From The Comments

My Brother-In-Law and I were chatting in the comments section. It was about the servicemen. And I thought it became interesting.

So, in case you missed it, here it is.

My Dad spent 4 years at Thule Air Force Base with the Army's Signal Corps. from 1954 to 1958. He said their drill instructor promised them a Hula Girl behind every tree. Needless to say he never saw a tree in those 4 years. He did take up photography in his spare time and got some really beautiful shots of the area there.

Jim

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Your Dad is a Vet? And he was stationed on an air base???
Why wasn't I informed of this???
The things I would like to talk to him about!

Tramp

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I don't believe he was actually on the base. It was right after the Korean War, but still during the "cold war". The Signal Corps. of the US Army was there because there weren't any communications satellites flying around in space yet. They received and relayed messages from one continent to the next. They monitored any foreign communications they could.

Meanwhile, the Air Force had all kinds of cool stuff going on. They were burying provisions under the ice in case of a nuclear attack, flying missions to spy on the Soviets and their defenses. Although, the Army wasn't usually aware of what the Air Force was doing when it came to the more secret type stuff. He spent 4 of the longest, darkest, and coldest years of his life there. He did get his ham radio license after he got out of the Army and that was something he enjoyed doing for many years after that.

He has photos of snow drifts, some as high as skyscrapers, and some incredible sunset pictures that are absolutely beautiful.

Any type of vehicle that ran on diesel fuel could not be turned off or it would be next to impossible to re-start in the cold. The only time they shut them down was for service and it was still a challenge to get them going again.

I'm sure he would be more than happy to share some of his stories with you. Next time you see him, just bring it up.

Jim

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I love stories from the servicemen. They never do anything the easy way, or in a small way.

One of my favorites is from my wife's father (that would be your wife's father also!).

He once told me of a time they were bringing an aircraft carrier into San Diego Bay. Carriers are not that nimble. Ordinarily they are towed into a bay or harbor, but a tow was not available and wouldn’t be for some time. These men had been at sea for quite a while and were very much looking forward to shore leave, to understate the obvious. They were not going to wait. Some even spoke of jumping ship and swimming ashore.

Well, this captain was a clever sort. He had the men bring the F-16 fighter jets up on deck and line them up facing each other sideways all along the ship. With the pilots in their tied down jets, he gave instructions on the radio to each pilot to throttle up or down their engine, so as to steer the big boat with precision, and brought that big lady home as slick as could be. With those jets shoving that ship around, he could go forward, backward or sideways. He could even spin it like a ballerina if he wanted.

These men are taught to improvise and improvise they do. This guy had the most expensive (and the loudest) bow thrusters anyone had ever seen!

And I wish I had seen it.

Tramp