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Showing posts from January, 2018

22 and Divorced

22 and Divorced Shortly after my last conversation with Donna I took another week of leave. I needed to get back to something familiar, and to be with people who really cared about me. I flew back to New York to visit my parents. They were great. They didn't ask a lot of questions. They gave me space and just let me be which was what I needed. My mom was the only member of my family who had any sort of positive feelings towards Donna, but then my mom has always been remarkable in being able to see the good side of all people. I don't remember doing much while I was there but I did go to a Yankee game with my Dad. For you Yankee fans the Yankees had been going through a long down period. They were a middle of the pack team in '71. They still had Mel Stottlemyre and Horace Clarke but also had a few young players, Roy White, Bobby Mercer, and Thurman Munson. My Dad owned an old Saab, it was similar in size to the Volkswagen Bug. He had bought it as a

Fitting In and Finding an Acorn

Fitting In and Finding an Acorn I had returned from Okinawa and was back at Beale, AFB. I was assigned to the day shift. Everyone goes on day shift upon returning from Okinawa. I was now more accepted by the higher ranking Sergeants after my tour in Okinawa. I was not so closed up and more readily engaged in conversation. However my views still were often not appreciated. When you first report to a shop you are sent out to Supply for a set of tools you will need to perform your job. As a navigation repair guy on the “Blackbird” there were some 40 tools. Some were familiar like screw driver and pliers but a number of them were tools specifically designed for the equipment we worked on. They gave me a sheet, an old style computer printout with the tools listed and then they gave me a bag of tools and I was asked to make sure that the tools I was receiving matched what was on the printout. Two problems: 1) I did not know the name of some of the tools and 2) all t