Very sorry for the disruption and I will get back to my anecdotes, but first I must tell you about my magnificent stay in the hospitals.    

It sucked.

I was going in for nothing more than a bypass for my left leg which was giving me all sorts of trouble with the calf muscle locking up, and lots of pain.

Well when the doctor told me what I had to have done I said, “Let’s do it.” While thinking quietly to myself, ’What can go wrong?’

 I went to Rockville Hospital on the 13th of June. It’s always the same stuff.  You have to fast 12 hours before you go in for the operation. You’re only allowed to drink water and take your pills. My blood pressure was checked and I went to my room. I got my robe on, laid down and all the nurses came over and introduced themselves. They checked my pulse ,blood-pressure, temperature ,and took blood.

My God, let’s never forget to take blood!  I went to the operating room about 1pm and that night, I woke up and I was back in my bed. Yes it hurt but you know what? It’s no big deal.’

Then  before you could say,  “OUCCCCCCCCH!”, the next shift nurses wanted me to walk. In the afternoon, I ate lunch and relaxed which brings me to that unreal night.

About 10 o’clock that night, they wanted me to walk again so I could be released the next day. I still remember the nurse’s name. Mary Ellen took about 10 steps, I looked at her, she looked at me and immediately asked me what was wrong.

I had big problems breathing. This wasn’t an issue with my leg, no, something was very wrong in my chest! I looked at her and told her that my chest was hurting.  I couldn’t breathe and nothing worked. This was new. Something I’ve never felt in my life.

My chest really started hurting and I was screaming, “I’m going to die!”

I remember those TV sit-com  programs showing people who were having heart attacks, you know how they grabbed their left arms, looked at their partner and smiled and then had a heart attack as they fell on the floor. 

Sorry kids.      

No offense, but oh my God did that thing hurt!  The pain was horrible.  The next thing I remembered was about eight nurses grabbing me putting me on the ground, holding my leg my arms down and before I passed out, watching them take this God awful thing  out of a plastic bag and getting ready to shove it down my throat.    

I was so confused. I came in for a simple bypass operation  Now what? I woke up the next day or the day after. I cant  remember but Katie was there. It seems they called Katie and Evan at 330 in the morning.

I guess I wasn’t in good  shape.     

The doctor informed me that I had a heart attack and in the process blew one of the pumping valves. All the doctors kept saying, ”Well having the heart attack in the hospital was definitely a good thing.”  

Next thing I know I’m being approached by about six doctors from another hospital wanting me to go there. They were heart people so about two days after this, I get a ambulance ride to the other hospital.

Talk about tests! Pulmonary tests, x-rays, ultrasound tests, MRI tests, and let’s not forget taking my blood every single day! Sometimes twice a day! I had IVs in both arms and sometimes in my neck.

On the 24th, they shaved my entire body from the neck down and I mean every hair! Six o’clock the next day, I was on the gurney to the operating room to have this new mess done. When I woke up, I knew I was in pain because nothing really moved. That’s because the doctors didn’t want anything to move.  I can remember alot of drugs and blood tests galore. It seems like no matter when I wanted  to sleep, somebody would wake me up to do a pulse check, blood pressure, and always needed more  blood.

I couldn’t wait to get out of that place. There was nothing I liked about this hospital with the exception that my daughter and grandkids were there every day. Thank God. The food sucked and every day after the operation the vampires would come in and take blood from me twice in the morning and evening.

So there you have it! When I got out of the hospital I had to give myself shots for the first five days and I had all new pills. I had to make numerous doctor appointments to take more tests, but as I always like to say, “Hey, we’re vertical”.

All that matters now is that I’m taking things one day at a time.  As long as I do what I’m supposed to do, I’ll get better.

Which I am. Afterall, I’m back on the computer! Ha. Ha.

You know my whole life, I hated to be alone, not fit in and always wondered what was my purpose in life. Might be some things were starting to make sense to me. I was never alone. My brothers and my sister, my father and mother and all my friends were there. No, I was never alone. I always had people around me taking care, comforting me, and loving me. What was wrong with my head? I kept thinking that I did not fit in.

Why should I ever think that? There were the baseball teams and soccer teams hockey teams and people in high school who laughed (with) me, not at me when I sang off key.

Now here I am worried more about the bugs, snakes and lizards instead of the enemy. Yet, wait a minute? Where is my enemy? I can remember staying up many nights not being able to sleep. I was thinking about these things. Was I going crazy? It seemed in my head all the fears that I had introduced were just that - self inflicted!

Eventually, I found out little by little everything that I (not people around me) was supposed to do. I had to become a lot more honest with other people and myself. I had to trust people not just myself. This war in Vietnam was waking me up a lot faster than what I wanted. One of the things that I found out was that I had to listen to people and believe me that was hard. Yet, if I wanted to survive this next 12 months I best listen to what a lot of people told me.

If you don’t mess with the bugs they won’t bother you. If you don’t show aggressiveness to snakes and back off they’ll leave you alone. With the lizards, just throw them some food, then just run.  God were they ugly! I remember once on the beach I had a big beach towel underneath me trying to get a tan and something went in between my legs. I could feel it moving toward my crotch, so I picked up my head looked down. I tried to figure what was going on and Andy who was with me grabbed my towel as I jumped off it. There was nothing!

We looked at each other as if to say what the f***? There were no tracks. Then all of a sudden, where I had been sitting one of those transparent spiders came up through the sand and ran toward the ocean and disappeared.

We watched in amazement what they were doing. They were waiting till crabs would come ashore then kill them. It took me awhile before I could go back to the beach.

The other two were at the trimpad. At the end of our runway there was a rice paddy. Snakes would always come out. Little ones and big ones but again if you weren’t aggressive or tried to get them they would go their own ways.

The lizards were bigger than life. Every now and then we would open the door on the trimpad booth and there they were. We would throw food at them then take off through the backdoor and wait about 10 minutes. They just left.

 In our barracks walking through the front door up to the left was a cage in which lived a chameleon. I will always remember that if he was yellow and green, the barracks was clean.  If he was on the bars trying to pump out the color of gray, it meant something was in our bunks. Spiders, snakes and rats were always around. Under the cage we had brooms, baseball bats ready to stop any intruder who was in our barracks. As time passed these things were so minuscule I did not even think about them. It got my mind off these things and do what I was supposed to do. Fight this so-called war.

Things have really changed today. People in the military have cell phones, Internet connections and tape sent via satellite. In our days, we had what was called a ham radio. I used to hate it. Whenever you finished a sentence you had to say the word, ‘over’. You had to wait on a list so you could call someone. The officers were first, then depending on how much time the ham operator had, depended on if you could make a call or not.

Mostly, I hated Thanksgiving and Christmas. After you were in the country for six months you could take an R&R. A person who worked at the trimpad was getting ready to go on R&R to Hawaii and meet his wife and when he came back he looked very puzzled. I can remember them bringing out a f-100c for final work. The cables on the landing gear were not tight and he told everyone he would fix the cables. When he started the plane up and put it into afterburner and let go of the brakes, the cables snapped in the plane crashed into a reventment wall. When he was removed from the plane he brushed off his arms looked at us. 

They took him away. It seems his wife was doing it with everybody back home. I couldn’t believe it. While I was over there I bought a lot of things, a 8mm camera, a 35mm camera ,dishes, and a smoking jacket. I saved most of my money most of the time.

We worked six days a week. A lot of weeks we worked seven days. It would depend on what was going on. These next parts will most likely be the hardest parts of my life to recall. Some of them I did not mind traveling all out through Vietnam from DA-NANG to Saigon. Some of the experiences I will never forget and some of them I wish I could.

Like I said, there were almost 200 people on that plane. Most of them were 18 and 19 years old and a few were in their late 20s and 30’s. From what I can tell, they were mostly Air Force and Army.

It still amazes me that no one talked for almost 13 hours. The only thing you heard were people saying was, “yes ma’am” and “thank you, ma’am” to the stewardesses who were passing out the dinners. Remember this was not a military jet, they were regular civilian transports such Northwest and Pan Am. Those companies were taking troops to and from Vietnam. (At least I think that’s who the airlines were.)

I can remember sitting there in my seat trying to sleep but could not and wondering what everyone else was thinking. All I could think about was how much money I was getting in military pay, hazard pay, and overseas pay. I had no clue as to  what I was getting into. After about nine hours the plane, it started to smell. My God did it get real bad. It seems the closer we got, the more people started sweating. I absolutely hated that flight with a passion. 

We landed in Cam Ranh-Bay. When the door opened, that unbelievable hot and humid temperature cut right through the air conditioning of the aircraft like a knife through butter. The temperature was 101°! I kept saying to myself that I’d much rather be in Siberia.    

We walked  into this big hangar and had our orders checked and we received more shots and got pills for malaria. We then waited for planes to take us to our bases. If there was one thing that I definitely remember about Cam Rahn-bay is how crystal white the beaches were!

In my entire life to that point, I have never seen a beach like this. My God, was it beautiful.  We waited for planes to go to our respective bases. Most of the people took a c- 47 aircraft, while others took helicopters and some went by jeeps. There were nine of us going to Tuy-wa. Jet engine people, instrumentation people, and two pilots. One pilot was on his second tour of duty. Never said one word to us the entire trip. What was this guy’s problem?   

The other pilot was a first Lieutenant who was on his first duty assignment. All this guy could talk about, was about the skiing in Colorado and how he couldn’t wait to get back.  

I find it funny that things like this pop up in my mind. I will always remember the plane ride to Tuy- wa. It scared they shit out of me. Remember,  this was a turboprop.  It made more noise than my mother’s blender in her kitchen.  We came in over the South China Sea and landed. We then got into jeeps and went to the  administration building and rechecked our orders again. They then sent us to where we are supposed to be staying for the next 12 months.  ( please remember I said this)

This was a small barracks. It was maybe 12′ x 40′ and was covered with aluminum siding. There were sandbags all around the building may be 5 feet high and we were not even one quarter-mile from the beach. No matter where we went, people would say under their breath (FU***** RAINBOW). It was easy to tell when you were new. You had NO TAN!  

It seemed everybody else had been stuck  in Aruba for 10 years. I hated those first five weeks. There were people who would just lay on the beach and really tried to get sunburned. Some of them were so bad they had to go to the infirmary. This got them into a lot of trouble and they were busted. They were given article 15 s  for the destruction of government property!  

I kept asking myself if we were on one team fighting the enemy,  or were we just   fighting ourselves.  This base was located on the South China Sea and 20 miles inland on all three sides of the base were mountain ranges. They were so majestic and huge.

I used to stare at them for hours.

Right next to the Air Force Base was an Army base and the city of Tuy-wa.  The Army base had huge howitzers pointed at the mountains. Now when these things started shooting you could hear the echo forever.  

On the beach, they had Oscar Towers. Any boat that came near the base was in big trouble. They had 50 mm guns at the top, not counting the m16s  that the air police had.   None of the maintenance people had any guns, they did not want us to shoot our own.

I worked at the trim pad.  Little did I know how much trouble this was going to get me into. I had a start up license for all the f- 100s, f-105 and helicopters (single bladed). Believe it or not, the Jets were easier to run than those f-ing helicopters. The trim pad was located out at the end of the runway by the mountains right next to a rice paddy. I had never seen Grass so Green as when I was there. 

I can remember flying over the country and thinking it should be a national park. Everything was gorgeous! The colors were fabulous, the mountains were astounding and for the most part it, was so gorgeous.        

I met many Lieutenants, Majors, and Captains at the trim pad. They would watch me as I ran their aircraft’s up to them through the paces and then shut them down.

A lot of them knew me by my first name and I thought that was great, but again I did not know what I was getting into.     

Our cafeteria sucked, ( we know they tried) seems like all we had was chicken, chicken, and more chicken. Bread was a joke.  Before you could eat the bread  you had to pick out all the bugs.  All the eggs were powdered along with the milk but we could eat all the potatoes we wanted.  

Now in my head, I had always thought about the enemy, not to get in trouble ,be good and go home.  I had forgotten about one thing; THE BUGS , snakes & lizards. Those things brought out all my worst fears. How I hated those things. They had 9 inch spiders thatwere transparent. You could see the blood flow throughout them.  Two-step snakes would bite you between the toes or the fingers  and kill you.   The gela monsters were about 3 foot tall and about six to 7 feet long, not counting its  tongue. One thing was for sure was that  if I did not try to calm all my fears, I would go crazy.  

I will talk about this tale of horror as I continue. I was supposed to be there for 12 months and stayed 18 months, I went to a lot of bases, and outposts saw plenty of people die, wounded and maimed.  I absolutely, and honestly hated this war.    

To be very honest with you, most of the military who were there did not care. As the song goes, “ And its 1, 2,3,  what are we fighting for?” 

Frankly, I don’t give a damn.

Its been over a month since my father has written on his blog. There were two posts that he wrote before his hospital stay and I’d like to bring you them now. One tomorrow, and one the day after. We are setting up his voice recognition software on my home computer so that he’ll be able to bring you more reflections as he recovers from Open heart surgery.

Thank you so much for coming by and sending well wishes.

Kate — Robert’s Daughter

Remember when back in those days when you were were asked a question on how you felt our answer was groovy?

There was none of this, “Okay, dude.” or  “Sweet!”

Flower power was in. The war had taken its toll on this country or so I thought. I had taken my oath and was proud to serve my country. I can remember flying back in the plane and all the thoughts in my head. I can remember thinking back about how I used to play GI Joe in the backyard with my brothers. It seems like yesterday.

This time it would be real. I can remember when the plane landed in Rochester, I was the last one off. When I got on the ramp I put my hat on and walked into the terminal. My father, mother, brothers and sister were there to meet me. How proud they were to see me! I will never forget my father how he stood there looking at me walking straight with my dress blues on.

I gave my mother a hug and kissed her, hugged my brothers and sister and turned to my father. I had put out my hand but instead he took my hat off and gave me the biggest hug I’ve ever had in my life. You have to remember one thing about my father, he never hugged anyone!

Going home in the car, he kept looking at me through the rearview mirror and all he would say was , “I love it your hair. It is shorter than mine!”

You see, when I left, my hair was down past my shoulders. Something my father always hated! In his eyes, I had become a man .

When we got home we had something to eat and then talked about some of the things I had been doing in the service. Please also remember in 1968, the drinking age was 18. Gas cost $.65 a gallon. Cigarettes were $.25 a pack. Milk was $.50 a gallon.

I went in the basement with my father and had a couple drinks with him. He wanted to know about basic training. I told him every thing. He looked at me with his little grin and said things haven’t changed that much. I was on a 30 day leave and had no idea what I was going to do. Between my family and friends, they took care of everything. If I wanted to borrow my mother’s car, I would ask her and she would look at me and say, “Have a ball.” I had so many things changed in such a small time. What was going? Everyday it seemed like someone in my family had things planned for me.

My biggest surprise was Bruce. He wanted me to be a director in a variety show in high school. He thought it would be neat to tell everyone I was going to Vietnam. I will get back to that in a moment. You know, I loved my father and I cherished him very much but he never took me anywhere with him. We went to the bowling alley with all his friends all I did was sit there. He would ask me questions and I would answer yes sir or no sir. To him, he must’ve been so proud of me. He looked at his friends and said “My God, they turned my son into a man.” He did the same thing when he played golf with his friends. This was the biggie coming home. From golf he let me drive his car. Believe me, no one drove my father’s car!!  Not even my mother.

My mother would always feed me. She said I looked underweight. I still remember my pants size 28 Waist 32 Length.  I was in the best shape of my life.

In directing Bruce’s variety show, I would always have one girl follow me around wherever I went.( except the bathroom) Her name was Donna and she was two years younger than me. Her brother was in Bruce’s graduating class. My God did we have a lot of fun doing that variety show. It opened on a Friday and Saturday evening the place was packed.

At the end of the show my brother would call me out and tell them about me. This was both nights. A lot of teachers that I had met in high school were there and they shook my hand and gave me hugs and said good luck.

This was quite the change when I left high school. At that time, it  seemed like they were saying,”Get lost and have a nice day.”

Donna and I were always together rides in the country, talking, and making out. She told me she would write me every day. My sister who had switched religions to be with her boyfriend wanted me to be saved at her church. She had switched from Protestant to the Southern Baptist. My sister really wanted this and she needed this so  I told her okay.

You know when I was growing up I was a Protestant, went to Lutheran church with a friend, Catholic church with a friend, Presbyterian Church with a friend, and now Southern Baptist. The way I figured it when asked in the service what religion was I I would answer,”Heinz 57″. With all the religious churches that I had gone to, nothing satisfied my mind or made me feel good at that time.

I really did not know what this meant. I know there was a God and because I could not see him it did not mean he was not there. Before I left, we had a party at the house. My aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sister and friends were there. I will never forget it. Hot dogs, hamburgers, potato and macaroni salads. Lets not forget the chips and soda. For these were things that I’ll would not see for a long long time.

On the day that I left, my father was sad. He would never say anything but you could tell. All my mother did was cry. My brothers and sister did not go to the airport with us. In their own ways they hated to say goodbye,  but hey wait a minute, I will be back!

I think I hoped when the plane left Rochester and climbed into the sky above the clouds, I felt a sudden chill and loss of concentration. My God I am not the little boy. I was I was a man. I was at my crossroads. We landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport (SeaTac). We had to get more shots. They had to check our gear. There were about 200 people on that flight and they were all GIs minus the crew.

It was supposed to be a 13 hour flight. I was so scared you bet ya,  but I was not alone. Hardly anybody spoke the entire trip. I think everybody knew what not to expect a ticket to Disneyland. I really did not want to look at anybody who was on my plane thinking they might never come back or how many people were looking at me thinking the same. What happens will happen, I kept telling myself. I was going halfway around the world to fight a war for what and you know what I still dont know.

There was about two days left before we left our technical school. Time enough to take a photo behind a B580 Hustler. That aircraft was being replaced with a B-52. We also had to clean our barracks so that new people moving in had a clean place to stay. We picked up our tickets at the first shirts office. They were  tickets to go to Luke Air Force Base. We were told to dress in our dress blues with an overcoat. After all it was 58° in Chicago when leaving the base. We were told  to be proud we were Americans.  

 For the first time in my life, I was really proud to be an American.   The airline’s people at Chicago airport treated us like we were a rock stars. The people on the plane flying us to Phoenix treated us like heroes and the pilot and copilot along with the Stewards were fabulous. All  you heard from the people were, “yes sir, no sir , and thank you sir.” 

The plane flight seemed long but we enjoyed going over this country of ours.  The  citys,  towns, the mountains, the rivers and fields. My God what a view! 

When we landed in Phoenix, it seems that joke was on us. The city of Phoenix seemed smaller than Rochester. It seemed to be filled with restaurants, cat Houses and casinos.  We got on the bus and there was no air conditioner.    We drove for almost 2 hours before we got to the airbase.  Remember I said that joke was on us? Well when we left Chicago it was 58°. When we landed in Phoenix it was 89°.  I thought we were dying!

It seemed like Texas was better than this place!   I can remember that thoughts in my head; so far the Air Force has pulled two ‘gotyas’ on me.  

The first being the buddy system and now dressing like we were going to Alaska you know cold and snow?

Back in those days we did not have the weather channel. When we pulled up to the gate two  AP’s ( Air Force police) got on the bus and were checking everyone’s PCS orders along with names, and photo ID. Think about it, who would want to steal someone’s ID and go to a place out in the desert?  We went to our barracks to change our clothes.

Oh yes,  we had big fans at both ends of the barracks. There were no air conditioners. Somewhere along the line, the people who had been there said  it’s always hot but there’s no humidity. What a crock of crap that turned out to be!  

Hot is hot. Screw the humidity!   

The place had many runways. Planes were always taking off and landing. They had f-100 and f-104 jets. The helicopters used were hh-43  along with single bladed gunships.  The biggest surprise was that German Air Force was there flying the 104s. They were  training for bomb runs at GILA-BEND. 

They were real good,only one major difference. Not only were our guys the best but  their pilots were not officers   just like me, just a little better, as they could actually fly.

The first song I heard at the base was being pumped into the cafeteria it was called, “Magic carpet ride.”

Just like the one I was on! Most of the music was country and western. A lot of songs by Glenn Campbell.

You know I was a linesman for the county and so on. I had a great time with the German pilots and ground crew. I also learned some very bad language from the Germans.  It would make my father proud!  

Ha  ha!  I still can’t believe the jets they were flying.  These were high-altitude jets. They were not supposed to be used for bomb runs  and yes people were killed. I tried to keep this far from me as I could. I  didn’t like it it. Seems like at times you could cook an egg on the runway but when it rained, wow, did it ever! I can remember a lots of roads getting washed out and the thunder is nothing like the East Coast. It was very loud  and would last a long time.

I worked on engines for jets, both f-1oos and 104s and also changed engines on the helicopters. The only place I did get to go to off base was Scottsdale. It was a small town. Las Vegas was only 130 miles from the base but I never got there and did not care.  I was at Luke Air Force Base for about 4 1/2 months and went to work one morning and was called in to see the Colonel of our company. Seems I had done so well with working on engines and getting along with people and not getting into any trouble,  that I had been given new PCS orders.

Remember when I told you my recruiter told me I would never go to Vietnam? Well guess what? That’s where I was going!  a

Again, I scratched my head I wondered about my government. The buddy system wasn’t working, dress blues to Arizona  (89°) and now Vietnam. I had to remember I was property of the United States government. He looked at me and said you had a 30 day leave remember don’t get hurt, injured, sick or try leaving the country. In the back of my head I felt missused, along and very angry. This did not last for too long.

Talk about growing up! I did not want to but I had to remember calling my mother and father telling them and listening to some very long whimpers and cries as I hung up.  I would be home in three days on a plane. I kept on asking myself why, why, why? Then again it hit me.  Why not?  What makes me any different, why should I not have to go? Besides if I did what I was supposed,to do stay low and did not get any trouble? I would be home in 12 months.

I kept hearing that recruiter in the back of my mind, “be proud to be an American.” and from that point on I was. I wanted to help my country and be free.

Yes Bob, Times, they are a changing. When I landed in Rochester I could not believe how things had changed and boy did they ever. 

It had appeared to me that through all these 18 years of messing around, having fun getting into trouble had gotten me no where. I needed a good job. I can still remember all the famous words from my so called employers. “Your schooling stinks, you don’t have enough experience, take a hike!” “Just go away.” That last one was the best one yet, telling me that they didn’t need anybody, and the posting was right up on the wall.

My life had boiled down to two things; join the service or run to Canada. Like I said, we only live to 100 miles from Canada. The only minuscule problem was that I would never be able to come back home. On the other hand, the service and possibly Vietnam. But wait, maybe I would be stationed in America or Germany. They were good and Japan would be better.

I had to think about this. Well after much talking with my father and how proud he would be for not only himself but myself, I reluctantly said yes to the service. I will never forget that morning at the federal building. Five buses with people who had been drafted were all going to Buffalo. There were two Marines on each bus. The trip down was not bad as they gave us water and soda and some food. However, when we got to Buffalo things changed.

All you could hear out of their mouth was, “Do as I say!”

As we got off the bus, they were three lines to get in. One with fat kids, athletic kids and of course all the nerds. I was put in the athletic line. I went through lots of tests. Blood pressure, pulse, running in place, sit ups , eye tests, ear tests, my god they looked at the bottom of our feet!

The last part of the test they had everyone stand in line and if I had to guess, there must have been 60 kids. They made us all turnaround and drop our shorts then bend over. Two doctors were going down the line, checking out our butts.

I can remember one Marine who looked at me and said to me, “Six weeks and I’ll have you in Vietnam.” On the way back to Rochester, no one talked or did anything. All I kept saying in my head was  that in six weeks, my ass was going to be in Vietnam. In Rochester, we walked past the Air Force and Navy recruitment centers and of course they were outside handing out leaflets. I got home and read the one from the Air Force. It did not sound bad. I did not want to be a ground pounder or a sailor on a boat in the ocean. I don’t know how it is today, but back in the days of the draft, these recruiters could sell painting lessons to the blind.

John was at my house and I was telling him about the trip to Buffalo then calling the Air Force. He was already thinking about the Air Force going in under what they called the buddy program. Sounded good to me! One week later, we enlisted.

There were 12 of us in the room and when the Sergeant finished, so help me god, they want from smiles to instant vampires. Talk about a mood swing!

Next thing I can remember was getting on a plane at Rochester, New York and going to Lackland, Texas.

I spent the next six weeks there. When we got off the bus at the airbase and were standing around smoking cigarettes, you could hear one person yelling, “Get off my sidewalk!” We jumped to the grass and he then yelled,  “Get off my grass! Put out the cigarettes and give me five situps,  then stand at attention!” Yes, this was our drill instructor. We were up half the night with him barking orders at us. What to do, what not to do, and how to do it. If your bed wasn’t made right, they ripped it apart. If you talked during phys ed class, it was two more times around the field. Eating was very special, you looked at the person sitting across from you  and could not say a word. Had to eat as fast as you could. Cleaning the barracks was fun. Toothbrushes were used to clean tile on bathroom floors and god help you if you if you used your razor on your face. Our barracks and footlockers had to be spotless.

We were out the door for breakfast at 6 a.m. and ran everywhere singing cadences. While were getting food, phys ed track, rifle range and the obstacle course. Our D.I. would always get into your face. To hear him talk, he hated mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and cousins! He would have great sayings like, “The only thing that would come from Rochester, is steers and queers and I don’t see any horns on you.” There was one person from the South in our barracks who wanted to fly aircraft. Every time a plane went by he would watch it.

After about two weeks on the phys ed track, our DI had enough. He took all his clothes off and he put  a broom in between his legs while yelling, “I am a airplane!” twice around the track. How embarrassing, but believe me none of us could laugh.

When we graduated, we had a big parade. Our DI was the happiest person on the field. He told us,”I had to do this you to  make you mean. Don’t be a mommy’s boy!”  Makes sense to us. After basic, I never saw John again. Some buddy system!

I was sent to CHANUTE Illinois air base. This was for my technical training on jet engines j57s,j79s and tf-33. Well at leaset one thing good happened in my life. If I could not fly the aircraft, I’ll would much rather work on them. Things were a lot better in tech school. First off, you could walk and eat like normal people but always had to look real good. I was a Barrick’s chief everyone got along. Near the end of training I was then asked if I would like to be a teacher and the bells in my head were ringing out loud that if I did this I won’t have to go to Vietnam.

I told our Master Sergeant in the loudest voice I could ( YES SIR ) now all I had to do was pass the final test. Well the bottom line was only the first three people at the top of the class got to be a teacher and guess who was number four? I missed it by SIX points. You know how much I hate THAT number? It was the same number that I got in the draft when I got my PCS orders. The permanent change station I had gotten was Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

I have never been to Arizona but then again had never been to Texas . I didn’t lose anything in Texas but went to Texas after all. Besides it can’t be any hotter than Texas or could it?

In my last two years of high school I took part-time jobs. The first one being at a roast beef place. You know those great big sandwiches? I did dishes and helped make sandwiches. We had lots of fun there. Sometimes we would stay open all night long.

I was having trouble in school. What a joke. I didn’t learn anything there so, I worked there for about five months and had to leave. I then got a job in a restaurant on Ridge Road. Yes, I was another dishwasher. One thing I did learn was that the people who were in charge of authority you know the manager, the cook and the head busboy, I was the lowest of the low. My manager would tell me when I could work and what days to take off. Our cook, his name was Tommy. He was one of the first colored people I had ever worked for. He was fabulous! He always treated me well. One thing about him though, if the plates were not cleaned, he would throw them at our door crashing most of them. Most of that money came out of my pocket. So guess what? We did learn to keep the dishes clean. He would always feed us.

Then we have the pro from Dover, “Mr. busboy, clean this floor!” and then “clean this table!” ” turn off the lights” ” turn on the lights!” I wish I could remember his name but for some reason it eludes me like the plague. The things I remember from this restaurant were all the people who had put plates underneath their chairs. They were too drunk to eat. They couldn’t eat steak, baked potato, garden salad, king crab legs and just about anything without the drinks. Of course they were cooked! I can remember Tommy wanting to kill some of these people. He would chase them from the restaurant with his cleaver.

About this time, I had gotten my license to drive. My mother had a car. It was a small Ford two door car. Sometimes I got to drive it to work and sometimes I didn’t. Rarely did I ever get the chance to drive it around town or to my friends  house. Thinking back about those days I don’t blame my mother. She knew better! I was a crappy driver. At the end of my junior year I left that job and got another job. It was at a plumber’s place. It was owned by a father and son and all they cared about was money, money, money, and money. When I worked there I found out I could not go out with the plumbers so my main job was to pour chlorine in gallon jugs for the customers. I ruined a lot of pants and shirts. I wonder if all this chlorine ruined my head because now they do it with automated robots.

At this place the only time I got to go with a plumber was after I had been there for two & a half months. The partner was sick so I went. To be honest with you all I thought about was how much money I was going to make, working with tools ,cutting copper, fixing bathrooms and building houses with plumbing fixtures. Yeah, right. The only job I went on was down by the lake. Two elderly people were complaining of odors. This house had no basement and it was a crawl space.

That smell in that house was like being with two guerrillas in July at the zoo. When I crawled into this  space under the house, I couldn’t believe it. There was 3 feet of smelly, uh,  well let’s just say the septic pipe had cracked.  It took five hours to clean out that crawl space. I was absolutely covered in everything and so was my plumber friend but the one thing that did get me was when we sat down to eat lunch, I could believe this individual had been doing this so long. He just didn’t care. I never saw him clean his hands or face.  He just ate.

Well that was about enough for me!  I quit in two months. I can remember buying a table from our manager. After all these years my mother really had a brand-new kitchen table! She loved it. However, I was without a job again. So, I would do odd things around the house. My father had me clean out the basement and build him a great big bar.

I could never understand why, because my father never had anyone over at the house to begin! Oh well, my father had given me money to play golf with Bruce, John and Don. We had a great day and came home. I still remember like it was yesterday. My father was sitting in a chair by the front door reading the paper. My mother always doing what she did best; the dishes.

I walked into the house hot and sweaty and he looked at me and said, “You have a letter.”

My world changed forever.

I will never forget what it said on the outside. To Robert C. Wittmer and in big letters underneath my name it said Congratulations!

I open the letter and found out that I had been drafted. When I  read that, it felt like the sun had exploded in my face. After I had cooled off, I can always remember first there was Korea, Cuban crisis and now Vietnam. But wait! I only lived at 100 miles from Canada! As a teenager, I wanted to run. I know I could get there, but something snapped in my head.

My father talked about World War II and how he was shot. He never told me a lot, but what he did tell me made a lot of sense to me .

Love your flag and your country.

Be very proud in who you are .

You are free.

A lot of countries on this planet have never been free, so don’t take it for granted.

I want to sleep that night thinking of what I should do and I was up most of the night when it hit me, this is my life only I can do what is right.

My father took time off from work and drove me down to the federal building the next day. I checked and they told me that a week from Thursday, 200 people were going to Buffalo for our physical. Afraid yes, but my family was behind me they were always behind me.

I love them so much. Now let’s see what I can do with my life!

The middle school I went to was called Long Ridge.  It was about 3 miles from my house we didn’t have any buses. I had lost a lot of weight with exercising, soccer, and baseball.  If it rained, snowed or sleeted we were always at school. My bike was my best friend. We never had to lock our bikes at school. People were just not like that, (stealing that is).

It seemed this school was way out in the boonies. There were lots of woods to go through and all the new houses that were being put in. The school was shaped in a U. In the front were the office, library, cafeteria and gym. All the classes were away from the parking lot.

I can remember that the food was crappy, there was no air conditioning and I hated gym class. Our assembly hall is in the gym and schoolyard was huge. I mean you could start from the back of the school run all the way around the yard back to the school and want to die. I hated to run. I would always finish at the back of the class. I did not like to run, did not like basketball, but loved dodgeball.

There were times when we had to climb the rope from the floor to the ceiling and down. I did not like being up that high and it made my lower body feels strange. This was also the time where I’ll had to take showers with other people. O my god shoot me!I never took showers with my brothers why should I take showers with people I did not know? This is what I did; I put my clothes on then and then put water on my hair face and arms walked out with a towel. Everybody thought I had showered but later in the day when it was hot I must have smelt like cow droppings.

Dodgeball was my favorite sport in class. All the people that you were mad at you could blast them and believe me I tried. I learned to play soccer there.  Remember I said I hated to run ? Well, I became a goalie. I loved this position! I didn’t know this but it won me all County, Allstate in high school. Which brings me back to my father.

My father in college was this super good football player and he let me know it. He could not understand why I was playing soccer. He hated that sport and never went to a game, but my mother was there. She was always there.

On many a Christmas morning, my father would get me a football and I would never use it. It seems my father wanted me to go to college on a scholarship for football. I always thought he hated me and not the game. It took me a long time to figure this one out but finally I did.

I could not understand English class.  After all I could speak English what was the problem? History… who cared about Christopher Columbus or the Romans? This was now my life!

I took care of my brothers and sister and I would never get into any trouble with my father!’Wroooooooooong!’ Seems I forgot one thing:  My father always used to tell me if you are gonna be dumb …….. best be tough. My father usually said it when he would hit me with lines like “I brought you into this world, I’ll take you out.” or better yet, “Stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid you!”

As I was about to open my mouth and talk back to him he would point his finger at me and say very plainly and demanding, “Don’t.”

In seventh grade, I started to learn about girls. They weren’t as tough as the guys, but they talked real cute things like, “He’s cute”, “I like him.”, and “Wow.”  I had lost a lot of weight with exercising from soccer and baseball. There was no  girl who could take me away from these sports.

Or so I thought.

I was a geek. The year before high school it seems everybody was being split up. People would go to Greece Olympia and the new school. The one at the end of the world, Greece Arcadia High School. This was a whole new setting. There were clicks and people getting beaten up.  This was crazy.

I can remember filling out paperwork as to what I would like to be when I grew up. So this is what I did; English, drafting, history, choir,gym,and math.

Since I was good in choir and loved to sing, I ended up in a barbershop quartet. The people loved us including the parents. I loved being on the stage just listening to people laugh.  With the exception of math everything else was a lost cause.

I can remember getting called into the office by the vice president who made me write a letter after some of the trouble I had been in. He wanted me to write a letter why I thought I was a ball buster. The soccer coach and baseball coach loved me. After all, we did get trophies in soccer and baseball.

High school was a bother to me. I didn’t feel like I had anything to learn. I can remember on our senior day Scott and I tried to sell the school to Eastman Kodak. Important people showed up at Scott’s house. (Oops, talk about getting in trouble)

Also on our senior day we led cows down the main hall.  They went all over and I do mean all over. Six of us had to clean up the mess. It’s a wonder I graduated. I really do think the people wanted me out of school and I thought well, who cares! No more school!

Scott and I with his father’s car went to our senior prom. Lots of dancing, making out and yes people getting very drunk. (and yes we did get very drunk) We drove home around 1130pm on the Sea Breeze Expressway. I think we were doing about 100 mph going around a turn and Scott lost control. We skidded on the road about 200 feet went into a yard and crashed into a house with the back of the car.

All I can remember is trying to start the car. I finally got it going and got home next morning he told his father that someone hit him in the parking lot nothing was ever said after that. My God, talk about thinking we were Superman!

Oh my gosh I almost forgot to talk to you about our band! It was called the Berlin Rescue Squad. We had to write the firefighters in Berlin, New York for permission to use their name. How great was that it worked! We played in a lot of places. Restaurants, nightclubs and dances. It seems like every girl was at the front stage screaming and looking at us.

My father always hated the long hair but after awhile he gave up. When I bought the boots he went into an uproar. “You will never wear those boots in MY house!” But after a while he calmed down. I think my mother kept telling him that it was his son’s life and it not his own.

In high school I had four girlfriends. Nancy, Linda and Patty. Nothing ever worked out. Six or eight months and we would break up. Talk about one’s ego! I had it when school was out I spent a lot of time at the beach and playing golf.

Scott had joined the service and it seems his girlfriend’s old boyfriend pulled up in front of his house and put a gun to Scott head. Shook him up so bad he had to leave. Don was nowhere to be found ,seems he moved on when his parents broke up. Jack had gone to college seems he was the only one of us with smarts. John was doing part-time jobs lawns, painting houses, and so on it seems our little wrecking crew was over now what would I do I had thrown away my schooling years. I had no job,  what was I going to do? I can still remember my mother saying be careful what you wish for you may get it little did I know what was about to happen!

You know in looking back over all these years I find it incredible and downright astounding what a geek I was. I was more concerned with baseball, airplanes and rockets being launched into outer space. How simple things were at that time.

Most of the roads around our house were dirt roads. There was two churches and a shopping mall. Northgate Plaza.

It had a drugstore, Star Market, shoe store, JCPenneys, and a small hobby store called Winken Blinken & Nod. I loved this store. All the planes, rockets and toys were there, although I could never afford them. Please remember this was when gas was $.38, cigarettes $.24, and a good steak cost one dollar! A good car cost $800 and about the only thing I could do was buy comic books.

I loved the Fantastic Four, Superman, GI Joe, and the classic comic books of all time; The War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and yes anything about space travel. There were no fast food places. No McDonalds, Wendys or Burger King.

If you were sick, the doctor would come to your house and with all my brothers and sisters he came to our house lots of times. Seems all my parents did was pay for doctor visits! No wonder my father was poor. Just try to get a doctor to make a housecall now…

My school was at the end of my street. It was called Britton Road School: grades kindergarten through sixth grade. I did not like school and would much rather play baseball or anything.

I can remember starting to play the drums. Oh did my parents hate that! Then I went to the trombone and they hated that worse. So I stopped all together. I can remember my father saying the quiet and the serenity and the peace was the best!

My best friend’s name was Scott. I knew everything he did. We did everything together from our Davy Crockett outfits, Boy Scouts, church and building models. Scott would always do automobiles and I would make rockets.

We had other friends in our lives too, Donald, John and Jack. We had the greatest time playing baseball and basketball on Jack’s driveway. There was a hoop set up on his father’s garage. Life was good.

Eastman Kodak had a softball program for kids our age. It was called K.P.A.A. : Kodak Park athletic Association. We would take our bikes from home and ride through the backwoods to Ridge Road where our games would be played. It was about 8 miles! I can remember at the time all the new houses that were being built and thinking ‘where were all these people coming from?’

Scott would never play baseball with us. He was more interested in the girls then us. “yeccccccccch!”

Too bad, winning or losing is what I learned from this game. It taught me what I needed to know later in my life. I can still hear my father’s voice , “Sometimes you win , sometimes you lose, it’s how you play the game .” How did he come up with these great sayings?

Every now and then my father would come up with brain shattering visions with a fact of life tossed in. He was very good at doing that.

There was one week I will never forget.

November 22 at 12:30 PM. This was the day they shot the president of the United States Jack F. Kennedy.

I remember wondering how this could’ve happened in this country. How could it happen anywhere? Something I will never forget on that day was when my mother was watching the black-and-white television set and Walter Cronkite came on and said he had died. She cried and called other people and they cried.

I can remember walking outside and not hearing one bird chirping. There was nothing but complete silence. We all sat around the TV hoping it was a joke, but when they caught the individual who shot the president, I could hear my mother say “Just shoot him.”

Two days later, I can remember the news. They were moving him to another jail and he was shot by another person. I can also remember thinking to myself, ‘What was going on in this country? What had we turned into? Had we all gone crazy?’

I can remember a lot of my friends saying under their breath that my age of innocence had just ended and I did not know it.

I listened to a lot of A.m. radio music. The Sounds of Silence, Look Through Any Window, Homeward Bound, and Scarborough Fair. The Beatles were just coming into their own with She Loves You, Love Me Do and Eight Days a Week.

The winters were wicked in Rochester.

Always went to school and on some days maybe just maybe, we would be let go early. It used to snow so much, the storms would bury my father’s car. My brothers and I would shovel all the people’s homes on the street we would get anywhere from $.25 to $.75! Most of this money we gave to our father and mother for food although we did keep some for ourselves very little for comic books, bubblegum, and candy. Like I said most of it went to food.

My mother was a great cook she could whip up anything and yes we could eat it all. I used to really enjoy the simple things in life peanut butter and jelly, cheese and bologna and without a doubt tuna fish. I still love tuna fish today.

I graduated from Britton Road school and moved on to our middle school this school was in the middle of nowhere and they were still building houses around it new neighborhoods what I didn’t understand was ware they were putting my new high school at the end of the earth.