Ten days after I turned eighteen I signed myself in.

01:20 - In september nineteenth sixty.

01:22 - And a way I went I went to lackland air force base down in san antone texas.

01:28 - And we're recording this in september right after your birthday so happy birthday to

01:31 - you your eighty one years old now I guess.

01:34 - What we're doing at the time.

01:36 - You've graduated high school I presume and and

01:38 - what what what was part of your factors of your decision to enter the military.

01:42 - Wide air force well I always loved airplanes and I

01:45 - I had the idea that I was going to be a jet engine mechanic.

01:50 - You know I had a I was up and.

01:52 - Where do you call them a motorhead I took my car apart all the time.

01:55 - And I was going to be a jet engine mechanic so I joined air force to be a jet engine

02:00 - mechanic.

02:01 - And the ash fab test which.

02:04 - That your aptitude test aptitude test said I didn't have the aptitude to be a jet

02:09 - engine mechanic

02:10 - but at age eighteen I was smarter than the average bear you know.

02:15 - At that age you know everything.

02:17 - I said what does the air force know I joined under the mechanical revealed

02:22 - to be a jet engine mechanic

02:23 - and I did not.

02:25 - My scores weren't high enough to get into.

02:28 - To jet engine mechanic school.

02:30 - So the air force made me a truck driver

02:33 - I was a.

02:34 - A vehicle operator that.

02:36 - Was going to o j t on a job training and I was station itself ridge air force base

02:41 - michigan.

02:43 - Before you went to michigan itself a job you were inducted we inducted locally here

02:47 - where in perry county pennsylvania.

02:49 - Where were you inducted.

02:51 - Not want to new cumberland the.

02:53 - Do cumberland army depot.

02:55 - Originally I was from le moyne which is across the river from harrisburg.

02:59 - And if we

03:00 - do anything we did through harrisburg the.

03:03 - New cumberland was the entrance point for army navy everything if draft age went

03:08 - through a new car when

03:09 - I was an endless d so I didn't go

03:11 - I wasn't drafted.

03:12 - We were down air for our physical and

03:15 - and.

03:16 - Left from their

03:17 - took off or lachlan.

03:19 - When we spoke on the phone you mentioned that hiaa used to be called olmsted

03:23 - can you talk about.

03:24 - That bass

03:25 - and what we're doing when you first entered the military

03:27 - well at.

03:29 - That age a chain I knew everything so my plans were very simple.

03:33 - You know that.

03:34 - If eighteen year old mind is the

03:37 - kind of limited

03:38 - and I was dating the young lady of my life and.

03:42 - I was going to join the airforce and after

03:45 - twenty years of being a jet engine mechanic.

03:47 - I was going to be married happily with two kids and live and work at olmsted air

03:51 - force base.

03:53 - Down in middletown which at that time was an a an aircraft overhaul facility.

03:58 - That was very

03:59 - big

04:00 - during the war.

04:02 - In nineteen sixty four a closed.

04:05 - So.

04:06 - Another one of my plants went down to to my girlfriend ran off with a roommate

04:11 - I couldn't get to what I wanted an air force.

04:13 - The air force base I wanted to get station at closed and.

04:17 - That's kind of over three there for awhile.

04:19 - So when you enter the air force they give you that aptitude test us.

04:23 - Air force specialty code

04:25 - is something you can choose a similar to the mls in the army.

04:28 - A what specialty did you choose

04:30 - and what did you get assigned as as at what you're talking about with the aircraft

04:34 - mechanic versus the truck driver.

04:36 - I was

04:37 - promised air force mechanic that's what I went in at

04:40 - and a recruiter

04:41 - now these guys didn't lie don't get me wrong.

04:44 - Their lips are moving so they were lying.

04:47 - This guy said you will be a

04:49 - engine mechanic

04:50 - and there were people who had.

04:52 - a

04:53 - promissory notes from recruiters

04:55 - we got off the bus at lackland and they said anybody who has a note a promissory note

05:00 - handed to me and everybody handed him there note

05:03 - and the guy to thank you very much and as

05:07 - we went away they threw them into trash can.

05:08 - And I became a six one three one oh which was a vehicle operator.

05:13 - One oh entrance level I ended up as a seven oh which I was a

05:17 - qualified to drive anything.

05:19 - With wheels tracks treads anything else after

05:22 - my military experience.

05:24 - So after olmsted how how long were you

05:27 - there where and when did you get to selfridge how did you get to

05:30 - well again I.

05:31 - That I never got the olmsted I went through new cumberland.

05:35 - My goal was to get the armstead.

05:38 - Hometown

05:38 - the cross the river.

05:40 - Etc.

05:41 - After I got out of basic I went to self ridge air force base out in detroit

05:46 - what'd you do basic.

05:47 - Lachlan san antone

05:49 - so you flew from

05:50 - this area

05:51 - to texas yes

05:53 - and

05:53 - tell me about lachlan what were your first impressions getting off fidget you flew

05:57 - down there I'd taken or to take a train

05:59 - where we flew down to two was.

06:01 - I go I knew it was fort worth or somewhere I forget where it was one of those.

06:05 - Night trains I I held a.

06:08 - Got onto the plane

06:09 - we flew from new carmel and of washington

06:12 - and from washington we got on one of these night freight flights that was.

06:18 - Record a plane all yeah yeah i'm

06:20 - hoping it would go and I held a baby.

06:24 - A mother was there then only had two seats and she had three kids and she and she was

06:28 - there and I held his tiny baby.

06:30 - Who was sleeping or we got down to lachlan and she got up I should.

06:33 - You pay.

06:35 - You want to take this here I I can't go to basic training carrying a baby.

06:39 - But

06:40 - that was the first experience I had was

06:42 - when we got off the bus at lackland air was a guide their who was probably six eight.

06:48 - And he said about.

06:50 - What is your serial number.

06:52 - While

06:52 - they gave you a serial number so I

06:54 - did you haven't memorized to that point

06:56 - know at that point I didn't but I was on the back of the bus and as these guys got

07:01 - off the bus here was this.

07:03 - Gentleman who was kind of.

07:05 - Loud.

07:06 - Screaming at your serial number

07:08 - and by the time I got off that bus.

07:11 - I knew my serial number and to this day I know my serial number

07:15 - thanks to that gorilla who screamed at right in my head when I got

07:19 - that was my first impression of texas.

07:21 - Was that tall guy was the a drill sergeant what was his role.

07:24 - Greeting you guys like that

07:26 - I thought it was probably got himself at that point whenever I saw him he would he

07:30 - was a drill sergeant he was a three or four striper who was.

07:33 - Work for the

07:34 - work for lachlan work for the air force and.

07:37 - He was.

07:38 - Did you have any preconceptions about what basic training would be like you are an

07:42 - athlete in high school I take it.

07:45 - No they they said about basic was going to be this going to be

07:48 - you know going to be rough and everything else and a bunch of us at the.

07:53 - Enlisted together we're athlete so we we ran

07:58 - and worked out when we went to base sick.

07:58 - We even had short hair and we got the basic

08:02 - and they were going to shave our heads which didn't take much because we had real

08:05 - short hair.

08:06 - And when they say we're going gonna go out and we're going to do push ups and we're

08:09 - going to run we

08:10 - we ran and did it.

08:12 - No problem basic was absolutely no problem physically because we were in good shape.

08:17 - So you're

08:18 - at san antonio what was the name of the basic and down there lackland air force base

08:22 - how big is lackland and and tell me about your barracks and

08:25 - your first day there what was that like

08:27 - the bear the

08:28 - lachlan was where everybody an air force went to basic training.

08:33 - How big it was a.

08:34 - I don't I don't know the actual

08:36 - to drive from place to play

08:38 - are we able to march from place to play march from place to place in fact.

08:41 - On

08:42 - I remember thursday morning we had to march.

08:45 - From point a to point b it took us like an

08:49 - hour and a half to get there and we got shots.

08:50 - You line up and you get a shot whatever it is and you mark back to the

08:54 - to the barrick.

08:56 - For years I hated needles I didn't want to get a shot I didn't like shot.

09:01 - But that on thursday morning we went from point a to point b got a shot and when we

09:05 - got back

09:06 - half the day was gone we went to lunch and I was one half day less.

09:10 - That we had to spend and basic

09:11 - sounds like a long way to walk must be a pretty big bass oh it was huge

09:16 - but marching doesn't take you know you don't go to the.

09:19 - The barracks were opened bay barracks meaning that the.

09:22 - They were world war two bags and they had.

09:25 - Double bunks rows of double bunks thirty five guys on the first floor thirty five

09:30 - guys upstairs.

09:31 - The end of the barracks was the le train was the.

09:35 - You know a couple of urinals couple of commodes and of and a big shower room.

09:39 - Did you have to maintain the barracks as party or duties when you're in basic.

09:43 - Well this is something

09:44 - very few people will remember

09:46 - when we got there somebody said

09:48 - ask your questions anybody know anything about

09:53 - cleaning and I like a fool I raised my hand

09:53 - I became.

09:54 - The latrine king queen I was kernel of the urinal.

09:58 - For the time I was in basic training so I was in charge of cleaning

10:03 - maintaining the

10:04 - latrine

10:05 - the bathroom.

10:06 - And I had a crew of five guys who I blushed around to make sure everything was.

10:11 - Spit trying to find a dandy

10:13 - is that kind of thing was inspected by your drill sergeant.

10:16 - Lay the one guy came down there and and went into the shower.

10:20 - Drug each foot across the floor and the shower and said

10:23 - soap scale.

10:25 - And I looked at it and I

10:26 - guess there are soap scale he said you know what that means I said

10:29 - no series that get slippery.

10:32 - And he said hey by slip and fall in the shower at your button all this kind of stuff.

10:36 - So my crew and I scoured on pants and nice we scoured the shower stall which was.

10:42 - Probably

10:43 - fifteen by fifteen.

10:44 - And got to soap scum off the floor.

10:47 - And the next inspection he was very impressed he said that that good

10:51 - that's fine

10:52 - so

10:52 - so how long was a basic training at lackland going to me.

10:55 - I was a eight eight or nine weeks I forget exactly what it was.

11:00 - At the end of the

11:01 - time.

11:02 - They.

11:03 - After

11:04 - partway through basic all the tech schools came down.

11:08 - Where the guys who were going to missile

11:11 - maintenance and and electronics and all that.

11:12 - You went from.

11:14 - Lachlan to your.

11:15 - Text school what it was keesler mississippi or

11:18 - denver colorado or wherever.

11:20 - Well of course I didn't go you know I was going to be o j t.

11:24 - And this was one of the.

11:26 - Things I had a little problem with in my flight in the air force.

11:30 - We had seventy two guys at the lowest.

11:34 - I'm sorry the average education of that flight was fourteen to.

11:39 - Meaning.

11:41 - High schools twelve

11:42 - two and a half years of college.

11:44 - There were a lot of college graduates in.

11:48 - My outfit.

11:49 - And a lot of those guys.

11:51 - Didn't go anywhere except to

11:54 - field may entrance which was commode duty.

11:57 - Truck driving which is what I got supply food serviced air police.

12:01 - These were.

12:03 - On the job training these weren't tech schools.

12:06 - And are drill sergeant and

12:07 - this is something

12:08 - people don't realize.

12:09 - Our drill sergeant never yelled he was a.

12:12 - Heyday just casually said you you zhao call

12:15 - gentlemen you gentlemen are all smart.

12:17 - As long as you listen to what I'm saying.

12:21 - I won't go.

12:23 - I won't go crazy I won't go bananas.

12:26 - Don't screw up.

12:27 - We believed him we didn't screw up

12:29 - when the orders came out he apologized to.

12:33 - The

12:33 - a lot of the guys

12:34 - who said I am ashamed at the air force is not utilizing.

12:39 - Some of the abilities that the you guys have you called ej graduates have.

12:43 - He said it it it's a shame that the air force is going to.

12:47 - Put one guy.

12:49 - Forget his name.

12:50 - He was going to be and an air policeman he was going to go to.

12:53 - Air police school which means he was going to be.

12:56 - Beer

12:56 - of.

12:58 - The or.

12:59 - Law enforcement officer which was fine and dandy but he was also had a degree and.

13:03 - Like psychology or education or something that he was gonna be a cop.

13:07 - And

13:08 - he apologize as because air for.

13:11 - Wasn't going to be using.

13:13 - Some of the guys to the best of their ability so.

13:16 - Besides the latrine duty and the marching what was a typical day at basic like.

13:21 - Got up but.

13:22 - Got up at the the

13:24 - the

13:24 - the alarm of the.

13:26 - Be a pa system would have tab or a rebel a you know gotta get up you gotta get up at.

13:32 - At five of five in the morning.

13:34 - And by by.

13:36 - Five five ten or something you ride in the street on formation.

13:40 - You know

13:41 - and after you get up.

13:43 - You get up every morning it

13:45 - to same time.

13:46 - After a couple of weeks I would be awake at like ten of.

13:49 - Before the.

13:51 - Rebels and I would get up and very

13:53 - very quiet lately get dressed

13:56 - make my bed and wondered I get into street I'd walk out in the street and.

14:01 - A nervous a guy.

14:02 - Named carl writhe.

14:04 - Easy to remember cause it had a hair lip and his name was coral roof.

14:09 - Coral risk came out and formation one morning.

14:13 - And it was he was about ten mg it's late and he walked out and he said.

14:16 - I just can't get up this early and are drill sergeant remember the gut never raised

14:21 - his voice.

14:22 - Said all.

14:24 - That's too bad

14:25 - maybe I can help you.

14:28 - Okay so the next morning at ten of five I'm awake.

14:32 - Sarge is on top of the

14:34 - bunk

14:34 - to bunks down corals bone.

14:38 - At five of five you hear thump.

14:41 - Sarge kicked carl writhe.

14:45 - Bed

14:45 - on to the barracks floor.

14:47 - And for the next six weeks I was one of the first guys in the street for formation.

14:53 - Right behind.

14:54 - Carl writhe

14:55 - he was out there waiting for us.

14:57 - Somewhere in this great country there's a guy named carl writhe who is probably still

15:02 - getting up at ten minutes five.

15:04 - Every morning.

15:06 - You mentioned before that your units were called flights or europe.

15:09 - Your slides or whatever.

15:11 - That's because you're in the

15:12 - air force for

15:13 - one how many people were in that room did you say.

15:16 - There were.

15:17 - The two stories to the building and how many

15:20 - how many people to jaw operate as one unit or whether to separate the flights

15:24 - for and flight eleven one nine dish ten I.

15:27 - Remember that I dunno.

15:29 - Lebanon nine to ten over seventy two guys in that flight.

15:33 - Or to drill sergeants one

15:35 - that was there.

15:36 - During the day and occasionally there would be of substituted night.

15:40 - In the afternoon but for the most part

15:42 - nine o'clock lights out

15:44 - we had a beret we had

15:45 - somebody on.

15:46 - Bar

15:46 - guard or though somebody up

15:48 - but there were seventy two guys in that flight

15:51 - and that.

15:53 - I guess the army call that a platoon or of but.

15:56 - I don't know

15:56 - anything about the army

15:57 - was everyone able to keep up with the demands of military training.

16:01 - Anybody drop out

16:02 - of that flight.

16:04 - There was one guy who was the first couple of weeks you get there you're caught a

16:07 - rainbow because you all have different clothes on.

16:10 - And.

16:11 - They take you over the barracks a stripped down run your through the shower and issue

16:15 - your clothes.

16:16 - That you you have

16:18 - I still have some of mine obviously.

16:20 - And.

16:21 - Then then your.

16:23 - You go to basic training there's one guy did not have an elbow.

16:27 - The

16:28 - picture somebody without an elbow.

16:30 - And how he was in basic training so

16:32 - we're marching in this guy his.

16:35 - Arms going everywhere.

16:37 - Yeah his aren't flopping around says sarge said.

16:41 - Excuse me and

16:42 - I hit a

16:43 - it used a lot of

16:44 - four letter words or I got to talk about but he wasn't loud.

16:48 - And he asked this guy how he got in the service.

16:52 - Without an elbow and the guy said well I would I did and he said well you go over and

16:57 - repay port to

16:58 - and of course they sent him home about a third day of basic he was.

17:02 - How he got in it beyond me.

17:05 - What kind of

17:05 - weapons did you train on and when did you start using weapons was adam basic or the

17:09 - next stage

17:10 - their air force the.

17:11 - We could we went to the firing range.

17:15 - When out there and we fired and one carbines

17:18 - a

17:18 - thirty caliber

17:19 - car been

17:20 - we did not have weapons in the barracks we were not issued a weapon.

17:24 - The airport in believe that in fact

17:26 - even overseas we didn't we didn't have guns

17:29 - we.

17:30 - Went out to the flight or out to the

17:32 - firing range and you're fired.

17:34 - And you got expert or whatever whatever whatever if you

17:37 - scored high enough you didn't have to go back out there.

17:40 - And.

17:42 - So that that was the only weapon I ever fired in the military

17:45 - jad you're fired law firearms before on when you're younger

17:48 - oh yeah it was a hunter

17:50 - to.

17:51 - Yeah I.

17:52 - Fired a lot of different

17:53 - different types of weapons nothing.

17:55 - About the

17:56 - one car being with the semi automatic thirty caliber thing.

18:00 - Of.

18:00 - I never fired one of those but.

18:03 - In basic we did.

18:05 - So you're in texas san antonio and your time to move on to your next stage of your

18:10 - training.

18:11 - How'd you get there and and

18:13 - what did you

18:14 - did you have to be trained as a truck driver or can you talk about

18:17 - that first day that you are having that kind of training

18:20 - yeah we.

18:21 - We got when you got out of basic.

18:24 - Basic training is over okay okay and they're

18:28 - going to there's going to be a time when.

18:29 - They arrange transportation

18:30 - with bus travel or

18:32 - whatever

18:33 - train greyhound whatever wherever.

18:35 - You got assignment to go to your next base and you had four days should get there for

18:39 - days travel time.

18:41 - Based on common carrier.

18:43 - In other words from a greyhound bus point of view from san antonio

18:47 - to detroit michigan it was going to be like two and a half days.

18:51 - On the bus so they gave you for days travel time.

18:55 - I went to the airport got a

18:57 - ticket and flew to

18:59 - new cumberland I flew home.

19:01 - I came home for four days before I went out to michigan.

19:04 - But in the time at all right after basic was over.

19:08 - There was a time like

19:09 - two days three days or a week.

19:11 - You're in a bag with nothing to do so they would come around and I'd say you you you.

19:16 - Get out here and.

19:18 - They assign me I was an assistant.

19:21 - Call him t I.

19:23 - Training instructor not not drill instructor training instructor

19:26 - I was a t I for about a week

19:29 - and my job was to yell and scream at these guys to

19:32 - get in step and teach them how to march and all that kind of stuff and I I really

19:36 - didn't like that I mean never.

19:38 - That wasn't me I'm not a yeller not a screamer.

19:41 - So then after that I came home

19:43 - then went to michigan.

19:46 - So michigan was selfridge air force base what was your first day like there and I can

19:51 - talk about that first story about.

19:53 - Driving a truck.

19:55 - What's your aptitude

19:56 - day I got out there.

19:58 - I assign or they go to the transit barracks you go there and you're there for a

20:01 - couple of days and you check into base you go round and you find out where the.

20:05 - The dental clinic is in the hospital in the chow hall your you clear in

20:09 - and then you go to your duty section you say here I am here's my orders and all this.

20:14 - So I went to.

20:15 - A duty section which was a motor pool.

20:18 - And a motor pool was whatever it was it was

20:21 - all the vehicles that

20:22 - were

20:23 - in the on base were assigned to the motor pool.

20:26 - Whether

20:26 - there were two guys in charge to tech sergeant one was a little black haired guy.

20:31 - From a pennsylvania he he he wasn't a bad guy he was alright.

20:35 - The other guy was a big ballhead a guy named ogden.

20:38 - Sergeant ogden looked exactly like

20:40 - the like ernie.

20:42 - Bill co or no time for sergeant.

20:44 - And with just about as ignorant he's a guy that would spit tobacco juice.

20:49 - In the leaf pile and then tell somebody

20:53 - gather up those leaves and put them into bags.

20:54 - So I went over and saw that tobacco juice and I

20:56 - that I won't do that and.

20:58 - A.

20:59 - It was all right because it was

21:01 - that was cut out of the

21:02 - picture.

21:03 - Anyway at this this a motor pool was about to sign eyes of a football field.

21:08 - Or with one vehicle.

21:10 - Of blue sixty one ford pickup sitting in the vehicle.

21:13 - Sitting in the field

21:15 - a nice guys came up in nature

21:16 - to

21:17 - the.

21:17 - Air mid career and I went over and I said you know what dishes and they held up a key

21:21 - I said.

21:22 - Key he used do.

21:24 - That good key.

21:26 - You say if you you can find what this fits.

21:29 - Bring it over here this is a ford pickup truck key or the ford pickup and

21:34 - drop in the.

21:35 - Yard I thought.

21:38 - Check it out.

21:39 - I went over my dad had a gas station and I was around vehicles I know that when you.

21:44 - Get a strange vehicle first into check the oil and walk around it make sure it's all

21:49 - there so I did that.

21:50 - I go to and a key fit

21:52 - the hey this is great

21:53 - and it started

21:54 - whoa.

21:55 - I adjusted the mirror and I drove over over.

21:58 - A nice two guys were standing air.

22:01 - And and the

22:01 - sergeant ogden and big guy put his hand over his mouth and said to sergeant demko the

22:06 - other guys and.

22:08 - I believe of guys going to be a good one who's pretty smart.

22:12 - I had found the truck that the key fit because it was the only truck there

22:16 - but you also did the observational look at the truck which would you would do and

22:21 - you're when you're expecting the truck before

22:23 - you go out and you want to make sure it's.

22:24 - Roadworthy and whatnot so you did the right things and that regard.

22:27 - Of that's why I was consider.

22:29 - Your ears later when I was in this this app outfit.

22:33 - I was.

22:34 - I had to go to a records check.

22:37 - And up under

22:37 - your once a year you go up and they pull your records and make sure your

22:41 - allotment search squared away and all that

22:43 - and on my.

22:45 - On my

22:46 - folder I had they had stamp subversive.

22:49 - Why was that.

22:50 - Cause I was a high school graduate

22:52 - but you are also with com

22:53 - graduates in your flight.

22:55 - Where those also labeled that way why why was that label out there there were no have

23:00 - no college graduates

23:01 - in the motor pool at selfridge when I got there.

23:04 - Most of the guys were.

23:07 - Staff sergeant to

23:09 - just nineteen sixty.

23:11 - These guys were some of them more gunners on be seventeen during the war and they

23:15 - stayed in they were staff sergeants they were he five.

23:18 - And a they stayed in and they were truck drivers and.

23:22 - Eighth grade education the guy I work for.

23:24 - Cornelius stanley wonderful guy.

23:28 - He made he was a three striper same as me and he couldn't read or write.

23:32 - And I I said

23:33 - dan you you got a little problem with the written word he said all I do all right I

23:37 - should let me.

23:38 - Help you have I have a major report card at.

23:42 - Called a form seventy five

23:43 - he filled out your report card

23:45 - and he would say

23:46 - todd is a good guy

23:49 - todd does a nice job

23:51 - and on a scale one to ten he rated you a ten.

23:54 - Well to be a ten

23:56 - you had to.

23:57 - Be something more than a good guy.

24:00 - And he said i'm right you as a ten but.

24:02 - Nobody got promoted.

24:04 - So I said stand let me help you you know the guys I do

24:08 - every guy talk to them all evaluate 'em I'll write a.

24:11 - I'll give them.

24:12 - Where they are you know good guy bad guy whatever.

24:16 - And and

24:16 - after stand and I.

24:18 - Formed filled out form seventy five.

24:21 - Not everybody but most people in the outfit got promoted era guys who are two three

24:25 - four years without a promotion.

24:27 - All these guys got promoted

24:29 - stand didn't buy a beer for a long time.

24:32 - People thought boy sudan and he

24:34 - really was kind of you behind the the through.

24:36 - I told him iso standards.

24:38 - This is

24:39 - this was a grown man who was illiterate.

24:42 - And you don't you know all go out to ha ha you can't read or write.

24:46 - You know I I knew that and I will she compassionate stand was

24:50 - a great guy.

24:51 - And I I said

24:52 - stan I see you have trouble with the written word target by I do all right as yeah

24:57 - you do all right but.

25:00 - So being

25:01 - subversive.

25:03 - As a high school graduate stand and I filled out the forms and we got.

25:08 - You know.

25:09 - Now the selfridge base was where the red tails were based

25:12 - but it was also sort of a

25:13 - in northern part of the country.

25:15 - What was the

25:16 - time of.

25:17 - It was in the sixties you were there.

25:19 - What was the atmosphere like around the base

25:23 - of and and what will your duties up there.

25:23 - A dirty

25:24 - was I was in the motor pool I was a truck driver and being.

25:28 - Somewhat.

25:29 - Ambitious.

25:30 - Driving of.

25:32 - Pickup truck around a basically.

25:34 - That was fine we were taxis.

25:36 - And on my day off I would go to the duty section and

25:39 - check out a different vehicle.

25:41 - A cherry picker a tug a forklift a wrecker

25:45 - learn new stuff yeah.

25:47 - So I was

25:48 - I was kind of.

25:49 - Like these guys said we've got a good one here yeah well I was kind of a good one.

25:54 - And

25:54 - during that during that period of time or everything was.

25:58 - You know we had airplanes and we did everything and then when cuban

26:01 - missile crisis broke up.

26:03 - Whole new ballgame.

26:05 - So you said you around airplanes and stuff did

26:07 - you

26:07 - one to maintain the planes but did you get to interact with a.

26:11 - The people that did that or or

26:13 - tell us about

26:13 - did you move around planes with trucks are or how does that work I was I was in

26:18 - transportation squadron

26:20 - and field maintenance that to the operation that on

26:22 - on the flight line.

26:24 - They do all the mechanical work on the aircraft.

26:27 - They were short a bunch of people so they.

26:30 - They assigned us truck drivers to go down to field maintenance.

26:35 - Now what we did there would deliver equipment to aircraft we occasionally we would to

26:40 - an airplane from point a to point b

26:43 - but we didn't actually work on the planes were that wasn't our field.

26:46 - We did support support group with the.

26:49 - Issue tens and mb forties these these

26:52 - power equipment for the aircrew half.

26:55 - An hour down on the flight line.

26:57 - I loved it down there because I could be around airplanes and.

27:00 - Every now and then at night shift or be a plane come in like a of saber jet and i'd

27:05 - take the.

27:05 - Lift up the nose of it and see where the cannons are the machine guns fit and put boy

27:10 - this is great you know.

27:11 - But I I was around planes of.

27:14 - One one guy.

27:15 - I watched posted to do this but I I plugged in a starter.

27:19 - In this guy said started up and and I.

27:22 - You know.

27:24 - So they were like manually started with a

27:28 - some kind of apparatus while you plugged the

27:28 - like a battery charger okay

27:30 - you're plugged this power he

27:31 - in and at aircraft which startup

27:33 - and the thing belched out some fuel and was on fire.

27:37 - So here's this guy up there telling me to do this and

27:39 - shaking his fist and he's on fire

27:41 - and I'm saying

27:42 - a jumping up and down

27:44 - he have given me all the grief and then you know

27:46 - not very happy

27:48 - and a someone else looked out and they pulled the plane forward it was a.

27:52 - It occasionally happened where of of jp forward belch out.

27:56 - Little puddle about that big catch fire didn't hurt anything but listen jp for.

28:01 - The jet fuel

28:02 - okay

28:02 - kerosene

28:03 - kind of the designation for it.

28:05 - So I.

28:05 - Poured out somehow caught on fire up to the fire get put out by

28:09 - clue that are nearly pulled forward and this little puddle just

28:12 - the by turned out yeah burned out.

28:14 - So

28:15 - you had mentioned when we talk previously a some some of the equipment you used.

28:19 - An m

28:20 - to four eight wrecker

28:21 - that sounds like a pretty big piece of equipment what was that.

28:24 - Were not when I got the tooley.

28:28 - There I was I was a truly and the.

28:31 - Are there were openings and heavy equipment section.

28:35 - You could drive a.

28:37 - Vehicle operator was of taxi driver.

28:39 - You just drive.

28:40 - Had a radio go pick up somebody at the base option is the officers may be or someone

28:44 - needs to get around even get on the phone you could go call for a ride and tulane

28:48 - it's and a vehicle ruth pick you up.

28:51 - That

28:52 - the vehicles were.

28:53 - They were international for.

28:55 - Four wheel drive for door pickups that were so worn out.

28:59 - That deceit

29:01 - with

29:01 - nothing more than a cloth over a board.

29:04 - And instead of sitting there like this the the doors were like this you had to sit up

29:09 - to cause they were.

29:10 - The roads are so bad and the equipment was so bad that.

29:13 - You know

29:14 - and.

29:15 - The one day they say we got an opening over in the

29:18 - heavy equipment anybody want to go over there

29:20 - anybody have any record time like

29:22 - yeah I drove

29:23 - did you drive a record when you're itself at the mission yeah

29:26 - I I went.

29:27 - I went with a guy named clemens or.

29:30 - Who was a.

29:31 - Or operator their selfridge

29:33 - and I said your mind or five ride along with you and and he he.

29:36 - You know he showed me how to start this thing and.

29:38 - How to run it and.

29:40 - It allows I was.

29:42 - Fairly good with it and I got to.

29:44 - A and m two four six wrecker.

29:47 - Is a bigger wrecker then I had itself fridge

29:49 - but it was still the same it was still at the pictures of a big ol 'em series.

29:54 - High fenders and all that good stuff.

29:56 - So I got on that and I got I got pretty good with the record record

30:00 - the I always said I could pick your pocket with a wreck her.

30:03 - With the boom.

30:04 - The let's go back to selfridge a second we were we're forward to greenland there

30:07 - during the cubans

30:08 - cuban missile crisis era that was october

30:11 - nineteen sixty two that's about sixty one years ago

30:14 - what was the atmosphere the base like and what was happening during that time.

30:17 - All we knew that we were going to war.

30:21 - I.

30:22 - I was out that evening I

30:24 - for the most part I didn't go to town very often.

30:27 - That one night I went to town I stayed too late drank too much

30:31 - and I was back in the barracks and it was about.

30:34 - Four and a morning I'd gotten in about midnight I guess about for in the morning.

30:39 - Alert siren went off.

30:41 - And they.

30:42 - Bark guy should come around everybody there go to work you had to go to work

30:46 - of dang dang dang

30:47 - siren go to work.

30:49 - And I said well.

30:50 - You didn't see me leave me alone get away from mesa now I suggest a surreal.

30:54 - So I go down on a flight line.

30:56 - Flight liners where they had to plane.

30:59 - And that was

30:59 - that was pretty.

31:02 - Pretty g I might say it and know he had to have lined pastas

31:06 - and

31:06 - security pass to get on base

31:09 - and we go down there and here's everybody running around I mean I never saw so many

31:13 - people in the flight line

31:14 - maybe a little lax on the security of because of the cast of the situation chaos was

31:18 - the word yeah so we went down.

31:20 - I went down and a good on

31:22 - a the

31:22 - a.

31:22 - Line I had my pr

31:23 - here's some guy on a bathrobe.

31:27 - Yeah.

31:27 - I got a bathrobe and flightline I said whoa hold it right there at a.

31:32 - Where's your security passionate guy looked at me he said you recognize me.

31:36 - And I said no I don't I don't recognize anybody in a bathrobe he said I'm colonel

31:41 - would base commander.

31:43 - I said well what can I do for your kernel he said were.

31:47 - This is hot.

31:48 - So we were

31:49 - we were putting.

31:51 - We had f one o six delta daggers delta dart

31:54 - our airplanes.

31:56 - And we were arming them with falcon missiles air to air missiles

31:59 - and a thing called a genie.

32:01 - A genius about dead big about that big around wait about five six hundred pounds.

32:07 - And it had a little cart that you put this thing on his

32:09 - pump it up and it will go up into the aircraft you put depends on it

32:13 - and the crew chief would hit a switch and air would pull that

32:16 - the weapon up into the aircraft.

32:18 - So we're

32:19 - we're over there ain't good overheard of they're all these guys

32:23 - shoulder to shoulder lifting.

32:25 - This genie.

32:26 - We didn't have enough

32:27 - bomb cart and I said what

32:29 - what the hell is this is this is janie.

32:32 - I remember I

32:33 - come in.

32:34 - Pretty bad shape when I got on a lot so I said

32:37 - hi jenny how the gone you know.

32:39 - Talked old jayne

32:41 - and as what the hell is jeannie they said it's a nuclear weapon.

32:45 - I should let's be real careful with janie gentlemen let's be gentle.

32:49 - So that

32:50 - that was

32:51 - what were your thoughts during this time had you been following what was going on

32:54 - with the crisis between.

32:56 - United states and russia at that point somewhat

32:58 - somewhat.

32:59 - We knew that the.

33:01 - At of debate you go to what you go to work

33:05 - in your be accrued to be a list of the guise.

33:06 - Of.

33:07 - First twenty five guys were going to go to elgin air force base down in florida.

33:12 - So r f one oh sixers everything went on base

33:15 - all the supplier support equipment would be purged.

33:19 - Know where to stick a c o two bottle in the gas tank and blow it out so.

33:24 - There's no gas in it and you put her on a cargo plane a one twenty four one thirty

33:28 - one thirty three whatever we had

33:30 - and it flew out so that their was nothing left on that airbase except.

33:36 - May.

33:36 - A guy named john blanco who.

33:38 - He's picture of him he died a couple of years ago.

33:41 - We were the support outfits for the aircraft.

33:45 - Okay.

33:46 - Now.

33:47 - There's no aircraft

33:48 - and were the support outfit.

33:50 - So during that time they pay put a perimeter around the shelters which held the one

33:56 - those sixers.

33:57 - I remember there were no one of the sixes.

33:59 - And the shelters every

34:01 - every time you went by their the one door would be up a little bit you'd see the

34:05 - front tire nose red.

34:07 - Remove before flight strips okay.

34:10 - And

34:10 - this thing was all sandbagged machine england

34:13 - and

34:13 - I have.

34:15 - What they call me on the radio and to go over to shelter so and so and do the

34:19 - so I go up to this.

34:21 - Access area

34:23 - and a guy that I was in judah with money fricker

34:26 - pretty good guy he was standing there he had

34:30 - an air cooled thirty caliber machine gun.

34:31 - And I went by and I say I don't I gotta go through harry said you can't get the

34:35 - through here I said well.

34:36 - My boss says go through here.

34:39 - And he said my boss says if you come through here I gotta shoot yeah I said well wait

34:42 - a minute who

34:43 - are we on here.

34:45 - A he said

34:46 - don't come through here

34:47 - and he.

34:48 - Was there was a lot of

34:49 - fear of communism at that point it could you could have been an infiltrator who knows

34:53 - right

34:53 - could have been anybody you could think of.

34:55 - So I go back to the headquarters and I am very upset in so many words I say

35:01 - excuse me

35:02 - you sent me in there

35:04 - and your guy was going to shoot me

35:05 - what is going on

35:07 - and the guy said did he shoot yeah I said no he said well you're going over the line

35:11 - he would.

35:12 - I said you need something over that line you over that line I'm not going over that

35:15 - line on.

35:16 - Every night.

35:18 - We moved at airplane from one shelter to another shelter this will the hangar queen.

35:23 - Or

35:23 - engine and what's a okay I see it was an overhaul.

35:26 - Were they trying to deceive someone who might have thought there are a planes there.

35:30 - As you drove by that base at harrods a shelters

35:33 - to every every night there'd be a

35:35 - gorby open a little bit further so every night you go by there

35:38 - are the one of those six and a.

35:40 - Want to six and day one of six and f b

35:43 - every night there was a one o six at a different shelter.

35:46 - It was this.

35:47 - Same aircraft.

35:49 - Moved to every shelter.

35:51 - And I said what what are we doing here

35:53 - in the guy said.

35:54 - With there we don't know nope there are spies we don't know who

35:58 - but for the most part.

36:00 - Anybody drives by this airplay we are guarding

36:03 - the shelters which are full of airplanes.

36:07 - Which artful airplanes but nobody else except you and I know that

36:11 - it's of some reason the russians were able to

36:13 - see down from the skies which we didn't have a lot of satellites back then but.

36:16 - Could have been boots on the ground looking at where our

36:19 - deployments are and.

36:21 - We hiding that we went some of 'em to florida.

36:23 - Out of the

36:24 - audit the alert barnes we still kept for f one oh six

36:28 - out there

36:29 - fully this is

36:30 - that when you see

36:31 - you know the collection horn ugo

36:33 - and a pilots run out jump

36:34 - a plane that's where that happen.

36:36 - That was a alert barnes that was separate from everything else.

36:41 - At the base

36:42 - for the most part was totally empty there was nothing there.

36:46 - And they would

36:46 - it.

36:47 - On the flight line you went five mile an hour that was it because of

36:51 - running an airplane.

36:52 - So I was at a duty section which was a couple of hundred yards down the

36:56 - flight line.

36:57 - And they'd get on the bitch box and that a grandpa get up there right away

37:01 - so I'd go up five miles an hour and i'd walker and a to worry that have I ever have.

37:06 - I'd say five mana they said

37:07 - this is an emergency you got up earth fast as you can now go back and try it again as

37:11 - okay.

37:13 - So I go back down a comment

37:14 - we had a little farm track kind of like a drill almost yeah.

37:18 - We had these farm tracker so I drive up the road up the flight line in his farm

37:22 - tractor going as fast as it would go.

37:25 - If you know anything about farm tractors are the

37:27 - different breaks you can lock and all the.

37:29 - So this thing is gone up there I locked the one break I get out of it

37:33 - and it's spinning sideways on the oil slick

37:36 - tarmac you know

37:37 - and I run in and the guys they're saying alright that's good I should.

37:41 - Two weeks ago get a shot me for driving like at now you think I'm done while.

37:45 - We got to keep up an empty chair with them well.

37:48 - That was the image or anything there.

37:51 - So the base was now empty and

37:53 - what happens next and.

37:55 - The

37:55 - out of the cuban missile crisis resolve itself in terms of where you were in in the

37:59 - your service years

38:00 - the

38:01 - while the the mit the crisis was a.

38:04 - Bush the.

38:05 - Averted.

38:06 - And gradually the equipment came back.

38:09 - One are sidelight their you

38:11 - your

38:11 - went to work and you had to.

38:13 - Your name was on a list you're going to elgin air force base down in florida.

38:17 - Now this is november

38:18 - so you're going to florida what are you packing to go to florida.

38:22 - T-shirt short you know your your uniform but

38:25 - civilian clothes are going to be

38:27 - shower clogged.

38:28 - While the planes would take off and head that way and then swing over and they went

38:32 - to minnesota.

38:34 - So you get out in minnesota and they took you to clothing sales.

38:39 - Anything about the military you have a complete issue a close that fits in your

38:44 - duffel bag.

38:45 - It'll fit if you have somebody jump on it it'll fit okay.

38:49 - So these guys go to minnesota and they have

38:51 - shorts and t-shirts and all that stuff.

38:54 - And they take them to clothing sales and they have to buy brand new

38:58 - wool overcoat.

39:00 - And dread.

39:01 - Those things dress blues and

39:03 - you know.

39:05 - So

39:06 - anyway

39:06 - so after about two and a half years when you're.

39:09 - Signed up for for.

39:10 - Is that correct.

39:11 - You get to maybe change where you're going to be located the.

39:14 - How'd that process work and how'd you end up in greenland

39:17 - the guys who I was with

39:18 - the.

39:19 - Guy named majeste gave friend of mine we just saw him here some time ago.

39:25 - Pure on a base two years you're probably going to be shipped out.

39:28 - So that the orders came down to selfridge at.

39:31 - Something like twenty or thirty guys from selfridge

39:34 - are going to tooley.

39:36 - Okay that they're they're going to totally now that that is not a happy situation on

39:41 - the base.

39:42 - Morale goes down

39:43 - while is that.

39:45 - Goes to

39:45 - is not a nice place you know where that was.

39:48 - At that time no I didn't know where it was.

39:50 - The care I've never gone.

39:53 - So anyway a couple of months later.

39:56 - The the next shipments are coming down.

39:58 - Okay.

40:00 - And

40:00 - we figure boise's you're going to be good because.

40:03 - The first group want to tooley got

40:05 - got a bad groups so we're going to get japan germany were going to get some

40:09 - nice vases.

40:10 - And.

40:11 - September first or I'm sorry february first.

40:15 - Nineteen sixty two.

40:17 - There's a there's a

40:18 - a judo tournament I was based champion heavyweight.

40:21 - Judo gun so to speak.

40:23 - And I I went to a judo tournament on the first of february.

40:28 - Where a guy pick me up through me up in the bleachers and broke my hand and I got a

40:32 - concussion.

40:33 - Which was

40:33 - not judo and

40:35 - that's another story.

40:36 - So anyway first of february so that afternoon.

40:40 - The this the rumor mill

40:42 - you know the scuttlebutt coming back about promotion.

40:45 - And they say you got promoted you're going to be a

40:48 - three striper an airman first.

40:50 - Which was rare because I was only in two and a half years.

40:54 - As took ten years to make that rank I made it into and a half.

40:57 - And that afternoon

40:59 - the scuttlebutt his

41:00 - orders are coming out.

41:02 - You're going to tooley and I were

41:04 - more tulip or the

41:05 - so february the first is a bad day

41:08 - judah charm had broken hand.

41:10 - Go to truly

41:11 - get promoted to february first is kind of

41:14 - a

41:14 - black day on my calendar.

41:16 - I think that would have been nineteen sixty three if it was after the cuban missile

41:19 - crisis february first yeah

41:20 - but let's talk about how you got into a judo in the first place a.

41:24 - Talked about that story why was judo important to you

41:27 - I was I was a.

41:28 - Like I say I was right after basic training.

41:32 - We got ten days leave

41:34 - I didn't take ten days leave I went straight to the base.

41:37 - So I got there and know all the guides I was with blanco address key and all these

41:42 - other guys I was with in texas.

41:44 - Got their ten days later

41:46 - I'd been there for ten days so they kind of new me and I knew my way around the base.

41:51 - And I was standing in line one time and

41:53 - you know I was.

41:55 - They called a jeep jeepers a guy with under six months in the service.

41:59 - And the motor pool is is a lot of derelict.

42:03 - I'm not saying bad people but.

42:05 - Under educated

42:06 - some of 'em

42:07 - thank you

42:07 - thank you day and.

42:09 - Some of them were.

42:10 - Not really nice people I mean they would.

42:13 - And I was standing in line and this guy smack me upside ahead

42:17 - through me down on the ground and which standing beside me and said

42:20 - and so many words

42:21 - he was going to take all the money I had he was going to

42:24 - you know.

42:25 - What what should I say a bully me and all this stuff.

42:29 - And this guy named tony evangelist dia.

42:32 - Www virgil evangelist dia.

42:35 - Solve that and came over

42:37 - and.

42:38 - Had a little chat with this guy.

42:40 - And that's when stan.

42:41 - I mentioned.

42:43 - Cornelia stanley.

42:45 - Stand got a

42:46 - part of this and

42:47 - said

42:48 - let this guy loan and all this stuff.

42:50 - And tony said.

42:52 - That I I say he talk funny she require crusher ashtray

42:55 - sure you got your butt kicked wire glaciers race

42:57 - we gotta do that she should.

42:59 - He should I I'm starting to judo class and should I want you to be part of it you

43:02 - sure we don't want you to get your butt kicked anymore.

43:05 - So I I started going to judo class.

43:08 - And.

43:09 - We had some kind of recreational time when you're at the selfridge.

43:12 - Well yeah that was a party or training or it was.

43:15 - Sanctioned by the military training was

43:18 - we got alive on her that was my training.

43:20 - Official train.

43:21 - All the rest was on my own that I went and got.

43:25 - But yeah and airport you have.

43:26 - You had a room in the barracks you know how to draw

43:28 - you went

43:29 - you went to jail you went to work.

43:31 - Came home.

43:32 - What would you do at night.

43:33 - Okay.

43:34 - Well at night you can do whatever you want to

43:36 - I mentioned a young lady I was madly in love with.

43:40 - You know

43:41 - this is by my.

43:42 - Eighteen year old brain is where.

43:44 - I'm going to marry this girl and and we're going to live happily ever after and i'm

43:48 - going to be a.

43:49 - You know retire from the air force and.

43:51 - Everything was

43:52 - just made a lot of sense.

43:54 - Well didn't really but I thought it did at age eighteen.

43:58 - So I I get the letter the dear john letter and it really blew me away

44:02 - or really shook me because I thought this girl and I had something going.

44:06 - And I

44:06 - at that time I thought well okay.

44:10 - And at that

44:10 - the there were guys

44:12 - eight you know you're eighteen nineteen years old.

44:14 - Now it's friday you get paid you go to town and they're young ladies in there that

44:18 - are glad to see and or.

44:20 - There's a.

44:21 - Tattoo parlors and there's a.

44:23 - Alcohol and everything else would the

44:25 - you can go haywire peri quick and when you're making.

44:28 - Eighty or ninety dollars a month you can't go to

44:31 - to cuckoo too often.

44:33 - And I I thought you know I'm not

44:35 - a lot of my buddies were going into tackle our going in town go get drunk don't get

44:39 - laid and going to do this go to do that.

44:41 - And I said I'm I'm not going to do that so I I got hooked up with tony in

44:45 - judo class.

44:47 - And.

44:48 - I started going to night school you know you can sign up for night school he had to

44:52 - buy with your book.

44:54 - So I went to

44:55 - to night school that was taught on base I didn't you have to go up base

44:59 - the prof came in.

45:00 - And.

45:02 - How who pays for the night school and what school did you go to

45:04 - well night school was paid for by the air force and you had to buy your book and it

45:08 - was south macomb community college.

45:11 - Highland park community colleges were like hack

45:14 - around here.

45:15 - At michigan they were community college just the were more popular than they they

45:19 - weren't around here hacked and exist.

45:22 - And this the guy who taught it was a guy named max levitt.

45:26 - Whose family came from salt lake city utah.

45:29 - They were mormons and if you know the the

45:32 - the mayor out there name leben l a v e t t.

45:35 - This just some a match people

45:37 - but he was a major in o s I.

45:40 - Or you know office especially the b I so to speak

45:44 - and he was teaching through the.

45:46 - Office of

45:47 - south macomb and and highland park

45:49 - and he

45:50 - you know it was a college class you.

45:52 - You had to ask permission to take a class.

45:56 - And then so many weeks later you got.

45:58 - If you're going to take another class you had to ask permission.

46:01 - Then so many weeks late for you got your grade card.

46:04 - That's how I got promoted I went in to see the commander nasa sir I want to take a

46:08 - why I go ahead and eats

46:10 - and I'd take a course.

46:11 - And and six weeks later I'd sign up for another course and that three weeks later he

46:15 - called me and here's your grade from your first class and.

46:18 - Taken another club so I was either in his office to get a greater to sign up for

46:22 - record yeah.

46:23 - So he knew me.

46:24 - And that.

46:25 - That didn't have that didn't hurt when promotions came down you know.

46:29 - But that's that's how I got in in judo and I was I was pretty good at judo and we had.

46:35 - Had

46:35 - a couple of tournaments and that that one picture their the the.

46:39 - I had won a tournament itself region they flourish to.

46:44 - Out in.

46:45 - Tacoma washington.

46:46 - Mcchord

46:47 - air force navy

46:49 - we went to tacoma washington on.

46:51 - In an airplane night that.

46:53 - You're in this one twenty three which is a little one thirty and it's a cargo to

46:57 - see one twenty three.

46:59 - You know what I'm talking about.

47:01 - Little cargo plane that's right so now

47:03 - with a judo team while the judo team the little guys I'm the big guy

47:06 - so.

47:07 - You've winter and a they say I or I'll put on a.

47:10 - Run of the mill harness that you bought your parachute on.

47:14 - Well my harness which fit me but.

47:16 - Wouldn't fit you are wouldn't fit you.

47:19 - So what what do you do so you

47:21 - you get all this suited up I take my harness and my parachute over by the door and I

47:26 - sit on it.

47:27 - Or the other guys through there is in the

47:29 - center of our are going to need this thing.

47:31 - Playing catches on fire.

47:33 - I'm sitting there like

47:34 - a whole place full.

47:35 - While you're in the air oh yeah over nowhere kansas I think I dunno.

47:40 - So I go up my beat on to the crew chief who sitting there.

47:44 - Looking at the pilot and co-pilot as a sorry for on fire you don't worry about oh way

47:49 - how he said are.

47:51 - You know that and the lights the the

47:52 - buzzers

47:53 - warning lights came on.

47:55 - Get your.

47:56 - Get your

47:56 - parachute.

47:58 - Now worth my parachute

47:59 - right by the door

48:00 - does it fit of course.

48:02 - While these guys

48:03 - were on fire we're gonna come down to all these guys are grabbing a per one guy pulls

48:07 - the day ring in a parachute pops out in here.

48:10 - Hey.

48:11 - You know a

48:12 - a parachute to.

48:13 - Feels like the whole plane.

48:15 - With all the nylon cord and guys are trip and fall.

48:18 - Cool

48:19 - I got my parachute on I go over

48:21 - take her out the door.

48:23 - And I should have down there and there's a great there's a red light and a green.

48:26 - Now I watched enough john wayne movies that I know that the green greenlight me jump.

48:31 - So I'm standing there at the door

48:33 - the red light goes off.

48:35 - And I start

48:35 - I start to go out and my sensei

48:38 - tony evangelist year who was

48:40 - feared nothing.

48:42 - Except the parachute.

48:44 - Have to acquire I'm scared I'm scared I say hey tony no problem I'm more.

48:48 - Ahmet

48:48 - outside of the aircraft

48:51 - my feet on the plane I got a hold of tony

48:53 - parker or something

48:55 - and a pool and to get him out.

48:57 - Okay cause I.

48:59 - Were going to craft.

49:00 - They pull me back in it's a hey put out the fire.

49:03 - At no need to jump donated job.

49:05 - So we lad.

49:07 - At tacoma.

49:08 - Record

49:09 - and the pilot comes back and says the.

49:11 - Sorry about that inconvenienced fellow we had a little hydraulic leak in the heater

49:15 - he said it's sorry about that

49:17 - but he says of.

49:18 - Who's the guy to jumped out

49:19 - I said well as

49:20 - he said you got credit for a parachute jump.

49:24 - You had a parachute training and all

49:26 - oh of course not

49:27 - but he said you got credit for a parachute jump.

49:30 - And I said well what do you mean he said the definition of a parachute jump it when

49:34 - you leave the out leave the aircraft.

49:36 - He said we have never had anybody who left and came back except you so he said.

49:43 - I had

49:43 - a.

49:44 - Parachute jump.

49:45 - Let's go back to.

49:47 - Truly

49:48 - greenland.

49:49 - You are deployed over there

49:51 - when we first impressions of of getting and greenland and

49:53 - you must have needed to go to the clothes store to get some

49:56 - fresh clothes we

49:57 - wear warmer down at

49:58 - mcguire airforce base match

50:00 - tilt.

50:01 - Military aircraft the.

50:03 - All their systems are on the wall

50:05 - and there were they fly and

50:07 - here on the ceiling appears tooley

50:10 - and I'm thinking.

50:12 - The map was on the ceiling yeah up for tooley.

50:15 - We've got on a.

50:17 - C one eighteen which of the

50:18 - douglas

50:19 - prop jobber.

50:21 - One engine would start so they got us off the plane and they

50:24 - put us back on a plane a couple of hours later and one engines another engine

50:27 - wouldn't start and i'm thinking we're gonna.

50:29 - We're flying clear up to the north pole and his hang are acquainted and going to run.

50:34 - Okay so we we finally good at going and

50:37 - we.

50:37 - At goose bay labrador one engine quit.

50:40 - Berberine a plane when an engine quit you think the plane stops

50:44 - it just.

50:45 - Your sensations are stopped.

50:47 - And wanted they had a light on the

50:49 - the prop goes want and stops and I'm thinking.

50:52 - Here we go in the north atlantic we're going to crash we landed a goose bay.

50:57 - They fixed the plane we went to tooley.

50:59 - Soon as you get to tooley

51:01 - this buddy of mine majestic who was already there.

51:04 - Was waiting for us and he was.

51:06 - Happy to see us you know you can imagine you guys.

51:09 - Whoa whoa whoa you're going to have what I

51:11 - had to last year you.

51:13 - Or borrow.

51:14 - It take you to clothing sales

51:16 - to get off the plane go right down to clothing and they give you a parker and I got

51:19 - park over here to show you.

51:21 - They give you a parka

51:22 - then you go to.

51:23 - Back to the barracks.

51:25 - You got transfer your your your check in you go to the berries basis and then you go

51:29 - to your duty section and to that and

51:31 - you get a room in a barracks and I was sorry so I had my own.

51:35 - Nine by twelve castle

51:37 - my

51:37 - nine by twelve.

51:39 - When they put two guys in their the joke was that there are so crowded.

51:43 - There's not enough room to fight till the have to get away long you put two guys in a

51:47 - room so.

51:48 - But

51:49 - I just stay there and and drove my m two four six record and.

51:53 - Went to college night school

51:55 - know I went to university of maryland when I was in totally.

51:58 - University and where I had an id card university of maryland

52:01 - and.

52:02 - The.

52:03 - Nice and.

52:05 - So at some point you

52:06 - applied maybe to go to see us but you are under age can you talk about that little

52:10 - bit I took any

52:11 - any cash the air force would have they had what was called the o c us that o t s

52:16 - o t s or officer training school.

52:18 - Or they had.

52:20 - A.

52:22 - Like a ged for college if you could take the

52:25 - past the ged test for college it was like two years of college

52:29 - started at your second year.

52:30 - So I took every test I could to

52:32 - the ged test I took.

52:34 - The just the scores were good for a year but

52:37 - but I would

52:38 - I wasn't going to get back in time to apply those.

52:41 - And the ocean

52:42 - to theo t s to.

52:44 - When I took that they said were determined quigley I said yo right here they said you

52:48 - just flunked this test I said well good i'm glad I flunked it before I even took it.

52:53 - And I said why did I flunked that they said you can't be commissioned as a lieutenant.

52:58 - Until you're twenty one years of old

53:00 - of age.

53:02 - And you'd gone and right after your eighteen.

53:05 - And eighteen or nineteen me.

53:07 - He said your scores are good for a year and he said.

53:10 - If your scores are good right now you will be twenty years old.

53:14 - When you're year is up and you would go to see it but you can't get commission to

53:18 - twenty one.

53:20 - So they said larry I passed a test everything was fine and dandy but I I couldn't.

53:26 - Could go to she is

53:27 - so you're you're now in greenland

53:29 - what are your first impressions of greenland and what's a typical day like a what we

53:33 - are duties

53:33 - got up there and in.

53:35 - In

53:36 - april.

53:37 - And it was the.

53:39 - Still daylight of.

53:41 - They were days and nights.

53:43 - Didn't get dark dark but it would get

53:45 - sundown.

53:46 - And then gradually it would get to twenty four hours was totally daylight.

53:51 - And the.

53:53 - What one too bad first couple of months it would be.

53:56 - Thirty five forty degrees during the day in and of course I say

53:59 - it didn't get dark at night so the temperature was the same.

54:03 - During the day during night because there wasn't any day and night no sundowns

54:07 - whatever.

54:08 - Enough.

54:10 - You know.

54:11 - Was like I say I was assigned a duty section I got in this am to four sick wrecker.

54:16 - And.

54:18 - Strictly for salvation.

54:21 - I worked I worked hard.

54:23 - I was outside as into wrecker out up climbing we

54:26 - saw some pictures on hanging on a chain and all this stuff.

54:29 - Enough.

54:31 - The the idea was your work tar

54:33 - you eight good.

54:35 - And you could sleep.

54:37 - There were guys who didn't sleep who.

54:39 - Get off work and take a nap or tigger.

54:41 - Have a couple of drinks and and stay up til two in the morning and and couldn't get

54:45 - out of bed at and

54:46 - I mean.

54:46 - I didn't do that I I worked hard.

54:49 - As going to night school.

54:51 - And I.

54:51 - You know I I'd sleep.

54:53 - Go to work I didn't mesh work or anything else.

54:56 - And.

54:57 - So that was.

54:58 - Too late and you know you.

55:02 - On the radio in the morning a.

55:04 - Radio station with w k o l d.

55:08 - We'll cold how was our radio station.

55:11 - And it's a gomorrah actually it's it's a twenty seven below zero and we're having a

55:15 - heat wave today it's going up to twenty six below.

55:18 - And.

55:20 - Okay so you you go to work and you just.

55:22 - Dress for your mother got muk luks and parker's and all that worked outside.

55:27 - Your

55:27 - internet cold temperature

55:28 - outside all the time

55:30 - and.

55:31 - You know that that part was

55:32 - was fine and dandy and

55:34 - and.

55:36 - What was the most the purpose of the base up there why why did we need such a

55:40 - presence in greenland.

55:42 - On and.

55:43 - Top of the base over the place called p mountain now it had a funny name but

55:48 - we just called it female.

55:49 - I was eighteen miles north of the base that was an older.

55:53 - Radio station during the war

55:55 - greenland oh

55:56 - buoy base one during world war two was a.

55:59 - A relay not totally but

56:01 - greenland was a relay for plane to go from.

56:05 - Labrador to greenland iceland the england they would hop over instead of flying

56:09 - straight across.

56:10 - And.

56:11 - So northern

56:12 - greenland was was

56:14 - radio station

56:15 - state of the art nineteen forties.

56:17 - So in the

56:18 - fifth late fifties a built to do line district early warning line which was in canada

56:24 - was re radar screens.

56:26 - Well that was okay but.

56:27 - Truly had what was called

56:29 - be mute ballistic missile early warning.

56:32 - A nice were radar

56:34 - screen size of football field.

56:37 - Or four of them that we're out there and they were positioned in such a way.

56:41 - That

56:42 - they told us that of the bad guys'

56:44 - through a a.

56:46 - Grapefruit in the air in miami florida they could plotted.

56:51 - Anything of russia stood a missile up we had it.

56:54 - Whether it.

56:55 - Launched are not was up to.

56:57 - That would be muse that was the reason we were there.

57:00 - What sort of planes were at the base I was an airforce base did they have a lot of

57:04 - aircraft there and how did you maintain them and that kind of temperature while they

57:07 - had f one o two delta daggers which were.

57:10 - Kind of know that.

57:12 - They weren't antiquated just yet but they weren't the best we had we had six of load.

57:17 - And ever hangers for those and that they were in there

57:19 - and then all around the base.

57:22 - There were nike missile sites.

57:25 - That you didn't even know they were that.

57:27 - Underground and then that of tube opens up and that's how it would work.

57:31 - I don't have one but I I I remember though the picture me standing beside a telephone

57:35 - pole.

57:37 - I got my arm on top of a telephone pole and you say well boy the really deep snow.

57:42 - What it sounds like.

57:43 - You know when I say telephone pole.

57:45 - In your mind telephone pole.

57:47 - Will the days were only four feet high because.

57:51 - The the what you did would.

57:53 - Blow

57:53 - dynamite blow a hole in the ground

57:55 - you know maybe two three feet deep

57:57 - put a pole and fill it with water and instantly it was frozen solid

58:01 - so the polls.

58:03 - One gone anywhere but it was only four feet high.

58:06 - Okay so that was a.

58:08 - That that was the climate up there the whether it was.

58:12 - Just got used to it that's all.

58:14 - So part of the mission of the base up there

58:17 - and

58:17 - it truly grew to about ten thousand people during the sixties when you were there was.

58:22 - That did you feel that it was sort of the early warning system that

58:26 - if russia had put missiles out there that you are sort of.

58:28 - People that would see that first

58:30 - I felt fairly confident in what they told us and and every day you went to work when

58:34 - it got dark season.

58:36 - Know it

58:37 - it got dark

58:38 - okay totally dark when they daylight one a to

58:41 - restore the twenty four hour clock comes about.

58:44 - What time is at eight o'clock which one.

58:46 - Oh eight hundreds of morning.

58:48 - Yeah the sun's out both of them yeah right

58:50 - or not.

58:51 - So

58:52 - walking to.

58:54 - Walk in a chow in dark season clear up there.

58:57 - Thirty forty thousand feet or to be fifty two.

59:00 - Well he was in the light

59:02 - the sun would a

59:03 - be you could say me was shiny.

59:05 - So right after the kennedy assassination I'm walking to work thinking.

59:11 - What what's going on kennedy was shot and you know the the lee harvey oswald us set

59:15 - we didn't see that that had to be.

59:18 - Shipped up later.

59:19 - But I'm walking to chow hall one time and there's three be fifty twos up there.

59:24 - And I'm walking along I look up and I I called them.

59:28 - Sky king but that that wasn't it their their their original the air force.

59:33 - Mission was called chrome dome.

59:35 - Chrome dome had the be fifty twos up.

59:39 - Wall constantly flying writer.

59:41 - I'm walking to work a nice three be fifty two swing back now we're only a

59:46 - spitting distance from the soviet union.

59:48 - It's not like.

59:50 - Okay

59:51 - greenland's on the west coast of

59:52 - of or

59:53 - your truly was on the west coast of greenland and greenland's on the way to russia

59:56 - when you fly over.

59:57 - 196 Trans polar flights closer to the poll then we awarded to.

01:00 - 03.304 Do to new york but anyway.

01:00 - 06.184 The three be fifty to swing by

01:00 - 08.674 at that time the alert sirens go off.

01:00 - 11.284 R f one oh to scramble.

01:00 - 13.534 And somewhere along the line

01:00 - 14.074 I had

01:00 - 14.583 my

01:00 - 14.914 they

01:00 - 16.474 sent me on a record call.

01:00 - 18.994 To illusion of valley.

01:00 - 20.103 You'd had to.

01:00 - 21.904 North mountain and south mountain.

01:00 - 26.284 And I went up to up the side of the mountain and out there were there was nothing.

01:00 - 27.334 Just.

01:00 - 30.004 Every time you what there was nothing there except ice.

01:00 - 34.084 And that day I went up there the nike's were standing up in other words there were

01:00 - 36.424 facilities out there under the ice at were.

01:00 - 37.933 That were standard.

01:00 - 42.603 And we got alerted because who knew who shot kennedy at that point could have been

01:00 - 43.504 the russians you know

01:00 - 45.814 we didn't know anything all all we knew.

01:00 - 47.774 We were on alert.

01:00 - 49.162 The.

01:00 - 49.864 The.

01:00 - 50.824 Sometime

01:00 - 54.390 during your service she met a soldier who survived the bataan death march

01:00 - 57.124 can you talk about him for a second and and what was that story.

01:00 - 59.914 Yeah I sure can leo lamp person.

01:01 - 01.578 Leo leo lamp

01:01 - 02.685 soon was the.

01:01 - 03.543 a

01:01 - 04.663 little guy.

01:01 - 06.314 He was just a.

01:01 - 10.443 Very very shaky guy and of course he he was an alcoholic a.

01:01 - 12.176 A.

01:01 - 13.833 He would come to

01:01 - 15.105 your team in.

01:01 - 17.764 Court he was a staff sorry to hear the for striper.

01:01 - 19.274 Okay was.

01:01 - 21.364 He was on the bhutan death march.

01:01 - 24.484 A survivor and he was at I can still hear him.

01:01 - 26.284 At night walk into barrett

01:01 - 26.527 and

01:01 - 27.674 he lived in the barracks

01:01 - 32.014 and he walked the the halls at night in the barracks at boom boom boom boom.

01:01 - 32.944 And you go.

01:01 - 35.270 Okay I got a hug or they will all.

01:01 - 36.170 Rouge

01:01 - 37.850 and he will go to town.

01:01 - 39.300 Friday.

01:01 - 42.530 He'd get back to base tuesday morning.

01:01 - 46.753 Well he's a war and everyone's mad at him there screaming at him and he he

01:01 - 47.140 said.

01:01 - 51.230 He said I check I'm going with gave me a mickey a bitch gave me a mickey you know

01:01 - 54.230 put mayor put me to sleep for friday to tuesday.

01:01 - 58.490 I are okay leo and finally some.

01:01 - 02.029 New guy came on some captain or something called he managed to

01:02 - 03.445 and lampert.

01:02 - 07.275 You you've done this you've done that and leo their fate yeah yeah yeah yeah.

01:02 - 09.156 And they say we're going to bust you

01:02 - 10.850 leo goes straight a's.

01:02 - 12.470 One for striped

01:02 - 16.340 act of congress put those on because the death march.

01:02 - 18.110 One where you elected

01:02 - 19.455 turned around walked out

01:02 - 21.110 he wishes he felt a little

01:02 - 23.360 immune immunity him in his eyes from being.

01:02 - 25.611 Couldn't touch with you have taken down a rank

01:02 - 26.673 of touch leo.

01:02 - 31.400 Well there's some point during your service of your you signed up for four years

01:02 - 32.400 originally right.

01:02 - 33.881 You were told maybe you could

01:02 - 36.440 be let out early what what's the little about and.

01:02 - 37.860 Explain that.

01:02 - 42.800 Well if you're in for four years if you're overseas and you have less than six months

01:02 - 43.830 to go.

01:02 - 47.510 If you have six months and ten days a reassigned you

01:02 - 49.280 you'll get another base stateside.

01:02 - 49.890 I

01:02 - 52.970 had five months and twenty five days to go.

01:02 - 53.990 Okay.

01:02 - 55.400 At which time

01:02 - 57.410 this guy who was in charge.

01:02 - 58.800 One of these.

01:02 - 01.340 New york guys from brooklyn who

01:03 - 05.150 talk funny and was in charge and de cuba and all the stuff.

01:03 - 07.220 I didn't care for him he would just.

01:03 - 10.970 But he had everybody convinced he could get you a rollback.

01:03 - 12.710 Rollback which one you.

01:03 - 14.480 Came back earlier.

01:03 - 18.770 Now remember I had five months and twenty five days to go.

01:03 - 23.540 If I I got a rollback I might have six months and ten days to go.

01:03 - 25.670 So I'd be reassigned.

01:03 - 29.540 So what do you say to the guy in charge of rollbacks.

01:03 - 33.507 He was at the club and everyone by any beer and I went to

01:03 - 37.249 build a beer and I got right knee space and I said you know good but little.

01:03 - 41.540 You give me a roll back or I'll kick your butt and I'll do this and I'll do that and

01:03 - 42.140 he said I

01:03 - 42.860 had my

01:03 - 44.040 uniform on

01:03 - 48.710 he said you won't get one day roll back or long a hash survivor

01:03 - 49.910 I thought.

01:03 - 52.279 Kind of got what you want and by

01:03 - 52.940 and of.

01:03 - 54.240 Unusual means.

01:03 - 55.172 To

01:03 - 56.460 I got back.

01:03 - 58.490 I got back six months early

01:03 - 59.850 and.

01:04 - 01.035 We're

01:04 - 03.890 parents expecting you to what we are communications with

01:04 - 08.600 like during your service days wow I'd i'd

01:04 - 08.750 write home or call home I I came home just as.

01:04 - 10.110 A dark shadow.

01:04 - 14.360 I came home on leave I was up our six months I came home and got married and went

01:04 - 16.040 back up for six more months.

01:04 - 19.460 So what I was married to was waiting for me.

01:04 - 23.510 I guess when when I got home she she was there and someone different than the dear

01:04 - 24.510 john letter.

01:04 - 24.901 The

01:04 - 29.030 yeah this is just as the dear john was in raj all right out of highschool lambs and

01:04 - 30.030 sixty three.

01:04 - 32.390 I got married and sixty three and.

01:04 - 34.720 That was that but.

01:04 - 39.770 I like I came back six months early and I started school started college.

01:04 - 43.700 And we down in maryland or are we still doing remote work

01:04 - 44.134 there

01:04 - 45.240 no I I got

01:04 - 46.468 back here

01:04 - 48.644 my parents were in le moyne so I came back.

01:04 - 50.190 Here I am you know.

01:04 - 51.858 And I started to.

01:04 - 54.870 Get.

01:04 - 00.920 Applications to different schools I went to my brother went to gettysburg so he took

01:05 - 01.920 me to gettysburg.

01:05 - 06.020 And I talked to the people up there and they said yeah your military time you're in

01:05 - 07.021 you're in.

01:05 - 09.020 And I went to shippensburg and and.

01:05 - 12.440 The difference between shippensburg and gettysburg was

01:05 - 15.890 if shippensburg was one hundred dollars gettysburg was a thousand.

01:05 - 18.770 Private college vs state college

01:05 - 19.370 break

01:05 - 20.520 so I.

01:05 - 25.910 I went to shippensburg I started in june of sixty four and I graduated in october of

01:05 - 26.910 sixty six.

01:05 - 28.440 Went straight through.

01:05 - 29.240 Pretty good.

01:05 - 31.190 Yeah and you had a lot of that and

01:05 - 33.740 from your time in the service was able to get you there

01:05 - 34.250 right

01:05 - 34.880 and.

01:05 - 38.000 While at while I was in college it was to.

01:05 - 41.270 You know a lot of people there to get out of the draft and all that.

01:05 - 42.780 And.

01:05 - 45.230 The the one of the things they would come up and.

01:05 - 47.690 When's the last time you shave boy.

01:05 - 50.210 Now I came back from overseas

01:05 - 52.010 isolated overseas.

01:05 - 55.820 I've said for the first two years I was back my brain was still frozen.

01:05 - 56.563 Cause of

01:05 - 58.430 sixty seventy below zero.

01:05 - 01.190 So there I am in college trying to

01:06 - 02.420 trying to get by

01:06 - 03.950 and this so somebody would.

01:06 - 05.120 Will you can

01:06 - 06.920 you will maybe you can't imagine.

01:06 - 10.460 But I stand up and niche I went last time you shave boy

01:06 - 11.660 who was telling you this.

01:06 - 16.460 Just random people some administrator in college that that had you.

01:06 - 18.920 Right where they wanted you because.

01:06 - 20.810 How's your deferment boy.

01:06 - 22.620 How's your deferment.

01:06 - 28.100 Did they not know your your past well they there were only like twelve guys on campus

01:06 - 29.420 the whole time over bedrooms.

01:06 - 32.150 Twelve guys who were bet one girl

01:06 - 33.500 was a we were bet.

01:06 - 37.217 All the rest were people who were there for one reason or another so they were kind

01:06 - 38.026 of threatening your

01:06 - 39.470 maybe if you didn't shave

01:06 - 40.940 they could get you back into the.

01:06 - 45.320 Draft but you'd already served so when I would go into the office.

01:06 - 47.330 I would take the.

01:06 - 48.650 My dog.

01:06 - 50.840 Dog text other of jingles

01:06 - 51.960 yeah.

01:06 - 52.343 Or that.

01:06 - 53.970 As adults.

01:06 - 55.399 The only down to

01:06 - 57.049 amazed by don't take.

01:06 - 59.030 So I would I was going to the

01:06 - 59.900 peoples of

01:07 - 03.380 had my dog tags on the keyring i'd shake them they tell you what's that

01:07 - 04.580 soon as they said that.

01:07 - 06.680 Never in work

01:07 - 07.830 you were never in.

01:07 - 08.810 Well i'm

01:07 - 10.640 to see that your drafted I said yoga.

01:07 - 14.925 You married your a lady good read you and your late get drafted for I will

01:07 - 16.370 we went round and round and.

01:07 - 18.120 People kind of.

01:07 - 20.750 So your kind of treated horribly by some of these people who

01:07 - 24.050 you know didn't maybe didn't even know who you were absolute well I didn't know it

01:07 - 27.260 was vet not that I was as anything special but I was a vet

01:07 - 28.010 and I

01:07 - 29.390 couldn't get drafted.

01:07 - 31.910 And that was the a nugget I mean.

01:07 - 35.450 Your hair too long boi get a haircut well I.

01:07 - 36.337 How's your

01:07 - 37.440 from.

01:07 - 40.910 And they would tell you will have you deferred but will have you drafted.

01:07 - 42.830 By eight o'clock tomorrow morning.

01:07 - 46.580 And every now and then somebody come into I got my telegram.

01:07 - 48.090 They got drafted.

01:07 - 49.710 Well.

01:07 - 50.300 I didn't.

01:07 - 54.140 So he ended up going to shippensburg you became a t teacher but when we spoke

01:07 - 55.790 previously you had told me.

01:07 - 00.980 It was a central fee for you to join the service because you are not college material

01:08 - 04.610 and here you are taken college courses and

01:08 - 05.030 then and you graduated just a couple of years.

01:08 - 06.050 Yeah I

01:08 - 08.300 you know in call in highschool

01:08 - 10.910 yeah I played football and I was a motorhead.

01:08 - 11.810 Okay.

01:08 - 13.380 High school which is

01:08 - 14.550 there.

01:08 - 16.761 I wasn't motivated and I

01:08 - 17.420 I

01:08 - 20.270 like I said at age eighteen I I knew everything.

01:08 - 23.390 You know my ass fab scores were saying.

01:08 - 29.960 The nineteen sixty I took the as fab and my score said I would do good with people.

01:08 - 35.974 Have you know a preacher of scout leader or teacher and of I'm thinking here I am yeah.

01:08 - 38.210 You didn't know your own aptitude maybe

01:08 - 39.440 at exactly right.

01:08 - 43.160 So I I I applied myself in college and

01:08 - 44.720 that was a difference between.

01:08 - 47.900 You know I didn't play football or I think I didn't go to.

01:08 - 51.350 A wasn't a paternity I wasn't in aurora I was.

01:08 - 54.860 I was there to get a degree and get out which I did.

01:08 - 59.450 And since then you have also become more involved with some of your local veterans

01:08 - 02.810 organizations what's your role with with those and your part of the perry county

01:09 - 03.380 honor guard

01:09 - 05.360 part of the perricone honor guard

01:09 - 07.793 pico it's called and we go around do.

01:09 - 13.010 Veterans funerals and we have a a firing squad and we have a ceremony we we fold the

01:09 - 14.570 flag and we fire or guns and.

01:09 - 15.515 And

01:09 - 18.530 we do approximately fifty funerals a year.

01:09 - 20.810 Roughly one a week

01:09 - 22.820 and effect got one coming up tuesday.

01:09 - 24.540 And.

01:09 - 25.770 You know that's.

01:09 - 28.328 What I do if.

01:09 - 29.580 I'm very proud.

01:09 - 31.610 Very proud that I'm a vet.

01:09 - 36.380 That I served my time like I say what I want a kind of a hero I wasn't any kind of a.

01:09 - 40.820 Whatever whatever whatever I just did my time I like I say when you

01:09 - 44.450 when you join the service you sign a blank check for uncle sam.

01:09 - 47.990 You give him a blank check for for years of your life.

01:09 - 52.430 And at the end of those four years to you get out or you re enlist or whatever

01:09 - 53.430 whatever whatever

01:09 - 54.540 and.

01:09 - 57.080 And you have a military style jeep

01:09 - 00.771 that you bring the local events can you talk about that a little bit well that that

01:10 - 01.280 that's a

01:10 - 05.090 always wondered an army jeep but I could never find one I wanted so I bought a

01:10 - 09.110 civilian jape and put army paint on it and put air force numbers on it so like

01:10 - 10.430 I got it all covered

01:10 - 13.400 and and it was a navy g navy.

01:10 - 14.990 Owed our navy.

01:10 - 17.930 Battleship gray when I bought it so I got the.

01:10 - 20.570 Navy jeep army paint air force

01:10 - 21.080 yeah.

01:10 - 22.380 I got a laugh covered.

01:10 - 26.660 What would you say about your service share sort of carried over into your.

01:10 - 28.260 Purse personal life.

01:10 - 30.660 Basically.

01:10 - 34.100 One thing you learned in the air force anyway you have a mission.

01:10 - 38.780 The mission is you you've got you've got whatever it whatever your mission is an air

01:10 - 39.110 force

01:10 - 40.290 airplane to fly.

01:10 - 44.630 As a teacher we had kids to to educate and the mission.

01:10 - 48.680 You have a job and maybe there's something that has to be done it's not

01:10 - 50.630 your job but it's part of the mission.

01:10 - 53.120 The mission was essential to me

01:10 - 55.820 you do the mission then you fill in the paperwork

01:10 - 56.970 and that's.

01:10 - 59.150 You know that that's what we did

01:10 - 00.890 as a teacher if there was a.

01:11 - 05.750 A problem somewhere along the line that maybe

01:11 - 06.170 wasn't my problem but I saw something wrong.

01:11 - 08.810 If I saw kids being bullied I would.

01:11 - 10.340 Jump in there and

01:11 - 11.600 and separate them and.

01:11 - 14.666 What would you tell some of those kids who might come to you and say

01:11 - 17.451 what do you think about military service what should I do with my life

01:11 - 20.930 I tell them the first thing you want to do is take the ass fab test

01:11 - 24.050 take the armed forces vocational aptitude battery.

01:11 - 26.150 Find your aptitude

01:11 - 28.160 explore that aptitude.

01:11 - 33.980 And if you think you're going to be a a rocket science and it says you can't add two

01:11 - 35.030 and two to get for.

01:11 - 37.190 You're not going to be a rocket scientist.

01:11 - 43.732 Learn your aptitude pursue your aptitude get good at your aptitude.

01:11 - 48.202 And do it if you'd like what you're doing you never work a day in your life.

01:11 - 48.975 If.

01:11 - 52.012 That's what you love and you go there and you get paid to do it

01:11 - 53.182 what else can you say.

01:11 - 58.672 Okay we've been talking with the gym quigley he was an airman first class who served.

01:11 - 00.032 During the cold war.

01:12 - 03.593 For the air force a thanks for your service and thanks for speaking with us today.

01:12 - 04.922 That gives her.