Dottie and a Ray of Hope

Dottie and a Ray of Hope

During my last few weeks at Beale AFB my supervising Sergeant had encouraged me to take some additional leave prior to heading out to Nebraska. He was rather anxious for me to be gone. He had figured that once he took me off the protected list I would be gone within the month. My divorce kind of gummed up the works. So, being a good soldier, I took his advice and took 10 additional days of leave prior to reporting to Offutt AFB in Nebraska. I packed up and drove back to NY once more, stopping briefly to visit some friends I knew from Valparaiso in Indiana. This was the third time in the last five months I drove across the country from California to New York. It was getting to be routine.

While back in New York over the holidays, I ran into my best friend's high school girl friend, Dottie, at a local pub. We got talking and she invited me to a party she was going to the following night. We hit it off and went out a few more times. She gave me her address before I left for Nebraska and we agreed to keep in touch.

When I got to Offutt AFB I had less than 17 months left on my four year commitment. It was likely that Offutt would be my last assignment but still at 22 seventeen months seemed like a long time. At Offutt, my friends were Chuck and Joel. I had known Joel from Beale and Chuck I got to know at Offutt because we worked together on night shift in the shop. Chuck and I just clicked from the start. We often hung out together when not working. I got to know a few other guys but being a natural introvert I tend to have just one or two friends at any one time.

After a few weeks, I decided to move off base. I got an apartment in Omaha which was about 15 minutes away. It was in a two story apartment building, very close to Hwy 75 which would be a direct shot to the base. I also got a part time job as a janitor at a local TV station in Omaha a couple of evenings a week. Originally I was looking to share the place but both Chuck and Joel decided to just stay on base to save some money. This ended up working out well. Dottie had written that she was done with school and was planning to come out for a visit. She came out for a week in February. We had a great time together. After Donna, Dottie was just what I needed. She was a lot of fun, easy going, and we already knew a lot about each other. It also didn't hurt that she was quite good looking. The week stretched out to two weeks and after that she decided since she had nothing going on back in New York she would go back, pack up, and come stay with me in Omaha.

Dottie had been an “A” student all through high school and college. She had great concentration. She could type over 70 words a minute using the one finger hunt and peck method, not exaggerating. She seemed to be able to do most anything she put her mind to well. One thing she was not too good at was doing two things at the same time, like she struggled to clap her hands to the beat of the music while she was dancing. Dottie was the kind of person everyone liked and one who always was running into people she knew. She had never been to Nebraska or for that matter really west of New Jersey yet she ran into someone she went to school with at a mall in Omaha. I'd been out of New York for something like 4 years and had yet to run into anyone I knew from back East. Dottie made friends easily with everyone and guys were quite willing to be friendly. We were a good match as she was more of an extrovert to my being more of an introvert.

It was winter and it was cold. So activities were largely indoors and generally involved pot or alcohol. I didn't do much alcohol at this point but I can't say the same of the other. Bowling was big of course but it wasn't big with me. One of our activities was going to “Bill Bailey's”. It was a beer joint. It had a banjo band that played sing-a-long songs like “Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey”. There was a cover charge, for guys only but that entitled you to unlimited beer and peanuts. There were peanut shells all over the floor. You could dance on the tables, throw beer and peanuts wherever you liked. It was an anything goes type of place, with everyone singing, joking, and throwing beer at each other. The one rule was no fighting. Any hint of a fight and big bouncers would come over and physically throw you out of the place. It was loud, rowdy, and made for the young (and maybe not quite fully realized) adults. I was not a real big beer drinker but I drank enough to get into the spirit of things.

By April Dottie and I were pretty settled in and we had a small group of friends. Chuck (did I mention he was black?, I suspect he still is) had some friends with places off base and we were invited to a number of their parties. We were often the only white couple at the party. The first time that happened I remember walking in the door and just stopping after I got through the door. I felt conspicuous and like everyone was looking at me as I realized we were the only white people in the room. It didn't last long but it made me wonder a few things about myself. Was it a black/white thing or was it just that I was realizing I looked different from everyone else. Growing up in America, I realize I grew up with racism all around me. To think I have not been effected is a bit naive. I like to think I am not prejudiced but the world I've lived in has had to have some effect on me. Am I prejudiced or how prejudiced am I? This is something I think and wonder about.

At the shop I worked on repairs to the navigation systems on the spy planes. Working the night shift meant I had to often work out on the flight-line at night. It was winter and it was not unusual for the temperature to be well below zero and with wind chill factors of 40 and 50 below. We were issued the arctic type jackets, the ones with the wolverine fur. It was so cold I could not get my fingers to work for more that about 10 minutes. Chuck seemed to be less effected so I would usually start a task and then he would take it over and if he needed me to, I would finish up. He generally ended up doing the bulk of our work out there. I would try to make up for it by doing the bulk of the work back in the shop. At the end of the shift, which ended just as it was starting to get light, we would all head out to our cars. Everyone parked in a lot just off the flight-line. I had the Saab, a Swedish car built for cold weather, and it always started up right away but many others had problems starting their cars. On those cold mornings I would often need to jump start three or four cars.

One day I was heading into the base to pick up Joel when I heard on the radio a news report about a new program to replenish our National Guard and Reserve Units. It was called Palace Chase. It was a program that would allow active duty airmen to transfer from active duty to the Guard or Reserve, two for one. Meaning for every month active duty you would need to serve two months of Guard or Reserved duty. The one catch was you would need your commanding officer's permission. I picked up Joel and we rushed over to the administration office. I ask the Sergeant there about it but he had never heard of it. I asked him to get a blank piece of paper and had him write Palace Chase on the top of it. I then had him put our names on it. I mentioned this to Chuck and a couple of other guys back in the shop but they indicated they were planning to re-enlist for the bonus. The Air Force was offering $6K enlistment bonus to airmen in our career field. That was more than a year's salary. I, on the other hand, would have been willing to pay them $6K to let me out. A sergeant, upon giving me the reenlistment speal, once asked me if there was anything at all I was going to miss after I was out of the Air Force. I told him “Yes, I would miss looking forward to getting out because I had been fantasizing about that day ever since I got in”. He just laughed and shook his head.

Joel and I figured nothing would come of it but it was worth a try. It was kind of like having a lottery ticket. Until you found out you lost you could dream about winning. It was a tiny ray of hope I could hold on to for awhile.