MY NON HEROIC MILITARY HISTORY

 MISSION NINE, LITTLE ROCK AFB ARKANSAS,

Moved to  Jacksonville.  Spent a little time visiting with my Brother, Arlis and family.  Checked in to the Air Base and got my new assignment which was in the CBPO, ie, consolidated base personnel office.  Good group of Personnel people to work with.  Got active in the NCO  Association and worked with developing an on-going chapter of activities which were many and varied.  

The Base Commander was Col Zumwalt, which we referred to as Zumie.  He became an "Air Ace" during WW II and when set up a Liquor store he named it "ACE Liquor". I don't think many people know that, or care...A lot of people forget what some guys went thru to win the war.  Our OIC AT CBPO was Major Kapus.  She too had an interesting background.  During WW II she wanted to fly and was already qualified, but as a female they would not let her, so she joined the Canadian AF which did let her fly and she did so throughout the War.  She later joined the USAF.     

Col Zumwalt's office was just upstairs and he seemed to be losing it in his days just before retirement. He decided to loosen everyone a little.  He made statements about "not always having to salute, and sometime should not be required to have a hat"..  I think everyone figured, just humor him, he went thru a lot. Everyone liked his way of thinking though.  All except the Deputy, Col Dale.  

However there were times  when we got a little frustrated. Several times he called Major Kapus who said "Sgt Wright, have someone brief Col Zumwalt on his retirement benefits. So I sent a well versed NCO up to sit down with him and brief him as  requested.  A couple of weeks later, he called "Major Kapus again and asked to have someone brief me on my retirement benefits.  so we did it all over again..I think we did it one more time after that until he finally retired.   Then...The ship hit the sand when Col Dale at Base CO called  a meeting and said "Regardless of what you were told  before, you will wear your hat when you are supposed to and you will salute when you are supposed to and you will always conduct yourself in a military manner.  You are dismissed.   . 

I had always been active in the NCO Association and while there I organized a chapter for the base and was quite active many activities as shown by our making then Governor Bumpers an honorary Chief Master Sergeant (Photos included). Dianna organized a Ladies Auxiliary for the chapter and was quite active.  

We lived on base and liked our neighbors on either side.  One was a SSgt was from Ukraine.  He wanted to be active in the NCOA and volunteered to be on the board of directors.  I found out he had not become a citizen as yet and advised him that citizenship was a requirement. We set up an appointment at the Federal Court and  got him there.  The ceremony is a very impressive event and eye opening and years later we attended a similar Ceremony for a friend from Malaysia.  The SSgt went on a later wrote me from his current overseas assignment where he had made CMSgt, and the Malaysian friend went on to become a very successful Business man.  Those are the kind of Immigrants that make this Country great.

We did a lot to try and assimilate and kept active and bought 20 acres just north of the Base.  Piddled  around quite a bit  dreaming about living there.    

One of the Cadets was stationed here as a Missile Launch Officer and he gave Donal and Myself a guided tour of one of the Silos.  Pretty interesting.  This base was home to several of the Nuclear silos along with B-58s, setting there loaded with Nukes.  This seems to me that Moscow would be keeping an eye on this base as a prime target.  No one seemed concerned, but I had seen the results of several Detonations (See Project Redwing, this blog site).  I recall an accident at one of the silos which resulted in a large explosion visible via Satellite which made Our Government make  a hysterical call to Moscow to assure them it was an accident, not  a Missile Launch.  This could have gone very wrong.  One SSgt was killed because of this explosion.   

Somewhere along the line, an agreement was made with Russia to back off on a Nuclear Standoff which resulted in losing the Nuke program of both the Silos and B-58s, which left LRAFB with no mission. nothing to do, so a new mission was assigned to the TAC Air Command and a new Mission was formed for  this base.  .  

So, the new mission for the Air Base was from TAC, Tactical Air Command with the Base primarily providing troop  and material movement and for some reason they could not seem to move forward without me being at their Headquarters at Langley VA.  I informed them that I was not going but was going to retire.  I submitted my paperwork and Major Kapus made one more effort to try and get me to change my mind.  She said, "you can stay up to 26 years you know, I thanked her and said I have already made arrangements.  So retired and started selling Insurance.  This eventually became Property and Casualty and we opened an office in Jacksonville, staffed by Myself, Dianna, Donal & his daughter, Rebecca.  We became the main source for "Non Standard" Insurance and was finally bought out by the competition, and we all happily walked away into other areas of interest....  

Our two youngsters, Donal D & Denise C went on to their calling.  Denise graduated highly qualified in the accounting field and  in job hunting the employment agency wanted to charge her about $600.00 This did not set well and I advised her to just drop by IRS and put in an application, and someday, out of the blue she might get  called.   The economy was terrible and interest rate was about 25% and President Carter was about to freeze hiring and IRS decided they should recruit while they still could and Denise pretty quickly got called.  She went  on to excel and assisted in an important investigation that lasted about 4 years. This was in New York and gave us the opportunity to visit the City about 4 times during that period.  Denise recommended we stay at about 4 different areas which  gave us a pretty good idea of New York. She was promoted during this time and went on to retire at the GS-14 level.  Donal became interested in Church work which keeps him busy administering to the Spiritual and Charitable needs of he Community where he serves as Paster of a Church in Heber Springs.  They both are satisfied with their Chosen way of life...   

Dianna & I got interested in Ballroom Dancing where we met a lot of very fine people which developed into friendships that continue to this day. The original Club closed and about a 150 and left everyone with no place to dance.  They all got together and tried  to figure out how to keep it al going.  Pretty soon they all gave up.  All except Dianna and I and we just kept looking.  Finally Found a place, Created the "Ballroom Dance Association (BLS), put up the money called everyone to the first dance.  It still going 30+ years.     

Now at this stage of life we keep Doctors Appointments and occasionally meet with some of our old friends....      

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