Those were the days my friend!!
This is an expanded version of the "where are they now....." entry I put on the Hole in the Wall web site for people who are veterans of the 6912th/690th in Berlin, Germany. My apologies in advance for a lot of the "lingo" that some readers may not quite understand--this was written with veteran SCI intel types in mind.
THE EARLY YEARS
My very first assignment out of Air Force technical school was to the 6912th Security Squadron. I arrived just after Christmas in 1972 and along with my class mate Lee McCravey, was the only "one-striper" in operations for as long as anyone could remember. That's because the vast majority of the people assigned to the unit were linguist who spent many months or years in training before ever being sent to an operational unit. Lee and I were 2-oh-2s in a 2-oh-3 (later 208) world!
I started out on Dawg flight as an opscom operator. Back then tech reporters typed their messages on manual typwriters using scratch paper and then handed them to an opscommer to type them up on a teletype machine. That's how I really learned how to type since I cheated to get out of typing school at Goodfellow. Some readers my remember the instructor. She was a female who drove an ugly-ass Honda back when they were crappy cars. Anyway after about six months of doing that I moved back to "the Swamp" working under the infamous Anthony "Ratso" Radziminski. We had a great gang back there, especially Steve Nelson who graced the pass-on log with some fabulous art. The Swamp was the place to be on mids. We used to put burn bags over the lights and listened to reel-to-reel recordings we had made and snuck into the site. Yep, rockin out to the J. Giels live album Full House was good medicine for a bloody mid. Good old Ratso set me up real good on a slow swing. I had plenty of warning at Goodfellow about tricks to make "jeeps" look stupid--there was no way anyone was going to send me to supply to pick up some DF bearings. However, Ratso did a good job of convincing me to calculate the "average fequency of the day." I was passed on to four or five people before John Ferris finally let me know I had been had.
Finally after bugging the hell out of Pope Goodson long enough, I found my way back to the S&W center as a tech reporter. David Seay was my trainer, Charlie Strang was our product reporter (the only 202 doing that job at the time), and Charlie Moore was the Interaction Controller. I spent most of my time with head phones on getting information from either Roy Cochrun or Don Mooney. Lt. Gary Hess was our flight commander (an ex-enlisted 202 as Irecall). Gawd-that was 24 years ago but I can sit here and picture all those people and the ops floor and the SWC like it all happened yesterday!
My main diversion away from work was MUSIC! I had many good friends who all had great stereo systems and we could all lend albums to each other knowing that they'd come back in good shape. But there was more than recorded music--we had some great LIVE music to listen to. It all started as the Dawg Flight band which included my roomie Henry Diener on vocals and none other than the aforementioned Don Mooney on drums. Over time it evolved into a group known as Midnight Oil which played downtown clubs as well as at TCA. I still have a tape I made in the club ballroom of one of their performances--great version of Space Cowboy!!!
There was one major event that changed life at Marienfelde forever, and that was the arrival of Sherry Smith--the first female ever assigned to ops. By the time I left in December of 74, things were totally changed. I'm not saying better or worse but definitely different. I flew out of Templehof (only Air France was operating out of Tegel) and once the aircraft leveled off, I saw a member of the flight crew walking back in the cabin. It was the co-pilot who came back to wish me a good flight and to tell me that my friend Roger in air trafic control said so long. It was a hell of a send off. A month later I found myself in Thailand assigned to the 6924th Security Squadron. That was a trip worthy of its own page. I 'll just sum it up by saying it was one of the most amazing years of my life, and that I met and married Loy. We celebrated our 28rd wedding anniversary on December 26th 2003.
THE LOST YEARS
After Thailand I was assigned to the 6993rd on the Medina Base Annex of Lackland. There's only one phrase that can adequately describe that experience--IT SUCKED! I was all set to get out--even was doing the grease pencil countdown on my badge--when I found out I had a line number for E-5. So I applied for cross training and became a flight simulator technician and took home a nice +4 SRB. I spent the next seven years as an E-5 starting at Bergstrom AFB, Texas and then after a six month break in service, I went to Carswell AFB in Fort Worth. I was a lousy technician and my SKT scores were gawd awful. I called MPC and asked how I could get back in Security Service. The guy told me two things: USAFSS was now ESC, and if I wanted back in I would have to volunteer for Osan AB, Korea. I talked it over with my wife and made the decision--Skivvy Nine it was!!
GREEN BADGED AGAIN!!
I showed up at the 6903rd hoping to pick up where I left off--a spot as a reporter in the S&W center. But noooooo, they put me in the aisle with the X1s. I tried to explain to them that I wasn't a REAL 202--I was more of a 208 who only knew English!! Dits and Dahs weren't my thing. They told me to certify in my position and then they'd move me into the S&W. It was a 90 day cert period and I knocked it out in less than six weeks; however, no move was in site. Then a letter circulated on flight that the Operations Supe was looking for someone to work in the day shop handling the supply and equipment accounts. With my maintenance background, I was a natural and got the job. Meanwhile I tested "SKT exempt" and made E6. All in all not a bad tour although I missed my family terribly--but the goal was accomplished. My career was back on track.
DESERT BOUND
Although I asked to go to Ft. Meade, I was assigned to Det 3, Electronic Security Tactical at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Fear and Loathing in Lost Wages!! It was a great tour! I spent the first year and a half travelling up to the combat ranges playing Red Force bad guy(now I'm a 209 instead of a 202). When we drove back to Las Vegas from the Tonapah ragnge, we passed through Rachel which is now semi-famous as a place for the Area 51/UFO/Alien crowd. Our commander tried to get permission to let us stay in the barracks on the Tonopah Range but his answer was "no way--no how." I realized after I left it was because the Air Force didn't want us in the same building with people working on the F-117. After doing my time as a range rat, I became an instructor for a course given to intel types. I specialized in Radio Electronic Combat and the IADS. I worked in the same office as Fred "Max" Maxwell who later ended up in the Tactics shop in Berlin. I also worked with, and became very, very good friends with someone that late 80s Berliners may remember--Greg Moore. After three years at Nellis I was itching to move on. Since my best friend Greg was already there--it seemed like a natural fit. So I called MPC and a few weeks later I had may orders in hand. It was shortly thereafter that I learned Greg had taken his own life at TCA.
HOMECOMING
The first time I arrived in Berlin, I was a 21 year old walking through the B-Halle. Seventeen years later, I arrived with my wife, kids, and the Doberman at Tegel. I walked into Chief Yadon's office when I got to Mari to find out I was scheduled to go to flight as an S&W Supervisor. When he found out I hadn't been in an SWC since 1975, he redirected me to Operations Support. After a few months I was itching to do something else. Operations Management needed a new NCOIC and Chief Yadon's plan was to move Dave Nix to Ops Management and let me take over training. But Dave protested so I ended up with the job. After a while I became weary of being a figure head--I didn't know enough about the mission to effectively back up my guys--so I volunteered to go to flight. It wasn't an easy call--I really didn't want to do trick work again after living "normal" hours for so long, but I felt like it just wasn't right for a 202 to never be an S&W Supe. Stu Engbretson asked me if I was interested in heading up "Complex Systems" but I felt I needed to go the reporting route. He also offered me the job over at Berlin Brigade but Mike Ohmeter (sp??) kept extending his tour so I never got to go.
I ended up on Able flight under the tutelage of Richard "Tree" Ogletree. I also had the good fortune of having Keith Trout as a flight commander. He was a ex-enlisted cop and a good guy to work for. The only thing you had to watch out for was not to break the Leonard Bernstien rule. It was a common practice say in a product report that "XXX conducted a XXX mission." When the LT saw those words, he would always say: "Leonard Bernstien conducts, airplanes fly!" I had no problem living with that. The LT was also a bit of a hacker. He knew how to defeat the menu system on the flight commander's PC. Once he did that, he discovered that we could surf the LAN and read anyone's mail. When there was a big reorganization of the flights at Mari, with people moving all over the place, the higher ups were keeping everything hush-hush. But we were following drafts as soon as they were sent to TCA. It was great!! ""Dammit, Jim, I'm an intelligecne collector--whatdya expect?!"
My training for product reporter went pretty well except for one bad episode when I worked some swings with Charlie flight. I wrote what I thought was a pretty good report but Bill (dammit--cant remember his last name) didn't care for it. He basically started dictating his version of the report when I got up from the chair and invited him to type his own report himself. We actually got past that incident eventually and got along real well, but I caught a little grief when I got back to my own flight. I also caught some flack when I submitted a letter to the day shop suggesting that the method of certifying SWSs was be changed. The only changes in the STS from product reporter concerned supervisory duties. I thought I put together a good argument that it should be based on the recommendation of the trainer and the flight commander. By the time this had happened, however, I had a new flight commander. The only thing that Capt Linda Graf was concerned with was that I had addressed the note as being from DOFA which meant I was speaking for the entire flight. It wasn't the first time I argued with the "engineer turned intel type" and it certainly wasn't the last. But I got past that--Tree got the job in training that I should have had in the first place--I and took over the flight. We had a good crew with Leighton Harrsion, Tom Wigmore, Julie Corbin and Paula Warren (and later Brian).
The opening of the Wall was, of course, an amazing experience for someone who couldn't even drive through the east without an escort (the first tour). I lived in an apartment complex down the road from the Army training area known as Ghost town. My wife and I were riding bikes down the street where before we had always turned around because the Wall prevented us from going any further. This time when we arrived, there was an opening where none had been before. My wife kept going without any hesitation, but I stopped. There I was staring at a sign telling me I was leaving the American Sector, and I knew I wasn't supposed to go on. After a few moments deliberation, I rode past the sign. I can't describe the feeling--but it was awesome. Eventually everyone but we SI types had the green light to go into the east; however, I saw a great opportunity. I commuted to Mari on a mountian bike so I changed my route. I went down the street, passed the Wall, rode along the "death strip" until I got close to Marienfelde, then recrossed the Wall and headed up the hill. It really was a trip!
We screwed up. We won the Cold War and basically ruined our jobs. The mission was going to hell and the word was out that operations a Marienfelde would cease. There was some staged event to show the "throwing of the switch" to mark the end of the Marienfelde era. But I still have the red sign with silver letters which contain the name of the last S&W Supe to be on duty at Mari.
I was pretty short by the time we moved over to T-Berg. Since I had some leave to burn, I arranged a really nice schedule. I worked the swings but took leave when we were on days. I did this for four or five cycles and had a blast riding my mountian bike through the Gruenewald to and from work. I then left for San Angelo and an ATC cookie--I was selected to help develop and then teach the CONSTANT WEB C3CM Database class. So Berlin turned out to be the beginning and the end of my career with Security Service. It was a hell of a ride that will provide me with great memories till I'm permanently horizontal.
Some thank you's:
Beau Mosely -- For taking that TDY to Saudi. Dan Richart called me in off break to tell me I was being considered for the assignment. Beau came back pissed and I had a good time eating all that food that people brought to work while we were working 12 hours shifts after Desert Storm kicked off.
Col. Ben Hardaway--Shortly after arriving, I attended a briefing he gave to discuss the death of Greg Moore. I walked up to him after the meeting to ask for more info but as I tried to speak I lost it. It had taken awhile for the impact of Greg's death to hit me but then it slammed me between the eyes. Col Hardaway did a good job of consoling a bawling master sergeant and asked me to come up to his office. He let me read Greg's note. It still didn't give me a "why" that I could understand but it was a great gesture.
Rob Chapman -- There wasn't another person in my 21 years in the Air Force that I enjoyed working more with than Rob. He was always so cool when people around him were going crazy. He was even cool when I was sweating bullets during my S&W Supe practical :-) .
Mike Estes and Bob "Ho" Hoenstine -- for cracking us all up doing Monty Python skits on mids.
And one "Shame on You"
Mike Estes -- for taking my $20 to buy Rocky and Bullwinkle tapes at Truman Plaza for me when I PCS'd. I'm still waiting for those tapes!! :-)
PROLOUGE
I went to Goodfellow and worked on the CONSTANT WEB course. This was the culmination of a long effort by the AFEWC to get a course on line. They had all kinds of commitments from untis that wanted to send people for training. So when we finally got the course on line, nobody wanted to spend the money to come. So we ended up going TDY to San Antonio to teach at the AFEWC.-an in house training program had come full circle. Shortly after that I had the experience that shouldn't happen to anyone--I was the #1 non-selectee for E-8. That's when I decided it was time to go--I had won my war--the Evil Empire was finished!
I moved to Corpus Christi Texas after retiring and did a short stint as a high school special education teacher. It was one of the worst six weeks of my life. I quit and started throwing newspapers and reading them on Sunday trying to find a job. This April will be the end of my 5th year with SSP--a company that operates 178 convenience stores in south Texas and Oklahoma. This summer we'll close on an acquisition of an additional 170 plus stores and a gasoline distribution business in Houston. I'm in charge of programming, installing, and maintaining the electronic cash registers and the fuel dispensers at the stores. My tentative plans are to eventually retire in Thailand with my wife Loy--kick back and golf and surf the web on my AF retirement check. But attachments to grand children my throw a wrench in that plan.
PROLOGUE TO THE PROLOUGE
I should just rewrite the above paragraph but I'm too lazy to do it. After five years of working with SSP, I landed a job as a civilian contractor on the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. I work as an engineering technician supporting the Corpus Christi Army Depot which perfomrs the depot level maintenance for military helicopters. November 11, 2004 will mark my fifth year with this company and hopefully I'll be with them for five more years.
If you're still with me at this point, I hope you've enjoyed my little trip down memory lane. It's been enjoyable sittng here and remembering all this as I type. There's some other characters and stories I haven't covered, but I'll save those for a future update. Berlin will always be my home away from home!