Chapter 2: Early Life in the Service

I went home that afternoon and at supper, I said I had enlisted. My father pulled back his hand to swat me, and I said, "Try it and you won't live to see tomorrow." I guess he really looked at my face and knew the steel in my voice and eyes said he did not want to tangle with me today. My mother said they would miss me. I don't think that was a real sentiment either. My sister got up from the table and went to her room and cried. I didn't feel sorry for her; she had been their favorite for many years now, and I wasn't going to be their whipping boy or her patsy anymore. I had turned 18 that day, and I was no longer under their rule. I was a man now, and I had control over my life for the very first time. It felt kind of good to have that kind of control. I had grown to 6'-0" and 190 pounds of muscle, and I had very strong arms from milking cows every day.

I caught a Greyhound bus the next morning in the city along with about twenty other guys, and we headed for Buffalo for indoctrination and physicals. There were probably two hundred guys in this big gym, and we lined up by last name so Bob and I stuck together again. We went from table to table getting prodded, poked, and asked questions. Then we went into a room and there were ten of us lined up, and we were to drop trou and turn our heads and cough when the doc stuck his finger up by our balls. We had eye tests, hearing tests, and I'm not sure just what all kinds of tests. Shortly after the hernia tests we were allowed to get dressed and wait in an auditorium for any other guys who passes the tests. The tests took about four hours, and we hadn't eaten since about 08:00 in Westfield on the way up here. The bus stopped then and everyone piled out into a restaurant, and we all had scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee. It was almost three now, and I for one was getting hungry. Very soon after I thought that, four guys in uniform came in and the Army guy called people's names and told them to follow him. Next the Marine called some more names, and more people left, then we were called for the Air Force, and those left I assumed were Navy. We were herded off to a class room and next given the oath of office, and then we were given a manila envelope with our names on it and told to guard it with our lives as those were all our records. We were herded again out to another waiting bus and the Air Force guy took us to another restaurant, and we had a lunch of BLT and soda or water. After eating it was then back on the bus, and we were taken to the airport. At the airport, Andrew Adams was given all our records and assigned our leader. He was the first guy alphabetically so he was put in command. Funny thing was he was a meek little guy about 5'-4" and maybe 130 pounds.

Anyway, they led us out to a DC-3 or an AC-47 Skytrain version according to the Air Force, and we flew to O'Hare in Chicago. We waited around for an hour and then boarded a DC-2. This was just a little smaller version of the DC-3 which could take 21 passengers, where the DC-2 could take 14. There were only 12 of us going to Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. Funniest thing as soon as we took off we developed engine trouble and had to land in Joliet, Illinois. We boarded another C-47 and flew down to Texas for our new life as recruits.

We landed at Lackland Air Force Base and were put on a bus and then unloaded in front of a two-story barracks building with a fan on each end above the doors. We stood there until some guy in starched fatigues came up to us and started yelling something fierce. He had heel taps on and yelled at the top of his lungs. We were all marched up and down the road for about an hour and then marched into the barracks and assigned beds by last name. Bob and I were assigned a bunk bed, and I got the lower, him the upper. Next we were marched over to the mess hall for supper, and then marched back to the barracks. Everywhere we went, we marched. The next morning at 6:00am we were woken up with the banging together of two metal garbage can lids. We got up, showered, shaved, and got dressed in our clothes from the day before. Then we were marched to get our new uniforms. We got everything from underwear right up to include our green hats that we had to starch and put on a coffee can to dry so it would be stiff and round. We got haircuts down to bald heads and then marched back to the barracks to put all our stuff away.

Next, we learned to spit shine our shoes, even our brogans (That's work boots for you and I). And learned how to fold and stack our clothes in our foot lockers, so we could pass inspection. For us, it was eight weeks of pure hell. I think our floor held 34 or 36 bunks and before the eight, weeks were over a quarter or more were empty. We had classes on how to dress, how to salute, history about the Air Force, lessons on the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) We also had daily inspections by the DIs, (Drill Instructors) and by the Lieutenant or squadron Captain. We even had an inspection toward the end of the eight weeks by a full bird colonel. Then the hell was over, and we were assigned schools. Bob and I were picked for the Bomb Navigation School at Lowery AFB, Denver Colorado. At that time, most guys were sent by train to their schools, but we were flown up to Amarillo AFB, in Amarillo, TX. We dropped about ten guys off there for jet engine mechanic school and then flew up to Denver to drop the rest of us off.

We arrived just before Thanksgiving and for the next twelve weeks, we were in what they called Fundamentals, and then we would be going to Systems Training or Sets for another eighteen weeks before graduating and getting our first permanent assignment. We did get a week's leave in February when we finished fundamentals before starting Sets.

I had a couple of interesting things happen during fundaments. One was our roommate, had a white 1957 Chrysler 300C convertible. Man we had fun in it. It drew girls like bees to honey. The other was that on New Year's Eve the three of us each got a bottle of Sothern Comfort and crashed in a motel in Colorado Springs and started celebrating at each hour from the international dateline to local time. Needless to say we were toasted by midnight our time. The next morning, we headed out to climb Pike's Peak. Because it was winter, you could only drive up so far, and we parked the car and then climbed the rest of the way on foot. Wow what a view from up there. I have pictures somewhere of that view. However, I did have a scare on the climb up. I was climbing in a shallow valley like affair when I felt my feet slipping out from under me, and I was suddenly sliding on pure ice. I went about three or four hundred feet, and then I felt soft snow, so I dug my heels in, and stopped after about thirty feet. I moved over to the edge of the valley and climbed back up to join Bob and Claude Worthington, the guy with the great car. Needless to say we were all three sober when we reached the top. We went back down by way of the road and then returned to the base.

February rolled around; we all passed our fundamentals classes, and we all headed home for a visit. I met my parents at the bus station I had left from and what a difference. I think my father was actually proud of me in my uniform. I didn't have but one stripe on my sleeve, but I had an Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksman ribbon opposite my name badge on my dress blue uniform.

During that week home, I dated Joyce and found out from my cousin Susan, that she had not been idle while I was gone. She had been seen with Paul Horner, a semi friend of mine – well I knew him from school. He was my age and worked in a bank in town. Now I knew Paul to be a real horn dog and if the girl didn't put out he never bothered with her past three or four dates. However, Paul and Joyce were seen dating quite a bit. They were at the Saturday night square dances and the local teenage restaurant hangout and at the movies now and again. So when I got home, I called Joyce and asked to see her. She was so happy I was home, and we went out, and I took her to a place I knew about that we could talk and make out.

Things went well the first two nights we went out; it was more getting back to know each other. I was up to touching her over her clothes and things were progressing to where we were when I left for the service. The next to the last night I was home; we were in her home on the couch, and her parents were asleep, and we were getting into it, and I reached down to slide my hand up her leg under her full skirt, and she closed her legs. I thought okay, not now. So we kissed some more, and I moved my hand further and she closed her legs again. I asked what was wrong. "Joyce we have gone further than this before I left, I though you really loved me. I wanted something to remember you by when I will leave day-after tomorrow."

"Jim, I'm sorry, but I can't do that with you anymore. I'm not that kind of girl now. I love you, but I have to wait until we get married."

"I see. But I hear that Paul Horner is getting much more than I was ever allowed, and now you are telling me no and yet you also say that you love me, how can that be? So who is it, me, or Paul?"

"I think you need to leave." She said crying.

I left and never looked back. I guess absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. I guess it just means you find someone new.

I was down the whole return trip to Denver. Bob was flying without a plane, his girl and he had three days of hot sex before we headed back to school, me I had nothing except a broken heart.

When Sets started I was on the "C" shift schedule, and Bob was on "B" shift. A Shift was 8:00am to 4:00pm and B was 4:00pm to midnight, and C was midnight to 8:00am. This went on until about halfway through the course when A shift became so depleted by dropouts that Bob and I both got to move to days.

At first, I threw myself into my lessons and didn't party or anything. Then Claude talked me into a night on the town. I met a woman Beverly Conner, and we hit it off quite well. She was in a secretarial school in Denver, and we went out, and she knew I needed to catch the 10:45 bus out Colfax to the base, so I could make school five nights a week. There was no school on Saturday or Sunday. Those nights I got to spend all night with her. She felt that she could not go on when she flunked one of her tests, and I talked and fucked her out of her depression. Anyway, we broke up and then I started dating lots of girls. For about a three-month period I was going out with 27 different women and bedding 25 of them. One of the ones I did not sleep with was the daughter of a general on base and the other was more like a sister to me. But the others, boy did I have fun. I kind of made up for my dry spell since Joyce.

I had a lot of fun there in Denver, and I was kind of sad to leave there, but new adventures awaited me. While in Denver, I had worked out and grown a little more, I was now 6'-1 —" tall and weighed in at 195 pounds of solid muscle. I played handball and racquetball almost the whole nine months in Denver. That plus all the ladies I pursued gave me a new lease on life.

There was one night we had partied up on Lookout Mountain overlooking Golden Colorado. There was a bar up there that we could drink 3.2 beer and we celebrated a tough final. Anyway, I had a 1947 Plymouth that I bought for $50.00 from some guy that was leaving the base for his permanent duty station. I think he was going to Castle AFB, California. Whatever, I drove the Plymouth down the mountain and straight through the base and ran out of gas about five miles past the base. We slept it off in the car and had to hike to a gas station about a mile back and get a can with a couple of gallons of gas to get us back to base. Thank god it was a Saturday night we went drinking so we weren't counted as AWOL the next morning.

The funny thing about that old car, is when I bought it, it had two rods knocking in the engine. So I went to a junk yard, bought another engine from a 47 Dodge, and put it in the trunk in case the Plymouth engine died on me. When I hitchhiked back to Denver almost a year later that car was still on base, and I found the owner after he came out of the BX. I asked how he liked the car as it was once mine. He said he liked it fine, but it had three rods knocking now. I explained about the engine in the trunk, and he couldn't believe that he had a spare and never knew it. That next weekend he changed the engine out and the last I knew it was still on base running like a champ.

Sets ended, and we got our assignments. About half of our class put in for the east coast or south and the other half for the West Coast. Ten of us, Bob included got the furthest east of anyone. We got Lincoln AFB, Lincoln, Nebraska and B-47 bombers. Everyone else in our class of forty-seven students got the West Coast. Most got B-52's at Beale AFB, Castle AFB, or March AFB. The class that graduated two days behind us got a choice assignment of B-58 Hustlers at either Carswell AFB, TX or Little Rock AFB, AR. I kind of envied them since we were going to work on the oldest bomber in the USAF inventory, and they went to the newest.

At Lincoln, it took a while, but soon I had another bevy of women whom I went out with. I had arrived at Lincoln in late June of 1961 and until February of 1964, I played the field and had lots of fun. Bob and I didn't room together, but Bob was across the hall from my room. I say my room, there were two of us to a room with the showers, and bathrooms down the hall in the middle of the barracks. The barracks were pretty much the same as in Basic at Lackland, except the fans above the doors. This was cold country, and we had radiators under the windows to provide steam heat. There were three boilers in a room at the end of the barracks where the steam was generated for the whole building. It was the same setup in Denver at the fundamentals barracks on the north side of the base, but this was coal fired and one of our duties before or after class was boiler duty. Someone had to man the boilers 24-7 to keep the heat up all winter long. When we moved over to the barracks for Set's school, the boilers were gas fired and boiler duty disappeared.