Last Days in Air Force
After we had been at Salina, Kansas, for two weeks and had been married for about three weeks, one Sunday afternoon we heard an announcement being repeated about every thirty seconds on the radio saying "All personnel are to report to the base immediately!" I turned the radio off and told Bobbye, "We didn't hear that."
I had a pretty good idea what was about to happen. Stalin had just closed off all entry to Berlin except by air and in those days it looked like war with Russia was a possibility. A few minutes later the landlord came down yelling, "You are wanted out at the base immediately!" So I had no choice except to leave. I wore my civilian clothes telling Bobbye, "At least I will get to come back for my uniforms if we are leaving."
When I got to the base it looked like something serious was going on. They were loading up all the bombers and people were scurrying around all over the place. The Colonel told me we were going to Furstenfeldbruck, Germany�like right now! I mentioned to the Colonel that I would have to go back and get my uniforms and he informed me that there were plenty of replacement uniforms where we were going!
At some point right before our squadron was to take off they decided to leave three people in our squadron at Salina as caretakers or something like that. Praise the Lord and pass the paperwork! I was selected as one of the three to remain behind. Of the other two, one was a Lieutenant and the other a Sergeant like me.
One day a couple of weeks later we three were sitting in the orderly room with nothing to do. The Lieutenant was reading a comic book with his feet propped up on his desk and the other guy and I were about half-asleep at our desks. No one heard a sound but all of a sudden there was this officer, a Major I think, at the door screaming, "Attention!" He just about scared us all to death! He then proceeded to give the poor Lieutenant a fierce "donkey barbecue." A few days later the Lieutenant was transferred to Germany!
About two months later when our squadron was back and another sent over to replace them someone up above decided to give everyone in our squadron a seven-day pass. One of the guys I thought I knew pretty well had a car and was going to Texas so Bobbye and I hitched a ride with him. Within an hour I knew I had made a very bad decision. That guy drove like he was insane! We were somewhere in Oklahoma when the radiator car blew up! After being towed back to a small town we spent the night while his car was being repaired. The next day we were off again and the fool continued to drive like an idiot, but we finally arrived in Texas all in one piece.
A few days later in Big Spring, Texas, we located a used car, drove it around town for a bit and decided to buy it. Problem was we had NO money! I went to a bank on a Saturday morning and met one of the officers, explained to him I had no money, needed to buy a car to get back to Kansas and I needed a down payment of $300 which I could repay when I was discharged from the Air Force in about three months. I suspect in these days I would be quickly escorted to the door and told to stay away, but he just smiled and told us to come back in a couple of hours after they had a board meeting and he would let me know if my loan would be approved. The loan was approved so we became the proud owners of an old 1941 Ford that had at least a gazillion miles on it.
A couple of days later we headed back to Kansas. It took only a few miles to learn that we had bought an oil burner! Had to stop about every 50 miles to add oil. Then I bought a 5 gallon can of oil and every 50 miles we would stop and I'd add oil to that thing. Black smoke was pouring out of the exhaust so I'm sure it appeared that we were on fire. When we finally got back to Salina, Kansas the rear end of that ole light blue car was black! A shade-tree mechanic 'fixed' the car and it seemed to be OK for a couple of months. Then when we headed back to Texas after my discharge the car decided to be an oil-burner again. We had the engine completely overhauled and after that probably drove that thing another hundred thousand miles.
Our first 'home' was an army barracks in Robert Lee, Texas, made into a duplex with a very thin wall separating the two apartments. Acoustics were very good because we could easily hear people talking in the other apartment. There was an oil boom going on just 18 miles away so the landlord was charging an exorbitant amount of rent; over one-half of my salary from Sun Oil Company. A few months later we rented a small house�even less room than that half-barracks, but at least with more privacy. To get to work I hitch hiked back and forth most of the time so that Bobbye would have a car.
Then the good Lord AND the area Superintendent of Sun took pity on us and they built a brand new house for us in the Sun Company camp just for us! It was just a few yards from the office where I worked and by that time we had two baby boomer children. We had to pay only $18.75 a month for he house with all utilities furnished complete with yard maintenance.
After living there for four years I was transferred to a different place almost on an average of about once every year. In the west Texas town of Odessa I discovered a new profession then called Data Processing with I became totally engrossed. After a year or so working part-time at nights and on weekends in the Data Processing place I started squeaking my wheels and got them greased by getting transferred to Dallas in Sun's Data Processing Department as a Senior Tabulating Machine Operator.
This is a photo of our first 'real' home that was built for us by Sun Oil Company. After some of the places we had lived up to that time we thought this was a mansion!