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TURKEY - CHAPTER 3

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  The (Hog) as we affectionately called Detachment 93, was a godforsaken place to be stationed. I realize that I could have been stationed in a much worse place like Vietnam or Thule Greenland but I hated almost every minute that I was stationed there. Erhac was a Turkish AFB and our Detachment was mostly made up of Turkish facilities. With the exception of our recreation hall, the motorpool, and the trailers that made up our dispensary and NCO club everything else was Turkish. The base was fundamentally set up like Kingsley but with a few vital differences. Our mission was to guard the American nuclear weapons that were uploaded on Turkish F-100 fighters. These nukes were at least three times bigger than our Genie tactical nukes at Kingsley. Because of their size they were strategic rather than defensive and were meant for targets in the Soviet Union. Our primary posts were the Alert Area and the Nuclear Storage Area. Central Security Control or CSC was in the storage area. Everyt...
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THE HAPPY DAYS - CHAPTER 2

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Mother had a wringer washer and I was always fascinated with the rollers on top. One day I was showing off for a little girl in the neighborhood and I was running wet wash cloths through the rollers. I held on to a wash cloth a little too long and my fingers were caught. Before I knew it my arm was in up past my elbow. In a panic I didn't think to reach up and turn the rollers off. There was a lever that controlled the direction and I could have simply stopped the rollers and backed my arm out. I actually broke the machine trying to get my arm out. Another time I brought a friend of mine home from school. We were riding together in my wagon down the street from the top of the hill. There was a dip in the road about halfway down and whether I was on my bike, tricycle, or wagon I loved to hit that dip. He was in front and I was in back when we hit the dip and he wasn't holding on to the handle that well. The wheels turned sharply and both of us went face forward down hard on the ...
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HAPPY DAYS - CHAPTER 1

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To start off with I call this chapter happy days because to me, as far as my childhood goes, they were happy days. I felt secure in the love that was shown to me by my parents. A boy could not have had better parents. They taught me values that are instilled in me to this day. I feel blessed to have had a secure and happy upbringing during the most formative years of my life. There are no utopias, however. Signs of what was to come were there but I was too young and naive to see them. Yet I can't complain much about the first nine or ten years of my life. I was born at Baptist Hospital in Nashville Tennessee at 11:35 AM, Tuesday, February 28, 1950. Weighing in at eight pounds and six ounces. My parents were living at 225 & 1/2 Berry Street in East Nashville. With the exception of the three years and nine months that I spent on active duty in the Air Force, and seven unfortunate months living in Florida, I have been a lifelong resident of Nashville and Murfreesboro Tennessee. Sh...
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TURKEY - CHAPTER 2

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There was a crowd of young boys and men that swarmed around me speaking Turkish. I couldn't understand what they were saying but I soon realized that they were wanting to carry my duffel bag. Not knowing any better I let a boy carry my bag a few steps toward customs where he set it down and then asked me for fifty cents. I learned real quick to carry my own bags. Being in uniform late at night in a foreign airport was pretty overwhelming for me. Just then I saw two Black Airmen standing on the other side of the airport terminal and I walked up and introduced myself. They were as happy to see me as I was to see them and the three of us decided to hang out together. They were also on their way to Incirlik. From the time I arrived in Istanbul it was space available on Turkish Airlines from that time on. and we needed three seats to Ankara but we kept getting bumped. When it became obvious that we weren't going to get out of Incirlik that night we found a hotel room. It was hard to...
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IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE - CHAPTER 7

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A .22 caliber bullet can produce a devastating injury to the human brain. I have heard that this is the preferred weapon of mafia hit men because the bullet is of such small caliber and low velocity that it penetrates the head but doesn't create an exit wound. It simply bounces around inside the skull, ravaging the brain in the process. On top of that, daddy was using hollow point bullets. For those who don't know a hollow point makes a small entrance wound and a large exit wound. As a security officer I am supposed to use hollow points because the bullets disintegrate inside the body. Ball ammunition will pass through the body and can hit an innocent person in the line of fire. Police officers also use hollow point ammunition for this reason. So you can imagine what the death scene looked like. Didi told me that the bullets blew my mothers eyeballs out. I am being graphic in order to illustrate the horror that my grandmother encountered when she walked into that bedroom and fo...
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IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE - CHAPTER 6

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   Wednesday January 16, 1963 is a day that will forever be etched into my memory. There have not been too many days since that I have not thought about that day and it's consequences in some form or another. We woke up as usual that morning and dressed for school. Daddy was sitting in the back room facing the kitchen in a rocking chair. He was dressed in his work clothes which were dark pants, a long sleeved white shirt and bow tie. I will never forget the look on his face because he sat there lifeless, expressionless, with eyes staring straight ahead. Much like you might describe a thousand yard stare. The look on his face stopped me in my tracks. As I was walked through the kitchen I paused for just a moment to gaze at him.  I was irritated at mother that morning over something very minor. So minor that I can't remember today what I was mad about. Mother was lying in my bed next to the dining room door. She looked up and told me goodbye as I walked by the foot of the b...
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IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE - CHAPTER 5

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 After daddy tried to kill my mother in late November 1962 she decided to have him committed to the state mental hospital in Nashville. Mother needed the signatures of at least two doctors to commit him. Didi told me that she walked the streets of Nashville looking for doctors willing to sign the papers. I don't know if she was successful. People have asked me over the years why my father decided to kill my mother and no one but daddy could really answer that question. Relatives tried to console me by saying that he was a sick man and wasn't in his right mind. I can accept that. Anyone who would kill their wife and the mother of their children can't be in their right mind. Some have told me that daddy loved mother so much that he couldn't bear going by himself. This is twisted logic to me. That is a heck of a way to show your love for someone. Apparently he didn't love his children that much. He left us orphaned and here to fend for ourselves. Maybe I am being too h...
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