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| January
1957 - 1959 United States Air Force
Little
Rock Air Force Base, Jacksonville, Arkansas
Airman Photo Interpreter
- In Los Angeles, take American Airliner (prop-driven)
to Little Rock
- Forget envelope with
orders and pay records
- Arrive on the
second day of a forty-day ice storm. What sun?
- Score
training sorties using visual aerial and RADAR photography
- Incur
the wrath of field-promoted navigators and pilots
- Take
leave in California, return with 1953 MG TD
- Enjoy
rural Arkansas, winding roads, Lake Nixon water park
- Enjoy
urban Arkansas, young people, Hot Springs National Park
- Frequent
"Waiters Club" jazz venue on Ninth Street, Little Rock
- Encounter
and appreciate jazz trombonist Richard Boone
- Enjoy
but fail to remember name of jazz guitarist at Waiters Club
-
Witness history at Little Rock Central High School
- Inscribe
name on Capitol steps in used beer
- Avoid
apprehension by State Troopers after passing Governor Faubus' limousine on the
right
- See fellow THS graduate W. Ohlert
among his 101st Airborne cohort
- Enjoy
company of Lt. Jean Charlene Hjort of New Hampshire
- and
her dog, "Rocky"
- Flip a perfect
salute to General Curtis
LeMay, a known auto sports enthusiast, from behind the wheel of the top-down
MG TD, on a 35º day
- Benefit from
recreational long weekend in Puerto Rico for "Outstanding Airmen"
-
Fail to contact Rodney Williams, who is not at Ramey Air Force Base
at the moment; printing facilities for the base paper are in San Juan
- Steal
nice wooden coathanger from Caribe Hilton
- Scared
to death by four-wheel drifting jitney bus between Ramey and Airmen's club on
the beach
- Drink $8 in 15-cent rum-and-coke
- Immune to 24-hour parade of Lambrettas
and B-36s around and over bed
-
Fall out of upper bunk, awakening before hitting the concrete floor, thinking,
"If I awaken, it will hurt." Hardly able to move in the morning
-
Buy a carton of Camels at 9 cents per pack, smuggle them on the plane, find this
is small potatoes: air crew has filled the tanks of the in-flight refueler with
duty- and tax-free liquor and tobacco
-
Disremember the return trip to Little Rock
-
Drive to The 12 Hours Of Sebring, Florida
 ,
return by way of Biloxi, New Orleans, and Barksdale AFB - Make
a three-day temporary-duty trip to Barksdale Air Force Base's Altitude Chamber,
with the express purpose of qualifying as fourth man in an RB-47
-
Encounter Jerry Westmoreland working on the base paper at Barksdale
-
Mourn 70th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing's loss of two RB-47 aircraft (the fourth
men were the only personnel who perished) and training wing status
- Join
labor gang, learning Bid Whist, Hearts, chaff-loading
- Spend
several 59-day periods working outside of Air Force Specialty Code 20651
- Pick rocks out of the proposed fairways
of the base golf course
- Process
Small Stores receipts in base finance office, meeting and affronting either
Senator
William Fulbright or Senator
John McClellan
(two links) both of whom were internationally famous at that time (It was McClellan;
his daughter worked there in the office)
-
Write "Hometowners" for base information office, conduct base tours
- Hear Curtis O. McDaniel
describe awakening to the sight of an Airman "...skiing on the wing of a
B-47. Damnedest thing I ever seen."
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