It was my twenty-first birthday and I was having a milk shake at Frosty Freddies, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. It wasn't the way most twenty-one year olds celebrate their birthday but I was a new recruit in the U.S. Air Force.
    Even so, it was a good birthday. We had a squadron pass. That meant that we had the freedom to wander anywhere within our squadron area. Actually it was quite restrictive but it was great to have even this amout of freedom after two weeks of nothing but cleaning the barracks and Boot Camp.
    Speaking of Boot Camp, it was everything you've ever heard about it or have ever seen in the movies. There was marching, a loud, vulgar, in-your-face drill instructor, more marching, the deafening pop-pop-pop of the firing range, navigating water hazards, crawling through mud and under barbwire, climbing ropes, repelling cliffs and, oh yes, did I mention marching.

Basic Training - USAF 1961

    After Basic Training I was sent to Biloxi, Mississippi where I would be enrolled in Electronics school. Thankfully I was getting into the field I had enlisted for.
    While we waited for our electronics classes to start, most of us spent the time raking sand, picking up cigarette butts, mowing grass, painting rocks or peeling potatoes.
    Fortunately for me, they needed a volunteer to work in the Base Library. My experience at the Cincinnati Public Library finally paid off. This was great duty; air conditioned and clean.
    All the books were in order by Dewey Decimal number but since there were a lot of foreign students at Lackland, I thought it would be easier for them if the library was organized by departments like the Cincinnati library.
    The librarian agreed with the idea and suggested that while she and her husband were on vacation, I could change the library. And so I did.
    When she returned the library was arranged by History, Business, Science, the Arts and etc. She was so impressed she invited some of the Base officials to see the new library.

    Her husband, a colonel, tried to lure me away from my dream of electronics and perhaps I should have listened. One never knows.
    When school started I trained in Electronic Countermeasures. This ECM equipment involved powerful transmitters that were used to counter S and X band radar transmissions. They generated "white noise" and could be tuned to jam radar signals to protect aircraft from attack and to fool guided missles.
    I really liked Biloxi with its beach and night clubs and I had heard that sometimes the AF took a top graduate to teach in Biloxi. I worked very hard to finish at the top of my class with a grade of 98 out of 100. Still, no one in the class stayed in Biloxi. I was sent to Plattsburgh AFB in nothern New York state.
    Plattsburgh was a SAC base and home of the 380th Bomb Wing about 20 miles south of the Canadian border. There were about 30 B-47 bombers and a squadron of KC-97 refueling tankers.
    I was assigned to maintain the ECM equipment on the B-47 bomber. There were 5 ECM transmitters on each plane and they were controlled by the co-pilot. There were also chaff dispensers on each side of the plane.
    Chaff is packets of aluminium strips that are dumped in large quantities to form a cloud so opposing radars would find it almost impossible to distinguish the aircraft from the echoes caused by the chaff.
    The winters in Plattsburgh were wicked and I worked outside on the flight line. I learned all about snow, chill factors, taking the car battery inside at night, beer freezing in your car and using the ropes installed along the sidewalks to pull yourself along against the wind and blinding snow.
    In the fall of 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. The eight "on alert" B47's, loaded with nuclear bombs, flown to other Bases. It was a bit unnerving to think of the possibility of an actual nuclear war.
    I usually spent my free time dancing at Brodie's until I began dating one girl in particular. Before my military obligation would end, that girl would become my wife.

home we could call ours so we decided to just head south to Peru and forget Lake Placid all together. What I was expecting to happen for a honeymoon night was not in the cards at all.
    It was late evening by the time we arrived at the house and the blizzard had knocked out the electricity. The charming little home I thought would be an enchanting wedding gift was instead dark, dismal and freezing cold. Arlene hated it. She cried.
    Then, in the early spring Crocuses bloomed and we planted Lilies of the Valley around the tree in the yard. The summer went by with trips to La Plege and we settled in nicely. The spacious cabana was a great room to spend time in when the weather was nice.

My wife and I in better days

    Two weeks before Thanksgiving that fall, our first son, Robert, was born. The winters were brutal in Plattsburgh but our two bedroom mobile home keep us comfortable and cozy. Hanging diapers on the line was a challenge, though. They would freeze into a sheet the instant they were removed from the basket and shaken out.
    We bought an automatic washer that I installed at the end of the kitchen counter. That's when I learned that the plumbing in mobile homes is NOT standard. With the cold winters maintaining "electric heat-tapes" on all the plumbing was essential.
    I liked the military. For me, applying to officer's training and making a career would have been ideal. Arlene, however, disliked military life with a passion. So it would be back to civilian life when my enlistment was up.
    Before my enlistment ended, I mailed out resumes to companies in NY and PA. Arlene's brother and I made a trip to visit the companies who had agreed to an interview.
    One company near Lansdale, PA was perfect. They had a military contract to install Air Force ECM equipment in armoured personnel carriers. I took that job and our family of three moved to Lansdale. Our second son, Joseph, was born there.
    Within four years of returning to civilian life we had built a custom new home in Franconia, PA. It was a small stone-front ranch house with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, wood-burning fireplace, formal dining room and a one-car garage.
    Our property was nearly an acre so there was plenty of room for a large garden of corn, tomatoes, onions, beans, carrots, brocolli and more. I bought a 7hp Allis Chalmers tractor with a mower, dozer blade and a 34" tiller.
    My wife was a stay-at-home Mom who loved to cook and can. Our garden provided food that lasted through the winter. I enrolled in LaSalle University's electronic physics program and attended night classes. Villanova offered electronic engineering but they would not accept any of my University of Cincinnati or Plattsburgh State credits.