Chris again 23 Oct 2022

Here is what I remember  of my Father’s history.

Born on 25 August 1925, some place in northern Illinois (I think). He was raised at:

1015 Irving, Royal Oak, Michigan

He was drafted into the Army Air Corp in 1943. I have no idea where he went to  basic training or where he went to technical training. 

He was sent to  Okinawa while the Army and Marines were still fighting. He was an oxygen machine operator. This was a cryogenic system which provided LOX  for air crews conducting high altitude air raids over Japan. His base was probably shelled but he never said if he was in danger.

His main stories were about boredom and Soldiers making home brew. This brew was made in drums filled with left over sweets, raisans and sugar then screened and left in the jungle to ferment. They left this mess there for a week and drank this awful sounding stuff. 

I suppose it was better than being sober.

Soldiers got a six pack of cheap beer a week and officers and senior NCOs got whiskey. He did see those who got whiskey sold it to trustworthy soldiers.

After the Army Air Corp, he went to Wayne State. He got his degree in Economics (I think) and  was in ROTC.  I emailed the Dean at Wayne State and asked him to confirm this information.

I do not recall where your Grandmother went to College.

I had this early complete when the bloody computer ate my most recent text!

Could someone please tell me why WInDoze 11 is supposed to be the miracle machine???

I'm pissed off enuf to start screaming but Aunt Kathie is taking a nap (we took a mini-vacation in Wichita Kansas and she drove back in winds gusting to the 50s mph and occasionall dust with visibility under a quarter of a mile. She likes driving much more than I do!)

I am typing this the hard way on my Kindle. At least I know it will not eat my text!

Your Grandfather was probably commissioned in the USAF out of college and went to basic flight school at Vance Air base in Enid Oklahoma in late 1949. He was then transferred to an Air Base at San Antonio Texas.

Your grandparents were married on 28 August 1950.

He was sent to Vance AFB Enid Oklahoma in late 1950 for TDY (temporary duty). Said TDY lasted long enough for me to be born 14 August 1951 and your Father to be born on 7 May 1953. (In the Navy, we called this "PCS" - Permanent Change of Station.)

He was a flight instructor in basic flight school.

Around 1955, he was sent by Pan Am Clipper to Kadena Air Force Base Okinawa.

(I just uploaded this text to Aunt Kathie's lap top computer. The real reason we went to Wichita was to buy a replacement for my desktop, which had "gracefully" died on me.) Interruption done and back to me narrative!

This meant my Mom had to get me and Jim from Bay City Michigan to San Freancisco in order for us to board the USNS GENERAL M M PATRICK. The PATRICK was a retired troop carrier which was retrofitted to take military families from point A to point B. The PATRICK did not have stablizers and rolled in heavy, long period, North Pacific wind swells. I am sure there were occasioal cold fronts adding to the "fun"...

An amusing aside: my mother was trying to move several overpacked suitcases, your Father and I from a taxi to the ship. I held her hand, she had your Father on a leash and was paying a porter to actually haul the luggage. I vaguely recall that sailors near the ship put the luggage onto the ship and moved it into our cabin.

Your Father and I had your Grandmother's delicate stomacks and the three of us vomited a lot. Jim and I both outgrew this...

We were meet at the Pier by my Father who had borrowed an Air Force truck. For the remainder of his tour, our wheels were a motoscooter he had bought from a fellow officer and later sold to another pilot.

I went to Kindergarden and the first half of First Grade on Okinaewa. 

In Kindergardenm, I vaguly recall my philosophy was "what is mine is mine, what is yours is mine".

There was at least one typhoon which clobbered the island. The roof leaked. My Mother had to move us to one end of the house until the winds shifted and rain started coming in at that end and she moved us to the other end of the house. This was unfun.

My Father, as an SA-16 Command Pilot, had flown his flying boat and crew to Hong Kong where he and his "shelered" in British military housing and drank very cheap Brit gin or beer. My Mother was not synpatetic whe she learned of the hangovers my Father had suffered through...

Lawn work was easy!  Litttle Okinawan "Mommasans" sat on the lawns, measured the heights of grass and neatly trimmed them. The cut off grass went into wicker baskets. This was necessary as the local economy was still trashed from the war. Paying for "haircuts" for the lawn was trivial for USAF officers and NCOs but provided the major source of income for the families of the Okinaean "Mommasans". The economy later picked up and the Papasans started pulling in real money! 

We got around on my Father's motorscooter. My Father driving, me in front of him, Mom behind him holding your Father was not an uncommon sight. It was something that gives me the creeps thinking of it today...

Ah, the bloody Air Farce. (Yes, Christopher, I left out an obscenity that say after "bloody". I'm being polite. What can I say? Me Father earned his flight pay (which is really a form of hazarous duty pay!).

The nice story is his Squadron worked part time for the "Company". (CIA) They would fly up a major river, drop off a Chinese agent and fly back while never going above the tops of trees. They were lucky!  The ChiCom were not interested in bagging USAF air crews and the infiltrating agents were never heard from again. The "Company" later gave this up as a bad idea.

There was an article in Argosy Magazine about this squadron published in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

This was the nice evil story; the unnice evil story is this:

My Father's aircraft was an SA-16 seaplane. They could stream (deploy) long long-wire antennas to receive very low frequency radio. They could carry several people or boxes. On one trip to a place called Bikina Atole, my Father landed in the Atole and was told he and his crew were to swim to shore. They then had to swim back to the SA-16 a day or two later.  It was only much later they learned an H-Bomb (tritium/duterium device I think) had been set off there. He and his men received large doses of radioactive Iodine and this buggered their Tyroid {sp} glands.

This illness caused him to be taken off flight status in the late 1960s. My Mother was sympathetic but secretly delighted he would not be going off to fly around thunderstorms at night.)

While still on flying status, my Father was a senior instructor pilot. He and his fellows would gently put their FNG Pilot students in the back seat of their airplace, take off gently, get to 5,000 feet over the Gulf and at a given signal, start violent manuevers to see who could get his student vomiting first. Dad often "won"... 

I went to an year of Junior College at Perkinston Junior College, Stone County, Mississippi. It was a lovely school and for the first time after 6th grade, I enjoyed going to school!

Your Grandfather retired from the USAF in sunner 1970. We moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon. He had been hired to teach a class at the local junior college. He charged out looking hopeful. He returned looking absolutely defeated. When he showed up at the Junior College President office, he was told a meeting had been held the day before and his salery was zeroed out and his benefits cancelled but he could come teach on his own time, his own dime and take all risks.k of this

I this and boil with impotent rage!

He immediately went to northern California and signed up for unemployment.

Your Grandmother read the local Community College was offering a refresher training programme for RNs who had been out of practice for years. When my Mother and a number of other ladies signed up, the College President told them they simply could not possibly survive retraining and they should do lesser activities. (My Mother had been away from nursing for 44 years years.) Pissed off husbands threatened a class action suit and maybe a sexual discrimination law suit.) This merde tet penjudo caved. (This is a French obscenity followed by a Spainish obscenity.) 

All the Ladies did outstanding in class and did well at subsequent jobs.

He learned to be a real estate sales man and was surprised when the office secretary refused to help him. They later told him he had a "bad attitude" because he did not help the other worker bees in the office (who were not helping him). He had one very big sale and put the money in escrow. Thus, money that would have going to taxes went to family over the years.)

On the subject of health:

Your Grandfather first had triple bypass surgery in late spring of 1970. I blame the 3 packs of cigs, occasional cigars and pipes plus some alcohol for his trashed heart. They took a vein from his left lower leg to fix his heart (See the problem, solve the problem, don't sweat the unintended consquences). The lost of this vein compromised his blood flow in his lower left leg making him vulnerable to infection. (I have been seeing foot docs - podistrists - every four months at VA Wichita for several years. I am also seeing the Heart Surgeon, Dr. Abid K. Mallick, who saved my live on 3 March 2015 when he supervised his Grad Student when said Grad Student - already an MD - inserted stents into me heart. I have literally trusted him with my life!) The drinking could not have helped...

What whacked the remainder of his left foot and then his right leg was never explained to me. I do know I obey the orders of my Primary MD, Heart MD, VA Doc and Oncologist to the very letter.

Charlie was an inherieted Type 1 diabetic. He gave up and quit tryng to "live the life" of fighting his T1D. He was also a cocaine junkie. I am not being too judgemental I hope. I am T2D, am too tight to try drugs, don't drink much and have lost 70 pounds since last you saw me. (My VA Doc and Kathie tell me "you are skinny!") 

So, what can I say about your daughter?  She has genes that could lead to her being more at risk from diabetics and heart problems. You have the same at risk factors. In addition, you also have the threat of prostate cancer (I have the reality). Don't freak but don't ignore your A1C or PSA! 

You are over age 40 so I believe you're over the hill and climbing the mountain. Do not forget to keep track of both your A1C and PSA!

It is getting late and some TV shows that don't seem too obnoxious are on. 

I will see if I can find more information about your Grandparents.

Please give me best regards to the rest of the family!

Love,
Uncle Mike