I missed Louisiana. Dad was in for 29, but he had some long assignments…like 9 years at the base in Illinois (he was an instructor). Mom, as a service member’s wife, always voted in Illinois, her home state, until they retired in Texas, then she registered there.
Yeah, I had only one long assignment but got out at 20 years. Your Dad doing 29 years is very impressive!
He couldn’t go over 30 because of his rank…or his retirement would drop to buck Sergeant. He spanned from WWII to Vietnam.
That's cruddy about the rank, but I bet he has some amazing stories. My grandpa was a cook for the Navy at sea. He always made WAY too much food for family meals, lol.
He didn’t talk much about his service. I know he was on 35 missions over Germany in a B-17. I know one of the planes caught “ack-ack” and coasted into Belgium and he “made it to the coast” and back to England. I know that of the original 240 in his squadron, he was the only one to come back.
I Vietnam, he was chief of maintenance on the U-2s and lightening bugs. He and his crew had air conditioned trailers and the base commander didn’t. He sent the planes out overnight to gather film footage. He removed it when they returned in the AM and drove it to Saigon, then back to sleep.
That is really cool, love he had better digs lol!
Oh man, most who've really been thru it don't discuss. My ex FIL never spoke about Vietnam, really.
The only thing Dad talked about concerning Vietnam was there was 1 time the base was being mortared and everyone went to bunkers. 2 hours after the mortaring stopped, he was bored and left the bunker to check on “his” planes and the base. He was offered an award, which he turned down. 1/2
And there was 1 time when they caught a 12 year old girl planted mines outside the front gate. The base commander was off base and he was the highest rank at CWO-4. He had to order her shot. That one was really hard on him.
Oh, that's horrible. How sad all around.
It wasn’t bad. One thing that was different was the rank (WO-1 to CWO-4 in the Air Force) got 5% per year over 20 instead of the 2.5% the others got. When he retired, the rank was no longer available, so the retirement pay was equal to an officer. He retired at 95% active duty pay of a major.
Wow, thats awesome!
There were only 5500 ever in the AF. 4400 warranted in November of 1955 and the other 1100 in January of 1956. Dad was in the 2nd group, which wasn’t bad considering he was forced to sign up by his CO the day before the test and there were 55,000 total test takers. I’m the result of the celebration
Haha, classic military conception story ❤️ Very impressive promotion against the odds!
He was an instructor at the time. The CO told him to take the day to study. He told the CO that if he couldn’t pass the exam, he shouldn’t be teaching. They were the tech experts of the AF. Later, the Master Sergeant ranks were created to replace the WO rank.
True integrity, true leaders back then.
Greatest Generation. Like all kids, there were things I didn’t agree with (like he was heavy handed with punishment) and he was somewhat distant as a parent, but he was a true patriot and good human being. He gave money and time to charities after he retired. Took care of neighbors anonymously.