Memories of Things Past

After leaving Vietnam I was assigned to the 6948th Radio Group Mobile in San Angelo, Texas. This unit was an emergency reaction unit and we spent a lot of time practicing quick reactions to imagined emergencies. I went through a driver training program to get a license to drive a 5 ton tractor with a 40 foot comm van but after running over  the same stop sign twice , it was decided that for the good of the service I should stick to pickups and the 2.5 Ton trucks. At this time my father owned a small trucking outfit and he got quite a kick out of my driving technique.

I was sent to the Air Force Special Communications Center in San Antonio to help with the Electronics Warfare effort. I worked  in a shop doing "Event Analysis" this involved fusion analysis of Pilot Reports, intercepted North Vietnamese communications between SA-2 sites, and the operational reports of the Navy off shore jamming aircraft. I really enjoyed the work and it was quite interesting seeing the effects of the Jamming equipment we had against the radars of the North Vietnamese forces. We  were working to provide a safer environment for our pilots who had to penetrate these defenses to achieve their goals. The North Vietnamese Air Defense system was quite old and obsolete by our standards, yet because of the sheer number of emitters it was very effective. We lost many aircraft to the combinations of AAA and SAMs.

One morning I received a call from my First Sergeant at Goodfellow who ordered me to return to San Angelo ASAP, in our world this meant, "As Soon As Possible". I explained to my supervisor, threw my belongings in my car and was on the road within an hour. I got back to Goodfellow about three hours later and went straight to the orderly room which was full of officers and other NCO's.  I was told that the North Koreans had captured a USN Destroyer and we were leaving for Osan AB, South Korea  in two hours.

The Pueblo was a modified destroyer, configured for ELINT and SIGINT duty. She had just received a new crew and this in essence was a shakedown cruise. For complete information on this entire event please use the link on my home page .

Most of us had some time in Vietnam and we were sure that a new war was opening up again in Korea. The North Koreans had us badly outmanned and outgunned and we knew it would take some time for us to be ready. The first thing we did was build sand bag gun emplacements around the barracks. Seemed like old home week. As the weeks rolled on we learned that nothing would happen, the Pueblo crew was left to their fate in North Korea as were so many other men from the other Korean conflict. At least the crew of the Pueblo returned home after many months of ill treatment. I guess it was a pragmatic solution, the 80 or so men and officers of the Pueblo did not represent a big enough reason to go to war with North Korea, especially since we were already involved in South East Asia.

Prior to the TDY to Korea I had applied for cross training into the Language field, while at Osan I was notified that I had been accepted for the German Language Course at the Defense Language Institute West Coast at the Presidio of Monterey about 90 miles or so south of San Francisco. I  returned to San Angelo, Texas in time for me to drive out to California for the start of my class.

The barracks area for DLIWC was smack on top of the Presidio, a hill overlooking Montery Bay. Quite a piece of prime real estate. The school was operated by the Department of Defense for all government agencies but it was administered by the Army and most of the students were military. At the time I attended DLIWC they were teaching over 40 different languages.

I had been promoted to Ssgt and was promptly put in charge of a platoon of about 60 service men, mostly Army and Air Force with a few Marines. My assistant platoon leader was a Marine Lance Corporal and he was a godsend. I deligated most of the day to day chores to him. Our day started with morning formation about 0530. We would form in Platoons in front of the admin building and report to the commander as to the status of the platoon. Then came breakfast and class. I usually had breakfast with the First Sergeant. I remember his name as Canada, he was a Army veteran of many years and many good stories, but mostly we both appreciated strong coffee with our morning smokes.

DLIWC taught languages using the total immersion method. We had forty hours a week of classes with another two or three hours of homework as I recall. Very little was done with written assignments. It was mostly memorization and conversation in the class room. English was not allowed. It was very intensive, with 6 students in a class. All of our instructors were native linguists. Most were German citizens and one man was a former Luftwaffe officer.

After graduation I was sent back to San Angelo for additional training. Subsequently I was assigned to the Airborne Collection Program with a duty station at Rhein Main AB, near Frankfurt, Germany. I would spend the next three years or so flying on C130 aircraft. These aircraft were much larger than the C47s I had crewed on in Vietnam. They were pressurized so we could fly at a mission altitude of around 33000 feet. Typically we had a crew of at least ten or twelve backenders, with a few spares, plus a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, and flight engineer. We also had a couple of our own maintainance people to keep our gear running during the mission. Much of our mission remains classified so I will not go into detail, suffice to say it was interesting and absorbing.

A modified C130 used in the ACRP program, I flew many hours in this type of aircraft.

I was in Germany for a little over three years and enjoyed the tour. It was easy to travel throughout Europe and I was able to visit many countries. I purchased my first motorcycle here and started down a path that I have yet to finish. I wish I had more pictures of those years to share but they have been long since lost. The memories remain and will be cherished.

Toward the end of my tour in Europe I decided to leave the military. I had many reasons for this action and I may go into this deeper at a later date, in any case at the end of my Germany assignment I had about seven months left on my obligation to the Air Force and I was re-assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland, with a permanent duty assignment to the National Security Agency.

There has been much written about the National Security Agency or NSA in the media and there is a lot of information available on the Internet, so I am not going to bore you with a rehash of information you can find in better detail and with more accuracy elsewhere. I was very dissapointed at this assignment. In the military any time you are assigned to headquarters is wasted time. It is popular for "strap hangers" and so called fastburners, but seldom does anything of note get done due to the everpresent politics.I spent my time in a futile effort to stay interested and look alert. Most of the time it worked.

I was at this assignment during the latter part of 1972 and the first months of 1973. I was able to tour all of the Washington area monuments which was quite interesting, and I took in a few concerts and plays. I lived in Baltimore just down the street from John Hopkins University.I was certainly ready to get out of the service when my discharge date rolled around in February of 1973.

My plan was to return to Sacramento, California and attend the California State University to finish up a degree in something to be determined. I had already accumulated a bunch of credits but most were in varied disciplines and I didn't have enough of anything to lend credability to my academic status. In any case I was ready to start a new part of my life. I had spent over ten years in uniform and attained the rank of Technical Sergeant. I had a bunch of decorations and experiences that didn't translate well into civilian jargon, but what the hell, off I went. In retrospect I probably should have stayed in the service, it has taken me many years to adjust to being a civilian and I suppose I haven't done well at it. I still wake up in the night sometimes with bad dreams, and I miss the excitement of earlier years. I have trouble making friends but I have many acquaintences. I guess thats all we can ask for.

Elsewhere on these pages I will, from time to time, go into other things I have done since those days for the purpose of documenting my life, Mi Vida Loca. I hope my writing is interesting, I think I am doing it for myself mostly, but also for my wife and our son, and my nieces and nephews, so that they can maybe understand this old man a little better. At least I hope that happens. So for now I will close this portion of my site  and start something else at a later date.

Peace be with you and yours.