Me on the air with the "Rock Doctor" Walt Glieck during his Friday night show.

The first thing I noticed after driving into the town was that nothing had changed.  True, there was a new highway exit, but even when it deposited me into the middle of the city, I knew where I was and which direction I needed to head within seconds.  We got to the base, and noticed that, aside from two new buildings and a monument, everything else was exactly as I had left it.  It was like I had Sasebo in an attic and brought it down years later, hardly touched.

The first night in town, we walked to my favorite bar, New Shinkio.  Only this time, it went by a different name: Flat Five.  Since I wasn't sure whether it was still owned by Teduro, I had Julie ask the barkeep if this was the same bar.  Once Julie explained to him why I was asking, he got on the phone and called Teduro, who came down to see me!  We talked, laughed and ate derrick rice, his personal dish.  We also did a "turkey sandwich" shot.  This was a concoction of his own design that I did nearly every time I visited his bar on a Friday night after Sabbath services.  It had been years since my last one, but it tasted just as sweet.

The next day, I made the trip over to the old radio station.  That place had changed.  The shelves full of records were gone.  Much of the equipment I knew had also been replaced, and there was new furniture.  And new faces.

My old radio studio recognized me, so much so, that, in a strange ironic twist, the Superscheduler (a computer program that catalogs the songs on all the CDs the station owns) had a messed-up date on it, saying it was January 19, 1996!  I was still on the air on that day.  It was like it wanted me to step into a time warp and imagine myself still stationed here.

Julie worked out something with the detachment chief, and I soon found myself co-hosting the morning radio show with their deejay, Doug Huddy.  Incidentally, he will be coming to Stars and Stripes as a copy editor in a few months.  I also got to give a little "pep talk" to his journalists, where I answered their questions about broadcasting and told them why this place was not only special to me, but should be special to them.  Julie told me that, although she pinned my anchors on the day I was frocked to chief, she really felt I made chief the day I talked with those kids.

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