A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND JERRY HONEYCUTT

-
 I heard the sad news a few days ago that a very good friend of mine had passed away. We served together in the Tennessee Air National Guard 118th Security Police. The two of us trained together in a medical evacuation exercise at Savanna Georgia in 1979. There a nurse dropped me on my head, while carrying me on a stretcher. She and another nurse were trying to carry me on to a C-130. We guarded a C-130 crash site in McMinnville in 1980. Pulled summer camp together at Gulfport Mississippi in 1981. Two weeks at Rhein Main Germany in 1983, where we did air base ground defense training, and riot control. We worked an air show and witnessed a demonstration by German protesters and an F-104 crash on the autobahn that killed five people in a car. The crash also severely burned several people in a parking lot. In 1984 we endured two weeks of Air Base Ground Defense School at Little Rock A.F.B.. Probably my two roughest weeks in the Guard. From the time I met Jerry we were pretty much inseparable.

My first impression of him was negative. The first day on the job he came to work in wrinkled fatigues, this was before BDU's, and combat boots that looked like he had been running through a cow pasture. Needless to say he got off on the wrong foot with our upper ranks. However it did not take long for me to learn to like him. In spite of his appearance he was one of the most knowledgeable and conscientious cops I had ever worked with and he kept me laughing all of the time. I would sometimes laugh until I cried. In those early years in the Guard I don't think I have laughed more than I did then. His humor was very dry and he could keep a straight face the whole time he would be telling a funny story and you didn't know until the punch line whether he was joking or not. He once told me that he was worried about his mother's mental state because she was hallucinating and thought she was a chicken. He said that they had thought about having her committed but were enjoying the eggs too much. Another time after we came home from two weeks in Germany he said that he missed his wife so much that they made love three times as soon as he saw her. Then he put down his bags and made love again. 

Jerry's one flaw was that he didn't know when to keep his mouth shut. He was constantly butting heads with our NCOIC of Security over issues like his appearance and the fact that certain people in the unit were shown undue favoritism. I was friends with him and tended to be a misfit magnet and always have been. This probably did not help my career. Although I made SSgt in the regular Air Force with less than three years time in grade, I was never promoted in the Guard. I was very honored to be friends with Jerry and may he rest in peace.
MEDICAL AIR EVACUATION EXERCISE AT SAVANNAH GEORGIA / 1979



ME ON THE LEFT AND HONEYCUTT ON THE RIGHT AT BILOXI MISSISSIPPI / 1981

JERRY HONEYCUTT RAPPELLING AT THE NASHVILLE FIRE TOWER IN MAY 1983


GERMAN GREEN PARTY PROTEST LEAFLET PROTESTING THE EXPANSION OF THE RUNWAY AT RHEIN MAIN IN JUNE 1983



PICTURE THAT I TOOK IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CRASH

CAR IN WHICH A FAMILY OF FIVE DIED ON THE AUTOBAHN


A PARKING LOT WHERE SEVERAL PEOPLE WERE SEVERELY BURNED BUT SURVIVED






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE DEATH OF JAYNE MANSFIELD

-
Image
Jayne Mansfield   Jayne Mansfield died way too young on June 29, 1967 at the age of 34 in a gruesome car wreck, She was killed instantly but contrary to urban legend she was not decapitated. Jayne was called the poor man's Marilyn Monroe. She had enjoyed about a four year stint of popularity on Broadway and in Hollywood from 1954 until 1958. Her career was in decline in the late 50's and early 60's but she was still popular in Europe and on the nightclub circuit. She took her last name from her high school sweetheart Paul Mansfield when she married him at the age of seventeen. Her second husband was a former Mr. Universe named Mickey Hargitay who was from Norway. The third and last husband was Matt Cimber. Mansfield was highly educated, attending Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas and U.C.L.A. She supposedly had an IQ of 163 and was called the smartest dumb blonde ever. Of course she couldn't be too smart. In 1966, a year before her death, while
Read more

CARNTON PLANTATION

-
Image
   My first association with the Carnton Plantation in Franklin was when I would see the old house while hunting for Civil War relics in the early 1970's. There is a subdivision near Carnton today in the area where I hunted when it was primarily farm land. I knew it was an antebellum home but I wasn't aware of how historic Carnton was. It was in a horrible state of disrepair and I have learned since then that a farmer was using the house as his hay barn. In 1977 the owner of the property donated the house and ten acres to the Carnton Association and they have done a fantastic job of restoring the plantation to it's former glory. Originally the McGavock's owned 1400 acres. It was built by Randall McGavock in the 1820's. He was mayor of Nashville and a close friend of Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. Jackson on several occasions was an overnight guest in the home.    His son John took over the plantation in 1843 upon the death of Randall. In 1848 John mar
Read more

NASHVILLE AND JESSE JAMES

-
Image
The James brothers with their mother Zerelda James   Most everyone has heard of the notorious outlaws Jesse and Frank James, however; did you know that they lived in Nashville from 1875 until March 1881? Jesse's oldest son Jesse James Jr. was born in Nashville along with his sister Mary. Jesse Jr. was born at 606 Boscobel Street on August 31, 1875. Mary was born on West Hamilton Road in Bordeaux on July 17, 1879. Jesse Jr. went by the name Tim and as far as he knew his last name was Howard. He and his sister would not know their real last names until after Jesse was killed in 1882. Jesse and his wife Zerelda would also lose two male twins in infancy.  Jesse's brother Frank lived on Clarksville Pike. While living there he and his wife Annie Ralston James gave birth to a son named Robert Franklin on February 6, 1877. For a time he would be dressed as a girl and go by the name of Mary. Why his parents did this I do not know.  The brothers were on the run. Nashville was
Read more