Month: August 2014

The summer of ’57 came and the class took a get acquainted tour. We traveled to most, if not all, the major air commands. It was a whirlwind tour, and I only remember bits and pieces. We visited Wright-Patterson AFB (Air Material Command and Air Force Research and Development Command) where I got to ride in a centrifuge. I pulled seven gees and held my left arm up the whole time. As long as you’re lying down, gee-force is overrated.

We got some off-base time. Several of us went together into Dayton. The one thing I remember was stopping at a soda shop and ordering banana splits. When the waitress asked, “Do you want strawberry, chocolate, or caramel topping?” JT answered, “Yes.” That confused the waitress because apparently at that time in Dayton you ordered banana splits with one topping.

We went to Hamilton AFB (San Rafael, CA) to learn about Air Defense Command. The one thing I remember was that we had a dance where they had arranged for us to meet local young women. My companion for the evening was rather plain looking except when she smiled. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen nearly enough.

I believe that was the year we went to Tinker AFB (Oklahoma City). Once again we had local companions arranged. My date was the daughter of the base or wing commander. She was a beauty and she had a boyfriend. Besides the dance we went swimming together at the base pool. When she came out, she was holding her top on and asked me to fasten it. Boy, was I fumble fingered.

I’m pretty sure we toured SAC headquarters. I’m not sure about TAC, because we visited Norfolk and the Navy the next summer. It was a busy two weeks, and we got really familiar with C-124s. Ben described them as something you got into which shook for a while, and you got off somewhere else.

We spent a brief summer academic period where our topics were primarily military. We even got to play a war game scenario to see how much we had learned. The one thing I remember about that session was someone came up with a new anti-aircraft missile. We had found out about the Nike Ajax and the Nike Zeus while we were in California. Our missile was named the Nike Jesus and had divine guidance (I’m pretty sure Greg dreamed that up. He was as irreverent as they come).

That summer gave us our first leave. I don’t remember a whole lot about it strangely enough. I know I went back to Delaware. I remember that we got a lot of help getting home, and I learned about space-A travel. I’m pretty sure I went to see Thoroughly Modern Millie with Carol from Wilmington. It was at an outdoor theater in the round. It was the only time I dated her, and I don’t know why I didn’t date her again.

I know this is short, but so was that summer. It was back to class as third classmen.

Part of our education that first year was the social graces. Mrs. McComas led us through how to dance (with little or no sense of rhythm, not one of my better subjects), proper etiquette at the table and with a young lady, and military etiquette (The list goes on, but that was almost sixty years ago). Mrs. McComas also served as a match maker. Through her I met Betty and fell in love.

Betty had her own car, and we dated whenever we could. She was the first girl I kissed, and I was in heaven. She also contributed to my punishments. One weekend we got back to Arnold Hall with plenty of time, but we hadn’t had enough making out. I got out of her car late and ran for the barracks. Unfortunately, I got back after curfew and earned my first Class III. That got me a bunch of demerits and more tours. Our romance ended when I went on leave the following summer. Just before I left, I told her I loved her, and she said that wasn’t acceptable. It wasn’t till I met Carol that I got over feeling giddy whenever I saw Betty.

I suppose I should mention academics. I tested out of basic chemistry and was put in analytical chemistry. The first semester was qualitative – determining the chemical components of a solution. I’d take a small amount of the sample I was supposed to be testing, put in a drop or so of a chemical that would cause certain compounds to precipitate out. It was cookbook stuff, but I apparently wasn’t careful enough about not contaminating the sample. I consistently got the same wrong result. I was essentially failing the course so I was sent back to the regular course where I had no problem.

My chemistry instructor was Lieutenant Lamb. He introduced me to TLAR – That Looks About Right. He used the rule of thumb for mixing chemicals. To get the proper amount of the reactants he would eyeball the amounts and say, “That looks about right.” He made chemistry class fun.

That first year (it may have been the second) I went skiing for the first time. My group was bussed to Arapahoe Basin. After I was fitted with boots and skis, I hit the slopes – almost literally. I had absolutely no training or experience, so I spent a lot of time sitting in the snow. The beginners’ slope rope tow challenged me before I could even take on the slope. It pulled me up a hundred or so feet of hill. Fortunately I was able to stay in the well-worn tracks along the lift, so I could make it to the top. Then I pointed my skis downhill, and I was off – for maybe fifteen feet. I kept speeding up, and the only way I could come up with to stop was to fall down. I spent the whole time I was up there riding the rope to the top of the bunny slope and skiing down stopping every twenty feet or so by sitting or falling down. That wasn’t particularly fun so I didn’t go skiing again while I was at the Academy.

We got to relax a little at Christmas but we still had to be satisfied with Off Base Privileges (We had to be back in our rooms for Taps each day). Dad came out to visit so I spent a lot of time with him and our friends from Guam, the Cooks, as long as he was there. Strangely enough, the one thing that soured that Christmas for me had almost nothing to do with me. One of the members of the Class of ’59, Richert, had been a real hard-nose during the preceding semester. He had academic troubles and stayed at the Academy to try for a passing grade in a class he had failed. He turned out to be a fairly nice guy over the Christmas holidays. I talked to him and commiserated with him but couldn’t help him pass. When he got the news that he had failed his last chance, he told me about it, and that was the first time I ever said, “Damn,” at least out loud.

Back in those days we had summer and winter uniforms. Come mid-April we switched over from winter uniforms to summer uniforms. We put our winter uniforms in our footlockers and stored them away. That night, before we even got a chance to wear our summer uniforms, it snowed eighteen inches. Before we did anything else we had to dig out our winter uniforms.

There were other things I remember from that first year: Saturday Morning Inspections (SAMI) both in our rooms and in ranks, football games at DU stadium (they had one back then), a Harry Belafonte concert at DU, etc. An event I wasn’t involved with – but heard about – sticks in my memory. One of the Air Training Officers had a Ford Thunderbird (red if I recall correctly). Several cadets sneaked out one night and somehow moved that car up the front steps of one of the buildings (headquarters, I think) and left it in the lobby.

Eventually that year passed, and we were “recognized” as true cadets: no more eating at attention or double timing wherever we went outside.