1963 - CHAPTER TEN - MORNING IN AMERICA
By the time I was hired at Cumberland-Swan Drug Company in March of 1983 the economy was in a noticeable recovery. Inflation was on the way down. The real estate market and the automobile industry were recovering. The job market was also getting better and by this time I was a believer in Ronald Reagan and I was a proud Conservative. Before Ronald Reagan a Conservative was bad, and a liberal was good. After my conversion to conservatism the term liberal represented all that was wrong with America to me. Before Reagan I was a conservative and just didn't know it. I believed that if you were a liberal it meant that you were open-minded on everything. That you were for the working man, against the evil rich and open-minded on the subject of race. After Reagan I realized how wrong I had been.
Actually, the ones who control the Democrat party today are Marxists or Communist if you will. The modern Democrat party is basically the Communist Party U.S.A. A true liberal loves America and believes in the rule of law. Although I disagree with them on most things, I would list people like Ed Koch, Joe Lieberman and Alan Dershowitz in that category. Leftists do not love America or the rule of law. They only follow the law, or the Constitution, when it works to their advantage. The end justifies the means. Like Obama, AOC, and Biden, they want to destroy America by transforming this great country into a Marxist utopia. Karl Marx's favorite saying was "Everything that exists deserves to perish". Alexander Trachtenberg, a famous Communist, said the following "When we get ready to take the United States we will not take it under the label of communism; we will not take it under the label of socialism. These labels are unpleasant to the American people, and have been speared too much. We will take the United States under labels we have made very lovable; we will take it under liberalism, under progressivism, under democracy. But take it we will".
When I was hired at Cumberland-Swan I went to work in compounding. They manufactured various over the counter drugs, and packaged them. We made all kind of drugs, cleaning, beauty products. rubbing alcohol, peroxide, aspirin, non-aspirin, saccharine, cough medicine, nail polish remover, merthiolate, mouthwash, citrate of magnesia, and household cleaners. We received raw materials in bulk like petroleum jelly and epsom salt. The long list of products that we manufactured are just too numerous to mention. We also manufactured our own plastic bottles for the production lines. One important fact that I learned while working at Cumberland-Swan was that off brand products are of the same quality as the brand name products. When you bought aspirin with the Swan label at a much cheaper price, you were getting the same aspirin that was sold by the big companies like Bayer and St. Joseph. They all have the same ingredients, corn starch, Empompress, and acetylsalicylic acid. Bufferin has a 4th ingredient which is an antacid to coat the stomach since regular aspirin can make your stomach bleed on an empty stomach. This is the only difference between the Bufferin brand and regular aspirin. Read the ingredients on all off brands and you will find that they are usually the same as brand name products. We are simply paying higher prices for the brand name.
I was hired to make aspirin and saccharine tablets in three rooms. An aspirin blending room, a saccharine blending room, and a room with presses that made the tablets. Cumberland-Swan was on land that was the old Sewart Air Force base that closed in 1970. The area that I worked in was the old commissary building and a newer building adjoined the commissary building. Cumberland-Swan was quite possibly the most dangerous place that I ever worked. It was an accident waiting to happen and there were many. I went to work there in March of 1983 and left in October of 1987.
When I was hired at Cumberland-Swan I went to work in compounding. They manufactured various over the counter drugs, and packaged them. We made all kind of drugs, cleaning, beauty products. rubbing alcohol, peroxide, aspirin, non-aspirin, saccharine, cough medicine, nail polish remover, merthiolate, mouthwash, citrate of magnesia, and household cleaners. We received raw materials in bulk like petroleum jelly and epsom salt. The long list of products that we manufactured are just too numerous to mention. We also manufactured our own plastic bottles for the production lines. One important fact that I learned while working at Cumberland-Swan was that off brand products are of the same quality as the brand name products. When you bought aspirin with the Swan label at a much cheaper price, you were getting the same aspirin that was sold by the big companies like Bayer and St. Joseph. They all have the same ingredients, corn starch, Empompress, and acetylsalicylic acid. Bufferin has a 4th ingredient which is an antacid to coat the stomach since regular aspirin can make your stomach bleed on an empty stomach. This is the only difference between the Bufferin brand and regular aspirin. Read the ingredients on all off brands and you will find that they are usually the same as brand name products. We are simply paying higher prices for the brand name.
I was hired to make aspirin and saccharine tablets in three rooms. An aspirin blending room, a saccharine blending room, and a room with presses that made the tablets. Cumberland-Swan was on land that was the old Sewart Air Force base that closed in 1970. The area that I worked in was the old commissary building and a newer building adjoined the commissary building. Cumberland-Swan was quite possibly the most dangerous place that I ever worked. It was an accident waiting to happen and there were many. I went to work there in March of 1983 and left in October of 1987.
God must have been watching over me. Not long after I started working there I came into work one morning and the saccharine blending room was completely destroyed. The first thing that I noticed was glass strewn through the hallways from the plate glass windows that had been blown out. We had two ovens that were used to dry the saccharine so it could be ground into a powder that was then poured into the hopper of the saccharine presses. One of the ovens had blown up and the pieces were scattered all over the room. Pieces of the oven were embedded in the concrete block walls along with shards of glass. The block wall that separated the room from the hallway was moved off it's foundation by about a foot from the force of the explosion. The room looked like a bomb had gone off and it had because the oven became a bomb. By the grace of God it did not go off while I was in the room because they would have been scraping me off the walls and no one else was killed or injured.
A female quality assurance worker, along with one of our male compounders, had just walked out of the room when the oven blew up. After an investigation it was discovered that the oven was not OSHA approved for drying saccharine. Both ovens had a ventilation fan that blew out the gasses and the fan on the oven that exploded had stopped working. A build-up of gasses caused the oven to explode. Over the four years I worked there many people were severely injured. My compounding supervisor was working on a steam pipe when it blew up scalding his stomach. I was in the restroom when he walked in and started taking off his clothes. The skin was hanging from his stomach and he appeared to be going into shock when they took him to the hospital. After I left two ladies that I had supervised were reworking nail polish remover, I believe, when the acetone in it caught fire, trapping them in the room. They had to run through the fire in order to escape through the only exit door. Both were life flighted to Vanderbilt but survived their injuries. On another occasion, while I was still working there, a citrate of magnesia glass bottle exploded in a female workers hand cutting an artery in her wrist. She also recovered. Luckily, there were no fatalities while I worked there.
A female quality assurance worker, along with one of our male compounders, had just walked out of the room when the oven blew up. After an investigation it was discovered that the oven was not OSHA approved for drying saccharine. Both ovens had a ventilation fan that blew out the gasses and the fan on the oven that exploded had stopped working. A build-up of gasses caused the oven to explode. Over the four years I worked there many people were severely injured. My compounding supervisor was working on a steam pipe when it blew up scalding his stomach. I was in the restroom when he walked in and started taking off his clothes. The skin was hanging from his stomach and he appeared to be going into shock when they took him to the hospital. After I left two ladies that I had supervised were reworking nail polish remover, I believe, when the acetone in it caught fire, trapping them in the room. They had to run through the fire in order to escape through the only exit door. Both were life flighted to Vanderbilt but survived their injuries. On another occasion, while I was still working there, a citrate of magnesia glass bottle exploded in a female workers hand cutting an artery in her wrist. She also recovered. Luckily, there were no fatalities while I worked there.
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| An aspirin press |
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| Swan Brand Aspirin |
Swan was growing rapidly and always changing during the time that I worked there and compounding moved upstairs into a newer building. About this time I got a new supervisor who was basically a redneck punk and it was obvious that he didn't care for me. I did everything that I was asked to do but nothing I did seemed to please him. One day I was told to go to the HR office. A very nice guy named Michael was in charge of our Human Resources Department. My supervisor and Michael were waiting on me when I arrived. I was told that I was being written up for having a bad attitude. Michael seemed to be high on me when I was hired but he was caught in the middle on this one. He probably believed that he had to back up his supervisor because I have been faced with similar situations as a supervisor. I asked my supervisor to tell me what I had done wrong and all he could come up with was I had a bad attitude. Whenever someone criticizes me I try to look inward and determine if it is constructive criticism. To coin a phrase I try not to become bitter. I only want to be better. After a serious look inward if the criticism is not warranted, I try to ignore it and move on. In this case it was totally unjustified.
At the time I was working in the aspirin blending room a compounder was lucky if they were able to get a blend and a half done during a eight hour shift. It was considered a very good day if you could complete two full blends and I was determined to break this record. After a few weeks I averaged anywhere from two and a half to three blends a shift. Even my punk supervisor commended me for the work I was doing. One day Michael called me to his office and offered me a promotion. He told me that he was impressed by the way I handled myself during and after my write-up. Michael admired how composed I had been and how I had given such a level headed defense in the face of a false accusation. He said many people would have slow walked or developed an even worse attitude after a write-up but I did the opposite and proved him wrong by working even harder. This is my way of settling a score with people when I am falsely accused of something in the workplace. Another saying that I like is that a person should not allow others to determine how they are going to act. I just go out and prove them wrong but I never expected to be offered a supervisor's job from all of this. At Colonial I never wanted to be a supervisor because I was making almost as much money as they were anyway. Supervisors were on salary and by the time that you figured in their overtime, extra responsibilities, and headaches we were probably making more than they were. Their only advantage was that they were paid whenever they had to be off for sickness or personal business and we weren't.
At Cumberland-Swan taking a supervisors job was a step up over the pay that I was getting as a compounder. My starting pay was going to be 20,000 a year, which was not too bad for 1984. I was one of three production supervisors and about 80% of the workers were women. They were mostly line operators and the men were primarily tow motor operators and utility workers. Utility workers held these jobs because of the physical strength needed to keep the hoppers full of plastic caps, bottles, and the raw materials needed to keep the lines running. Especially in the Epsom Salts room where the salt was in bags weighing 100 pounds and stacked on pallets. I tried to keep men rotated on a daily basis because it was hot and heavy work. First, they had to take a heavy metal bar and break up the salt before dumping it in the hoppers. When I became a supervisor only two women were utility workers and both ladies were strong enough to do the job. At Colonial we only had one older lady in the bakery and she worked for a little while after I was hired but retired soon after. After she retired there were no women working at Colonial for a few years. In the mid to late seventies, however; affirmative action laws regarding women were being enforced and they were being hired. At first the women were getting the easiest jobs, which I felt was unfair.
There were exceptions, however. We had one young girl who had a very physical job in production and she worked that job even after she was pregnant and right up until the time of delivery. This woman never complained about anything and she was a very petite woman but I had tremendous respect for her toughness. Just after I became a supervisor the same thing happened at Cumberland-Swan. The company was forced into hiring women for all positions. Tow motor, utility and compounding jobs were opened up to women. One of my fellow supervisors was a man and the other was a woman. I never felt like they liked me very much. In my view if a woman is hired to do a job traditionally set aside for men they must be able to adequately perform that job. Otherwise they do not belong there. For example when I supervised the salt line, I rotated women in and out of there just like the men. Many of them would run to the other supervisors and complain on me. The other supervisors would take them out of the rotation causing the men to have to work the salt line twice as much and this wasn't fair to them.
At the time I was working in the aspirin blending room a compounder was lucky if they were able to get a blend and a half done during a eight hour shift. It was considered a very good day if you could complete two full blends and I was determined to break this record. After a few weeks I averaged anywhere from two and a half to three blends a shift. Even my punk supervisor commended me for the work I was doing. One day Michael called me to his office and offered me a promotion. He told me that he was impressed by the way I handled myself during and after my write-up. Michael admired how composed I had been and how I had given such a level headed defense in the face of a false accusation. He said many people would have slow walked or developed an even worse attitude after a write-up but I did the opposite and proved him wrong by working even harder. This is my way of settling a score with people when I am falsely accused of something in the workplace. Another saying that I like is that a person should not allow others to determine how they are going to act. I just go out and prove them wrong but I never expected to be offered a supervisor's job from all of this. At Colonial I never wanted to be a supervisor because I was making almost as much money as they were anyway. Supervisors were on salary and by the time that you figured in their overtime, extra responsibilities, and headaches we were probably making more than they were. Their only advantage was that they were paid whenever they had to be off for sickness or personal business and we weren't.
At Cumberland-Swan taking a supervisors job was a step up over the pay that I was getting as a compounder. My starting pay was going to be 20,000 a year, which was not too bad for 1984. I was one of three production supervisors and about 80% of the workers were women. They were mostly line operators and the men were primarily tow motor operators and utility workers. Utility workers held these jobs because of the physical strength needed to keep the hoppers full of plastic caps, bottles, and the raw materials needed to keep the lines running. Especially in the Epsom Salts room where the salt was in bags weighing 100 pounds and stacked on pallets. I tried to keep men rotated on a daily basis because it was hot and heavy work. First, they had to take a heavy metal bar and break up the salt before dumping it in the hoppers. When I became a supervisor only two women were utility workers and both ladies were strong enough to do the job. At Colonial we only had one older lady in the bakery and she worked for a little while after I was hired but retired soon after. After she retired there were no women working at Colonial for a few years. In the mid to late seventies, however; affirmative action laws regarding women were being enforced and they were being hired. At first the women were getting the easiest jobs, which I felt was unfair.
There were exceptions, however. We had one young girl who had a very physical job in production and she worked that job even after she was pregnant and right up until the time of delivery. This woman never complained about anything and she was a very petite woman but I had tremendous respect for her toughness. Just after I became a supervisor the same thing happened at Cumberland-Swan. The company was forced into hiring women for all positions. Tow motor, utility and compounding jobs were opened up to women. One of my fellow supervisors was a man and the other was a woman. I never felt like they liked me very much. In my view if a woman is hired to do a job traditionally set aside for men they must be able to adequately perform that job. Otherwise they do not belong there. For example when I supervised the salt line, I rotated women in and out of there just like the men. Many of them would run to the other supervisors and complain on me. The other supervisors would take them out of the rotation causing the men to have to work the salt line twice as much and this wasn't fair to them.
In May of 1983 a spot opened up and I was finally allowed to rejoin my Air National Guard unit. Things were finally falling into place but I was still not able to buy a car. Since my transmission went out in Florida I was not able to trade my car because I was upside down on it because I owed more on the car than it was worth. I was forced to have it repaired in order to keep driving. Before I was finally able to trade the car in 1987 I put three rebuilt transmissions in it, an engine, and several starters. I was either walking, running, or hitching rides to work more than I was driving. My first Guard drill was spent preparing for a two week camp at Rhein Main AFB near Frankfort Germany and we were scheduled to leave toward the end of the month. We were being deployed to Rhein Main to work an air show there. Because of terrorism across Europe in the 1970's and 80's the base was basically closed to the German public. Other than the locals who worked on the base. or vendors delivering to the base, the German civilians were not allowed to go there. There had been acts of terror all over Europe and a bomb had been found on a railroad track near the perimeter fence at Rhein Main. The Baader Meinhoff Gang, or Red Army faction, was an ultra left wing German terrorist group. The Red Army Faction was responsible for a series of assassinations, kidnappings, bombings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police over three decades.
It was my understanding that this air show was going to be the first one to be held there in years. Huge crowds of Germans were expected on base and I heard numbers as high as 300,000 people could be there. For that reason Military policeman from both the Air Force and Army were being sent to work the air show from all over Europe and America. Our commander was a great guy. He had been a former finance officer in the regular Air Force and had been stationed at Erhac Turkey after I left there in 1971. In my opinion, however; he was unsuited to be a Security Police commander. We were just starting ABGD, or Air Base Ground Defense training. An army Captain, and Vietnam veteran, was attached to our unit in order to train us in infantry and fire team tactics. Because our C-130 was going to be packed to the gills we were not allowed to take our M-16's and ammo. Our Major assured us that Rhein Main would furnish us with the weapons needed to work the air show.
It was my understanding that this air show was going to be the first one to be held there in years. Huge crowds of Germans were expected on base and I heard numbers as high as 300,000 people could be there. For that reason Military policeman from both the Air Force and Army were being sent to work the air show from all over Europe and America. Our commander was a great guy. He had been a former finance officer in the regular Air Force and had been stationed at Erhac Turkey after I left there in 1971. In my opinion, however; he was unsuited to be a Security Police commander. We were just starting ABGD, or Air Base Ground Defense training. An army Captain, and Vietnam veteran, was attached to our unit in order to train us in infantry and fire team tactics. Because our C-130 was going to be packed to the gills we were not allowed to take our M-16's and ammo. Our Major assured us that Rhein Main would furnish us with the weapons needed to work the air show.
I was uncomfortable about going into a possible hostile environment without our weapons. Other than very short trips around Savannah's Travis Field during a medical evacuation exercise in 1979 I had not been on an airplane for any length of time since left Turkey. I was very nervous about flying on a C-130 all the way to Germany and back. One reason we couldn't take our weapons was that a Minnesota Air National Guard plane loaded with nurses and medical personnel, along with all of their equipment, was picking us up on their way to Germany. We were only allowed to carry our personal bags and the uniforms we were wearing. We were packed in so tight I knew what a sardine felt like.
Since there was a mix of male and females on board our toilet had a curtain around it. Fortunately, I never had to poop on one of these flights but I could not avoid having to pee. It was embarrassing having to step over a long line of people on my way to the toilet. Especially, people I didn't know. After a four hour flight we landed at Bangor A.F.B. Maine. Although it was the end of May there was still snow on the ground. The next morning we took off for the Azores, which was another six hour flight. It is an experience landing in the Azores. They are a group of islands in the Atlantic near the coast of Africa that belong to Portugal. The U.S. has an airbase there called Lajes Field and it is used as a stopover and refueling station for aircraft on the way to Europe and the Middle East. The cross winds make for a rough landing and by the time we finally touched down I was sweating bullets. You could see the ocean on both ends of the runway. It was a beautiful and mountainous island that was formed by volcanic activity. We spent the night there and early the next morning took off on another six hour flight to Rhein Main. Rhein Main was on one side of the air field and the Frankfort International airport terminal was on the other. This was the busiest air field that I ever worked at. Twenty-four hours a day there was a continuous stream of every conceivable type of aircraft landing and taking off. As soon as one landed another was taking off.
Since there was a mix of male and females on board our toilet had a curtain around it. Fortunately, I never had to poop on one of these flights but I could not avoid having to pee. It was embarrassing having to step over a long line of people on my way to the toilet. Especially, people I didn't know. After a four hour flight we landed at Bangor A.F.B. Maine. Although it was the end of May there was still snow on the ground. The next morning we took off for the Azores, which was another six hour flight. It is an experience landing in the Azores. They are a group of islands in the Atlantic near the coast of Africa that belong to Portugal. The U.S. has an airbase there called Lajes Field and it is used as a stopover and refueling station for aircraft on the way to Europe and the Middle East. The cross winds make for a rough landing and by the time we finally touched down I was sweating bullets. You could see the ocean on both ends of the runway. It was a beautiful and mountainous island that was formed by volcanic activity. We spent the night there and early the next morning took off on another six hour flight to Rhein Main. Rhein Main was on one side of the air field and the Frankfort International airport terminal was on the other. This was the busiest air field that I ever worked at. Twenty-four hours a day there was a continuous stream of every conceivable type of aircraft landing and taking off. As soon as one landed another was taking off.
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| Lajes Field in the Azores from the air |
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| Lajes Field |
We arrived on a weekend and the air show was to be the following Saturday. Until the air show we were on a daily training regimen along with briefings. The briefings were primarily about terrorism and what we should be looking for. Bombs were the greatest threat, especially car bombs. A car bomb exploded at Ramstein A.F.B. Germany near Munich on September 1, 1981, injuring 20 people. Two years after we left Rhein Main on Aug. 8, 1985, a terrorist car bomb exploded outside the headquarters building at Rhein Main, killing Airman First Class Frank Scarton and dependent Becky Bristol. Almost four months later on November 25th, a car bomb exploded at a U.S. Military Post Exchange (PX) in Frankfort, injuring 36, including 18 U.S. military personnel and 15 U.S. civilians. The bomb was contained in a silver BMW. A friend of mine, who was an Army M.P. at the time, was supposed to be working where the bomb exploded, but by the grace of God he was off that day. The man that replaced him was injured. As I stated earlier a bomb had been found just outside the perimeter fencing on a railroad track feeder line that brought supplies into the base just a few weeks before we arrived. The threat of a bomb was real and we paid close attention at these briefings. We were also warned about a device called a wrist rocket. It was a sling shot worn on the wrist by terrorists and they fired steel ball bearings at their victims.
Base authorities were also expecting riots and demonstrations led by the Green Party. They were upset over the planned construction of a new runway on the base. One day was devoted to riot control training but we were assured that the German Polizei would take care of any riot or demonstration that occurred on base rather quickly and they were very good at it. Another day was devoted to Air Base Ground Defense Training. We were issued M-16's and we attached a small box to the front of the barrel that directed a laser toward the person you were shooting at. Blanks were used to add realism to the training and the laser was synchronized to fire every time we pulled the trigger. Everyone was wearing sensors on their helmets and torsos that would beep if the laser made contact with a sensor. If there was an intermittent beep it meant that there was a near miss or you were wounded. A solid beep meant that you were dead. If you were beeping you were out of the fight until a judge or someone with a key came around and turned you off. Then you were alive again and allowed to get back in the fight. It was a sophisticated and expensive form of laser tag used by the U.S. military. The official name for it was Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System or MILES gear.
At Rhein Main we trained in a wooded area on base and divided up into fire teams. Our Army Captain put a key in a steel ammo box and placed it in the middle of a clearing. Whichever fire team was able to get to the key first was the winner. As I was running and hiding out in the woods I noticed large holes everywhere and some of the holes were huge. It suddenly dawned on me that these holes were bomb craters from World War II. The large holes were from 1,000 pound bombs and the smaller ones were from 500 pound bombs. The area looked like the surface of the moon with vegetation. Rhein Main had been a German A.F.B. that was heavily bombed by allied bombers during the war. I was running through the woods when one of my fire team members jumped out from behind a bush. Thinking he was the enemy I fell hard on the ground and busted my lip on the barrel of my M-16 trying to avoid being shot. After training I had to go by the dispensary and get a couple of stitches in my mouth.
Base authorities were also expecting riots and demonstrations led by the Green Party. They were upset over the planned construction of a new runway on the base. One day was devoted to riot control training but we were assured that the German Polizei would take care of any riot or demonstration that occurred on base rather quickly and they were very good at it. Another day was devoted to Air Base Ground Defense Training. We were issued M-16's and we attached a small box to the front of the barrel that directed a laser toward the person you were shooting at. Blanks were used to add realism to the training and the laser was synchronized to fire every time we pulled the trigger. Everyone was wearing sensors on their helmets and torsos that would beep if the laser made contact with a sensor. If there was an intermittent beep it meant that there was a near miss or you were wounded. A solid beep meant that you were dead. If you were beeping you were out of the fight until a judge or someone with a key came around and turned you off. Then you were alive again and allowed to get back in the fight. It was a sophisticated and expensive form of laser tag used by the U.S. military. The official name for it was Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System or MILES gear.
At Rhein Main we trained in a wooded area on base and divided up into fire teams. Our Army Captain put a key in a steel ammo box and placed it in the middle of a clearing. Whichever fire team was able to get to the key first was the winner. As I was running and hiding out in the woods I noticed large holes everywhere and some of the holes were huge. It suddenly dawned on me that these holes were bomb craters from World War II. The large holes were from 1,000 pound bombs and the smaller ones were from 500 pound bombs. The area looked like the surface of the moon with vegetation. Rhein Main had been a German A.F.B. that was heavily bombed by allied bombers during the war. I was running through the woods when one of my fire team members jumped out from behind a bush. Thinking he was the enemy I fell hard on the ground and busted my lip on the barrel of my M-16 trying to avoid being shot. After training I had to go by the dispensary and get a couple of stitches in my mouth.
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| Aerial view of Rhein Main bombing of August 1985 |
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| The bombing at Rhein Main in August 1985 |
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| Bomb crater |
The rest of the week was devoted to training until the day of the air show. We were up around 0300 because we had to have our gear ready, eat early chow, and be at the assembly point at 0500. A very large group of SP's and MP's were ready for duty at the staging area that morning. My earlier fears about not taking our weapons were realized because the base only had enough weapons to go around for their own men. There were only a small number of M-16's left over. Only our 2 officers and senior N.C.O.'s were armed. The rest of us were virtually defenseless in a potentially hostile environment. We were made to line up in a long line. At intervals there were bomb dogs, along with their handlers, ready to sniff trash cans or anything that might contain a bomb. When the signal was given we slowly walked through the areas on the base and flight line that would be open to the public looking for anything suspicious. When the command staff was satisfied that the area was secure the base was opened to the public. I was posted on the aircraft parking ramp to watch the crowd line near the static display aircraft.
All through the early morning hours the crowd was growing larger and larger. Suddenly I saw leaflets being thrown into the air about 30 yards away. Several white vans appeared and very quickly German Polizei, wearing white riot helmets, and carrying long batons that looked like baseball bats, unloaded from the vans. Almost as soon as it started the Green Party demonstration was over. They arrested the leaders and whisked them away in the vans. The rest of the day was uneventful as far as bombs, rioting, or demonstrations. That is until a Canadian demonstration team, consisting of five F-104 fighters, taxied out for take-off. I had my camera in my pocket and had been snapping pictures of the crowds and of our people throughout the day. As the fighters were waiting for clearance to take off I took a picture of them. This demonstration team reminded me of the Thunderbird's, or Blue Angels, without the fancy paint jobs. After taking off four of the fighters remained in formation while one flew off on it's own. I took a picture of the four fighters as they flew overhead. Suddenly I noticed the solo pilot fly right over me at low altitude and veer off to the right. It appeared as if smoke was trailing from the cockpit and at that point I quickly lost sight of him. I went back to watching the crowd line. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two American AF pilots standing near their aircraft engaged in a conversation.
Something suddenly grabbed their attention and they were looking up at something to my right. They turned and ran out beyond the tails of their aircraft as if they were trying to get a better look at it. It was then that I saw what they were looking at. The lone aircraft that had just flown over my head was now in a flat spin falling toward the ground. Like the pilots, I ran to left to get a better look just in time to see a fireball on the ground off in the distance. For a moment I was stunned until the reality sank in that I had just witnessed a plane crash. Then I remembered my camera and took a picture of the mushroom cloud of black smoke and of the fire engines as they began responding to the crash. The fire engines had been positioned with their water cannon pointed toward the crowds in case there was any disturbance. Ironically, we had prepared all week for bombs, demonstrations and riots. We were not prepared for a plane crash. Luckily for us the jet crashed off base in a parking lot and on the autobahn. In panic and from curiosity the crowd began running toward us. We were afraid of being overrun for a few moments but fairly quickly we were able to get the crowd back beyond the rope line again.
The Canadian pilot, Capt. A.J. Stephenson, ejected just in time and was safe. The cause of the crash was an afterburner-flameout and the plane killed 5 people in one car on the autobahn. There was a pastor, his wife, mother-in-law and two children in the car. The plane also destroyed 50 cars in a parking lot, critically injuring several people. The takeoff had been normal and the planes performed a four-ship diamond and one solo. In the diamond formation they did loops and rolls and in between each of the diamond passes the solo would make a pass doing various maneuvers. They were well into the show. Several passes by both diamond and solo when after a diamond pass the solo suffered the afterburner flame-out and crashed. At the moment of the crash I didn't know any of this. I figured that I had watched the pilot die because I never saw him eject. In a home movie of the crash you can see the pilot eject just before the plane hit the ground. Not until the next day when I read the Stars and Stripes newspaper did I find out what had happened on the ground and how many people had died.
All through the early morning hours the crowd was growing larger and larger. Suddenly I saw leaflets being thrown into the air about 30 yards away. Several white vans appeared and very quickly German Polizei, wearing white riot helmets, and carrying long batons that looked like baseball bats, unloaded from the vans. Almost as soon as it started the Green Party demonstration was over. They arrested the leaders and whisked them away in the vans. The rest of the day was uneventful as far as bombs, rioting, or demonstrations. That is until a Canadian demonstration team, consisting of five F-104 fighters, taxied out for take-off. I had my camera in my pocket and had been snapping pictures of the crowds and of our people throughout the day. As the fighters were waiting for clearance to take off I took a picture of them. This demonstration team reminded me of the Thunderbird's, or Blue Angels, without the fancy paint jobs. After taking off four of the fighters remained in formation while one flew off on it's own. I took a picture of the four fighters as they flew overhead. Suddenly I noticed the solo pilot fly right over me at low altitude and veer off to the right. It appeared as if smoke was trailing from the cockpit and at that point I quickly lost sight of him. I went back to watching the crowd line. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two American AF pilots standing near their aircraft engaged in a conversation.
Something suddenly grabbed their attention and they were looking up at something to my right. They turned and ran out beyond the tails of their aircraft as if they were trying to get a better look at it. It was then that I saw what they were looking at. The lone aircraft that had just flown over my head was now in a flat spin falling toward the ground. Like the pilots, I ran to left to get a better look just in time to see a fireball on the ground off in the distance. For a moment I was stunned until the reality sank in that I had just witnessed a plane crash. Then I remembered my camera and took a picture of the mushroom cloud of black smoke and of the fire engines as they began responding to the crash. The fire engines had been positioned with their water cannon pointed toward the crowds in case there was any disturbance. Ironically, we had prepared all week for bombs, demonstrations and riots. We were not prepared for a plane crash. Luckily for us the jet crashed off base in a parking lot and on the autobahn. In panic and from curiosity the crowd began running toward us. We were afraid of being overrun for a few moments but fairly quickly we were able to get the crowd back beyond the rope line again.
The Canadian pilot, Capt. A.J. Stephenson, ejected just in time and was safe. The cause of the crash was an afterburner-flameout and the plane killed 5 people in one car on the autobahn. There was a pastor, his wife, mother-in-law and two children in the car. The plane also destroyed 50 cars in a parking lot, critically injuring several people. The takeoff had been normal and the planes performed a four-ship diamond and one solo. In the diamond formation they did loops and rolls and in between each of the diamond passes the solo would make a pass doing various maneuvers. They were well into the show. Several passes by both diamond and solo when after a diamond pass the solo suffered the afterburner flame-out and crashed. At the moment of the crash I didn't know any of this. I figured that I had watched the pilot die because I never saw him eject. In a home movie of the crash you can see the pilot eject just before the plane hit the ground. Not until the next day when I read the Stars and Stripes newspaper did I find out what had happened on the ground and how many people had died.
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| Sam Adams |
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| A Green Party protest leaflet that I picked up |
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| Crash |
TWO VIDEOS OF THE F-104 CRASH
We finally got a few days to see Germany before we left for home. Germany is a beautiful country and the terrain reminded me a lot of Tennessee. There are forests and hills everywhere and the towns and cities are beautiful. We had managed to go into Frankfort a few times before the air show and on the 21st I visited Mainz. It is a Medieval city where American forces crossed the Rhine river in WW2. There was a really neat flea market there by the river where I managed to find a Nazi Labor Day Medal and a WW1 medal. For historical reasons only, I wanted something with the swastika on it. It was against the law, apparently, to openly sell anything related to the Nazi's or Hitler in modern Germany. The clerk reached under the table and pulled out his WW2 memorabilia. After the air show we spent a whole day on a Rhine River tour where we floated down the river on a tour boat viewing German castles and towns along the river. The Rhine is the busiest waterway that I have ever been on in my life. It was like riding down a busy highway except the highway is water and the cars are boats. We ate in an old castle that was a restaurant and sampled wine in a wine cellar but I gave my wine to my buddies because I hate the taste of alcohol.
We left for home on an Alaska Air National Guard C-130. It was another six hours to the Azores where we refueled and left out early the next morning after another overnight stay there. That day we endured a torturous twelve hour flight to Dover Delaware packed in like sardines. I had spent as long as nine hours on a plane before but this was the longest time I have ever spent on an airplane for one flight. At Dover we were only there long enough to walk around in the terminal and stretch our legs before hopping back on for another four hour flight to Nashville. The drama of this trip was not over, however. While waiting in the Dover terminal we learned that a C-5A cargo plane was inbound with an in-flight emergency. The plane could not get all of it's landing gear down and there was talk of foaming the runway for a belly landing. Our pilot appeared and told us that he wanted us to board the plane as quickly as we could so we could be airborne before the runway was closed down.
We hurried to get back into our seats and after buckling up, the engines were roaring as we taxied toward the runway. While we were waiting to make that final turn on to the runway the engines were suddenly shut down and the load master was running through the plane screaming "get out, get out, get out". I didn't have time to be scared because all I could see in my mind was that big C-5 landing right on top of us. We hit the ground running toward the terminal and luckily the props had stopped spinning as some of us ran right under the wings. One of our ladies had an injured ankle and two guys grabbed hold of her arms on either side and were half carrying and half dragging her toward the terminal. After a long wait we learned that the C-5 had landed safely and the emergency was over. The crew of the C5A was able to get the landing gear down successfully. After another four hours in the air we finally landed in Nashville later that night.
We left for home on an Alaska Air National Guard C-130. It was another six hours to the Azores where we refueled and left out early the next morning after another overnight stay there. That day we endured a torturous twelve hour flight to Dover Delaware packed in like sardines. I had spent as long as nine hours on a plane before but this was the longest time I have ever spent on an airplane for one flight. At Dover we were only there long enough to walk around in the terminal and stretch our legs before hopping back on for another four hour flight to Nashville. The drama of this trip was not over, however. While waiting in the Dover terminal we learned that a C-5A cargo plane was inbound with an in-flight emergency. The plane could not get all of it's landing gear down and there was talk of foaming the runway for a belly landing. Our pilot appeared and told us that he wanted us to board the plane as quickly as we could so we could be airborne before the runway was closed down.
We hurried to get back into our seats and after buckling up, the engines were roaring as we taxied toward the runway. While we were waiting to make that final turn on to the runway the engines were suddenly shut down and the load master was running through the plane screaming "get out, get out, get out". I didn't have time to be scared because all I could see in my mind was that big C-5 landing right on top of us. We hit the ground running toward the terminal and luckily the props had stopped spinning as some of us ran right under the wings. One of our ladies had an injured ankle and two guys grabbed hold of her arms on either side and were half carrying and half dragging her toward the terminal. After a long wait we learned that the C-5 had landed safely and the emergency was over. The crew of the C5A was able to get the landing gear down successfully. After another four hours in the air we finally landed in Nashville later that night.
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| The red light district in Frankfort |
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| Patton pissing in the Rhine |
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| Americans under fire as they crossed the Rhine River |
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| Me on the tour boat |
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| Me at a stop on the Rhine River tour |
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