After I graduated from high school I went into the Marine Corps for two years of active duty. I stayed in the marine core reserves for about twelve years after that. I didn’t see any combat duty although I was called up for the Cuban missile crisis. We were ready to land in Cuba. I was part of a Hawk surface – to – air missile Squadron.

Our equipment was located in Twentynine Palms, California. Our home airfield was Moffett Field here in the San Francisco bay area. The plan was this: fly from California to Texas and then be on the beach in Cuba. Our mission would be to protect American aircraft flying into Cuba.

I was too young to be scared, but it was a tense time. I was part of a unit and I wanted to do whatever I had to do. Today if someone asked me to go up the hill I would tell them to go up there first.

But when you are eighteen, you go!

My unit was a 90mm cannon unit. We “summered” in 29 Palms every year, usually around the Fourth of July. Now you know why I don’t like the desert. As a couple my wife and I always went north To Vancouver. We liked the cold, green environments.

Down in 29 palms during the summer temperatures would hit 130°, and there was no shade. We had to crawl under the vans to get out of the direct sun. You could only work for twenty minutes at a time, so we used to rotate three shifts every hour. Off 40, on twenty.

At night, you could go to the “slop chute,” and buy beer at 10¢ a can. You could drink all night and never use the head it was so damned dry. Any moisture evaporated. Your armpits turn white from salt. And your cap would be crested with white salt too.
I don’t think it ever got cooler than 90°, even at night. We were always there during the hottest part of the year for our two weeks.

The whole place was like a heat sink; it was horrible. The buildings radiated heat. This was our training ground, a vast desert that they could shoot things into and not worry about where it landed or if it exploded.

I enjoyed being in the service but it got in the way toward the end of my twelve year reserve stint. It started to interfere with my career. There was a period when employers decided that they didn’t like you taking two weeks off for reserve duty in addition to two weeks of vacation.