Jan, where is you mother living now? I know many of our readers know and remember your mother well. She is from the Richard family too. Thanks for including her.

 

Leona, we’d love to hear from you too. Gary

Brenda, It is my pleasure to post this. Dale has most certainly had a very interesting career. Gary

 

Hi Brenda,

I’ll answer your letter so I can procrastinate on something I should be doing. My Air Force time was all spent in aircraft maintenance, starting as the lowest paid wrench carrier. In my last 5 years, I supervised about 75 people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in one of three different areas we had. Then I moved from that to being the overall supervisor of all three sections, about 450 people. I then spent two years supervising the scheduling of missions and scheduled maintenance. Because of that job, I got promoted to Superintendent of Aircraft Quality Assurance with only 20 people under me.

 

My first base was a two year tour in Japan, of which I spent most of my time in Viet Nam. I then ended up at Langley AFB in Virginia. Much of my time there was spent in Europe. Then on to Taiwan (or the Republic of Formosa) where I ended back in Viet Nam again. I came back from there and went to Topeka, Kansas where I continued the 3-month rotations to Europe. The base at Topeka closed in the summer of 73 and I got sent to the base of Little Rock, Arkansas. European rotations again! From there I landed in Okinawa for eight months after which they moved me to Japan, just five miles from where I was stationed the first time. During my Okinawan time, I again spent a lot of time in Viet Nam and was there with a team repairing one of our planes the day before Saigon got overrun. Got out just in time. When I left Japan, I got sent to Abilene, Texas. Because there was no more Viet Nam, I got stuck in Abilene for eight years.

Memorable parts include getting to see about 95% of the countries in Europe, including England, Germany, Norway, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey. I forget the rest now except Poland. Being a communist country, we had to paint over the US markings on the plane and fly in civilian clothes. I also made it into many of the islands in the Pacific. Korea, the Philippines, Pakistan, Iran and Indonesia. The memory is getting away and I’m rambling here.

 

Because of my service connected Quality Assurance time, I got my first Government job for the Army as a Quality Assurance evaluator at an ammunition plant in South Mississippi. They closed after 4 years and I got sent to a Defense Logistics Agency supply depot at Memphis, TN. They closed after I had been there 5 years and I got sent down to Fort Polk, LA where I have been now for 14 years as a Contracting Officer’s Representative working Contract Quality Assurance. It’s ironic that I spent 20 years in the Air Force and will spend another 24 or so working for the Army.

 

As a small farm kid, at graduation time, I never dreamed how things would work out for me. How I would get to see a small part of so many countries (add Africa and South America to the list above). I do not regret the experience, but I wouldn’t want to go through it again.

 

Carol is married to the county sheriff of Yokum County, Texas and has three kids who are all married now and some grandchildren. I am married with two children, one of each but no grandchildren yet. Our daughter is now 26, married and living outside Washington DC in Fairfax. Our son is 32, and because of a severe head injury as a teenager, he will be with us forever.

 

It is truly amazing that so many small town area kids can get into such a wide variety of careers, live in so many different places, do so much good, and turn into such good folks in the process. Guess I better get back to work even though it is Friday.

Hey, I still remember Dale’s black and yellow 55 ford. That was the best looking car I had ever seen up to that point.

Dale