Remembering and finding old items (Read 1,192 times)

It was February 1952. The place: Lackland. The setting: Twelve man tents, pitched in a field not far from the end of the runway at Kelly. Whenever a C99 took off it seemed like the tent pole would not be able to stand the vibration. Fortunately, they never took off at night while I was there. Although some F89's, with burners blaring did. There were duck walks from each tent to a central boardwalk that took us to the latrine and to the nearest paved street. It was miserable. It rained a couple of times, and that meant mud everywhere. We got our uniforms and headed back to our tents. Each of us was given a marking kit and had to have all our clothes marked that evening. The one exception was our white duffel bag, it had to be stenciled. Initials, last name and full serial number. Some of the guys got issued army uniforms, as they didn't have the new blues in their sizes. Some got brown, rough surfaced brogans. Those who got the brown brogans also got some sand paper and black shoe dye. Yep, they had to sand the rough off the boots and make them as smooth as possible and then dye them. Glad I got blues and black brogans.
After ten days at Lackland, our Basic Training Flight got on two buses and headed north to Shepherd for our real basic. Then it was a full inspection to make sure each item, skivvies included, was properly marked, shoes and boots polished. Then we were each issued a foot locker and had to stencil our initials, last name and full serial number on it. Then we were ready for basic.

Old post card of the falls sent to my Dad at Taft field CA, during WWII.
Wonder who the heck Rose was.
Check out the post mark & stamp.

I still have my Bulova 24 hr watch from 1954 with the nylon strap... Still keeps excellent time - as long as you wind it..... It is in my original issue foot locker from 1952............ The Old Sarge
Still glows in the dark..........................

Going through my recently deceased stepdads stuff I came across my old issue clothing marking kit box (without contents). Stamped on the outside was the familiar last name initial and last four of my AF serial number. Can't remember giving it to him but, he was a packrat. Now where DID I put that sewing kit?

yes i know what you mean.... i was told to stamp everything JN6549 which is the first and last of johnson...when i called on the radio i was "juliet/november.... i still use my dads service number for certain logins, 8 digits ges a long way...


i even found his : metal insignia, not to be confused with todays MSGT insignia



:us_flag

p.s. i am in contact with a person in korea, who is interested in my watch...i just sent him some jpegs to show the condition of the watch, which he requested

AF12413881 and my duffle bag was OD and the foot locker was OD until I got to Shaw AFB after Amarillo AFB and they made me get it painted blue..... You mean : I will not quit my post until properly relieved. I believe the title for these 10 rulres were called General orders...... Some place I still have the card that they gave me when I had to stand armed guard on the flight line at Chambley AB, France as an A/1c....... (Everyone was a first class citizen, but you could be a second class airman in '55) Shot at a motorcycle cutting across the flight line (The base wasn't really fenced in) cost me 13 cents for that 30 calibre M1 round.. The Old Sarge