STARTING FROM SCRATCH - CHAPTER 5

We spent our first Christmas together as a family that December of 1969. I can't remember much but it was a much happier Christmas than the year before. Robbie was getting older and was doing a lot more. We had two bedrooms but I can't remember a time that his bed wasn't in our room. Many mornings I would wake up with him looking down on us as we slept. He looked so cute standing there with a big smile on his face. Robbie was a good baby and he very seldom cried. He was a big baby and would get very heavy when we were carrying him anywhere. Debbie and I would fight over who was going hold him when we would go shopping but I would usually lose out.

In December 1969 I won an award for Security Policeman of the month and was presented with a trophy. About this time our unit transitioned from the F-101 Voodoo to the F-106 Delta Dart. The F-106, unlike the F-101 had a single afterburner. One morning I got off of a midnight shift and had just arrived at our apartment when we had a base recall. Thinking that it was a routine practice alert when I arrived I could quickly tell by the serious looks on everyone's faces that this was different. A friend told me that we were involved in a real situation but nobody knew why.

Our Flight chief came in and said that we could not call home and we were confined to base until further notice. This alert was worldwide. We were going to be combined into two Flights working twelve hour shifts. Our augmentees were also called out to bolster base security. Augmentees were Airmen from organizations outside of Security Police. For example it could be cooks, administration clerks etc. We were in DEFCON 3 which means (Defense Condition 3). DEFCON 3: Means an increase in force readiness above that required for normal readiness. Air Force ready to mobilize in 15 minutes. This is the first crap is about to get real phase of the DEFCONS. Code Name: (ROUND HOUSE). There are 5 DEFCONS and DEFCON 5: Is the lowest state of readiness. This is the normal state of readiness in peacetime. Code name: (FADE OUT).

Our unit was on high alert and all of our aircraft were to be uploaded with nuclear weapons no later than midnight. When I left the house I kissed Debbie goodbye thinking that I would only be gone a few hours. Now I was being told that I couldn't contact her and as far as I knew we were on the brink of nuclear war. We were on alert for about ten days and luckily I got the 0700 to 1900 shift. We never dropped below DEFCON 3 during that time. During the Cuban Missile Crisis we went to DEFCON 2 which means war is imminent. Armed Forces ready to deploy and engage in less than 6 hours. This is the highest level ever reached in history. Code Name: (FAST PACE). DEFCON 1: Nuclear war is imminent. Code Name: (COCKED PISTOL). To this day I do not know why we were on alert and I can talk to veterans who were in the service during that time and they all remember it but nobody knows why it happened.

By January 1970 I had been at Kingsley Field for about fifteen months. Most of the men in our unit were going to or coming back from Vietnam. I heard the many war stories about Vietnam and I felt like I was missing out on something. I talked to Debbie a few times about volunteering but she wanted me to wait for orders. It seemed pretty inevitable that they would come soon enough. The men in my unit were going to places like Da Nang, Bien Hoa, Phan Rang, Cam Ranh Bay and Ton Son Nhut. Vietnam veterans stationed at Kingsley would tell me about the occasional rocket and mortar attacks they had to endure. A Black Sergeant named Kersee from Clarksville Tennessee told me how the bullets kicked up the dirt around him as he ran ammunition between bunkers during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

My friend Tom Blevins received orders for Canada. I didn't know until a few years ago that one of the Airmen in our unit had written his Congressman complaining that too many men in our unit were going to Vietnam. Tom told me that this is why he got orders for Canada. and around January 1970 I received orders for TUSLOG Detachment 93 at Erhac Turkey. Mike Cannon, a friend from Los Angeles, was also going to Erhac and we would leave on May 31st 1970. About a month later another friend Eric Erickson from South Dakota also got orders for Erhac. He would arrive in Turkey a few weeks after Mike and I. We were excited that the three of us would be stationed in Turkey together. Another friend, whose name I can't recall, got orders for Athens Greece. Not knowing about the congressional investigation I just assumed that Nixon's troop withdrawals were the reason that some of us were getting orders for places other than Vietnam.

Over the next few months I made preparations to leave Oregon and resettle my family in Nashville and I had to have something better than my VW Beetle to make the move. Over time I was able to buy a 1964 Chevy Impala and I loved that car because it was very roomy and such a smooth ride. It was the first dependable car that I had owned since my Chevy II. Nova. One night I pulled duty at the radar site at Keno. There was a railroad crossing in front of the base and I could hear the S.A.T. patrol radio that it had spotted a man lying in the road. The man's car had stalled on the tracks as a train was approaching and he was trying to run away when the train hit the car. The car spun around killing him instantly. When the local newspaper came out the next morning I was shocked to learn that the dead man was the salesman that had sold me my Impala.

In April we learned that the Apollo 13 astronauts were in big trouble. The world held it's breath as NASA worked feverishly to bring the astronauts home. When I was off I was glued to the TV. I was proud of my country for working so hard to get these guys home safely and I was bursting with pride as I watched their capsule land in the Pacific on April 17th, 1970. By then I was officially processed out at Kingsley. As soon as the astronauts were down I heard a roar of jet engines as our F-106's from Kingsley flew in tight formation over Klamath Falls in tribute to the Apollo 13 astronauts.

I rented a U-Haul luggage carrier and we packed our car to the gills. It was tough saying goodbye to all our friends. Ceronie Robinson got orders for Vietnam and had already left for home. Tom Blevins had left for Canada and Bill Wilson and Sonny Henson were at work the day we left but Sharon and Amy were there to see us off. It was a sad goodbye but we were eager to get home again. We had a very long trip ahead of us. At least this time we wouldn't be trapped on a bus for three days. I put extra water and oil in the trunk because we were going across a stretch of barren desert from Lakeland Oregon to Winemucca Nevada which is 142 miles. When we reached Lakeland, which is on the Oregon, Nevada border there was a sign that said (Last chance for gas). We filled up and for that time the gas was expensive. The highway that we traveled was two lane until we reached Winemucca. Along the way we passed through several herds of cattle being driven by cowboys. The area was so barren that I was sweating bullets until we finally made it to civilization. About midway we stopped at a single gas station at Denio Nevada that also had a sign that read (Last chance for gas). In that whole 142 mile trip we passed one car. This was years before cell phones.

I wanted to ride through Reno Nevada which was out of the way and we tried to drive there but it soon became evident that it was going to take up too much time. We found an out of the way motel and the next day as we headed toward Salt Lake City where we saw the Bonneville Salt Flats and Great Salt Lake. We also saw the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City. It was a different time. Seat belts weren't required in cars and Robbie stood up in the seat between us for pretty much the whole way home. I averaged 90 miles per hour on recapped tires which wasn't too smart. Debbie didn't want to ride after dark so we spent the night in Salt Lake City. Bright and early the next day we set out and passed through Wyoming and spent that night in Denver. From Denver we passed through Kansas and stopped for the night in Columbia Missouri. The next day we drove over to St. Louis and from there to Nashville I was ready to pull my hair out after leaving St. Louis. This was before I-24 was finished and it was a curvy two-lane highway all the way. Finally, we were back in Tennessee and to the good old heat and humidity of the South which I love in the Spring and the smell of freshly cut grass. There is a view of Nashville where I-24 joins I-65 on the north side where the Nashville skyline comes into full view. For Debbie and I there was no better sight in the world.