Enjoying retired life in Oregon. I work in my garden. I have twenty fruit trees,blueberrys,raspberry,marionberrys and a large vegetable garden, all fenced in to keep deer out. Our home is on the beautiful Mckenzie River. I enjoy fishing;Trout,Steelhead Trout, and Salmon all on this river. Also, a few miles up river there are lots of rapids for whitewater rafting, (class three) All the water comes from the three Sister mountains in the Cascades. Seventy miles east from here If you like to ski only hour away. Bend OR, is only 110 mile east . I also like Oregon ( DUCK s) football and track, Eugene is Track town USA. Lots of stars came from University of Oregon.The Olympic trials have been held here many times.
We like to travel. You would think I would be tired of traveling after 26 years of AF life. and 17 years of being overseas. We own a RV so in the summer months we go camping with Good Sam friends. Lots of nice places out here in the western US to camp.
.The VA takes care of all my medical needs. I'm 100% service connected disabled. Uncle Surgar is great. What a wonderful country we live in. We have so much to be thankful for. No other country in the world takes care of its Vets like ours. God Bless USA
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I spent my entire career in Air Transportation. Lots of fond memories and events over the years. Have many stories and pictures of some of these places.(check it out)
I really loved serving in the Air Force. I sure do miss it at times. What a great life of 26 yrs active.The majority of those years were overseas ( 17 ).Many of the people I served with I can hardly remember. We seem to enjoy serving all together. Send me a message if you would like to reminisce the old times we shared together, I would love to hear from you...Aim Hi..Bob
Best Friends SSgt J.B Mcneal/SSgt Robert E Smith,SSgt Herold Wert/Sgt Haney/Sgt Darrel Harp/AIC Bickford/AIC Amos/ Sgt Eck/Sgt Dorsey
Best Moment I worked as a Load Planner (west Ramp) Making Staff Sgt. I want to thank LTCol Irvine, who was 834th Air Div/ ALCE CMDR. He would call me and ask if I had a load ready for a short mission in the lll corp. area. This was at the end of the day maybe an hour or so of daylight. I always had some pallets already load planned. This would happen almost every day untill the day I PCS. Many thousnds tons of opportune General Cargo were moved. Through his and my effort I was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Worst Moment To many to tell about. Who could ever forget the morning 3:00am Jan 31st,TeT Over two thousand VC, NVA, trying to overrun the Base. Hearing all the small arms firing from the east end of the base. Being stranded in my Hootch when a 122 Rocked landed on the other side of the building ,ripping the sideing and part of the roof off. I thought I was a goner. Many losses of lives,aircraft, and barracks distroyed that night. Over 100 days of nightly rockets attacks. I will always remember those airman who lost their lives on the 23rd of Feburary,a direct hit of Bunker,next to the transit barracks. (westside of base) They had just arrived in country. Another thing I remember, is when the Bomb dump blew-up. Fireworks lasted for days. We had showers of sharpnel coming down on the west ramp. We built a temporary shelter from stacking 463L pallets,to be safe. (see Combat & Operation History) for more pictures and stories.
Chain of Command SMSgt Celie L McMillan-Ncoic west ramp SMSgt James E Chapmon-NCOIC Air Freight MAJ Brittain, Commander Maj Rios, Commander LTCol Erickson, CMDR 8th Aerial Port LTCol Irvine, CMDR 834 Air Dive/ ALCE Brig. Gen McLaughlin, CMDR, 834th Air Div
Other Memories Operation Eagle Thrust: (Operation Quicksilver US Army) Movement of the 101st Airborne 10,000 troops and 50,000 tons of equipment in November/ December 1967.Several hundred C-141's participating from Ft Cambell KY to Bien Hoa. Arrival of Bob Hope on C-141, for USO Christmas Show at Long Bien December 1967.