sometimes during this time of yr...I start thinking of snow...ok..well..my wife does...which always amazes me how some people will freak out at the mention of snow...(Washatonians are notable for not being able to drive in the snow)
when I hear this ..I always go back to my time stationed at Grand Forks AFB...
now ...I guess I should mention here that I'm basically a Florida boy...grew up on the south eastern seaboard and gulf coast...so..barefoot and in cutoff's was the norm for me....
well...after my stay at Hamilton AFB ( the country club of the west coast)...I got orders for Da Nang...3 times...and since I am a sole surviving son...the AF at the time couldn't send me there...so..in thier brilliant minds, figured they couldn't shoot my butt...they might as well freeze it off!!!!...Da Nang was off the books for me(not that I'm disappointed but I did put in for worldwide)..
well..Grand Forks wasn't the lush place I imagined....table top flat....trees along each side of the road....and about as boring as one could get...
My indoctrination began with 2 weeks of intro and NBC training...WHAT???
..Nuclear, Biological and Chemical training???......I'm an office puke..what the heck do I need to know about NBC??..well.....it turns out that as all of you know at the time GFAFB is a SAC base...bombers and missiles are the rule of the day here...everything else existed to support those assets...
now...I'm something like 20 yrs old...hormones are screaming....women are around (even if some do resemble cows there) and canada is just oh what...50 mi. north where Winnipeg it seems has women that like American GI's....(by the way..I think the women there save it all up for breeding season in the spring and summer
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I spend my first winter there freeeeeeeezinng....I mean..I'd never seen so much snow fall in one month...I was stationed on base and my barracks (lived on the 3rd floor) had snow half way up the windows....we actually dug a tunnel from our barracks in the snow to the chow hall !!...watched a snow blower chew up some poor guys car cuz he didn't get it parked far enough into the slot in the parking lot!!...and to plug your car into a wall outlet to keep the block warm???
now...after the 3rd month there...I'm thinking ..."Self???there ain't enough alchohol on the planet to live thru this place"....
it was exciting at times....between stints of being sober enough and some of the awesome displays of airpower.....I got pulled as a JAFO (just another f#cking observer)or GIB (Guy in back) for one of the hueys we had for air support of a missile convoy...( I didn't know I could actually see my lung in the barf bag before!!!
..to this day I still can't stand the smell of 7up)...having a helo driver freshly transfered from Nam didn't help either....he was certifiably nuts....I didn't know a huey could do that kind of flying before!!
one nite...myself and a young lady were out in a field...on a blanket...( it was warm that nite)...doing the horizontal mamba when I looked up to see the Northern Lights!!...now..picture a florida kid fresh out of NBC training seeing this giant lights in the sky!!...of course I about had heart failure ...which the girl thought I was in ecstasy from the passion....she didn't know until I jumped up that I thought it was a nuclear attack!!! ;D
after I'd served my penance in the frozen tundra...I got transfered to Travis AFB....at least there I didn't freeze to death or experience a nuclear attack gone badly....
thought you guys might like my story and yes...it's all true...
Steve
..Nuclear, Biological and Chemical training???......I'm an office puke..what the heck do I need to know about NBC??..well.....it turns out that as all of you know at the time GFAFB is a SAC base...bombers and missiles are the rule of the day here...everything else existed to support those assets...
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