Whatever. The early days in the AF were a blur. Also had to visit with the base Catholic priest since I am of course Catholic. He blew me away knowing how to pronounce my last name like it's supposed to be pronounced. Where was your first base after basic?
I had a HS friend whose aunt worked for the Selective Service in Lake Charles. She told him I needed to do something as my status was getting very warm. I talked to the AF recruiter & he signed me up. Due to a meningitis outbreak in San Antonio, I went thru basic @ Amarillo AFB. I went thru tech school at Amarillo. My first assignment was @ Reese AFB just outside of Lubbock. Finally I got an assignment to Nam in August of 69. I was home on leave and happened to run into my recruiter. I told him "Join the AF & see the world. All I've seen so far is the phucking Texas Panhandle. He laughed & bought me a couple of beers.
Wanted to be a marine. What I remember as a kid was hearing about my dad being at the Battle of the Buldge and my uncle Bob being at Tarawa. Used to listen in sometimes as they talked at the kitchen table. Had to sneak cause they didn't want me to hear too much. The summer before my senior year in high school I stupidly shot myself in my left knee screwing around with a .22 pistol 3 miles in the swamp down the Violet levee. That blew my senior year of football. Graduated in 1964 and that July told my dad I wanted to join the marines. He said "why?" I said "cause you and uncle Bob were in WWII". He looked at me and said "oh yeah". He then said "take a ride with me". We got in the car and drove. I asked him several times "where are we going" he said "you will see" each time. We went somewhere near downtown parked walked a block and as we walked into this office saw Air Force Recruiting Station. We went in he told the recruiter "here got someone for you". He then looked at me and said "see you at the car when you are done". He did not want me in the marines Well I joined. Lackland in San Antonio for basic then a SAC base Clinton Sherman AFB in Burns Flat Oklahoma, then an ADC base Elmendorph AFB in Anchorage Alaska, then Tua Hoa Vietnam then back to Elmendorph where I was honorable discharged Aug 1968. Clinton Sherman was in maybe the worse part of Oklahoma. Elmendorph I really liked cause Alaska was an outdoorsman dream wild, interesting and had some horny uninhibited girls there. Vietnam was a blur and did a lot of growing up in a short period of time. Got a convoluted sexual education there too. In short the Air Force was good for me and would do it all over again.
