Sometimes You Can’t Find Things by ‘Going Back’

Posted on 23/08/2013 by Bobo

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place.
We stay there even though we go away.  And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.
We travel to ourselves when we go to a place and we have covered a stretch of our life, no matter how brief it may have been.”
Pascal Mercier
“Night Train in Lisbon”

I recently saw this ‘post’ on a military brats FaceBook group I belong to.

A couple years ago I had an opportunity to visit Tucson, AZ.  The second night I decided to stay out at Davis-Monthan AFB (D-M).  We lived on base at D-M in 1956 and I thought it would be fun to walk by our old house.

PH38a159When I got back that Sunday evening I set out for the housing area.  It wasn’t that long of a walk from the VOQ (Visiting Officer Quarters) where I was staying.  Our address was 2336 Cass Ave. and I had a nice map to follow.

I could feel the excitement building as I neared Cass Avenue.  I also noticed quite a bit of construction along the way – new homes going up.  Finally I came upon Cass Avenue, and turned toward our house.  I was about half way there when I saw “empty desert” surrounded by a tall chain-link fence.  Intuitively I knew – it was gone.  And is was.

I finally reached the place where our old house used to stand and stood outside the fence; I just stood there, staring into the dessert.  Numb.  The house was gone.  And I just stood there, staring into the desert.

I then looked behind me at the “Boneyard.”  This is where we (the United States) store obsolete aircraft.  As a kid I could walk across the street and play to my heart’s delight on those old planes.

Puppy

Now, another fence.  (You can see the tails of aircraft in the Boneyard just behind me).

I stood at the fence for maybe 20 minutes, then turned and walked away.  I felt as if a part of my childhood had been ripped from me.  In “going back” I found nothing – and that fostered an ’emptiness’ that remains with me today.

So, on most days, I ignore it; I bury it – as I have so many other things in my life – and it doesn’t bother me.  Or so I think.  I don my “Happy Bob” suit and go about my day, and no one knows the difference.  Or so I think…damn.

Posted in Air Force Brats, USAF | 1 Comment

“Nah, You’re Doing Fine…”

Posted on 22/08/2013 by Bobo

I was sitting “Alert” at Korat RTAFB, Thailand on 11 Apr 1974 when we were “scrambled.”  As it turned out, we had to take an airman with acute appendicitis from Korat to UTapao RTAFB.  It just happened that my copilot was my roommate, Alan K.

Alan had come to HC-130’s (rescue C-130’s) from WC-130’s (weather C-130’s).  He had a great deal more time in C-130’s than I did at the time, but I ‘outranked’ him; therefore I was the AC (aircraft commander).

HC-130

(Yes, we refueled helicopters upon occasion…)  Anyway, we were ‘scrambled’ (alerted) at 1954L.  At Korat, our alert commitment was to be airborne 30 minutes upon receiving notification during the day, and 45 minutes at night.  That evening we launched 41 minutes after being ‘scrambled.’  (We spent 41 minutes awaiting arrival of the patient).

It turns out that the patient was suffering from acute appendicitis, and had to be air evacuated to Utapao RTAFB which had better hospital facilities.  So, patient on board, off we went.

The ‘after actions’ report lists the arrival as “routing landing.”  The landing in actuality was anything but ‘routine!’

Utapao RTAFB has an 11,500 foot runway.  It was used for B-52 operations during the Vietnam War.  That night about half of it was ‘closed’ for runway repair.  Apparently they had a crane or something setting on the runway, additionally to it being torn up.  To make things even more ‘interesting,’ it was night, and raining like hell.  Swell!  In addition, we were at “combat weight.”

I briefed the approach then reached over and tapped Alan on his arm.  I motioned for him to remove the left side of his headset and asked him if he “wanted the landing.”  Alan had about 10 times more experience in the C-130 than I did at the time.  (I had maybe 150 hours in the C-130, at best!)  “Nah,” he replied, “you’re doing fine.”

That moment defined a turning point in my flying career that I have never forgotten.  It reinforced a confidence that I had in myself, and I never wavered since.

I put the airplane down on “brick one,” threw the engines into reverse and we stopped “on a dime!”  The C-130 is an incredible aircraft, and that night I learned a great deal more about it.

As far as that “shoeclerk” listing the landing as “routine,” I wish he had been in the cockpit with us that night – on final during the torrential rainstorm, and when the crane came into view during roll-out!  Routine!  LOL….

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Goodbye General Gould – I Salute You in any Event…

Posted on 19/08/2013 by Bobo

Just returned from Colorado…

Went out to the Air Force Academy last week to attend the Change of Command and Retirement of a friend of mine; or more accurately I suppose, a former friend of mine…

I received an invitation to attend his Change of Command back in July.  I had met Mike in 1977 when he attended UPT.  Then I caught up with him again in June 1985 when he came to T-38 PIT at Randolph.  Having met him before I requested to fly with him in his T-38 check out.

After he completed his training and perhaps 6 months or so “on the line,” I hired him as a T-38 Flight Examiner in Stan Eval.

One day I walked back to his desk and asked him to grab his hat and follow me.  Without question, he complied – never once asking me where we were going.  I then took him to the Education Office and told him he was enrolling in a master’s course.  He thought for a moment – for hardly any time at all really – then followed me into the office and enrolled at Webster’s with me (Webster’s University at Ft. Sam Houston).  I was taking courses and was a bit overwhelmed with all the ‘shoeclerks’ in the course – and wanted someone I could relate to with me.  Mike filled the bill…

It wasn’t long before Mike was picked up by HQ. ATC Stan Eval, and he was “on his way.”  I eventually retired, and he went on to the Pentagon.  From there his career really took off.  It was both astonishing and fun to watch.  Then came the ‘stars.’  Who knew?  When Mike came to Randolph in 1985 he had been an assistant football coach at the Academy, a T-38 IP at Williams AFB, AZ, then a physical fitness coach and T-41 IP back at the Academy – not exactly the “fast track” to general!”

We stayed in touch through the years – more often through the occasional Christmas card, then emails.  He even once gave me a tour of the White House when he was George Bush’s “horse holder.”  That was cool!

I know it can be difficult to be my friend at times – I know it!  I struggle with ‘Bob’ also, every day.  For whatever reason I tend to ‘subconsciously’ test friendships.  I have seen this “character defect” in myself many times in the past, and I have my theories to why I do it…

Four years ago I received an invitation to Mike’s Change of Command when he took Command of the Academy.  I wasn’t able to attend and so it was very important to me to attend this year.

I RSVP’d to the invitation, then sent an email to Mike, telling him I was looking forward to seeing him – to how proud I was of his career.  (I know his email is ‘good;’ I have received prior emails from him using the same email.)  I was really looking forward to seeing him.

When we got there we had seats in the front row.  It was a great Change of Command – and it was great to see Mike, and Paula, and his 2 sons – albeit from a distance.  I thought I would be able to catch up with him at the reception.

At the reception Chris and I stood in line for over an hour, waiting to see him.  Then we learned that he was not there – that the reception was just for the new Superintendent!  Well, crap!  I suppose I also knew this, but the “age thing” bit me in the ass!

As we walked out I made “light of it,” but it really cut me.  For all these years I have “carried him in my heart…” – it smarts.  And I felt somewhat the “Village Idiot.”  For a month or so I had talked to folks about heading out to Colorado to see Mike, and how proud I was of him… I even sent him a ‘follow-on’ email telling him so before we left.  (On Friday, before we left Colorado, I called the Superintendent’s office to ask if his email was still “good.”  It is.)

And so with this, I will delete him from my email, render a prayer for him and his family, and “let him go.”  I don’t regret the trip out there at all – I had the chance to visit with my four Colorado grand kids.  But I will admit, there is an ’emptiness’ in my heart this morning… and it does, still hurt.

(PS:  Ever to make light of things, I hope the Lt. Colonel in charge of invitations didn’t get his ass in too much of a sling for not taking me off the A-list in the first place…).

Posted in "Political Correct BS", USAF | 1 Comment

Put It In the Sick Sack

Posted on 16/08/2013 by Bobo

Mikey was a T-37, ‘Tweet,’ IP at Vance in the mid-70’s.  The Tweet was the first airplane the kids flew when they came to UPT in those days.

One summer, just after a new class arrived, Mikey briefed a kid for his first flight in the Tweet.   As they were about to step out the door, Mikey asked the kid if he had a ‘sick sack.’

“No Sir,” the kid replied, “I was a cadet instructor pilot in the flying program at the Air Force Academy – I don’t need one, Sir.”  And off they went.

In Oklahoma the hot summer sun generates significant thermals – heat waves rising from  the ground.  As the Earth warms during the day, different sections of surface heat at different rates, and temperatures.  This is what essentially creates the thermals.  These thermals tend to be more prevalent at lower altitudes.

The Tweet was real prone to being bounced around by these thermals when at low altitude.  That, coupled with the lousy air conditioning system in the Tweet – well, it could just be a lousy ride at low altitude.  So, on that day as they returned to base, as they were being bounced around, the kid looked over at Mikey and said, “Sir, I think I am going to be sick.”

Mikey told him to just drop his mask, and use his sick sack.  The kid then reminded him that he didn’t bring a sick sack, and asked him what he should do.

“Use your (flying) glove,” Mikey replied.

And so the kid dropped his mask and let it go!  When he finished “ralphing” in his glove, he looked at Mikey, somewhat teary-eye, and asked what he should do with the glove filled with his lunch.  Without skipping a beat, Mikey reached down and pulled a sick sack out of his lower flight suit pocket and handed it to the kid.  “Here,” he said, “put it in here…”

Things like this really ‘build character!’

 

Posted in USAF, War Stories | 1 Comment

Well, Okay Then…

Posted on 09/08/2013 by Bobo

After we got the deer stand built Joe invited me over to hunt deer.  Now, I have hunted a great deal in my life; pheasants, quail, ducks and often my socks – but never deer.  I wasn’t really that “shot-in-the-head” about it, but why not?

So last year I headed over to Joe’s just after the opening of Ohio deer season.  He was so gracious to let me hunt in the stand we built.  He was going to hunt from another stand he had about a quarter mile or so from the one I was assigned to.

That first morning I didn’t see anything that I wanted to shoot.  So we headed in around 10, had lunch then back out around 3.

I settled in and didn’t see anything until just before dusk.  Then I began to see some activity.  No bucks, but a couple real nice does.  I was fine with a ‘nice doe.’

When I had ‘the shot,’ I took it, and  down she went!  Down to her knees, then down over the side of the hill.  Crap!  Took me the better part of a half-hour to find her.

However, just after I climbed down from the deer stand I sent a text to Joe, telling him I “got one!”

He replied a text, “Send picture.”  I thought that was a bit odd, but oh well… So, I sent:

IMG_0741Thinking to myself, “Well, okay then…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can only imaging what Joe thought when he got the picture…

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Lecture 43

Posted on 08/08/2013 by Bobo

When I was in college I used to hang out at Jim Gamble’s house.  Often Jim wasn’t there, but that didn’t matter – I loved his folks, Virginia and Carl.

When I first met the Gambles in 1964 or so, my folks were still in Germany.  Dad was still in the Air Force and I was attending Bowling Green. (BGSU, here in NW Ohio.)

The Gambles had a farm, about 6 miles West of Bowling Green, and I loved that place.

PH38a153

 

I could show up any, and all hours of the day or night – and be welcomed.

From very early on Virgina, or Mom as I was inclined to call her, would offer ‘constructive criticism’ for me to consider.  As if I had many ‘choices!’  LOL!  After a while I noticed that I was hearing the same ‘lectures’ for the third or forth times.  It wasn’t that she was forgetful; no, not at all.  I was just a slow learner!

I will never forget however, the night I showed up around 8:30 or 9:00 PM or so, and she said, “Now Robert, I think you have forgotten ‘Lecture Number 43 again.”  When Mom began a conversation with “Now Robert…” often what followed was not good!  And so I got ‘Lecture 43″ once again that night!  Still am not sure today what exactly it was, but I got it, I can tell you that!

God I love those people, Carl and Virginia.  He put those two in my life at a time when I really needed them, and I will never let go of them…

AA_Holliker 1_141

AA_Holliker 1_130picts 1

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Chambley AFB, France: Before, and After…

Posted on 05/08/2013 by Bobo

I found this video on YouTube the other day.  We were stationed at Chambley from Oct. ’62 through Jul ’63.  I found it exhilarating, and heartbreaking – at the same time…

Chambley AFB, France

Posted in Air Force Brats | 4 Comments

A Thing of Beauty…

Posted on 04/08/2013 by Bobo

A few years ago Joe invited me to help him build a deer stand at his place.  Now, I love things like that – building things and spending time with friends.  So, I packed up my tools and headed over to his place in Southeast Ohio.

I arrived at his place just around noon.  After lunch we headed to Lowe’s where he bought all the materials we would need.  Upon paying for them, we got in his pickup and began heading back home.  As we left the parking lot, I looked over at Joe and asked, “Say Joe, did you want to bring the materials you just bought home with us?”  He replied with just a single word, “Fuck!” and we turned around…

First we assembled it in his pole barn – to make sure it would all fit before we dragged it up the mountain.

DSCN0846

Then up the mountain we went with it.

DSCN0847

 

Took 3 or 4 trips to get everything up there.

 

 

 

 

Once we had everything up there we began the assembly,

DSCN0853and then the erection.

DSCN0882

Here Joe is slowly pulling it up and into it’s eventual mounted place.

 

 

 

 

And, in the end, a thing of beauty!

IMG_0737From this deer stand Joe can shoot deer in New Mexico!  It sits about 12 feet off the ground, is insulated and heated.

I am grateful he invited me to be a ‘part of it…’

 

 

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Mike’s Bag….

Posted on 20/07/2013 by Bobo

One Friday afternoon Craig and I stopped in Amarillo, TX for a ‘gas-and-go’ on a weekend T-38 cross-country mission.  We were parked next to another Randolph (AFB) T-38.

The “rules” at the time, mandated that we take a “bag” – an instrument hood for the rear cockpit – to justify the trip.  It was not a big deal to have the bag in the rear cockpit, other than being a pain in the ass at times.

When we went into the FBO – Fixed Base Operations – we saw Mike O. briefing a student.  It was his jet next to ours.

Mike was a nice enough guy; a little naive at times I suppose, but not a bad guy.  And he was briefing his heart out as we headed back out to our jet.

When we got out to our jet I looked at Craig and then at the bag, then I asked, “What do you think?”  And then, it wasn’t long before we had that bag removed, and installed in Mike’s jet.  And off we went without another thought.

At our Monday a few of us were sitting around when Mike said, “You know, I had the strangest experience over the weekend.  I was on a student cross-country and we departed without a ‘bag’ on Friday afternoon.  When we landed yesterday afternoon, there was a bag in the jet.  Damnest thing…”

I didn’t have the heart to say anything…  but it was ‘killing me!’

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“They Will be Ready Thursday”

Posted on 19/07/2013 by Bobo

I loved it when I discovered how to make “phone patches” from the UHF radio in our C-141s to local phones at air bases!

One Saturday afternoon we were overhead Mt. Home AFB, ID on our way to Elmendorf AFB, AK.  From there we were heading on “down range” – into Southeast Asia.

At the time, Sue’s folks were stationed at Mt. Home.  Col. Mead was the Vice Commander at the time.  So, what the hell… I dialed them up!

As it turned out they were hosting a party!  We chatted for a bit, then I mentioned we were headed for Yokota AFB, Japan the next day.  Bobby and Jean (Mead) had been stationed in Yokota, maybe 10 – 12 years earlier.  Out of the blue Jean asked me if I would have any time at Yokota.  I told her we had maybe an 18-hour layover, or something like that.

She then asked me if I was going off base.  I told her I suspected I was – we often had to stop by “Pony’s” for the latest in stereo equipment.  Then she asked me if I would mind checking on a pair of shoes she had left in a repair shop to.  Apparently she had forgotten about them before they left Japan, and had carried the ticket around for 10 – 12 years!

Well, sure I would check on them for her.  So, she gave me the ticket number, and off we went.

When we got to Japan, it didn’t take long for me to find the little shop – her directions were ‘spot on.’  I walked in, and handed the ticket to the shop keeper.  He looked at it, a little ‘confused’ at first, then went into the back room where I overheard a flurry of “chatter,” and then a rustling of boxes.  Then I saw him open the curtains, smile at me a moment, then back into the back room.  And again with the “chatter.”  After a couple more minutes or so, he returned through the curtains, looked up and smiled at me – then he proudly remarked, “Will be ready Thursday!”  YGBSM!

You gotta love the workings of the Oriental mind!

Posted in Neat Stuff, War Stories | Leave a comment