During WWII my dad smoked Wings cigarettes. Each pack came with pictures of airplanes on it.

We sent away for a book. When my dad bought the cigarettes we would identify the planes by using that book. And there were old P-38’s, P-47’s, as well as other kinds of planes.

By doing this I developed a real love for airplanes.

One time we went up to Saint Vincent’s college in Latrobe Pennsylvania. We had a cousin who was the head of… I forget… archbishop, or something. We went up for a visit and on our way home there was a barnstormer giving rides in an old airplane.

My dad pulled in and he and I got in the back seat of this plane. At that moment my love affair with airplanes really took off.

So, I decided I was going to be a pilot. I was probably only about five or six years old. Back then I had a friend named Steve Crivan who was also interested in airplanes. We were good buddies through eighth grade and we were going to be pilots together. We would go into the Air Force.

But I found out that I had to have glasses, which disqualified me from being a pilot. I actually cried.

But I told myself that if I couldn’t be a pilot I would become a Mechanic. It’s funny how you make decisions so early in your life and follow through with them. As soon as I graduated from high school I joined the Air Force. I got the right scores on my tests and they made me an aircraft Mechanic.

I loved that job, and I had a good time in the air force.

But the first three years were very good because I wasn’t with Mary. I was traveling back and forth. About every six or eight months, Mary would tell me that she was going to break up with me. But I would pitch – hike across the country, and make things right every time she threatened to break up.

I took a basic training in New York State at Samson Air Force Base. From there I went to Amarillo, Texas for aircraft Mechanic school. From there I went to moody air force base in Georgia. Boy, did I hate Georgia!

The humidity was terrible, the mosquitoes were terrible, and the people were terrible.


I Witness Rampant Racial Discrimination


I was there in 1956, and at that time black people would still get off the sidewalk whenever a white person approached.

When I got off the bus in Georgia I looked up and saw a sign that said “colored,” and “white” over the restrooms. I walked around back to the water fountain and it was the same thing: fountains for colored and fountains for white.

I couldn’t believe it! I had never seen anything like this up north. We had it, I learned later; we were just more subtle about it.

Valdosta was very backward. It was out in the middle of a pine forest. They cut it out and made an air force base there. There was a limited supply of places to drink and those were all honky-tonks.


I Am Assigned to Germany at a Critical Time in World History

From Georgia I went to Harlingen, Texas. From Texas I called Mary to tell her that we were going to Germany. This was in early January, 1959. I got to Germany on January 27, and Mary came over in March.

We spent three years there living with a German family the whole time. We got to know and love those people and got to love the German countryside. It’s beautiful, and we still love Germany.

In Germany, we had three kids: John, Pat and Colleen.

When we came home we had three toddlers and a crowd of people waiting for us at the Airport. There was my family, and her family, and none of them could wait to see the kids. We had them dressed up in lederhosen with those cute little hats.

Back in those days once you went to Europe you couldn’t return home during your stay because it was so expensive. We had a wonderful time; those three years were three good years.

In 1958, I re-enlisted for six years. When we returned to Germany we were sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico.


Stories from the Cold War

“Don’t Worry. You’ll be dead before you’re sterile!”

That move wasn’t good for family life because I was gone most of the time. We did high-altitude air sampling. I had to keep my bags packed at all times. I would come home, grab my bag, kiss Mary goodbye and tell her that I didn’t know when I would see her again. I couldn’t even tell her where I was going.

We spent a lot of time and Indian springs, Nevada, where the atomic bomb tests were being conducted. After the bomb exploded, the job of our plane West two flying through the cloud and take samples.

One time my airplane had a hot – shot pilot who came in low and fast before the dust cloud had dissipated. He sandblasted the wind screen and the canopy. We couldn’t see anything!

We used instruments to get back to the air base where there was a short runway. Out in him this: he was a good pilot. He put that B – 57 down right on the end of the runway.

But when we came to a stop we couldn’t get out of the airplane because it was so radioactive. We were in full suits. We were in coveralls that were taped at the wrists and ankles. You were two pairs of rubber gloves. We had a full mask, and this was in summer in Nevada. Nothing was exposed.

When we landed I would get on a forklift and go over to the edge of the airplane and help the pilots step out of the plane onto the wooden pallet so that they wouldn’t touch the outside of the airplane. That’s how radioactive it was.

Then I would get the other guy. At one time the other guy had puked. He puked all over my rear cockpit. He was a mess. When I got him out I told him: “you’re going to clean up that rear cockpit and it’s going to cost you two cases of beer for me getting that puke all over my hands!”

We backed away, they let us down, we jumped in a truck but they sent this guy away, so I had to clean up the rear cockpit. That cost him three cases of beer!

My airplane was so radioactive that we couldn’t go near it for four days. We had to wait for the radioactivity to decay. Then, we went down with high – pressure fire hoses, soap and water and washed down the plane, the engines, everything.

After that it was supposedly OK to work on. We used to worry about sterility, but they told us: “don’t worry; you’ll be dead before you’re sterile!”

We didn’t worry about too much but if we got a cut we would get it flushed out very quickly. The radioactivity was on the engine parts; it was everywhere.

I got to see the atomic bomb test; that was very impressive. Then I went to Moses Lake, Washington during the Cuban missile crisis. This was a SAC (Strategic Air Command) base. Our planes had a very high priority because they reported to the CIA.

The Russians were testing at the same time we were, and their clouds would float over the state. Our planes would go up and fly through that cloud and open filters. They would pick up all radioactivity then close the filter, come home and we would put them into lead “pigs.”

They called them pigs, and they sent them to the University of Pennsylvania, I believe. They could tell you when the bomb went off, how many megatons it was, and just about everything else from those samples.

We were right in the middle of the cold war

We were in Germany when the Berlin wall went up.

(Mary speaking): They gathered together all the wives and told us we had to have $25.00, which was a lot of money back then. We needed $25.00 in an American funds and $25.00 in German marks. They told us to have a bag packed with our clothes and stuff, so I did it. John never knew I had all this money stashed!

At this time we were living in villages. The authorities told us that if we needed to get out we wouldn’t have time to wait for our husbands. There were only two American families living in our village at the time. It was nerve wracking; I was naïve.

It was the same situation when we lived in Albuquerque. It was touch – and – go. I was living on the base in New Mexico while John was serving up in Washington.


“If Those Planes take off, we are In a Nuclear War”


(John Speaking): when I was at Moses Lake, Washington, our planes were flying 24 hours a day. All at once, they grounded our planes. The next thing you knew, the tankers started their engines. We knew that the Russian boats were heading towards Cuba and that we would intercept them. The tankers job was to take off and circle above the Russian border.

The next thing we knew all of the B-52’s and B-47’s we’re starting up and doing their “elephant walk.” They called it the “elephant walk” because the brakes went whhhahhh! whhhahhh!, and it sounded like elephants. They sat there at the end of the runway with their engines running.

I remember thinking to myself: “if those planes take off, you can kiss your ass goodbye because we will be in a nuclear war!”

The pilot ran up the engines to 100% power, and we just sat there steering at him.

After a long time he finally pulled back the power and taxi off the runway. We sat there and cheered!

We were really scared; we thought the end of the world had come. The Russians would have bombed us and we would have bombed them.


We Attend Mass with President Kennedy

(Mary Speaking): also in New Mexico President Kennedy visited our base just six months before he was shot. He went to church at our base. We took the kids because we thought they should see the president. We weren’t allowed in church; we had to listen outside.

(John Speaking): Mary loved his read hair. She waved at him. Not too long after that he was killed.

Then I must have paced someone off because they sent me to Goose Bay, Labrador, for fifteen months. It was like being sentenced to hell. I was only a staff sergeant and in order to take your wife with you, you had to be a tech. Sergeant. I went up there alone and it was not a good fifteen months. There was nothing to do up there but drink.

The snow came up and covered the second – story windows of the barracks. You had to have about three layers of clothing, and we had to work on airplanes with all of that stuff. I hated that place.

While I was up there it came time for me to re-enlist. (Inaudible). About that time, Vietnam came up and that made my decision for me. My enlistment was up, and I was out of there. I got out in January of 1965.