Chapter 23
A TRAVELLER
(Traveling between Vance
Air Force Base, Enid, Oklahoma and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point,
Havelock, North Carolina. From the very last of March 1971 to late April 1971)
I
leave Gerry’s house in Owasso, Oklahoma in the early morning and drive all the
way to Daddy’s house near Vernon, Alabama the same day. The trip takes 9 hours
or so. My thoughts and feelings on that trip are similar to what my thoughts
and feelings had been driving from Quantico to Auburn after graduating from
TBS. ‘It sure feels good to have successfully completed this difficult
training. I am now certified as a pilot of fast military jet aircraft!’
Such
vain pride fills my head much too fully. Also, I have now trained with all 4
branches of our nation’s military, Navy (ROTC), Army (Airborne Training at Ft.
Benning), Marines (Quantico on 2 different occasions), and Air Force (pilot
training) (in that order). Tho I have trained with the Navy on a university
campus (wearing a Navy uniform), I have yet to train on a naval base. But I
will soon do so on about 3 separate occasions (and will tell of that). It is
somewhat rare for a person who serves only 1 term in the military to train with
all 4 services. Likely a good number of career military personnel (who stay in
20 years or longer) never cross-train. I am glad I got the chance to “sample”
life in all 4 branches of our nation’s military. I gained valuable experience
from it.
Listen
to this amusing experience on this return trip to Daddy’s house (totally unrelated
to the military). I came to love the vast view available on these treeless, wide-open,
plains of Oklahoma (and nearby states that I flew over). Driving along roads
thru the fairly flat plains, one can see “forever”. And I found that most
pleasant to me (being able to view much surrounding terrain to a far distance
on my many drives this year in Oklahoma).
Now
as I leave Oklahoma to drive across Arkansas and then across Mississippi to get
to Daddy’s house, as I come to forested areas bordering each side of the
highway, I feel so hemmed in and annoyed by it. I literally find myself involuntarily
“scrunching” down in the driver’s seat (trying to make myself smaller) due to
the “closed in” sensation.
As
I grew from a toddler into young adulthood, my own understanding of my nature
as a loner also steadily matured in my mind. From childhood I liked to have
plenty of “elbow room” and detested crowded conditions, a common trait in most
people, I suppose. During my 6 years of junior high and high school, often 7
family members crowded into Daddy’s 1940 Nash when we went to church or such.
We 4 siblings packed into the backseat, Daddy was driving, Lucille sat next to
Daddy, and either Rayburn or Lucille’s mother sat in the front by the window.
We
4 kids abreast in the backseat were plenty tight and it vexed me. I mention
such at this point to say that it was a relief to me to get my own car upon
finishing high school and often being alone in my car from that time until my
Lord moved me to Japan. And that “relief” became much more pleasant upon buying this luxurious new
Thunderbird in May 1969 to travel in all alone (most all the time I drive it)
for many long miles thru November 1973. (The times that one or more sweet girls
are in the T-Bird with me, that doesn’t cramp me at all.)
(Now
back to my present travel.) I arrive at Daddy’s house in the late afternoon,
likely between 5 and 6 PM. It was good to see family members again. A
neighborhood lady and her daughter just happened to be at the house when I
arrive. As before, I spend about 8 days in the area of my boyhood home,
enjoying the time with family, relatives and friends. Many of them have come to
regard me with awe, now that I am a pilot. They brag on me more than is pleasing
in our Lord’s Sight. And I like it more than is pleasing in our Lord’s Sight.
May the Lord have mercy on us all in our much vanity. All souls around my
boyhood home are most kind to me with complimentary words that warm my vain
heart. I enjoy this visit at home!
When
it soon comes time to bid Farewell to hometown folks, I drive on to Birmingham.
I had been in touch with Mrs. Mars on the phone and may have driven right to
the hospital in Birmingham where Mr. Mars is a patient. Various old age
maladies had hospitalized him. His sister and her husband (who live in Hawaii)
had recently flown to Birmingham to visit him because he was hospitalized. They
are present now. Mrs. Mars stays by his bedside each day and goes home nights.
His one son that lives close comes to visit him much.
I
stay 3 days or so, sleeping nights at the Mars’ house and being in the hospital
during most of each day. Mr. Mars’ condition improves noticeably during the
short time I’m there and Mrs. Mars told me privately that it was largely due to
my presence. I humbly thank God that I meant that much to Mr. Mars, who strongly
influenced my life for good. All his family present thanked me for
visiting. I consider it my privilege to do so. When I bid them Farewell, I
drive a long trip to Ft. Myers, Florida.
Likely
I left the Mars’ house in Birmingham early in the morning and drove all way to
Ft. Myers that day because it was about midnight when I arrived in Ft. Myers.
The Tipton family from Fredericksburg, Virginia had moved here while I was in
Oklahoma. We corresponded regularly and they asked me to come visit them. So I
did. I stayed at their Ft. Myers house close to 2 weeks, greatly enjoying the
semitropical climate, beach, ocean and much lovely scenery. Mrs. Tipton
introduced me to a young lady in their church and urged me to spend time with
her. So I did, meeting her parents also and spending time with them. I met
people in their church and other friends of the Tiptons, making for a most
pleasant and relaxing stay in scenic, subtropical Florida.
All
too soon it comes time to again bid Farewell to friends and I drive north thru
central Florida, enjoying beautiful scenery of vast orange groves and such. I
go on northeast thru the eastern edge of Georgia, South Carolina and North
Carolina to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point near the seacoast in North
Carolina. The day I left the Tiptons’ house, I drove
till bedtime, spent the night in a motel and traveled on to Cherry Point the 2nd
day.
During
the entire 12 months I went thru pilot training at Vance, a Marine major flew to
Vance 3 times or so to co-ordinate business matters with us. It was always the
same person and that was one of his assigned duties at that time. Likely it was
back about December that I (and Tom P. and Tom M. in my class) filled out and
sent off our official requests to Headquarters Marine Corps regarding 2
upcoming options.
First: “Request to be stationed on
the west coast or the east coast of the U.S.”
Second: “Request the Marine aircraft that you desire to
pilot, listing three different aircraft in the order of your preference.”
We
called that “request application” a “dream sheet” because our requests were
just as likely to be denied, as they were to be granted. The needs of the
Marine Corps held highest priority. All you military people are plenty familiar
with those “dream sheets”.
Tom
P. and I requested to go to the east coast of the U.S. Tom M. requested to go
to the west coast. All 3 of us were granted our requests regarding location.
I
do not know what three aircraft my 2 Marine classmates each listed on their
dream sheets (nor the order of their preferences). But each of them was
assigned to the A-4 Skyhawk (likely each guy’s 1st preference). Tom
P. came to Cherry Point to train in the A-4 and Tom M. went west to do
likewise.
My
3 requests in order of priority were: #1: F-4 Phantom fighter, #2: A-4 Skyhawk
attack aircraft and #3: A-6 Intruder attack aircraft. At that time, these were
the only 3 jet aircraft the Marines had (I think). Other Marine fixed wing
aircraft were the C-130, 4-engine propeller transport plane and the AV-10
spotter plane. (I hope I am correct with the “AV-10” name.)
“After
you pass 70 years of age your memory just ain’t what it used to be, is it, old
man?”
‘It
certainly isn’t! I praise God I am journeying to God’s Perfect Heaven and that
He will perfect my mind the instant I enter Glory Land! To where are you journeying?’
I
was assigned to fly my 3rd and last of my 3 choices, the A-6
Intruder. I was only slightly disappointed not to get my
1st or 2nd choice. But God in His Perfect Wisdom overrode
my desires and gave me the airplane most suited to me. I will share
details of that blessing with you about 2 years from now when you are flying
along with me in an A-6.
Likely
it was in February when we 3 each received (in writing) our assignments and
orders to report to our next duty station upon graduating from Vance. I was to
report to training flight squadron VMT 203 at Cherry Point to first train in
the T (Trainer) A-4 Skyhawk because there were no A-6 trainer aircraft in which
an instructor pilot could sit in a cockpit at a separate set of controls. Tom
P. was also sent to VMT 203 at Cherry Point. So we 2 soon meet again there.
In
the afternoon of my 2nd day of travel from Ft. Myers, I arrive at
the gate at MCAS Cherry Point. I park and go into the Marine police’s little
hut at the gate, show my orders and ask directions to VMT 203. I drive on
there, park in their lot, and turn in copies of my orders in the squadron’s
administration office thus ending my official leave. I talk with admin
personnel, a pilot instructor or 2 and a student pilot or 2 to glean needed
information about Cherry Point. I soon drive on to the BOQ seeking a place to
lay my weary head this night.
While
still at Vance, I got word thru the grapevine that all the BOQ rooms at Cherry
Point were full and that I would have to rent an apartment or such off base in
which to live. If so, then I would be paid a “housing” allowance each month.
Thus far, I had not been paid that allowance because I lodged in the BOQs. In
order to receive this allowance, I would have to obtain a document from base
housing stating that no BOQ room was available for me. So I thought I could get
that document from the BOQ office this evening, then go check into a motel off
base and start looking for an apartment to rent the next day.
So
when the young Marine corporal manning the BOQ office tells me that rooms are
available, I am plenty surprised. I ask to be assigned to a room, receive my
room key and take in a bag of just a few essentials. I eat a nice supper in the
nearby officer’s chow hall and soon go on to Dreamland after a long day of
driving.