Military Memories
by Lyle StoufferDAVIS MONTHAN AFB, TUCSON ARIZONA
On 9 August 1953,1 signed in for duty at the 303rd Bomb Wing at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson. It was pretty hot then and well into the monsoon season. I was assigned a room in a BOQ near the Officer’s Club. It had no air conditioning. For cooling, there was a large fan built into the doorway at one end of the hallway that ran the length of the building. The doors on the rooms on each side of the hallway had been reinstalled to open outward so that the rushing air from the fan could be directed into each room. Not too efficient but by October, the night time temperatures dropped enough that we could get a good night’s sleep. We didn’t spend any more time in the room during the day than was absolutely necessary. The Officer’s Club was air conditioned and we spent a lot of time there. Most of the gents in the barracks quarters were bachelor officers from the 15th Fighter Squadron (F-86As) that was assigned to Davis Monthan AFB.
All the guys in the BOQ were 2nd Lts except for one 1st Lt. Don Cavanaugh. He was a 1951 graduate of the US Military Academy and although he was married immediately after graduating from the Academy, he had separated from his wife and moved into the BOQ. He was assigned to the communications squadron on base.
I was a pretty busy boy at the office. The Deputy Director of Operations for the Bomb Wing was a Lt. Col. Named Eldridge G. Shelton. He had been a basketball player for the University of Oklahoma and then was with the Phillips 66ers (a traveling pro team) until he joined the Army Air Corps early in World War II. He was about 6’6" tall and had always wanted to be a fighter pilot but was always too tall to fit into them. He was my boss and my mentor. He sicked me onto the people who would help me get my job going since I was really like a little boy lost in the woods at the start.
I was sent TDY (Temporary Duty ) to Tampa Florida to personally see and bring back data for setting up an OQ range B-47 turret to train co-pilots of the three squadrons (358th, 359th and 360th) of the 303rd Bomb Wing. The co-pilot in the B-47 had what we called a “barber chair seat.” He had to rotate it to the rear for the radar screen and hand control for locking onto a target and firing the twin 20 MM guns.
The target at our range (which was located at the Sahuarita Bombing and Gunnery Range just north of the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson) was a radio controlled drone with about a 12’wing span and an air cooled engine with about a 4’ wooden propeller on it. It sounded like a flying gas powered chain saw in flight. When it ran out of fuel or the engine was cut off from the ground, it would pop out a parachute and float to the ground to be put back in the air another day. Seldom was it hit by projectiles since the complete computer package that corrected for forward velocity, parallax etc was not operational.
Once the co-pilot had been checked out on the lock-on and firing procedures, the crew had to fly to the Wendover Gunnery and Bombing Range, Utah, on three of its training missions and fire a combat load each of the three missions before they could be declared combat ready.
Our higher headquarters for the 303rd Bomb Wing was 15th Air Force at March AFB, Riverside, California. They had reduced the combat load requirement from full load of 300 rounds of ammo to successful firing of at least 50 rounds on three missions because time was of the essence.
There were lots of other requirements to be accomplished prior to combat readiness but because they didn’t have an assigned/qualified Armament Operations Officer prior to my arrival, the gunnery qualification was holding up the works.
On 1 November 1953, one of the B-47s from the 358th Bomb Squadron was firing its 20 mm guns on the Wendover range but had made a navigation error and was about 20 miles south of the track they thought they were flying. As a result of their error, the 20 mm ammunition from their guns tore up the ground around one of the remote perimeter guard shacks and scared the guard on duty half to death.
I was one of a five person team that was sent to Wendover to investigate the incident. We only spent two days there, prepared a written report and the aircrew received a written reprimand and it just became history.
Along with my Armament Ops duties, Col. Shelton assigned me the task of OIC (officer in charge) of the Wing Control Unit. This was a secure unit with a guard outside the door at all times that had the VHF and UHF and HF radios with which we could talk to the airborne B-47s and pass info to and from them. We also had a good land line point to point capability so that we could get range clearances, refueling tanker rendezvous and such. An interesting job and I had some good senior NCOs manning the operating positions there. Being a green 2nd Lt, I was out of my league.
Immediately after Thanksgiving of 1953 I was sent to a SAC base at Limestone, Maine, to set up a Command Post for an exercise of the 303rd Bomb Wing B-47s from Davis Monthan to Limestone and then back to DM. I didn’t know it at the time but it was an exercise to prove our deployment capability to an overseas base. We passed with flying colors and were put on a schedule for deployment for 90 days to a base in England. More on that to come later.
Although my job kept me pretty busy from August through November, we did have some social times around Tucson too. We received a phone call at the BOQ from the Delta Delta Delta sorority house at the University of Arizona asking for five bachelor officers in formal mess dress to escort five of their members to a Christmas formal dinner and dance. I think there were only five of us in the BOQ that had our complete formal military mess dress uniform so we did that. Was a strange request but we were welcomed warmly and had a great time.
In January of 1954 we were alerted that we would deploy the three squadrons of the Bomb Wing to Greenham Common Royal Air Force Station, Great Britain. The aircraft would start the mass airlift in February and operate out of Greenham Common for 90 days before returning to DM.
I was notified that I would be part of an advance party departing in early February to set up operations at Greenham Common. Again, my job was so set up an Air-Ground Communication Command Post for the period of operating there.
Not all of the Wing was to deploy since a lot of the support would be provided by US Air Force personnel assigned at Greenham Common. A sergeant that worked in Wing Ops was not going on the deployment so I asked him if he would look after my "51 Buick Century while I was gone. He readily agreed and said he would drive it occasionally to make sure it stayed in working order.
GREENHAM COMMON ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION, ENGLAND
Greenham Common RAF Station was located about 50 miles directly west of London. It had been a World War II fighter base and had been unused for many years. New concrete runways had recently been constructed and when we arrived in February of 1954 there was still lots of modem buildings being finished although quarters for the TDY personnel, like us, was in the Quonset huts that were used for that purpose during WWH.
The flight from the US to Greenham Commons was aboard a KC-97 of the 303rd Air Refueling Squadron of our 303rd Bombardment Wing. I was assigned the task of assisting the navigator of the KC-97 crew on the over water portion of the flight from Goose Bay Labrador to Prestwick, Scotland. We overnighted at those two stops prior to the final leg from Prestwick to Greenham Common. I shot sun lines with the sextant during the day and a few star shots prior to getting landfall of Great Britain on the aircraft radar. We didn’t have to completely rely on sun lines and star fixes over the water since radar fixes from ship Delta and ship Coco (vessels assigned duty stations in the open sea.) The legs of the flight were long hours of droning since the cruising velocity of the KC-97 was only about 250 knots. I was glad to have something to do along the way.
On the third day of the trip, we touched down at Greenham Common. The weather for the entire time we were there was generally foggy, rainy, cold and occasionally had some snowflakes and a light covering of ice on the puddles.
We were pretty rushed getting things set up for the arrival of the B-47s. We did lose two of the aircraft before they got to England. The aircraft were very overweight at take off (with flyaway bins in the bomb bays) from DM and had to use JATO (jet assisted take off) bottles to get them airborne initially. The bottles would be fired up on take off roll to give the additional thrust needed to get them airborne.
One aircraft from the 358th Squadron had a failure of JATO and crashed in the desert southeast of Tucson killing all four on board.
A second was lost at Goose Bay, Labrador. After a refueling stop there, the aircraft was running up on the runway prior to its last leg to Greenham Common. When adjusting fuel feed switches prior to take off roll, a short occurred and the rear tandem main gear began to retract. Fuel tanks ruptured when the fuselage hit the ground and a fire ensued. The crew managed to escape before engulfed in the ensuing fire but the aircraft was a total loss before the fire could be put out. The aircraft was from the 360th Squadron.
The closest town to Greenham Common was Newbury, Berkshire, a mere five miles away. Sort of an inactive little village except during the summer when its steeplechase horse race course drew people from all over England. It was off season for racing there so the only benefits for us were several very short Irish jockeys who were bartenders at the Officer’s club at Greenham Common. They had to jump up on overturned wooden cases in order to serve drinks at the bar.
Jim Yamell and I did get into Newbury Berks to a pub called the Horse’s Head and played some cribbage with some old timers there. They were very serious about their cribbage and always played for money. It was sort of a joke to us since the wagers were usually a tuppence (2 pence) or a trupeny bit (3 pence). The farthing (1/4 pence) was still being used but they never stooped that low.
Jim Yamell was an intelligence officer with the 303rd Bomb Wing and we hadn’t really gotten acquainted until this TDY deployment.
When the B-47s had been operating out of Greenham Common for a short time, it was discovered that, although the runways were concrete, the overruns beyond the ends of the runways were constructed of macadam (asphalt). The B-47s ran up their engines prior to take off. The attitude of the aircraft during run-up caused the jet blast from the engines to heat up the area to the rear of the aircraft. Large chunks of asphalt were being thrown from the overruns, which cause them to break up so badly they were dangerous for an aircraft having to use them in an emergency. It was decided that we would have to move our entire operations to Fairford RAF Station to the the overruns could be reconstructed in concrete in order to accommodate future B-47 operations there.
Before I could make the move to Fairford I had to inventory the items that were assigned to the 303rd Bomb Wing Operations section and lock them up in a secure store room. I had signed for the things we needed when I had arrived with the advance party in early February. They didn’t want me to turn in the items since they assumed we would return to Greenham Common for more operations prior to returning to DM. I mention this since it would later haunt me some two years later. I locked up everything and turned the keys over to the Wing Headquarters Administrative officer who was going to stay at Greenham Common RAF Station until we rotated back to the states. Had I known then what I know now, I would have gotten a written receipt for an itemized list of those keys. More later on.
The 303rd Air Refueling Squadron operated out of Mildenhall RAF Station at Cambridge while the B-47s were at Greenham Common and Fairford. I only got one long flight during the TDY in England, which was aboard one of our KC-97s. We refueled two RB-45 aircraft over the North Sea before they flew off on their mysterious missions. The US RB-45 aircraft were operating out of Sculthorpe AB in England and gathering sensitive electronic intelligence (elint) out of range of the USSR defensive weapons during those blockade years.
Because of the inclement weather in and around Great Britain during the time that we operated there, the established goals that SAC desired of the 303rd could not be met on the 90 day TDY. A decision was made at high level that we would extend the TDY by 30 days and move the Wing to Sidi Slimane, French Morocco, for operations. The use of Nuerrasuer Bombing Range in North Africa would allow completion of the requirements.
The refueling squadron moved to Wheelus AB, Tripoli, Libya, to support the B-47 refueling requirements. The weather on the desert was ideal and we started packing up for the return to Davis Monthan AFB by the end of May 1954.
Although we were there a short time we used our weekend to do a little touring. We had to travel in uniform and in groups of not less than three individuals since the Moroccans were very unhappy with their French parent country and severe confrontations with them sometimes resulted in fatalities. The US was welcomed even though we were there during Ramadan season and locals were a little touchy.
We got to Fez, Rabat, Casablanca and some of our group even got to Tangiers although I didn’t make it that far. We also rounded up some 57 cent per magnum of local champagne to take home with us. The French operated vineyards turned out a product that was nowhere near the quality of the French vintners. We wound up drinking it anyway.
Another great bit of knowledge that would accompany me back to the states was that I would not have to return to the BOQ life at DM. Jim Yarnell had an old friend graduating from the U of A in Tucson in May of 1954. This friend, Jim Brimm, had owned a home in the Catalina foothills north of Tucson while attending U of A and had indicated that he wanted to sell it. While we were at Fairford RAF station, Jim Yarnell had sent a telegram to his father, Austin Yarnell in Wichita Kansas that he wanted that house. A few days later Jim Y received a telegram from his father “the house is yours.” Jim asked a fellow bachelor intelligence officer (Ernie Phillips) and myself to live with him and share expenses after we returned to Tucson. We both accepted.
BACK TO DM AND HELLO TO CAMINO ESQUELA
I got to log more navigator time on the KC-97 flight that brought the three of us back to Davis Monthan via Pepperell Air Base, Newfoundland.
My "51 Buick was in running condition but it had been stored in a carport during the time that I had been gone. It had been used once or twice by the Sgt’s wife to go shopping at commissary and the BX with their three adolescent kids. After the last such trip, a rear window had been left open and I don’t know how many dusty windstorms had contributed to the layer of dust coating the inside including the velour seat upholstery. I hadn’t had seat covers on the seats. After hours of vacuuming and dusting I got most of the car looking pretty good but I couldn’t seem to get it out of the upholstery. I decided to get some seat covers for it.
In the early 1950s there weren’t many places to get seat covers in Tucson. I decided to take the car to the Buick dealer (Young Buick on Speedway). I selected some patterned seat covers and they said they would install them at no charge. I couldn’t refuse. While the installation was in progress, I went to look at the new 1954 models displayed on the show room floor. There in the center of several models was a yellow Century convertible with the top down. The seats and top boot were upholstered in genuine leather and really looked great. I was sitting at the wheel of it for a while and it felt great. When the salesman approached, he asked me if I would like to drive it home. He asked me what I currently had and after I told him about my "51 Buick, he said he could make me a deal I couldn’t refuse. He test drove my old car and wrote up some figures with trade in that, indeed, I didn’t refuse. My first new car was a condor yellow Century Buick Convertible with a black top. I drove it off the showroom floor.
After Jim Yamell got utilities all up and going at his new home on Camino Esquela, we three moved into the one story four bedroom house. Each of us had our own bedroom and we shared groceries, utilities etc. GREAT!
The Yamell house was at 4725 N. Camino Esquela on an approximately one acre lot located about three plus blocks north of River Rd and the first parallel road east of Campbell Avenue. St. Phillips Episcopal Church is located at the northeast comer of River Rd and Campbell Ave so we were just a stones throw away from that landmark.
The closest house just to the south of our location was 4709 Camino Esquela wherein lived a Joseph C. McGowan and his family. Soon after we moved in, the three of us decided to pay a drop in visit and introduce ourselves to the McGowans. We were met by a very nice lady of the house, Mary McGowan. She told us her husband Joe was not at home (studying French in Quebec that summer) and her two daughters Pat and Mary Jo were on a trip to Nogales, Mexico, that day. This was in early June 1954.
When the daughters returned in Pat’s yellow Ford convertible we got to meet them. Jim Yarnell was not a shy person like me and got a date with Mary Jo in short order. Although he had a 1954 Ford Victoria sedan, he asked to borrow my Buick convertible to take her out on the date.
Over the 4th of July, Jim invited his two house mates to accompany him to visit his parents who were summering on their ranch located between Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado. We drove there in the yellow Buick convertible. It was quite a trip. We also found out that the Yarnells owned a hunting lodge, a dance hall and a bar and grill in Crested Butte in addition to other properties there as well as the ranch on the river south of Crested Butte. We were kept busy fly-fishing and horseback riding.
There was plenty of gear for all activities at the ranch. When we went horseback riding, Jim fitted us out with chaps and ten gallon hats so we wouldn’t stick out like tourists. Jim looked like the real McCoy cowboy n his fitted outfit and chaps and a Colt 44 in its holster and ammo belt slung low on his right hip. We did have cameras and took lots of pictures. Jim didn’t just wear the 44. He showed us that he could hit any target without having to raise the weapon and aim down the barrel. Several ground squirrels learned the hard way that he was an expert marksman. Jim had been on the SAC Trap and Skeet team with General LeMay (SAC Commander) in 1953.
After we returned to Tucson the slides that we had taken on the Colorado trip were finished. Jim was on a top secret courier trip to 15th Air Force Headquarters at March Field, Riverside, California. I called Mary Jo and asked if they would like to see them. The response was positive so I took the slides and pictures next door to show them. I felt I was infringing on Jim’s territory but I had taken a shine to Mary Jo. We were just finishing my photo show when we heard Jim’s Ford driving up the driveway next door. I was a little shaken and I’m afraid I showed it when I asked “Do you have a phone?” I have been reminded of that repeatedly for the past 50 years plus. When I got to the phone and called Jim he came to the McGowans and we went through the photo show again for him.
After that Mary Jo and I began seeing a lot more of each other. Although I can’t speak for Mary Jo, my feelings for her were deepening even though we had both declared that were not ready to get serious. Mary Jo had graduated from the U of A with a journalism degree and her father had suggested she take the summer off before seriously pursuing a career. I had broken off an engagement and was not ready to enter that type of relationship again without a great deal of serious consideration.
While on TDY in England, I had gotten the necessary forms for application for pilot training and had submitted them through channels to FLYTAF (Flying Training Air Force Command) It had to go through my current major command personnel. They added to the stack of correspondence by adding that they requested I be utilized for a minimum of one year in my current specialty before being considered for pilot training. FLYTAF returned it disapproved because of SAC’s request.
I applied again as the anniversary date of the awarding of my Armament Operations Officer AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) arrived. It went through fast but this time the SAC endorsement stated that my AFSC was essential to SAC and recommended that I not be accepted for pilot training at that time.
FLYTAF returned the paperwork disapproved because of SAC’s endorsement. I was livid. I am afraid that it showed in my work and contact with co workers. A Major Holland asked me what was bothering me. When I explained what had transpired he told me that he used to work at FLYTAF headquarters and thought he still had connections. After he made a phone call, he came and told me to apply again. He said that he would guarantee approval. I applied immediately and within a couple of weeks I received a class assignment of 56-F pilot training to report the 16th of December to Marana AB, Arizona. Wing personnel office at DM got on the ball and by the first of October had a new graduate of the Armament Operations Officers course coming by October 15 as my replacement.
I needed to take some leave prior to going into pilot training so I drove to Illinois in October 1954. After I went on leave, Mary Jo decided to take her resume to San Francisco to seek a career. I received a letter from her stating that she had been hired by the San Francisco Examiner and if I cared I could come and share some of the week’s time that she had before starting work on the following Monday. I realized that I cared deeply and Mom understood completely. I packed up and headed west.
I stopped for a few short hours nap in my car between Cheyenne and Laramie Wyoming and arrived the following afternoon at Vern and Eilene Johnson’s in Reno Nevada. He was serving his four years in the Air Force Survival Training Center at Sparks AF Station near Reno.
I overnighted there and the next day I drove to San Francisco and brought Mary Jo back to Reno. We sort of spent our time there with Vern and Eilene, the bright lights of the strip in Reno and some sightseeing before I had to take MJ back to SF on Sunday. Two days later I was back at Davis Monthan. I was permanently smitten with that dark haired Irish lass who was now located in San Francisco.
Most of my time, after returning from San Francisco, was breaking in my replacement as Wing Armament Operations Officer. Joe Fuss really was anxious to absorb everything I passed on to him and by the first of December had taken over my responsibilities completely.
I did have time for some off duty activities before reporting to my new assignment in pilot training 40 miles down the road at Marana AB. Jim Yamell outfitted Ernie Phillips and me with a .270 and .3006 rifle and we all went down to the Chiricahua Mountains near Cave Creek Canyon south of Bowie AZ near the Mexican/US border. Our quarry were javalinas (collared peccaries). I saw several from a distance. Ernie Phillips had a close encounter with his first rattlesnake and returned to the vicinity of the car to maintain a vigilance there. Ernie had a deep rooted phobia against creepy crawly things and he was very shaken by his brief encounter on the hunt. (He had once slammed out of the shower stall at the Camino Esquela house, dripping wet and stark naked and screaming unintelligibly when he discovered he was sharing the shower with a very small white scorpion.)
Jim had a scope on his rifle and was able to bag two good sized javelinas. When he told us how far he was from them when he shot them, I knew he was a great white hunter with extraordinary skill. I’m sure Ernie and I were brought along to help carry the dead animals back to the car.
Jim took the two javelinas to the Pit Barbecue on Grant Road in Tucson to have them butchered and barbecued. He then invited the Wing Headquarters and Operations personnel and wives to participate in the feast. It was quite good and reminded me of good pork barbecues without fat meat.
Over Thanksgiving of 1954 Jim led some of the Wing VIPs on an elk hunt to Colorado. The base C-45 was used on a “training” flight to haul Jim and three other “hunters” to Gunnison.
They evidently operated out of the hunting lodge in Crested Butte while hunting. I got a call, about a week later, from the pilot of the C-45 that he had been requested to fly to Gunnison to pick up the four hunters, their gear and two elk carcasses and Jim asked him to call me and see if I wanted to go along and log some navigator time. I went!
The flight from DM to Gunnison was no problem. We loaded the two elk carcasses (the carcasses had been skinned, quartered and wrapped in butcher paper) and the hunting crew. The total addition of weight to the C-45 was great and we were packed in like sardines. The higher altitude at Gunnison presented a much longer take-off roll and the crew could only roughly estimate the gross take-off weight. The cold winter air was quite dense, so that was a plus. We started a take-off roll and rolled ad rolled and rolled. Just when I thought we were going to become a statistic in the latest AF crash reports, we lifted off after using all but a few scant feet of the runway. We made it back to DM with no further worries. Had it been a warmer day in Gunnison something would have had to give.
This was my last flight logging navigator time.
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