Free at Last

Free at Last

I had been at Offutt for almost 3 months at the time Joel and I signed up for the Palace Chase program. A couple of weeks later I got called by the Sergeant in administration and he told me he had the Palace Chase application forms. He said I needed to come down and complete them. I had to pick three locations (states) I was interested in transferring to. I really wanted to be in Oregon but it seemed like a “long-shot” as it looked unlikely there would be a good fit anywhere in Oregon. However I still put Oregon first and then put New York and California second and third. I wanted to do California second but there were more opportunities in New York because New York had Reserve Units that looked like good fits. I would not get out if I failed to find a unit that needed my career field. A few weeks later I got a hit from a reserve unit in Schenectady, New York. I took it. I now needed to get my commanding officer to sign off and agree that I was not needed for the organization's mission. I did not really know him as I had manged to stay out of his way except for the ACLU thing. I decided to talk with the First Sergeant. We had talked some as we were both from New York, and he had been friendly to me. I was hoping he would put in a good word for me.

A few days later I met with the Commander. He asked me a number of questions and then he signed off using the following justification. “Both the Air Force and Sergeant Backus will benefit from this change in assignment.” I couldn't have said it better myself!

I couldn't believe it. I was getting out almost a year early. I had to do 2 years of active Reserve duty in Schenectady, New York. That required one weekend a month and two active weeks each year. I essentially traded 365 days for 76 days. What a deal!!! I had a little over two weeks more to do. I had previously been told that my wisdom teeth would eventually need to come out. The dental hygienist at Offutt was a little rough, well more like brutal. No. I think cruel would be a better description. The commonly used nickname for her by the Airmen was “Bloody Mary”. I had planned to put off any dental stuff as much as I could but I started thinking that once I was out I would not have any kind of insurance so maybe I should get those wisdom teeth removed while it was free. Still, the prospect of having it done was not appealing, so once again I put it off. Six days before being discharged I decided to stop being a wuss and just go get it done. The dentist looked over my mouth and then scheduled me to have two of them removed later that week and the other two a couple of weeks after that. I explained that I was being discharged in six days. So to accommodate me he took two out right there and scheduled me to come back in 3 or 4 days for the others. The first two were not bad. They both came out quick. The dental assistant told me later that I was lucky as he was the best dentist on the base. My mouth was still a bit sore when I returned for the second two. I got into the chair and a entirely different dentist came in, a younger guy. I asked where the dentist was who I had the appointment with and the new guy explained that he was called away for emergency surgery. Ugh! Well, I was there and there really was no time to waste. The first one came out fairly quickly, not as quick as the others, but not a whole lot different. The last one though took another 50 minutes! It was not only impacted but something about the way the root was wrapped around it. I don't know, one of the first two had been impacted too but it hadn't been a problem. Well I wasn't so lucky this time but they were all out at no cost to me and no matter what I was going to be out of the Air Force in two days! I was sent home with a bunch of codeine. Dottie took care of me but my mouth ended up puffing up like a chipmunk and I could barely open it. We had been planning a discharge party on the day of my discharge but due to my condition we delayed the party a day (maybe it was two - I was spending those days in a codeine fog).

We planned a party at the downtown Hilton Pool. It had an indoor pool on the top floor of the hotel. We conveniently neglected to inform Hilton of our plans. There were only going to be 6 or 7 of us. The plan was to bring a white towel, so it would look similar to a hotel towel and smuggle in some beer. We all wore some decent clothes over our swimsuits, and we just walked in like we were staying there. We took the elevator to the top floor and went into the pool area. I was still in pretty bad condition so I was not going to be swimming, but I was good enough to go. I ended up just sitting poolside watching everyone else fool around in the pool. We stayed for a couple of hours. I was in a bit of pain still and looking back the wisdom teeth removal sort of dampened the joyous occasion I had been looking forward to for three years. It wasn't ideal but I was still so happy to be out it hardly mattered. When we were done everyone put their clothes back on and we all walked out. No harm, no foul!

I was going to have to live close enough to Schenectady so I could get to the base one weekend a month. I knew I wanted to go back to school but was not sure where. It was just the beginning of May and the new school year would not be starting for four or five months. I had really wanted to be out on the West Coast, preferably Oregon, but that was going to have to wait. For the time being we decided to just head home to Long Island. We both grew up there and our parents still both lived in Huntington Station.

About a week later my mouth started feeling a lot better. The pain had subsided and I was off the pain pills. However, there was still a bit of swelling and I still could not open my mouth much more than half an inch. We packed up all our stuff and drove back to New York. The rents were high on Long Island so we each moved back in with our parents for the time being. Although not the best, it gave me a little time to think about what I wanted to do now that I had my life back. This was only going to be for a few months and it was generous of my parents to let me move back in for a short time. I paid them a small rent which they ended up giving back to me after I moved out to help out with my college expenses.

Now back on Long Island, Dottie and I both found jobs. We started making plans to relocate by the end of the summer. My mouth continued to be a problem for awhile but slowly I was able to open it wider and wider until it finally made a full recovery. Most importantly I was out of the Air Force. Free at last!