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Post by pat perry on Jul 16, 2021 4:30:46 GMT 9
A lot of changes happened in BMT from the 50s and 60s after WWII. Korea and Vietnam followed as we continued through the Cold War after WWII. In Nov 65 at Lackland we used the M2 Carbine to qualify on the rifle range which was lighter than the earlier M1. At the range they gave us all an M-16 to fire in fully automatic before we used the M2 to qualify. We were told to fire a 10 round magazine from the hip while using downward force with the other hand on the barrel. We were shocked when the last round fired before the shell casing from the first round hit the ground as the barrel rose higher while we fired. This M-16 lead spreader was deadly but not accurate for target fire except in semi automatic.
In Nov 65 we were issued two piece fatigues and Chukka boots, low quarter shoes, 1505 tans, and a blue dress uniform. I never wore anything after BMT except green fatigues. I don't remember where I was issued Jungle Boots with the green mesh for swamps but that's what I wore in Okinawa, Vietnam, and Thailand. We used an M2 and a 38 revolver in these locations for perimeter guard duty and only a 38 on Blind Bat missions over Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam.
Baby boomers are described as those born from 1946 through 1964. I was born in Feb 1946 and graduated HS in 1964. Most of the people I knew were WWII, Korea, and Vietnam veterans and I always felt closer to them than the Boomers. My Dad was born in 1915 and worked for the Corps of Engineers to Build Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project that delivered the Atomic Bomb.
A friend sent me this today which might explain why I'm don't feel like a BOOMER:
Special Group ... Born Between 1930 - 1946.
Today, they range in ages from 75 to 90. Are you or do you know someone "still here"?
Interesting Facts for you . . .
You are the smallest group of children, born since the early 1900s.
You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
You saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.
You saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.
You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch.
You are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.
You saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses.
You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you imagined what you heard on the radio.
With no TV until the 50's, you spent your childhood "playing outside".
There was no little league. There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in your early years meant, that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.
On Saturday afternoons, the movies gave you newsreels sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines) and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).
Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage and changing the ribbon.
INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.
Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. As you grew up, the country was exploding with growth.
The Government gave returning Veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow. Loans fanned a housing boom.
Pent up demand coupled with new installment payment plans opened many factories for work.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility.
The Veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.
Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.
You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus. They were glad you played by yourselves until the street lights came on. They were busy discovering the post war world.
You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves and felt secure in your future though depression poverty was deeply remembered.
Polio was still a crippler.
You came of age in the 50s and 60s.
You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland. The second world war was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.
Only your generation can remember both a time of great war, and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty.
You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better . . .
You are "The Last Ones" . . .
More than 99 % of you are either retired or deceased, and you feel privileged to have lived in the best of times!
Pat P.
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Post by Jim on Jul 16, 2021 6:28:23 GMT 9
15 July 1952..... A long time ago........ Took off from Buffalo, NY airport headed for Sampson AFB. A then Air force Basic Military Training Center. This had been a US Navy Boot Training Center during WW2. The latrine had a sign over the latrine door that read "HEAD". Signs around the open bay barracks labeled things such as deck, bulkhead, porthole and ladder to mention some that I remember from 68 years ago. Morse code and semaphore flags were paint on the walls between the studs. Yep, no insulation, so hotter n hell in July and August. And talking to guys that went through there in the winter- the butt cans hung on the posts holding up the second story floor would have an inch of ice in them. They were issued 3 OD blankets..... There was still an old Navy float plane pulled up on the ramp in front of the hanger that we used for drilling. Open Bay barracks, double deck bunks, Clothes rack and a shelf (in lieu of wall lockers), a footlocker (in lieu of a dresser) open showers, a trough for a urinal.. From what I hear, today's dormitories are similar to CAMPING in a travel trailer....... BTW, I still have that footlocker and it has been everywhere I have been stationed. It wasn't even on my supply record when I retired 43 years ago......... |
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Post by Jim on Jul 16, 2021 6:30:25 GMT 9
Pat, do you realize that M&Ms are older than you?
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Post by pat perry on Jul 16, 2021 22:09:02 GMT 9
Pat, do you realize that M&Ms are older than you?
Forrest Mars, Sr., son of the Mars Company founder, Frank C. Mars, copied the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating British-made Smarties, chocolate pellets with a colored shell of what confectioners call hard panning (essentially hardened sugar syrup) surrounding the outside, preventing the sweets (candies) from melting. Mars received a patent for his own process on March 3, 1941. Production began in 1941 in a factory located at 285 Badger Avenue in Clinton Hill, Newark, New Jersey.
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Post by pat perry on Jul 16, 2021 23:30:41 GMT 9
15 July 1952..... A long time ago........ Took off from Buffalo, NY airport headed for Sampson AFB. A then Air force Basic Military Training Center. This had been a US Navy Boot Training Center during WW2. The latrine had a sign over the latrine door that read "HEAD". Signs around the open bay barracks labeled things such as deck, bulkhead, porthole and ladder to mention some that I remember from 68 years ago. Morse code and semaphore flags were paint on the walls between the studs. Yep, no insulation, so hotter n hell in July and August. And talking to guys that went through there in the winter- the butt cans hung on the posts holding up the second story floor would have an inch of ice in them. They were issued 3 OD blankets..... There was still an old Navy float plane pulled up on the ramp in front of the hanger that we used for drilling. Open Bay barracks, double deck bunks, Clothes rack and a shelf (in lieu of wall lockers), a footlocker (in lieu of a dresser) open showers, a trough for a urinal.. From what I hear, today's dormitories are similar to CAMPING in a travel trailer....... BTW, I still have that footlocker and it has been everywhere I have been stationed. It wasn't even on my supply record when I retired 43 years ago.........
There are two July 1952 classes pictures from Sampson and four in August. Lackland was full so they used Sampson, AFB for USAF BMT.
Usually flight pictures were made close to graduation. Did you go to Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX for Acft Mech Tech Training?
www.bmtflightphotos.af.mil/1950s/1952/
If you do a search on Sampson AFB there are many pictures but some of them are on insecure websites. Look for the HTTPS:// websites that are secure.
PS: when you were graduating BMT I was graduating 1st grade at 6 years old. I had a feeling that someday I would meet an USAF Irish guy and we would become lifelong friends. 
PPS: I never did find my Flight Picture from Nov-Dec 1965. I vaguely remember that Lackland had an outbreak of spinal meningitis when I was there and that may have restricted normal operations. I found this note when Lackland was closed and BMT move to Amarillo, TX: "Due to a meningitis outbreak at Lackland AFB, Amarillo AFB was used for basic training for a short period of time from February 1966 through December 1968". I think that outbreak started in Nov-Dec 1965. We still did all our normal BMT but Flights were distanced from each other and I was bussed to Sheppard AFB for Tech Training in Dec 1965."
Pat P.
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Post by Jim on Jul 17, 2021 0:45:35 GMT 9
Usually flight pictures were made close to graduation. Did you go to Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX for Acft Mech Tech Training?
No, Amarillo was where I went. The only other place for jet training was CalTech a civilian school under contract. Believe jet engine was also at Amarillo. When I got there in Sept, we moved into brand new barracks. At Sampson, the AF Cook and Baker school was there as well. They built and were building about 50 2 story barracks in G and H areas.
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Bullhunter
Global Moderator 
318th FIS Jet Shop 1975-78
Currently: Offline
Posts: 7,445 
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Post by Bullhunter on Sept 29, 2022 13:27:25 GMT 9
I remember our first few days at BMT and we were marched to the BX to get supplies. We were instructed to purchase shoe polish in the can. One smart dude saw the liquid shoe polish in the plastic bottle and purchased that. We were show that afternoon how to spit shine our shoes. It took us hours except for the dude that had the liquid polish. Next morning we were ordered to fall out for inspection. Our TI Sgt Carr took one look at that dudes boots and was in his face within a second or two and it was not good for him. He was almost in tears and Sgt Carr told him at the end of day he was to go to the BX and get the proper shoe shine to strip the BS shine off all his foot ware and and then spit shine them, and he would inspect his 3 pairs of foot ware in the morning. He was up almost all night shining those shoes even with the help from a few of us.
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