1963 - CHAPTER TWELVE - HALFWAY HOME

118th Security Police - RAF Mildenhall

On January 17, 1987, Democrat Ned McWherter was sworn in as governor of Tennessee. MP units were deployed from all over the state to help provide security for the inauguration, and ball, later that night at the Opryland hotel. Our unit, the 118th Tactical Airlift Wing, was tasked with providing security for the entertainers at Opryland, and the governor while he was there. My first post that night was in the rear of the hotel along with another security policeman named John Myers. Our job was to keep a spot open for the governor's car. We were told that his driver was supposed to drop Ned off at the front door of the hotel and from there he would bring the car around to our location and park the vehicle. Nearby was a line of celebrity buses with such names as Hank William's Jr., Waylon Jenning's, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette, Krystal Gayle, and many others painted on their sides.

While standing post Ralph Emery walked past us with an entourage. This was the third time that I had come in contact with this man and he has yet to speak to me. Someone told me that he is hard of hearing and that he might not have heard my greeting. Maybe so, but it just strikes me as rude because I can't hear that good either, but I think if I met someone 3 different times I would have said hello at some point. While I was at Hickam AFB in Hawaii I was standing near the Security Police headquarters one day and struck up a conversation with a friendly young Airman who was stationed there. I immediately noticed the name Emory on his name tag. Curious, I asked if he was related to Ralph Emory and he said "yes, he's my dad". The guy was so nice and friendly I was tempted to tell him that he was nothing like his dad. After getting out of the Air Force he joined our Guard unit.

Meanwhile, the governor's car drove up and backed into the space we were reserving for him. I was expecting a big black limo or something more luxurious but I was struck by the fact that the governor's car was pretty modest. It was something like a Buick or a car that any average American might be driving. McWherter was the last of a dying breed of Democrats. For that time he could be classified as a moderate to conservative Democrat. A Democrat that virtually doesn't exist today. McWherter was more like a Zell Miller of Georgia. After the driver parked the car, a man ran toward us from the direction of Hank William's Jr.'s bus. I am assuming that he was Hank's road manager or something. He was waving his hands excitedly as he approached our post and the man was shouting, "Hey, he can't park there. Mr.. William's will be arriving any minute. That spot is reserved for him." Nonchalantly I replied, "Sir, if you want to ask the governor to move his car, be my guest." His demeanor quickly changed as he meekly said , "Oh!!" and walked away.

Soon after I was moved inside to a post right in front of the stage, next to huge speakers that were much taller than I was and I am 6' 3". I had a two way radio but it was nearly useless because it was impossible to hear radio transmissions. We were tasked to keep the crowd away from the stage which was very difficult because of the size of the crowd and the many people that were already drunk. I was in my dress blues and there was a multitude of beautiful, but drunk, women flirting with me in their colorful low cut evening gowns. Since I am much taller than most women I couldn't help but notice the cleavage in abundance that night. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the noise level of the speakers which seemed to vibrate every bone in my body. What I would have given for a pair of earplugs just then. I held my radio next to my ear in a vain attempt to keep up with radio traffic while trying to plug my other ear with my finger all the while some women standing next to me were playing with my hair and my ears.

Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings put on a heck of a show. Krystal Gales hair seemed to be no more than an inch above the floor and when Jerry Lee Lewis came on stage he stole the show. He was playing the piano with his shoes, butt, head, or any object that he could get his hands on. Lewis was playing a beautiful baby grand piano and the stage manager didn't appreciate the fact that he was abusing his piano. I recently read that early in his career Lewis set a piano on fire while he played Great Balls Of Fire. The last straw for the stage manager came when Lewis picked up a metal mike stand and started beating the piano keys with it. The stage manager ran out and began unplugging speakers and everything electrical. Lewis began cursing and stormed off the stage.

After his performance I was told to take a break backstage. While walking through the stars I overheard many of their conversations. I eavesdropped on Jerry Lee Lewis's conversation with a woman. Lewis was spewing forth a solid stream of profanity. I had been a big follower of Jimmy Swaggart during the 1980's because he could move me like no other preacher at that time. Lewis and Swaggart are cousins and have a similar way of playing the piano, as does their other cousin Mickey Gilley. He was talking to the woman about what a hypocrite that Jimmy Swaggart was because he was a womanizer. This was the first inkling that I had of any scandal in Swaggarts life. A huge scandal would erupt the following year in 1988 when Swaggart was caught soliciting prostitutes and I immediately recalled the words of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Governor Ned McWherter

I was hired at Bridgestone Tire Company at Lavergne Tennessee in the Fall of 1987. My situation at Cumberland- Swan had improved to the point that my boss called me into his office one day and asked me what it would take to keep me there. My salary was 20,000 a year at Swan but I would more than double my salary at Bridgestone. Starting pay there was 45,000 a year before built-in raises over a 6 month period until I topped out. My insurance package and benefits would be far superior to anything I had at Swan. After I told my supervisor this he acknowledged that there was no way they could match what Bridgestone was offering me. He shook my hand and wished me well. I was extremely grateful to him for believing in me and giving me the chance to prove myself.

At Bridgestone I started off in Department 123, Stock Prep. We cut steel belt and innerliner stock for the TBR tire room. TBR stands for Truck, Bus, Radial. In the tire room they built tractor trailer and bus tires. When I started working there the company was expanding our plant to include a PSR plant. PSR stood for Passenger, Steel, Radial. When the plant became operational they would build passenger tires for cars and pick-up trucks. This plant did not become operational until sometime in 1988. We had four different eight hour shifts and I worked all of them at one time or another. There was a permanent day shift, permanent swing shift and permanent midnight shift. Then there was a Mad Dog shift that would give days off to the other three shifts since we were a 24/7 operation.

I trained on day shift and I couldn't believe how laid back everything was. It was if I had died and gone to job heaven. Having been in management I worried about how lax everything was which was an indication that management was terrible at Bridgestone. I was making the best money I had ever made in my life and I was afraid that Bridgestone's management was going to drive the company into the ground. I wanted the company to prosper so I could prosper. Most of the stock cutting machines had a operator and a helper. I was a helper and not trained to run the machine. My machine was operated by a woman who was more concerned with her looks than doing her job. Many times when the machine stopped I would look back and see her checking her make-up. Or she would just walk off and be gone for anywhere from a half hour to an hour. We were lucky if the machine ran four hours out of an eight hour shift.

The supervisor would walk by and never ask why we were down or even act interested. Over time I finally moved to a machine that I operated myself and I didn't have to wait for anyone to get anything done. Each machine had a shift standard that we had to meet and I got mine almost everyday. Once we reached standard we were allowed to sit down until the end of our shift. After a while I developed a system where I could read and work at the same time. A maintenance man made me a book holder and I turned pages between cuts. Supervisors would walk by and never say anything because I was getting standard most of the time and my quality was good. I got a lot of reading done this way and I was in my own little world at work. After a while my cozy little world came to an end due to circumstances beyond my control.

In the early 1990's the company was wanting to change our health insurance during contract negotiations with the union. They were wanting us to choose from their list of doctors. The union leadership was acting like it was the end of the world. I helped negotiate four union contracts at Colonial Baking Company and we knew that when the company came back with their final offer negotiations were over. We would then take the company's offer before the union membership. There would then be either an up or down vote. As a member of the negotiating committee I and the others would give our opinion on whether or not we should accept the contract before taking the vote. I always on the committee always recommended acceptance because unless the company's offer was totally unacceptable you lose much more than you gain when you strike. If you have leverage, then a strike is more feasible. For example, if all the union bakeries went out on strike at once. If your bakery is the only one walking off the job you have very little leverage and potentially much to lose.

By the time I went to work for Bridgestone I was more conservative and my fondness for Unions had waned considerably. Especially for the United Steelworkers Union. Even in my days as a union leader at Colonial I always had mixed emotions about unions. I didn't care for the mob mentality, thuggery, and socialistic nature of unions. In sweatshops like Colonial I did see that they were a necessary evil. During election season for union officers at Bridgestone there would be an endless parade of people visiting your machine. They would hand out business cards and ask for your vote for various union positions. Once the election was over most of them would not be seen again until the next election. The exceptions were the safety representative and insurance representative. Both were good men and very conscientious about their jobs.

The union representatives were paid their regular salary while they filled their office terms at the union hall doing whatever it was that they did over there. Some took advantage of this time and used it to their personal advantage. One union president managed to get a law degree during the time he was in office. This was their ticket out of Bridgestone. They seemed to be more interested in everything but the union membership. Usually political activities like getting radical leftists elected president or supporting radical causes like Jesse Jackson's Rainbow coalition and abortion rights. When I went to work for Bridgestone my attitude was this. I didn't like the union and I didn't want to be a union leader again. If they were going to negotiate raises and benefits for me, however; I felt that it was only fair to pay union dues.

We were told to meet at Nissan's Union Hall on Murfreesboro road near Nissan in Smyrna. The UAW had been trying to organize Nissan for years without success. I was livid when I heard our union president say that he was not going to let the membership vote on the contract. They were taking us out on strike regardless of what we thought. The Union wouldn't even reveal what the company was offering us. I was so mad that I refused to walk the picket line and within just a few days the strike began falling apart. Primarily because so many union members were as upset as I was over how the union leadership took us out against our will. People were crossing the picket line left and right.

The union had led us right into a trap. Bridgestone had pulled their offer off of the table and we were forced to sign a bad contract. We lost benefits, holidays, paid birthdays, and were forced to work twelve hour shifts. The thing that made me the maddest was our new insurance package was the better than what we had before the strike and the insurance package was the main thing that the union had walked out over. I never forgave the Union for their handling of this situation. The twelve hour shifts were a curse as far as I was concerned and I could never view my job the same after that. When we went to twelve hours I managed to keep the machine that I was working on but I was bumped to the grave yard shift which was 6 at night until 6 in the morning. I tried to adapt to the new hours but I couldn't sleep during the day.

In order to get off of midnight shifts I put in for a tire building job in PSR and got the job because work was so hard over there few people wanted those jobs. I built passenger tires for sixteen years after I landed in PSR. It was one of the hardest jobs I ever had and was fast paced but at least I was off of midnight shifts. We worked five 12 hour shifts one week and 2 the next, barring overtime. The long week was Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and the short week was Wednesday and Thursday. This schedule sounds great to many people but I worked so hard when I was there, especially on the long weekend, that I was constantly tired. I dreaded coming in on Monday morning so much, after the three day weekend, that It almost spoiled my time off because going back to work on Monday morning was all that I could think about. Working that hard and fast while pulling on rubber to build a tire takes a toll on your body. Many of the health problems that I have in retirement right now I can blame to a great degree on those 12 hour shifts.

Mario Andretti signing autographs @ Bridgestone

In the summer of 1988 my Air Guard unit was deployed to Hurlburt Field Florida. This was right next to Eglin AFB. While we were there we were tasked to guard aircraft with several different missions. Helicopters, special ops C-130's and the AC-130 gunships. At the time Hurlburt was one of only two AC-130 units in America. The AC-130 H Spectre is a badass. On the port side of the plane, in front of the wings, it was armed with two 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannons, or Gatling guns. One Bofors 40 mm cannon, or what they used to call the pom pom gun in the Navy, just behind the wing. Last but not least a 105 mm M102 howitzer near the rear of the plane. Since 1994 the two Gatling guns have been replaced by one 25 mm GAU-12 Equalizer cannon. It can lay down a tremendous amount of firepower and is used in close air support.

We were also there to work law enforcement. Days were set aside to do ABGD or Air Base Ground Defense training on Eglin's Army Ranger training area. I brought the family down for the entire two weeks of training and we had a ball when I was off. Hurlburt is near Ft. Walton Beach and we stayed at a hotel on Santa Rosa Island which is also close to Destin. While we were there we were able to visit the Naval Air Museum and Ft. Barrancas in Pensacola. The training was pretty brutal and I got heat cramps pretty bad but overall it was like being on vacation for the two weeks we were there.

My son Robbie had developed a bad attitude during the 1986-87 school year which was his senior year. Rob had always been a good student because it all seemed to come natural to him. Without even trying he made A's and B's. During his senior year, however; he skipped school a lot and at times I was afraid that he wouldn't graduate. Because of his truancy he lost an opportunity to earn a tennis scholarship. I bought a 1978 Chevy Nova in 1984 from our preacher at Giles Creek Baptist church. It had a powerful 350 V8 engine and I absolutely loved that car. I let Rob drive my old Chevette on the condition that he paid for it's upkeep. Rob got the short end of the stick but I just couldn't afford to keep it running. At least it would give him something to drive.

Because the Chevette was in such bad shape Robbie started using the car as an excuse not to go to school. He would say that the car wouldn't start and go back to bed. I found out years later that he was rigging the car where it wouldn't start if he didn't feel like going to school that morning. After a while I got fed up with him using the car as an excuse and on a couple of occasions I made him walk all the way to Smyrna high on Hazlewood with me following him in the car. I found out much later also that he would go into the school and wait until I left. Then, he would walk over to a nearby pizza restaurant and play video games. I also found out later that he was getting Misty, posing as one of us, to write notes to his teachers when he was tardy, or late.

Sometime in 1987 I paid off the Chevette and was finally able to trade it in. I found a brand new Mitsubishi Dodge Colt Vista at a dealership on Murfreesboro road in Nashville. The starter on the Chevette was bad and the top speed was about 35 miles per hour. Rob and I tied the Chevette to the Nova with a C-130 load strap and he steered the Chevette while I towed it all the way from Smyrna to Nashville. About a block from the dealership we took the load strap off and luckily it started right up and he drove it right into the parking lot. When they walked out to test drive the car around the parking lot it started right up and performed well. They gave me a pretty good deal with my trade-in and as I was getting ready to drive off the lot with my new car the salesman breathlessly ran up asking "Can you please start the Chevette so we can move it"? Rob and I still get a laugh out of that.

Specter AC130 gunship

Hurlburt Field AC130 gunships

The first gunship named Spooky that was a C-47 and used in Vietnam

Helicopters stationed @ Hurlburt

Jon & Deb @ Hurlburt

Rob & Misty @ Ft. Walton

Jon @ Hurlburt Field

Jon & Courtney

Me on a go kart

Me @ Eglin

One morning, not long after buying the Colt, Rob took me to work at Cumberland-Swan. A few minutes after dropping me off at work I got a call that Rob had been involved in an accident on the way home. When I arrived on the scene I had very mixed emotions. I was relieved that Rob was okay but my heart sank when I saw the damage to my new car. Three of my four tires were blown out. The rims were bent and massive damage was done mostly under the car. Rob worked at Shoney's on Broad Street in Murfreesboro and had been up all night. He went to sleep at the wheel and ran over a curb knocking down a stop sign in the process. The sign came down across the hood and roof denting them and cracking my windshield. The car continued through the yard stopping just short of a nearby house. Rob was very lucky that he wasn't injured. I had not even paid my first payment on the car. If I had it all to do over I would have tried to have it totaled by the insurance company. I tried to have it repaired, however; which was a big mistake. The frame was bent and the undercarriage was never the same after that.

After Rob's graduation his bad attitude continued and he had no apparent ambition. Which is pretty normal for an 18 or 19 year old sometimes. Then one day out of the blue, Rob asked me if I could make an appointment for him with an Air National Guard recruiter. He took his ASVAB test but before he met with the ANG recruiter he changed his mind and asked me to set him up with an active duty Air Force recruiter. I set up the appointment and when the day arrived he set off to the recruiters office. Later that afternoon I was surprised to hear that he was not joining the Air Force but the Navy. He said that he was on time for his appointment with the Air Force recruiter but the recruiter never showed. A Navy recruiter saw his opportunity and as they say the rest is history.

I was surprised that he didn't join the Air Force ,but not disappointed. Any branch of service was okay with me. It made me proud that he wanted to serve his country and it was just what the doctor ordered. He seemed to grow up overnight. In March 1989 we saw him off at the Nashville airport. He was bound for Navy boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois. I knew something about what he was in for and I wrote him a note of encouragement that I slipped in his shaving bag. He later told me in a letter that he cried when he read it. This letter from him meant a lot to me.

A before picture of my Dodge Colt

And after picture

Rob's graduation from Smyrna High

Proud mom

Rob and his girlfriend Jodie

Bush campaign of 1988 @ M.T.S.U.

Courtney & MIsty

Melanie

Prom

Misty going to the prom

Prom Queen

Dancing with Deb @ our twenty year high school reunion

Weapons training @ Tullahoma

118th Arms Room

Ft. Campbell

Courtney

Melanie

A class @ Elam Rd SDA church where I gave a Civil War presentation

Jon

The gang @ Easter

Rob made it through boot camp and was scheduled to graduate in May. We made plans to be there for the graduation ceremony. I don't know if it was because of the Vietnam war but I didn't have a graduation ceremony when I graduated from Air Force basic training. I have always wondered why we didn't. Other Air Force basic training units did but we didn't. We packed up the kids and Courtney who was about a year and a half old and headed for Illinois. Somewhere in Illinois I was waved over by a State Trooper who was standing on the side of the road. A helicopter had clocked me speeding. Illinois is so flat that I was doing ninety before I even knew it.

I loved all the pomp and ceremony of Robbie's graduation and it was an experience. Rob's fiance Jody flew up to Chicago where I picked her up at O'Hare International airport just before the ceremony. Even though it was May it was freezing cold and the ceremony was held inside a big hangar. Afterwards we went to a nearby theme park that was a lot of fun but we were freezing. Unbelievably the park was operating the water rides and people were actually riding them. The next morning I looked out the window of our motel room and it was snowing. The flakes were as big as quarters. After we left to go back home Rob remained behind to finish his A school at Great Lakes. He was being trained to be an Operation Specialist, which I think is a ships navigator.

Later in the summer my Air Guard Security Police unit was assigned to Charleston AFB for our two week summer camp. I was in hog heaven because Debbie and I had gone there for a day when our summer camp was in Savannah back in 1979. I loved it then but now I had two weeks to explore Charleston. The family couldn't go with me that year and I had Charleston all to myself. When I wasn't training I was walking the streets and touring old houses, churches, cemeteries and reading historical markers. Myself and some of my friends toured the aircraft carrier Yorktown and I was able to go out to Ft. Sumter for the 2nd time.

A few days before I left Charleston Debbie told me that Robbie was being assigned to the USS Wainwright and it was docked at Charleston Naval Base. I drove there and found the Wainwright which was a guided missile cruiser. After taking a few pictures of the ship I boasted to Rob that I got to see it before he did. This was in July and Rob didn't arrive in Charleston until Monday September 18, 1989. A category 4 hurricane named Hugo was headed directly at Charleston. The Wainwright, and all the ships based in Charleston were ordered out to sea in order to ride out the storm. The storm hit Charleston on Thursday September 21st and damaged much of the city and virtually destroying the barrier Islands like Folly Island, Isle of Palms, and Sullivan's Island where it first made landfall. Rob had never been on a ship in his life and was seasick for three days as the ship rode out the storm. The crew was confined below deck the whole time.

The following is from Wikipedia. (It, (Hurricane Hugo) formed over the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on September 9, 1989. Hugo moved thousands of miles across the Atlantic, rapidly strengthening to briefly attain category 5 hurricane strength on its journey. It later crossed over Guadeloupe and St. Croix on September 17 and 18 as a category 4 hurricane. Weakening slightly more, it passed over Puerto Rico as a strong category 3 hurricane. Further weakening occurred several hours after re-emerging into the Atlantic, becoming downgraded to a category 2 hurricane. However, it re-strengthened into a category 4 hurricane before making landfall just slightly north of Charleston, on Sullivans Island September 21 with 140 mph sustained winds (gusts to more than 160 mph). It had devolved to a remnant low near Lake Erie by the next day. As of 2016, Hurricane Hugo is the most intense tropical hurricane to strike the East Coast north of Florida since 1900. Hurricane Hugo caused 34 fatalities (most by electrocution or drowning) in the Caribbean and 27 in South Carolina. It left nearly 100,000 people homeless, and resulted in $10 billion in damage overall, making it the most damaging hurricane ever recorded. Of this total, $7 billion was from the United States and Puerto Rico, ranking it as the costliest storm to impact the country at the time. Since 1989, however; it has been surpassed by multiple storms and now ranks as the eleventh costliest in the United States.)Later that year Robbie would go on a Med cruise for six months.

The first weekend of April 1990 we were scheduled for a field exercise in Smyrna. A cold front came through that weekend and it was colder than normal, especially for April. After setting up our base camp we fought mock battles all day with the Vanderbilt ROTC unit. At one point we almost burned down Smyrna when we accidentally set dry grass on fire with smoke grenades. We all stopped playing war long enough to fight the fire. It was touch and go for a while. After a very long day in the cold and very late Saturday night we were allowed to go to bed. I was freezing when I went climbed into my sleeping bag because we were not allowed to have fires to warm up. Thinking I would be warmer if I left my uniform on I wore it to bed. No matter what I tried I never could get comfortable but I did finally finally drift off to sleep. About 0100 I woke up shaking violently from the cold. It scared me because I thought I was getting hypothermia. I was shaking so bad that I could barely get my boots on.

My tent mate was our NCOIC of security, Sergeant Nicholson. Very carefully I was able to get out of the tent without waking him up. I hadn't been that cold in a long time and everything was covered with frost. The camp was totally quiet and I was the only one that was up. An idea suddenly occurred to me. I only lived six miles from where we were camped. The walk home would warm me up and I could get my car and drive it to a place just out of sight of the camp. There I could leave the heater on in the car until just before sunrise. Before daylight I could sneak back into the camp before anyone was the wiser. It was risky, but I hate being cold. I drove my car and parked next to Stewarts Creek near the camp. Just before dawn, warm and toasty, I sneaked back into my tent and into my sleeping bag without being discovered.

Rob's ship was scheduled to return around the middle of April 1990. We were able to drive down and see his ship as it arrived in Charleston. Debbie's sister Judy and her kids, along with Debbie, the kids Rob's girlfriend Jody, and myself were all waiting at dockside as the USS Wainwright pulled up. The ships crew were all wearing their summer white uniforms and lining the rails. It was a sight to behold and I swelled with pride. We were as excited to see Robbie as he was to see us. Rob was able to get some leave time and we were able to tour Charleston. We all rode the tour boat out to Ft. Sumter, which was my third trip. Later we drove out to Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms. I was shocked to see the devastation caused by the hurricane. Especially on the Isle of Palms because most everything had been destroyed and debris was piled up everywhere. I was unable to recognize hardly anything.

Later that Spring I brought the video of Rob's ship docking at Charleston to a guard drill. I was naturally proud of Rob and wanted to share the video with some of my friends at the guard. On a Sunday during drill, and after a meeting in the ready room, I put the video into the VCR. Most of the men who had attended the meeting were still there and we were all watching it together. About this time someone stuck their head in the doorway and told me that I had a phone call in the office. I can't remember who was on the phone but on my way back to the ready room I was hearing loud cheering. Unknown to me Debbie had filmed Misty getting ready for prom and she was in her bra. It was a short segment but they were running it back and forth. I was horrified when I realized what they were doing and I ran toward the VCR trying to snatch it out of the machine. They held me back and I was struggling to get to the VCR. It was a heck of a fight but I managed to stop the video and take it out of the machine. These guys loved to bust my chops any chance they got. Anytime Misty came around after that they would good naturedly pick at her.

While Robbie was stationed in Charleston he and a friend would drive home many times on a weekend pass. It took anywhere from seven to eight hours to drive from Charleston to Murfreesboro. They would usually stay at our house to the very last minute before leaving to go back to Charleston. Many times one of them would show up to answer for both at roll call while one parked the car, cutting it too close for comfort. As was my usual routine I got up at 4:30 in the morning one day for work at 6:00 A.M. As I walked out of the bathroom, in a very dark house, Rob jumped at me shouting boo. He scared the bejesus out of me and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Rob had come home on a weekend pass and had been sitting in our den waiting for me to get out of bed. He heard me go into the restroom and waited outside the door. Rob can be a real brat sometimes but we still laugh about that one.

Rob @ Great Lakes

Rob on the USS Wainwright in the Med

That same June my Air Guard unit was scheduled to be deployed to Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall England. I was excited about this because we were organizing a tour package that would make it affordable to take our wives. Debbie's sister Sylvia wanted to take the trip which made it possible for Debbie to go. This was because she would have never have agreed to go on such a long trip by herself. England was my fourth overseas deployment and it was exciting to know that Debbie would finally get to go on one with me. We would celebrate our 22nd anniversary together while we were there. Our unit would go over on a brand new C-130-H model because we had been supplied with 16 of them straight off of the assembly line a few months earlier in February 1990. There had been a ceremony attended by Tennessee governor Ned McWherter and Senator Jim Sasser. Sasser flew in on our first C-130 H model named the Spirit of Music City which was emblazoned on the side of the cockpit. The music notes painted on the side were to the song, " I Am Proud To Be An American" by Lee Greenwood. This would be the plane that we would fly back from England on.

After arriving in England we would go immediately into the field for a few days of ABGD training. The women would arrive the following week while we were still in the field. It had been a rough few days in the field. I spent our anniversary in the rain and mud of the English countryside. When we got back to the barracks I met up with Debbie and Sylvia at the hotel that had been reserved for the wives. While we were still in the field they had already toured Cambridge and a few surrounding villages. The rest of the weekend was spent touring Cambridge again, Belvoir Castle, where we saw a joust, and London. I loved Cambridge, especially the American War Cemetery there. It was one of the most beautiful cemeteries that I have ever seen. American Airmen killed during WW2 in Europe were buried there. We got to see London the right way, which was on a guided bus tour. we tour. The very next day there was an IRA (Irish Republican Army) terrorist bombing in one of the areas that we had visited . I really enjoyed the time Debbie and I spent together that week. It felt like we were on a second honeymoon and I was sad to see her go toward the end of the week. The last few days I was there by myself we pulled regular flight line security with the active duty SP's at Mildenhall.

Not long after returning home from England Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The only thing that saved Rob's ship from being deployed to the Persian Gulf was that the Wainwright went into dry dock at Norfolk Virginia the day before on August 1st. The ship would be in dry dock for a year and Rob would be stationed at Norfolk until sometime in 1991. Within a few days President George H. W. Bush received permission from Saudi Arabia to send in American troops for the purpose of defending Saudi Arabia from an Iraqi invasion. In time a group of Arab nations, along with other world powers, formed a coalition through the UN to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraqi aggression. A mandate was passed in the UN to reclaim Kuwait and a line was drawn in the sand. Operation Desert Shield was put in motion. I will never forget the day that the 101st Airborne Division was mobilized and sent southeast to the seaport of Savannah for shipment to Saudi Arabia. People were gathered along every overpass holding up American flags and signs cheering on the troops as convoy after convoy drove the length of I-24 on their way to Savannah. The hair stood up on the back of my neck as I witnessed a surge of patriotism in the country.

A few weeks later a Smyrna National Guard unit left for the desert with Smyrna citizens and Lavergne High School students cheering them on down Sam Ridley Blvd. behind a police escort. Rumors swept through our unit as we waited for possible activation for service in the desert. We were all encouraged to make out wills as a precaution and I made one out. It was inexcusable that I had waited as long as I did to make out a will. Considering that I lost my parents at such an early age and daddy had no will. Saddam Hussein supposedly had the 4th largest army in the world and people were worried for our troops. In the first weeks as we were setting up Desert Shield the worry was that Saddam would attack while we were the most vulnerable. Nevertheless, I was hoping that our unit would get the call to go. I felt that we had a good cause and maybe our leaders would fight a war the right way for a change.

Deb @ Tower bridge

As it turned out America fought the war right, at least right up to the point of total victory. Then we dropped the ball by not finishing the job. On the morning of January 17th 1991 the American and allied forces opened a massive air campaign against Iraq. I was shopping at Roses department store in Murfreesboro the night Operation Desert Storm started and was watching CNN on the display televisions as the sky over Baghdad erupted in an unbelievable display of Iraqi antiaircraft fire. The Iraqi's were unsuccessfully trying to hit our Stealth fighters that were bombing selected targets with pinpoint accuracy. I was excited as I called Debbie to let her know that the war had started and I realized that she was crying as I hung up the phone. She had already heard the news.

Over the next month and a half we watched amazing footage of pinpoint bombing of targets in Iraq. Footage of Saudi Arabia and Israel being attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles. We had the fear that chemical weapons would at some point be unleashed on our troops and on Israel but the chemical attacks never materialized. My Air Guard unit finally received orders for activation but we were not going to Saudi Arabia, or overseas as I was hoping. Our unit was activated to provide 24/7 security for our aircraft in Nashville due to the elevated terrorist threat caused by the war. Altogether we were on active duty for about a month and a half. I was disappointed because I wanted to take a more active role in the war but all we did was patrol the flight line during the war.

On midnight shifts we would sometimes take turns sleeping. One of us would drive the vehicle while the other slept in the passenger seat. One night I was working with a new Airman and he slept while I drove. When it was my turn to sleep I felt a little uneasy about this guy but I was very sleepy and took a chance on him. I don't know how long I had been asleep when I felt a thump and I looked up just in time to see our vehicle headed straight toward the nose of a C-130. The Airman was sound asleep at the wheel and I woke him up just in time to brake before hitting the aircraft. Needless to say there was no more sleeping that night. I could see myself trying to explain how we ran into a C-130.

The country was in a very patriotic mood and to my surprise Bridgestone announced that they were going to pay all guard members that were activated during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, their full salary while on active duty. My active duty pay wasn't very much and at the time I was making over twenty dollars an hour at Bridgestone. They would pay the difference between my active duty pay and my Bridgestone pay. I was very thankful. The nation was holding it's breath contemplating the onset of the ground war. The media was telling us that Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world. We were constantly reminded by the media how elite that the Iraqi Republican guard was. and that plenty of body bags had been ordered. We didn't have a clue how many casualties we were going to have. The media estimated that there could be as high as 10 to 15 thousand American casualties.

The ground war started on February 24th and ended on my 41st birthday, February 28, 1991. We cut through their forces like a hot knife through butter. Thousands of Iraqi troops gladly surrendered to American forces after constant bombing by Allied and American air forces. The body bags were used for Iraqi bodies rather than American for the most part. Our doctors treated way more Iraqi casualties than American or Allied forces. Coalition forces suffered 292 killed (147 killed by enemy action, 145 non-hostile deaths) 467 wounded in action, and 776 wounded. Many of our troops were killed by friendly fire. Iraqi forces suffered 20,000 to 35,000 killed and 75,000+ wounded. The country was relieved because we suffered so few casualties and a wave of patriotism swept over the country. There were numerous parades and celebrations as we welcomed our troops home as heroes over the next few weeks and months after the end of the four day ground war.

For a while I thought that President Bush's handling of the war was good but over the years since I have come to realize that we missed a golden opportunity. The road to Baghdad was wide open and I believe that if we had taken Baghdad, and the rest of Iraq, during that time, we could have avoided the bloodshed and resistance that we endured after we invaded Iraq in 2003. Yes, we did drive the Iraqi's out of Kuwait but we allowed at least half of the Iraqi army to survive. The Shiite majority would have probably supported our invasion. Instead, Bush encouraged them to rebel, but when they did Saddam slaughtered them. Per the agreement that ended the first Gulf War, he was allowed to fly his helicopter gunships. Even General Norman Schwarzkopf, who allowed the Iraqi's to fly their gunships, acknowledged that this was a mistake. Saddam was totally surprised by how easily and quickly that we destroyed his forces. He actually thought that we would remove him from power but when we didn't he took that to mean he had actually won the war instead of losing it. Saddam was not prepared to run an insurgency against us in 1991 but he had 12 years to prepare for an insurgency when we finally decided to take him out in 2003. He knew that sooner or later we would be coming for him and we could have avoided over 4,000 casualties that we incurred in Iraq from 2003 until we left Iraq in 2011.

During 1991 Robbie and Jody were married and we vacationed in Virginia Beach near where Rob's ship was in dry dock at Norfolk. This was a dream vacation for me. Besides going to Busch Gardens at Williamsburg we were able to visit the colonial city of Williamsburg. We also visited Yorktown where the British surrendered to Washington in 1781, which ultimately led to our independence. I was able to take a day by myself and visit Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Petersburg.

Later that summer our guard unit spent two weeks at Pope A.F.B. North Carolina or "No Hope Pope" as it was called. Ft. Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne, is right next door and we did some ABGD training and some exercises with the Army M.P.'s. It was interesting watching the Army paratroopers boarding C-141's on Green Ramp. Carrying their gear and parachutes made them look like ducks waddling across the ramp. In 1994, while the 82nd Airborne was involved in a training exercise on Green Ramp, an Air Force F-16 collided with a C-130 and the wreckage from the fighter plowed into a C-141 and soldiers that were preparing to board the aircraft killing 24 men. The two crew members of the F-16 and the crew of the C-130. survived.

In early 1993 our SP commander at the time requested that our unit be allowed to deploy to Alaska for summer camp. I have never had a desire to go to Alaska and luckily for me our commander got a job offer with his civilian job that he could not turn down. The commander that took his place put in for Hickam AFB in Hawaii. I was ecstatic because I had always wanted to go there and I almost had 20 years of service. So I figured that this would be my last chance to go to Hawaii.

We pulled a guard drill the first weekend in March and we were scheduled to deploy on March 13, just a few days away. During a meeting on Saturday of the drill weekend we were told that we would have to weigh in. If any of us were overweight we would not be able to deploy to Hawaii. I was the weight control monitor for our unit and it was not an enviable job. Some of the guys would take their anger out on me when they failed their weigh in. Many times the higher ranks that were overweight would not let me weigh them because they would go across the street to the orderly room where a friend would pass them in spite of their weight. I had no control over this but lower ranking Airmen, like myself, did not have that option. We had to go by the book.

Your proper weight was governed by two factors. Height and body mass. For example I am 6' 3" tall and my maximum weight was 220 lbs. I didn't totally understand the body mass factor but a tape measure was used to measure body mass. For example a weight lifter might exceed their maximum weight by height but they could pass using the tape measure test. I was 14 pounds overweight because I weighed in at 234 lbs and my heart sank because I only had 6 days to lose 14 pounds. Everyone was skeptical that I could lose that much weight in less than a week but I was determined to make it happen. Nobody was going to keep me from going to Hawaii.

Over the next six days I ate very little and when I did eat it was something, like a can of tuna. I ran as many miles as I could over the next few days. A friend loaned me his membership card to the Donelson YMCA and I used their sauna a couple of times and their indoor track. After a few days my commander called to say that there had been a meeting and it was decided that I couldn't go because there was no way that I would be able to lose the weight. I went off on him and told him that I would lose the weight and there was no way that I was not going to be on that plane. My tone was insubordinate but I was angry because that point I was totally focused on losing the weight. Luckily for me, he changed his mind and said that he would stick to his original agreement.

We were leaving on Saturday and I was scheduled for a weigh in on Friday afternoon in the orderly room. On Thursday afternoon I weighed in at Bridgestone and I was still 3 pounds overweight. Bridgestone is 10 miles from my house and I decided to leave my car at work and walk home. The next morning, before the weigh-in I drove to the Donelson YMCA and sat in the sauna. After that I ran on their indoor track. When I left there I drove over to the base for the weigh-in. I weighed in at exactly 220 lbs. I experienced a tremendous wave of relief and a feeling of exaltation that I had actually achieved my goal.

That night and into the next day, March 13, 1993, the southeastern states were slammed by a huge snow storm. Cities that were further south, like Atlanta, received over 25 inches of snow and were virtually shut down. When I arrived at the base to leave for Hawaii there was a foot of snow on the ground. I can't describe the feeling of pride that I had when I saw the looks on my fellow guardsman's faces when I walked in the door. They couldn't believe that I had lost that much weight so quickly. I wasn't out of the woods yet, however. When I arrived in Hawaii I would be weighed again in their orderly room. If I failed that weigh in I would be forced to board another plane and return home immediately.

I was starving and I wanted to eat again but I had to wait a few more days. After a 6 hour flight to the west coast we landed at Travis AFB in San Francisco for a layover. The next morning we took off for Hickam AFB in Honolulu which was another 7 hours. As we made our approach, the Island of Oahu looked beautiful from the air. It seemed to display all of the colors of the rainbow. After landing we were led over to the orderly room for a weigh in. To my consternation I had gained about two pounds since Friday but fortunately I passed with the tape measure test and was able to stay in Hawaii. Supper really tasted good that night in the chow hall. I managed to hold my weight down for about a year after Hawaii before I started gaining weight again.

Although Hawaii was much warmer than home, the islands were going through a bit of a cold spell. The temperature was a cool 65 degrees when we landed and with the ocean breezes it was cooler than I expected. It warmed up considerably, however; over the next few days. Our barracks were a couple hundred yards from the beach and we enjoyed a great view of the Pacific Ocean. People are incredulous when I tell them that I did not go to the beach, or swim the entire time I was in Hawaii. I just don't enjoy swimming that much and never have. The ocean is beautiful to look at but that is the extent of my interest.

Hickam is the most beautiful air base that I have ever been on and I have been on some beautiful air bases. What was pretty neat for me is that the December 7, 1941 Japanese air attack is still very evident on base. Most of the buildings were there during the attack. The fire department, aircraft hangars and a huge barracks building which now houses the headquarters for PACAF or Pacific Air Forces. These buildings still have bullet holes and battle damage. Especially the headquarters building. Almost every inch of this building was strafed by Japanese planes and sixty airmen died there that day.

I was able to get a good then and now picture of the barracks building near the flag pole which is where it was during the attack. There is a famous picture of a tattered and bullet ridden flag flying while the barracks burns in the background. I was able to find the location where the original photographer was standing and took a modern day picture. There is a great little museum inside the headquarters building that houses the original battle damaged flag that flew that day. This same flag flew over the White House on the day that Japan surrendered in 1945. There is also a beautiful water tower that is 171 feet tall and was built in 1938. It is still in use and has been renamed the Freedom Tower.

Oahu has a great bus system that travels around the entire Island and the fare was only a dollar at that time. We took advantage of this bus system and I visited Honolulu almost everyday while I was there. I loved Waikiki, Diamond Head and we would go to Ft. Derussy, which was a historic military resort on the beach. There were historic hotels on Waikiki and a huge international flea market that was really neat. My sister Carolyn Segroves Kemper had been living in Oahu since she moved there with her husband in 1978. My brother-in-laws name was John Kemper and he was a WW2, Korea and Vietnam veteran. John served over 30 years in the army and when he met Carolyn he was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne stationed at Ft. Campbell. Carolyn was born in November 1940 and she met John when she was around 14 and he was 26. They were married in the mid 1950's are still married as far as I know.

For some reason Carolyn seems to have disowned our family. She has refused to answer my phone calls over the last few years and has broken off all contact with everyone here in the states. Why she has done this is a mystery to all of us. We have done nothing to upset her as far as we know. In 1993, however; Carolyn and I were still in contact with each other. I called her number and told her that I was in Hawaii. She brought my brother-in -law John with her when she came to see me at Hickam. Carolyn seemed genuinely excited to see me. She was living in a condominium in Aiea Hawaii, which is just above Pearl Harbor. I only visited her home one time while I was there and she had a great view of Pearl Harbor from her back door.

For the whole two weeks I was there she would come and pick me up and we would either go sight seeing or sit in her car and talk for hours. We talked a lot about her memories of daddy, mother and the family because I am always curious about these things. She gave me a grand tour of Waikiki and Honolulu. We also went to the Punchbowl military cemetery and the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. My niece Carmella went with us to the Punchbowl. She was engaged at the time to a sailor who was a submariner at Pearl Harbor and he would later become an officer. They were later married and have had several children since I saw her. I tried to capitalize on this experience and become closer to Carolyn. We communicated with each other for years after I left Hawaii by phone and mail. She even sent me gifts but after her mother died she cut off all communication with me, her brother Michael and my sister Faye. She even refused to come back home for her mothers funeral.

While in Hawaii I lucked up and worked day shifts the whole two weeks I was there primarily on the flight line. On a couple of different days I worked at the Ka'ena Point satellite tracking station. This wasn't too far from the Opana Point location where an Army mobile radar station detected the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ka'ena Point had a spectacular view of the Hawaiian coast line from the radar station which was on top of a mountain. When Debbie picked me up from the airport in Nashville she had some bad news for me. She told me about my Aunt Catherine who was killed after the car she was riding in was in was struck by the Broadway Dinner train in Nashville.

On June 21, 1993 Debbie and I were going to have our 25th wedding anniversary and I wanted it to be special. I Asked her to renew our vows and she agreed. When we were married, I would have been too shy to sing to her because I was too shy to sing in public at all. Other than the Christmas Eve party in Turkey I never had the courage to sing in front of people. Not until I was 29, and attending Florence Baptist church in Murfreesboro, did I find the courage to sing in public. We visited there one Sunday and the pastor came by our house a few days later. Before leaving he casually mentioned that his church was going to have a talent contest and I told him that I would like to sing. He put me in the line-up but my self esteem has always been low and I wasn't sure how I would be received. People were raving about my voice. This gave me the courage to sing in public and I have never had a problem since. I have even auditioned for America's Got Talent and The X Factor several times without success. Over the years I have sung at a multitude of churches and before large audiences without a problem. I am still very self conscious, however; and it affects my stage presence, which continues to be a hindrance to me.

I had always wanted to sing to Debbie and this was my opportunity. She wasn't expecting this and it was a surprise. I asked my Uncle Bud to officiate and I knew a lady pianist that agreed to play the piano for me. Most of our family and some friends attended. This was a much bigger group than attended the first wedding in 1968. As Debbie walked from the back of the church toward the altar I began singing I'll Still Be Loving You by Restless Heart. I could see the surprise on her face and I began to be overcome with emotion. We stood there together and repeated our vows. After we finished I sang Through The Years by Kenny Rogers as I held her hand and looked into her eyes. This was our song and both of us were crying. I was crying so hard that it was all I could do to finish the song. It could not be possible to feel more love for a woman than I felt for Debbie at that moment. Most everybody in the audience was crying along with us. Someone told me later that they had never been as moved by a wedding as they were by this one.