Military Memories
by Lyle StoufferAVIATION CADET AT HARLINGEN AFB TEXAS
Starting school again. Cutting off the enlisted stripes that had been sewn on the sleeves of all my shirts and starting to wear the blue shoulder boards. Moreover, inheriting an upper class that had been administered four weeks of lower class orientation and regimentation by shavetail 2nd Lts. who had just graduated from the military academy in June of 1952. Their first military duties were to see that the first class starting at Harlingen would be able to pass on down the line that constant badgering and hazing makes “men” out of boys entering the military cadet program.
Class 53-1 was our upper class. We were designated 53-3. Class 53-1 and and 53-2 both got the rigid military discipline of the brand new Academy graduates and 53-1 was only too happy to put us in a brace and administer their new found overbearing treatment. I’m not too sure that the 2nd Lts. might have been a more desirable upper class. We had to endure the abuse for four weeks until we became 3rd class cadets and got to add a stripe at the outer end of our shoulder boards.
In addition we got to be upper class for the new 53-5 class just starting the program. For the next four weeks, we picked on the new guys like those before us picked at us. We no longer had to march to the mess hall but have to march to classes and flight line.
The first four weeks was nearly all classroom work on basics of navigation and the military. We went rather deeply into meteorology (the study of atmosphere and its weather), celestial navigation, radio fixes, radar fixes, dead reckoning navigation and all things relative to the text of navigation. We had some night work of familiarization with the navigation sextant (for getting fixes from the stars) and learning the use of the star tables.
Our flight training for navigators started about the time we were completing our four weeks as Cadet 4th class men. Our first four rides were in C-45 and T-l 1 twin engine aircraft where we learned map reading, dead reckoning, use of drift meters and some radio fix techniques. We were happy to graduate into the T-29 (Convair) where we had radar, radio, LORAN (long range navigation) and several domes where we could get sun line and star shots with a sextant. We actually accomplished navigation and the designated student lead navigator got to direct the flight path of the aircraft. The other navigators (usually eight or ten) on board had to turn in a navigation log that reflected where the flight had actually flown.
Classroom learning continued on non flight days all the way through the basic observer course.
Before completing the course in January 1953, we got a Christmas break of two weeks. I flew home to the farm in Illinois. While at home I discovered that there were two Sterling guys who were looking for a ride back to their bases after Christmas. One was an Air Force Observer Cadet from Ellington AFB, Corpus Christi and the other was in the Navy assigned to a Station in Norman OK. I got them to share gas expenses and I would drop them off on my way back to Harlingen AFB.
We loaded up my "47 Oldsmobile and headed south out of the Midwest winter. I had decided to swing by Beloit, Kansas and overnight with my grandparents (Luther and Edna Day, Mom’s
parents) before proceeding on to points south. The roads were pretty clear in northern Illinois and Iowa but started deteriorating in southern Nebraska and northern Kansas. There was not a serious interstate freeway system completed in the US at that time.
As we departed Concordia we started encountering freezing rain. Anyone with a little smarts would have overnighted in Concordia. It was after sunset and we were only a few miles from Beloit, so we pressed on. We were going quite slowly because of the very slippery and icy condition of the road. We were still about 20 miles from Beloit when we entered a 90 degree turn to the right of an un-banked comer. The car entered a skid and before we knew it we were upside down in the ditch on the outside of the turn. The navy lad had been asleep in the back seat and did not respond to our queries of “Everything OK?” etc. He seemed to be totally out of it.
Carl Stutzke and I carefully got him out of the car onto a GI blanket that we had and he “came to” a couple of minutes later. We found a thermos bottle that had been on the ledge by the back window had smacked him on the head and knocked him unconscious for a few minutes but other than significant lump on his head, he seemed to be OK. By this time a couple of cars had stopped and we got an offer to ride into Concordia with them. I called Granddad Day and he said he would come right away and pick us up. I made arrangements to have the car towed in to Concordia and checked out for damages. We got to Beloit around midnight.
The next morning we checked on the car and found that the right front fender had to be bent out so it wouldn’t rub the tire and the left side of the roof had a permanent dent. There was no damage to the engine or other running parts.
Towing charges and garage work repairs came to about $150. That was more than I had on me or in my checking account for that matter. When Grandpa Day took us back to Concordia, I accepted a temporary loan from him and we were on the way. No further problems and we all got back to our duty stations in plenty of time.
The next payday, I squared the loan with Grandpa Day. Rather than have the "47 Olds repaired, I traded it for a used 1951 Buick Century four door sedan my first experience with Buick’s dyna flo transmission.
One of the off base activities that we got involved in on Saturday afternoon was a local jam session at a bar and grill in Harlingen. A member of our class was a fellow named A! Grill. He had played saxophone and clarinet for a polka band from the Dakotas before he entered the Air Force. The band had made several recordings and was named “The She Fat Dutchmen.” A1 was not “fat” but a very accomplished jazz musician and was glad to get away from polkas for a time.
Our class got assignments for Advanced Navigation and Observer Training about a month before completing the Basic Observer Training at Harlingen. Nearly all of the class were being assigned to Mather AFB California for training as navigators or bombardiers in a variety of aircraft. Twelve of us, including me, had notification of assignment for training at Mather AFB to become navigator/bombardier in B-26 aircraft that were being used in Korea for close air support of ground forces.
Before orders were cut to that effect, the peace talks in Korea had really reduced the need for people assigned to that B-26 program. Instead we received orders to go to Lowry AFB Colorado to become Armament Operations Officers for units having B-36 and B-47s in the Strategic Air Command. (SAC) We would still be cadets but would receive commissions as 2nd Lts. and earn our Observer wings at the completion of the course at Lowry.
LOWRY AFB, DENVER COLORADO
When we arrived at Lowry AFB early in 1953 we were an unusual breed since we were a few cadets among a throng of enlisted personnel and officers. No one seemed to know what to do with us. We did not required a salute from enlisted personnel and officers appeared confused when we rendered a salute to them. We were not welcome at the Officer’s Club nor the Airmen or NCO Clubs. We were assigned to a barracks that had a new sign stuck in the ground outside that indicated “CADET AREA”. We were assigned a major to watch over us.
We had to renovate an area on the lower floor of our barracks into what was named the “Cadet Club.” The major okayed the installation of a beer tap in our club. I was one of the committee that made a weekend visit to the Coors Brewery in Golden to inquire about installing and servicing a tap beer system at the Lowry AFB Cadet Club. We were referred to a Coors distributor in Denver to provide us with what we needed and we made our trip to Golden worthwhile by partaking in the free sampling of the Coors product.
We were advanced cadets prior to our commissioning and had lots of great weekends in the Denver area.. A popular Friday afternoon gathering point for a nickel beer was the Alameda Tavern ( On Alameda just off Broadway). Large frosted mugs and Coors draft beer. We also got familiar with the Taylor Supper club on West Colfax and the Beacon Supper Club on East Colfax. The zoo was great! Evening band concerts in the park. Ski trips to Rabbit Ears Pass (rope tow) and listening to Liberace at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
I really got to love Colorado during my tour there. Denver was still a “little” city then.
The tour at Lowry was not all fun and games though. We had a very concentrated course of study in the classroom and several flights in B-29/B-50 aircraft. The classroom work was concentrated on learning the rear turret radar gun-laying systems for B47B & E and the tail turret gun-laying radar system for the B-36 aircraft. In addition the weapons carried in these tail turret systems, the M24A1 20 MM canon and the caliber 50. The B47 B carried two caliber 50 machine guns and the B47E carried two 20 MM cannons. The B-36 had some caliber 50 configurations and some 20 MM weapons.
The flights in B-29 and B-50 aircraft were to familiarize us with the loading 50 caliber ammunition , firing the guns from upper forward and lower forward turret and cleaning all weapons and link debris from the upper forward turret after the mission.
On June 13, 1953, our class was scheduled to be commissioned as 2nd Lts in the Air Force. Before we could become 2nd Lts, we had to pass a very thorough physical examination. We were to become Observer rated flying status officers so it would be acomplete flight physical. Our cadet softball team had been entered in a base intramural fast pitch league. I had injured the cartilage in my right knee about the last week of May and had been put in a hip to ankle cast that was supposed to be in place for six weeks. Since I couldn’t pass the complete physical in that status, the good major went to bat for me and got the flight surgeon to give me a conditional clean bill of health.
I almost blew my commissioning on another score. On my medical history questionnaire I had marked that I had suffered with hay fever as a child. When the flight surgeon was looking over my paperwork, he asked me if this was true and if it were true, I would be rejected from attaining flight status. He and I agreed that it had been a mistake and we corrected it then and there.
On June 13, 1953,1 went to the flight surgeon and his technicians cut the cast off of my right leg. I was able to march to the area in front of Lowry Base Headquarters where B/Gen Sprague pinned on our 2nd Lt. Bars. He had a comment for each of us as he was pinning on the bars. I don’t recall what he said to the others but his comment to me, I shall retain forever. The commissioning was done alphabetically and naturally I was the last one. General Sprague said“Well, Stouffer, we have a lot in common. I was always at or near the tail end of everything in my military career but we’ll do our shining in other ways.” They called him the “piano wire” general since he had been in on the early military aviation prior to WWII and was nearing a forced retirement.
I passed my physical upon removal of the cast right after the 4th of July. We completed the Armament Operations Officer course in late July 1953.
My parents flew to Denver to be at the ceremony of celebration. My mother pinned on my observer wings. I had received orders to report to the SAC wing at Smokey Hill AFB, Salina Kansas for my next assignment They still had B-50s there but were scheduled to get B-47s to replace them in the near future.
I had a couple of weeks before I had to report so I drove my folks back to the farm in Illinois. It was not a direct route. We drove to Colorado Springs where we visited relatives from Dad’s mother’s side of the family and drove that "51 Buick up to the top of Pikes Peak. A real test of the Dyna Flo and brake system on the car. Then we stopped in Kansas (Beloit and Glen Elder) and Bellview, Nebraska to visit more relatives on the way to Illinois. After a short break in Illinois, I headed for my assignment at Smokey Hill AFB at Salina Kansas.
SMOKEY HILL AFB, SALINA KANSAS
I recall that I had driven to Beloit from Illinois and stayed overnight with the Grandparent Days before the 75 mile drive from Beloit to Salina on the morning of August 7, 1953. What a surprise I got when I signed in for duty. I was greeted with the information that Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph AFB had been trying to contact me by TWX (teletype message) to advise me to report instead to the 303rd Bombardment Wing at Davis Monthan AFB, Tucson AZ. The Wing at Salina was being delayed in getting its conversion to B-47s. The 303rd Bomb Wing at Davis Monthan had no Armament Operations Officer assigned to get their aircrews trained on the rear turret system before they could be declared combat ready.
Since I had signed in at Smokey Hill, Air Force personnel authorized issuing new orders there to get me to Davis Monthan. I was only at Smokey Hill AFB for about seven hours before I signed out and headed for Tucson.
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