Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

 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 the governors 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 ...

  Sometime in November, or December 1986 Misty was supposed to go to an all night skate party in Smyrna. We let her go thinking that she would stay in the building all night and it was supposed to be chaperoned so we thought that it would be okay. I had a rule that my kids could not car date until they were sixteen. She was fourteen and seeing an older boy named Marshall. He was coming over to our house to see her on a fairly regular basis. The morning after the skating party Debbie told me that she had discovered that Misty had left the skating party with Marshall and had gone over to his house. I never whipped Misty more than a couple of times in her life but I was very angry at her over this. Although she was fourteen I thought that she needed a whipping and I gave her one with my belt. Debbie was normally at home with our kids when they were growing up but during the 1980's after I lost my job at Colonial. It became necessary, however; for her to work in order to help out with ...

    We had a C-130 that had a throttle cable snap while doing "touch and go's" at Ft. Campbell in 1986. The plane crashed while landing and killed the pilot, navigator, and load master. Two crewmen survived. One was the co-pilot who only had minor burns on his face because he was able to run out through the rear of the plane and away from the flames. The other four were engulfed in flames and the one crewman who survived the flames underwent months of treatment at Brook Army Burn Center in San Antonio Texas. I was the chapel song leader and honored when they asked me to lead the singing at the memorial for the three men who had died. The only problem was that they asked me to prepare two songs that I had never heard of in my life and I can't read music. The songs were Our God of Ages Past and My Faith Looks Up To Thee.  Our God of Ages Past was the opening song and for some reason no matter how much I practiced I could not get that song in my head. All four local tele...

Ezekiel 33:11 - Say to them, "As I Live" says the Lord God. I take no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live!  This is the prayer that I pray everyday in regards to the enemies of our country. I don't rejoice when they die in their sin. I don't dance on their grave the way the Communists and "useful idiots danced on the grave of Charlie Kirk. I hope that Jesse Jackson was right with God when he drew his last breath. His life, however; was spent as a charlatan and race hustler who became a millionaire setting race relations back in this country for many years. Along with his race hustling buddies Al Sharpton, Louis Farakhan and Barack Obama. I pray that they will repent and live while there is still time. Martin Luther King asked us to judge a man by the content of his character. Based on that admonition Jesse Jackson comes up short.

  I knew from the start that we wouldn't be Flight Chiefs very long. because we were only filling in until the new SSgt's arrived. About one month after we arrived at Erhac the two new E-5's arrived and I was bumped down to assistant Flight Chief. I became assistant to a Flight Chief who happened to be black. He wasn't very talkative and I just reasoned that this was just his normal disposition. He was one of the two E-5's that were already there when we arrived. I tried to establish a rapport with him but he would not talk to me unless it had to do with work and it was short and to the point. Ours was a very chilly relationship from the start. He would post me in the alert area every night and I was never posted at the storage area, which was a better post. Then I began to notice that my name was last on the duty roster and as assistant I should have been listed second behind the flight chiefs name. Everyone else was listed by their rank but my name was just Segrov...

We got off of a midnight shift on a Saturday morning and boarded one of our C-130's bound for Upper Heyford Royal Air Force Base in Oxfordshire England. After landing we changed out of our uniforms and hailed some taxis that took us on a scary ride down winding back country roads. Doing this on the left side of the road instead of the right as Americans are used to was very frightening. Our destination was a railroad station where we boarded a train that took us through the beautiful English countryside. After arriving in London we walked all over trying to find the tourist sites such as Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and Big Ben. We rode on the tube, or underground which is the London subway. Much of the subway was the same subway used as bomb shelters during the London Blitz. After a steep climb we ended up at Picadilly Circus. This was a whirlwind trip in which we were trying to pack a lot into a couple of days. We wasted a lot of time looking for these pl...

  In the late Spring of 1985 our whole Air Guard unit took part in a NATO exercise called Volant Partner. All of our C-130's were loaded down with personnel and equipment for the long flight to a search and rescue base on the coast of Belgium called Koksijde. This was a Belgian Air Force base that had been built by the German Luftwaffe in WW2. The base reminded me of a WW2 movie set with German bunkers and perimeter fencing from that era. It was also where Belgian Air Force cadets took their basic training. The base was in a very historic area. The town of Ypres was nearby, where several great WW1 battles were fought and Koksijde was only about five miles from Dunkirk. The medieval town of Bruges was nearby and Bruges was not only beautiful, it is the lace capital of the world.   I was excited about going to such a historic area of Europe but I was beset by a strange premonition before I left. Flying is always something that makes me nervous but in this case I was more af...

 I can't remember exactly when this happened but I believe it was during the summer of 1984 after we came back from Little Rock that TSgt Sam Adams shot himself in the stomach and was found dead sitting in his bath tub. Sam had always struck me as being a very nice guy but shy and reserved. Guys in the unit would pick on him in a good natured way but he never seemed to be bothered by it. I was told that he and his wife were having some problems but his suicide came as a total shock to me. Sam was given a full military funeral and I was honored to be a part of his firing squad.   In the late summer, or early Fall, of 1984 we began to see a change in my brother-in-law Hulon and he appeared to be having anxiety attacks. Hulon was losing weight and looking pretty bad. On Thanksgiving Day of 1984 we spent the day with Debbie's daddy and stopped by Judy's before going home. I was shocked when I saw how he looked while sitting in a rocking chair in his living room. The look on h...

 After packing our ruck sacks which were very heavy we were tactical from the time we left our base camp. Every time we stopped for anything I would find a tree to lean against in order to help support the weight of my pack. Upon arrival we immediately began digging our defensive perimeter. I was foxhole buddies with a good friend, J. W. Smith, who was a Marine combat veteran in Vietnam. We did nothing but dig all day and as dusk arrived I was already worn out. We were tasked to man the perimeter that night, while other units did patrol and ambush duty. Besides our TANG unit there were elements of other guard units there. Memphis was there, along with Ohio and a couple of other states. I had my field jacket on but the night was so cold I was freezing and I was so tired from digging that I had trouble staying awake. Every time I nodded off J.W. would bounce a rock off of my helmet. The training cadre acted as the aggressors. It was pitch black and so quiet that all you could hear wa...

I call this chapter Prime Time because I loved the 1980's, at least for the most part. The early 1980's were crappy but I was in the best physical shape of my life and my economic picture was gradually improving. I was enjoying my service in the Air National Guard because those guys made me laugh more than I have ever laughed in my life and it was an honor to serve with a great bunch of guys. I loved the music of the 80's and my children were all young, beautiful, and still living at home. Plus, I had a beautiful wife that loved me. I was on top of the world. To top it off we had a great president in the White House and I never felt prouder of my country. It seemed like the economic stagnation of the 1970's and Vietnam syndrome was over. The cultural Communists in the Democrat party were continuing to make strides but I was hoping that the Reagan Revolution would override their gains in the long run. With the benefit of hindsight I was wrong and now we are in a fight fo...

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 m...

    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...