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Dub and Peggy Taylor circa 1943
I am a Veteran. I served in the United States Air Force from 10 December 1976 to 9 September 1982. After basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio TX (yes, I spent Christmas and New Years in basic,) I did technical school for my future career field at Shepherd AFB in Wichita Falls, TX. My Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) was 67251. In English that means I was an Accounting Specialist. I spent 15 months at Wurtsmith AFB, MI paying bills for the commissary. This means I was doing bookkeeping for the on base grocery store. Wurtsmith was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base with a squadron of B52s and a squadron of KC-135s. My barracks was about 100 yards from the flight line and it got pretty noisy when a squadron of fully loaded B52s and a squadron of fully loaded KC-135s were queued up for take-off.
I went from Wurtsmith to Hickam AFB, HI after two short, cold, rainy summers and one long, cold, snowy winter. When I got to Hickam on 20 September 1978, I was assigned to the commissary accounting section once again. In Michigan, we had been a roughly $500K in revenues commissary while in Hawai’i, we had $2.5M a month in revenues. Yet, even though revenues were 5 times in Hawai’i what they had been in Michigan, the paperwork volume was probably less than a third increased since it was most all of the same vendors or types of groceries, just larger quantities. However, in Hawai’i there were four of us doing the work where in Michigan there had been two of us. When I got to Hawai’i and was told my work assignment, I was also told it was because the section was “behind.” When I saw what the definition of “behind” was, I laughed as in Michigan that level of “behind” would have been considered caught up to current day. It also pointed out the difference between the staffing at a “Major Command” base (Hickam was the home of the Headquarters Pacific Air Forces) and a northern tier SAC base. In SAC, the funds went to support the flying mission. As an example, my first calculator in Michigan was an older, hand cranked machine that I literally burned up within a month. And yes, I do mean burned up. I was running a column of figures and the machine did catch on fire. After this, I was given a new calculator. If I remember correctly, it was a Monroe Litton model 2410 and was the newest machine in the office. When I got to Hawai’i, everyone had Monroe Litton model 2420 which all had digital displays.
After 18 months in Hawai’i, I was moved over to the “Accounts Control” office where I was responsible for the accounting database, liaison with the data processing center, and worked with folks in every part of the accounting system from Base Supply to the Consolidated Base Personnel Office. I worked with the Headquarters command Accounting Office and Responsibility Cost Center Managers across the base. In order to be promoted within the USAF beyond the rank of E4 up to the rank of E7, we had to take tests on our knowledge in our career field. The first time I tested for E5, the test had two questions (out of 100) that were directly related to my work with another 10 being peripherally connected. The next time I tested a year later, 75 of the 100 questions were directly related to my work. When I got my results, I was number 3 USAF wide on the promotion list (though I did not get promoted until the end of the cycle since I had less time in grade as an E4 than others).
I had gotten out of basic training early due to having had ROTC in high school and college. I left basic on a Friday and on Monday I was admitted to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland and had oral surgery on Tuesday morning to remove four impacted wisdom teeth. In Hawai’i, I had gallbladder surgery on 30 July 1982, spent the next month on convalescent leave for the surgery and an infection that developed, got off convalescent leave on 30 August, out-processed the base on 31 August and left Hawai’i on 1 September 1982 for a final nine days of terminal leave and discharge. I pretty much began and ended my AF career with surgeries.
While I was on active duty, I was able to use the Vietnam era GI Bill to complete a degree in Computer Science. I knew many people in various career fields who completed college degrees while in the service. Many co-workers completed both a bachelors and a masters degree and a few even got their doctorates while serving. I met people from all over the country while I was in Michigan and in Hawai’i both.
So what is my point with all of this? It is to remind folks that the veteran is the man or woman you grew up with, attended high school or college with. We’re the person who grew up down the street from you or that you saw everyday at the drug store or fast food joint. Most of us had a variety of reasons to sign our names and take the oath of enlistment. We weren’t and aren’t making a big production of our service. We mostly served and came home, no matter the time. My older brother was in the USAF for four years, got out, got married then re-enlisted for I think another eight years. He got out the second time, finished his degree, got commissioned in the Air Guard, transferred to the Army Reserve and retired a few years ago from the Reserves at the rank of Lt. Col. My first cousin Mary, served in the US Navy where she met her future husband who was also in the Navy. Her nephew served in the US Army as a photographer. My oldest first cousin served 20 years in the Navy. One of his sons served in the Marines, including a stint as an embassy guard. Yet another first cousin served in the Navy for four years in Georgia where he met his future wife and settled down. My father was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and one of his best friends from the Weather Squadron they served in was my godfather. Dad’s oldest brother served in the Marines I believe during WWI and died while Dad was overseas in WWII, most likely due to residual effects from mustard gas.
All of us served just as hundreds more from my hometown have served and millions more from all the small towns and cities across the country. I was fortunate enough to not have to deal with any wars during my time although when we were going through alert exercises in Michigan, we would joke (dark humor abounds) about just how much would be left above ground if what we were dealing with was real.
For most of us, we served, we came home, and we got on with our lives.
And because I can:
Cross posted from Just A Small Town Country Boy by Richard Taylor
[Editor's Note: Omnipotent Poobah's a Veteran, too.]
28 Comments
I am a veteran of the Navy, from 10 January, 1986 to 03 April, 1991. I was an airframe mechanic, working on the F-14A aircraft. Somewhat unusually for my unit, I only spent about two weeks in the line shack when the WC 120 supervisor asked specifically for me, getting me into the airframe shop ahead of a whole lot of senior people. On his retirement, I asked him why he had done that and he said it was because every time he saw me, I was always working or learning and he liked my ethic. I was also “always dirty” he said, which indicated to him that I was more interested in my job than my uniform. I never told him that I wanted to learn as much as possible because I was terrified of making a mistake and getting somebody hurt or killed.
Happy Veterans’ Day.
An excellent diary, and highly recommended!
As a Vietnam War Vet, I served from 1966 and thru the early part of 1970. And while there, I served among my fellow soldiers on the “old” Australian Canberra and known here in the USA, the B-57 aircraft, or the short stubby wings. As to the long thin wings, these were used for intelligence gathering over China and the then Soviet Union.
Today, the Chicano Veterans Organization is primarily for those of us and whom were the Privates, the Corporals and the Sergeants. After receiving our Honorable Discharge, we went off to our self-selected colleges and universities and where we received our “formal” educational credentials. Therefore, our Members consist of vets who know that there is no American “Test for Ambition” other than what is imparted due to our Hard Work and Self-Discline.
And it’s for this “reason” that I tend to focus on subject areas where knowledge and understanding as it pertains to Native Americans and Chicanos, is somewhat lacking.
Today, there is are two small handfuls of military vets that post here at the Lake, and as such, I always look forward to what is being said and addressed, even when I have a pair of dry socks and a roll of toilet paper stashed in my backpack, for old times sake.
And on this Veterans Day weekend, your diary is quite pleasing to me given that we are all Brothers and Sisters of Shared Experiences.
Jaango
Hi Jaango. I try not to make a big deal out of my service, it was something I did but to me it isn’t something to go around trumpeting, “dig me, I’m a veteran” or anything. Still, there is something that comes with it that a civilian will never get. No dog to them or anything but it’s impossible to describe without a common frame of reference. My big fight has gone from repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to the issue of getting the discharges of those people thrown out prior to DADT upgraded.
Thank you for your service and you too of course dakine01. Scritch Dan’l for me!
Thank you Margaret and jaango.
Yes there are a few veterans who comment and post here at FDL but maybe a few more than some folks think. When I was on active duty, there were more than a few of my fellow airmen and women who professed to be left leaning. We would talk quietly about having voted for Carter or McGovern and the myth that all military members were conservative Republicans.
Margaret,
It was good to see your post upthread.
Unbeknownst to you, I do owe you a debt of gratitude for having encouraged me, from years ago or the early onset of the Lake, for remaining here. E’nuff said?
Jaango
I’ve always tried to tell people that the military is a cross section of society and reflects it pretty well, perhaps with a bit of emphasis on the working class. Most people who haven’t been there weren’t buying it though. Yeah, we had our conservatives and like civilian conservatives, they tended to be loud, obnoxious and insisted on dominating the conversation. But I knew at least as many, if not more, left leaning service people than I did right wingers.
Well then, I’m proud to have encouraged such a great voice to speak up! Thank you. :)
Thanks dakine, Margaret and jaango for sharing your histories today.
I got out of the Army and received my honorable discharge in July 1967. Within days, I had burned my class A’s in a burn barrel. Within weeks, I was helping the Quakers, through the American Friends Service Committee, get draft dodgers into Canada.
As much as I despised the Vietnam War and have come to regard our militarism as utterly despicable, I’ve never turned on our country’s serving enlisted men and women. I’ve sat at VA hospitals with old friends in their final days, one a victim of a lung disease he caught while on the carrier Shangri-La, and two others dying of the effects of Agent Orange or shrapnel.
I’ve played “Taps” at over 400 ceremonies over the years, and will be performing in a rather Jingoistic Veterans Day concert in Anchorage later this afternoon.
Veterans on campus at the college where I teach know my office door is always open to them, and my ears open for them to bring up any adjustment or health problem they want. I’ve helped several in one way or another.
Not to denigrate individuals who have served or are serving in our military machine, but from my point of view, the best service one can render to the USA and world right now is to discourage any aspect of militarism, our military might paradigm, and glorification of service itself. Indulging in those activities detracts from concentration on the very real dangers of climate change and increasingly vulnerable stocks of spent nuclear fuel adjacent to rising waters, and other nuclear waste from weapons and other uses, all around the fucking planet.
(yes, I spent Christmas and New Years in basic,)
*heh* I’d spent ‘em at my AIT, in Ft. Sill, OK, not too far from your ‘Technical’ school, dakine…! ;-)
…the best service one can render to the USA and world right now is to discourage any aspect of militarism, our military might paradigm, and glorification of service itself…
Amen, ET, Amen…!
I registered for the draft in 1974. Last draft class, and by that time, where I come from, Oakland, CA, we had other ideas. . . .
BUT thanks, many thanks, Dakine and all, for sharing your stories and your points of view. (Among other things, it’s extremely valuable to be reminded of the normalcy of military service. Everyone isn’t a “war fighter,” to use the current term of art. In fact, _most_ service men and service women aren’t. And for those that are, well, let us share in the hope for peace.)
I did four years overseas in the Army infantry. I found it to be at best a phenomenally wasteful welfare system with guns and at worst a murderous instrument of corporate profit and imperialism. As soon as I realized this (it was during Gulf War Part I and the rest of the immediate post-Soviet violence the US dealt out under the bullshit guise of “the world is now a more dangerous place than ever”), I told the Army to go fuck themselves. And then the Army did love me so. Despite serious efforts to get my mind right and the possibility of doing time in Leavenworth, I beat them. Echoing Omnipotent Poobah, no thanks are necessary. It was my honor to do it. FTA.
Here is the article of faith that gets unquestioned promotion on Veterans Day that I find to be horribly misguided: “If you enjoy your freedom, thank a vet.”
What stunning, degrading disrespect this sentiment shows for freedom that it be turned into a thing, a commodity to be bequeathed, a product to be consumed. Freedom is not a commodity. It is an act. One either acts free or they are not. It is an existential issue. It cannot be done to or for you. It has fuck all to do with what someone with a gun and a uniform does.
“Not to denigrate individuals who have served or are serving in our military machine, but from my point of view, the best service one can render to the USA and world right now is to discourage any aspect of militarism, our military might paradigm, and glorification of service itself.”
In-fucking-deed. For those citizens who are against the GWOT, there is a simple thing anyone can do: Stop supporting and joining the military.
Thanks – and CT, too.
If I were to meet one serving military person in the US military right now, the only one I would consider giving the standard response to would be PFC Bradley Manning.
Thank you for your service, Bradley Manning!
I just got back from playing in a Veterans Day Patriotic Jingoistic concert in Anchorage. After the event, people came up on stage, thanking the many veterans and a few serving military in the wind ensemble and chorus, “for your service.” I ranted and ranted, almost scaring a couple of blue-haired elderly ladies.
I’m old enough to remember that men my age didn’t have a choice about whether to serve or not.
So, yes, I called my son-in-law, who did time in VietNam, to thank him for his service….. and to tell him how glad I am that he came home, since many young me I knew did not.
I’m also proud of those who shouted, marched, acted out against that debacle.
The lousy economy has enticed some of today’s youth (including gang members and the mentally ill) to sign up for Bush/Obama ongoing wars. I do not … and will not… denigrate them for the choice they make. They get conned into believing the government will help them once they’ve done their time. The shame is with the rest of us who are not marching on Pennsylvania Avenue every friggin’ day.
As usual, I agree with much of what you say, but do not quite reach the conclusion that you do. Maybe I will someday. Even if I never get as far as you have, I am so glad to read your posts and your POV.
Nothing to add but my applause.
I must have missed where dakine said anything about normalcy.
Thank you for that post.
Dakine, thank you very much for you post, but I am not sure why you thought you had to remind us that veterans are all around us.
It was not all that long ago that wars were fought mostly by Democrats because Republicans got their kids out of the draft through money and influence and their kids did not need a military paycheck enough to volunteer.
Many of us have served or have spouses, sons or daughters, fathers, grandfathers, etc. who served. And not only served, but lost lives, limbs, minds, family relationships, and more.
What most of this nation, including the media, does seems to be reminded of, though, is that we are still at war and have been for longer than it took to defeat both Hitler and the Japanese emperor. And that all wars sucks so much that we should still be doing everything we can to keep any more generations from serving.
Shame on a nation that thought that ending wars ceased to be worth fighting for once the draft ended.
Yes, yes, yes! Good call. Manning is a fucking lion among men. I suspect that most civilians are not able to understand, although by no fault of their own, just how brave Manning is–or that the US military, that we spend so much time worshipping, tortured him.
And be careful with the blue hairs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uel1vfAQ52M
“They get conned into believing the government will help them once they’ve done their time.”
There is no other institution I have come across where the advertisement and the reality are as disconnected as is the case with the military. And what no recruiting sergeant will ever mention is that there is a clause in the enlistment contract that stipulates that the US military is under no obligation to honor the contract if they decide their needs are in conflict with it. The enlistee, of course, is obligated to that contract under penalty of law.
I very much appreciate your comments as well.
I don’t know that I would describe my experience as getting far. I’m no different than anyone else. And in large measure, it was all so many circumstantial accidents and help from others. For example, had a freshman English teacher not assigned “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” my thoughts and actions might have been different. Prior to refusing to participate (and the isolation of that act), I thought, “Who do I know who ever had the nerve to say, ‘No!’? Oh, yeah, that King guy said something about how ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Maybe he can help me out?” We never do anything on our own. :)
I was ROTC in college and joined the Army on 14 October 1968. Of my class of 120 Signal Corps officers, 114 went to Viet Nam, 5 went to Germany or Korea, and I was sent to Sinop, Turkey.
I don’t remember much about how I decided to do that, except that I thought I’d rather be an Officer than get drafted and serve as an Enlisted Man. It seemed to me that people should serve when called upon, and that there was no reason I should duck service, because that would mean some other guy would have to take my place. Nevertheless, I am grateful the Ms. Sammons who chose to send me to Turkey.
I got out, went to law school on the GI Bill, graduated with no debt, practiced law for decades, and retired. Just like dakine says.
But in fact, that was precisely my point – the normalcy of most service and servicemen and women
In 1986 I had sort of drifted on my Bachelor’s Degree and job-hopped way too often. I freely admit that I had not done well at learning self-discipline and I often let my feelings guide my actions, with unfortunate(for me) results. I had burned too many bridges and needed a steady job.
So I tried to join the Air Force. They weren’t hiring. The Army and the Marines seemed far too dangerous and yes, like way too much work. So I joined the Navy.
I was too old to go in as an officer on my bachelor’s degree, so I signed up to be a sonar technician. During boot camp I was asked what I thought of nuclear power. I replied “It’s a damned silly way to boil water,” so they made me an Electronics Technician, with a specialization in maintaining radars.
My destroyer was stationed in San Diego, but we were underway more than half the time. I got to experience the Persian Gulf twice, which was two times too many, but I did get to see places like Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea, Guam, the Bering Sea, Acapulco, and Hawaii. Hawaii was so damned expensive it wasn’t my favorite. I saw the USS New Jersey fire a broadside at night(no, they weren’t killing anyone ottogrendel, it was practice), and I saw whales staying close to Navy warships because they knew we would keep the Japanese whalers away.
I met lots of people who had electricity but no hot water, women with advanced degrees who worked as prostitutes because they could support their kids better that way, American Vietnam vets who settled in Thailand because they couldn’t make it in the States, and Americans from all over the country and from most social classes who had enlisted in the Navy.
Some were ignorant, some were well-educated, some were intelligent, some were downright stupid. Thieves did not survive on a ship but loan sharks prospered off the stupid. Texans and New Yorkers got along splendidly(more than one ship had the “New York-Texas mafia”), Midwesterners got along with almost everybody and racism of any stripe was simply not tolerated.
And career Filipinos improved my chess game immeasurably. Thanks, Chief Petty Officer Colabong, though I’m sure my spelling butchered your name.
I learned that I was capable of far more than I thought I was, that Wicca is an officially recognized religion in the Navy, and that political opinions of almost every variety could be found in its ranks.
I learned enough to say that I know for a fact that Bradley Manning is a hero to many sailors right now, because he actually did his duty as he saw it to uphold the oath that he swore.
I learned that veterans, especially most combat veterans, do not seek glory and gratitude when they come home. Most just want to enjoy a reasonable standard of living. I cringe when someone thanks me for my service. I don’t want thanks. I want a decent standard of living without working like a slave to earn it.
Yes, better to be showered with thanks than blood, but it would be better still if politicians who had deliberately avoided military service were not allowed to send our young people into imperial wars overseas unless they themselves were willing to go into harm’s way.
Fat chance, that. Happy Veterans’ Day, anyway, and thanks for the post, D.
…last two sentences…yes…thank you ET
US Army 3Apr67-2Apr69.
I wasn’t even eighteen and a half yet and I wouldn’t have been drafted for a year or more when I volunteered for immediate induction. (Draftees served two. Enlistees in the Army or Navy served a minimum of three. Air Force was then a four year gig.)
There’s a segment in Ken Burn’s “The War” (2007) wherein a Marine fighter pilot says (paraphrasing here) you were a kid with a boring and dull life, and with no prospects. You had no power to do anything. On the other hand, you could sign your name and be an immediate adult. It had nothing to do with patriotism or the enemy. Sign your name — be an adult.