I had been in reserve officer training core in 1953 and 1954. That was right at the end of the Korean War. I went into the Air Force 1956, and got out in 1958. This all happened towards the end of the Korean War. There was a truce called several months after I graduated. I was never shipped out.

After I graduated from high school I never went back to Los Angeles. I made my life up here in the San Francisco bay area.

In the service I was lucky to get some good positions. I had finished ROTC; it was the end of the Korean War but he still had to put in two years of service at that time.

Because I wasn’t flying I didn’t get a commission and the Air Force. So they tossed a bone to about 600 of us who are spread across the United States and faced a similar predicament.

When I enlisted I was stationed down at Edwards air force base which was a very exciting place. After a year in service they found some money to give two guys like me. It has I say there were 600 of us scattered across United States. We graduated in 1954 and didn’t get a commission. They gave us a commission, which made me happy.

But everything else about the deal made me unhappy. They initially refused to transfer me off the base. According to our master sergeant a rule had come down from Washington that said that you would have to be transferred if you went from an enlisted man to a commissioned officer on the same base.

Well they investigated this and it knocked out that rule. They investigated and eventually they got it out to Edwards air force base flight test center which was very exciting. When I got there they made me the editor of the newspaper. I had never done newspaper work at all (laughter).

I finished the year there and got out and went back and got into business.

The Vietnam War years

I wasn’t involved in anti-war protests. I was offended by some of the protests and some of the things that they did but I also understood where they were coming from. Every once in while they did cross the line.