WEBVTT 00:01.029 --> 00:03.029 Hi , good morning . My name is Mark 00:03.029 --> 00:06.789 Smith , and uh I was a member of the 00:06.869 --> 00:08.869 Fifty-fifth for a number of years . 00:08.869 --> 00:10.980 I'll go over that a little bit . Uh , 00:10.980 --> 00:13.329 actually , a precursor to this was 00:13.329 --> 00:15.539 after Vietnam , I went to the uh 6 , 00:15.550 --> 00:18.979 24th SRS and Co Ball program , 00:19.590 --> 00:23.069 and I did that for 2.5 years up there 00:23.069 --> 00:25.236 and I understand right now the CO Ball 00:25.236 --> 00:28.540 is uh . Uh , a program is part of the 00:28.540 --> 00:30.707 fifty-fifth , so that's where I got my 00:30.707 --> 00:33.939 introduction to that . I had some other 00:33.939 --> 00:37.240 assignments along the way and and what 00:37.240 --> 00:40.220 not and uh came back , I came to the 00:40.220 --> 00:43.020 55th and 343rd reconnaissance squadron 00:43.020 --> 00:46.450 in July of '81 , I believe it was , 00:47.159 --> 00:49.299 and there I , I had such exalted 00:49.299 --> 00:53.220 positions as a crew dog . I was checked 00:53.220 --> 00:56.580 out on the combat set 847 and 849 , 00:56.619 --> 00:58.900 flew a couple of deployments there and 00:58.900 --> 01:00.956 then became the flight commander for 01:00.956 --> 01:03.122 that uh for that particular program as 01:03.122 --> 01:06.660 well and uh kind of a short stay 01:06.660 --> 01:09.540 after mid '83 , I left and went to the 01:09.540 --> 01:13.230 air staff for a few years . Uh , but 01:13.230 --> 01:17.230 the good thing was that , uh , Uh , uh , 01:17.300 --> 01:19.356 so the people that I , I knew in the 01:19.356 --> 01:21.244 fifty-fifth summer commanders and 01:21.244 --> 01:23.760 whatnot , allowed me to come back . And 01:23.760 --> 01:26.500 I came back to the uh the 343rd 01:26.500 --> 01:30.389 and keep track of this stuff . um 01:31.120 --> 01:33.589 June of '85 and uh 01:35.230 --> 01:38.589 I had the opportunity shortly 01:38.589 --> 01:40.700 thereafter to become the commander of 01:40.700 --> 01:44.230 the 343 , which was Probably 01:44.730 --> 01:47.849 the highlight of my 27 year career in 01:47.849 --> 01:50.129 the Air Force . Uh , well , back in the 01:50.129 --> 01:52.185 6th , I was the captain , and then I 01:52.185 --> 01:54.410 came back to Fifty-fifth , first time , 01:54.449 --> 01:56.449 the 24th , I was a major and I came 01:56.449 --> 01:58.671 back as a lieutenant colonel , so , you 01:58.671 --> 02:00.838 know , even I can fool them every once 02:00.838 --> 02:03.230 in a while . Uh , then , uh , moved up 02:03.230 --> 02:05.389 and became the commander of the 343rd 02:05.720 --> 02:09.110 and uh So I had , uh , I think I 02:09.110 --> 02:12.229 had some young folks working for me . 02:13.029 --> 02:15.140 It's something to look back now and , 02:15.140 --> 02:16.862 and , uh , see all those young 02:16.862 --> 02:19.350 lieutenants , captains that , uh , that 02:19.350 --> 02:21.740 work for you , now retired as , as , uh , 02:21.750 --> 02:25.630 senior officers , etc . but I think uh . 02:26.740 --> 02:28.710 We obviously had some operational 02:28.710 --> 02:31.119 experiences that were that were very 02:31.119 --> 02:34.830 good , uh , always enjoyed the flying 02:34.830 --> 02:37.619 and the uh the TUIs that we had , but 02:38.679 --> 02:40.901 Uh , I think the highlight of the whole 02:40.901 --> 02:43.470 thing was the people that worked for me . 02:43.639 --> 02:46.690 Uh . I will remember that group . 02:48.660 --> 02:52.350 Until the day I die . Uh , you , you 02:52.350 --> 02:54.789 couldn't get a , a better bunch of 02:54.789 --> 02:58.110 young dedicated military people working 02:58.110 --> 03:01.559 for you . Um , I had a couple of exec 03:01.559 --> 03:04.509 officers , I think I have 3 by the time 03:04.509 --> 03:07.350 my period was over . But thank goodness 03:07.350 --> 03:10.509 took care of me . Uh , so that , you 03:10.509 --> 03:12.620 know , it made me look good , which I 03:12.620 --> 03:14.787 thought was great . Uh we did a lot of 03:14.787 --> 03:16.787 things , uh , other than flying the 03:16.787 --> 03:18.842 operational missions , which after a 03:18.842 --> 03:21.009 while , the operational mission became 03:21.080 --> 03:23.500 You know , just a long , long tour in 03:23.500 --> 03:26.130 the airplane and uh other than the fact 03:26.130 --> 03:29.690 that Soviets uh used to like to come up 03:29.690 --> 03:32.690 and , and , uh , fly close to us and do 03:32.690 --> 03:34.523 weird things . I see some of the 03:34.809 --> 03:36.753 reporting that that's , that's out 03:36.753 --> 03:39.929 there now about uh uh that 03:39.929 --> 03:43.820 the uh the bad guys are , are harassing 03:43.820 --> 03:45.987 or recon complex . Well , they've been 03:45.987 --> 03:48.153 doing that for years . They were doing 03:48.153 --> 03:50.264 it when I was there , and it's , it's 03:50.264 --> 03:52.487 nothing new , but that made it a little 03:52.487 --> 03:55.279 bit interesting , um . Uh , it was a , 03:55.350 --> 03:57.830 it was a great mission . I flew my 03:57.830 --> 04:00.108 operational missions in the combat set . 04:00.460 --> 04:04.339 And uh I flew some uh uh river joint 04:04.339 --> 04:06.740 flights as well , but just the staff 04:06.740 --> 04:09.399 look looking on . But the young guys , 04:09.610 --> 04:11.777 uh , the young folks in the squadron , 04:11.777 --> 04:15.000 uh , we had POW MIA days , 04:15.399 --> 04:18.470 celebrations that were taking . Place 04:18.470 --> 04:21.149 and even we had , I mean , people , 04:21.440 --> 04:23.440 they were so well known that we had 04:23.440 --> 04:25.551 Vice Commander Sack come down and and 04:25.551 --> 04:27.679 participate in one . We , we had a 04:27.679 --> 04:30.799 children's uh fund that we collected 04:30.799 --> 04:33.559 for her every year and uh so that we 04:33.559 --> 04:36.359 could provide presents to to kids who 04:36.359 --> 04:40.179 needed it at Christmas time , um and 04:40.179 --> 04:43.500 uh . Just a , a , a good group of 04:43.500 --> 04:47.149 people . Nobody was uh . Uh , you know , 04:47.220 --> 04:50.790 they're cohesive . And um as a part of 04:50.790 --> 04:53.190 that because of that and uh let's see 04:53.190 --> 04:57.049 what . April uh in 04:57.049 --> 04:59.700 '88 , I believe it was that uh we were 04:59.700 --> 05:03.239 Sacks nominee uh to be 05:03.239 --> 05:06.309 the US Air Force's uh electronic combat 05:06.309 --> 05:09.029 unit . So , uh , we thought that was a 05:09.029 --> 05:11.196 pretty good , uh , pretty good thing . 05:11.690 --> 05:13.857 The other thing was , you know , where 05:13.857 --> 05:17.170 I worked a lot with uh uh our sister 05:17.170 --> 05:19.829 squadron there in the thirty-eighth . I 05:19.829 --> 05:22.630 think that the time I was there 3 05:22.630 --> 05:25.450 different commanders . And uh Jimmy 05:25.450 --> 05:28.290 Thomas and uh Reggie Stewart and uh my 05:28.290 --> 05:31.089 mother , uh , always had a good working 05:31.089 --> 05:34.420 rapport with them both . Both the staff 05:34.420 --> 05:36.531 and myself as a commander and all the 05:36.531 --> 05:38.698 crew dogs as well , so we all , we all 05:38.698 --> 05:42.200 got along really good , um . And uh 05:44.000 --> 05:46.111 Like I said , there's not much more I 05:46.111 --> 05:48.222 can , I can say about the , the squad 05:48.222 --> 05:50.333 in there . And they did one hell of a 05:50.333 --> 05:52.500 good job . We did in one of the things 05:52.500 --> 05:54.278 we instituted instituted in the 05:54.278 --> 05:55.944 squadron was what we call the 05:55.944 --> 05:58.056 schoolhouse . So we had had a problem 05:58.056 --> 06:00.739 of sometime getting new graduates , uh . 06:02.339 --> 06:05.339 Out of the uh EW training school and uh 06:05.339 --> 06:07.672 it took time because we needed a higher , 06:07.779 --> 06:10.820 higher uh security clearance and that 06:10.820 --> 06:12.820 took a little while to get . Well , 06:12.859 --> 06:15.137 what that did was delayed the training , 06:15.137 --> 06:17.192 so we , what we did is we worked the 06:17.192 --> 06:20.290 program . John Gray uh worked that 06:20.799 --> 06:24.250 basically that we uh Uh , set up a 06:24.250 --> 06:27.809 schoolhouse in building 497 , God rest 06:27.809 --> 06:30.880 his soul , um , and , uh , 06:31.290 --> 06:33.346 uh , it's where we could bring these 06:33.346 --> 06:35.570 people in TDY for a while and start to 06:35.570 --> 06:38.510 get them trained up so that When they 06:38.510 --> 06:41.140 did uh complete their training , uh , 06:41.309 --> 06:43.420 you know , they'd have their security 06:43.420 --> 06:45.531 clearance and then they can come back 06:45.531 --> 06:45.390 and finish up their training , so it 06:45.390 --> 06:48.179 got , got them into the pipeline , uh . 06:49.200 --> 06:51.880 A bit faster than , than what normally 06:51.880 --> 06:54.049 would be . But uh speaking of old 06:54.049 --> 06:57.040 building 497 , that was uh that was our 06:57.040 --> 07:00.440 home down there , uh . Uh 07:02.500 --> 07:04.667 Everybody who went through the 308 and 07:04.667 --> 07:06.778 340s or knew what it was , and I have 07:06.778 --> 07:08.833 an interesting experience , which is 07:08.833 --> 07:11.000 not really , it's a little different , 07:11.000 --> 07:13.056 let me put it that way . When I took 07:13.056 --> 07:15.278 over the squadron , I took over from uh 07:15.459 --> 07:17.681 a good friend of mine , Lieutenant girl 07:17.681 --> 07:19.737 Pete Flombowski . I was a lieutenant 07:19.737 --> 07:21.903 girl at the same time too . And , um , 07:21.903 --> 07:24.126 you know , you , you guys traditionally 07:24.126 --> 07:26.348 have a change of command ceremony looks 07:26.348 --> 07:29.559 nice and uh and uh . Uh Uh , Larry 07:29.559 --> 07:31.559 Mitchell was the wing commander , I 07:31.559 --> 07:33.781 think , at the time , and Larry was the 07:33.781 --> 07:36.059 one who got me back there for that job . 07:36.059 --> 07:38.281 Great guy . I just , I'd known him when 07:38.281 --> 07:40.380 I was on 24th too . He was a squad 07:40.380 --> 07:44.369 commander up there . Uh , but , uh , so 07:44.369 --> 07:46.480 we had a ceremony , which is fine and 07:46.480 --> 07:48.647 everything , and then you kind of have 07:48.647 --> 07:50.702 a , you know , going away dinner for 07:50.702 --> 07:53.980 them , so . We had a dinner set up and 07:53.980 --> 07:57.130 all of the members of the 343 showed up 07:57.130 --> 07:59.970 and we had the wing staff there and and 07:59.970 --> 08:02.192 uh there was one table and Pete and his 08:02.192 --> 08:04.779 wife were there and I and my wife were 08:04.779 --> 08:07.339 there uh wing commander and vice 08:07.339 --> 08:09.506 commander Dio and their wives were all 08:09.506 --> 08:13.420 sitting on the table . And uh Um , 08:13.829 --> 08:15.718 part of the way through dinner or 08:15.718 --> 08:18.000 whatnot , so . A boombox came into the 08:18.000 --> 08:21.739 back of the room . And start this music 08:21.739 --> 08:24.910 started playing . Then the door opened 08:24.910 --> 08:28.760 and this young lady came in . And 08:28.769 --> 08:31.700 uh Uh , I wouldn't say she was a 08:31.700 --> 08:33.867 stripper , but she was pretty close to 08:33.867 --> 08:36.380 it , and , uh , danced all the way up 08:37.059 --> 08:39.820 to the table where we , the wing staff 08:39.820 --> 08:41.820 and squad commanders were sitting , 08:41.859 --> 08:44.190 proceeded to sort of put her leg over 08:44.190 --> 08:47.099 Pete's shoulder , uh , you know , and 08:47.099 --> 08:50.289 go on , and , uh , we were all kind of 08:50.900 --> 08:54.020 OK , you don't want and humiliated the 08:54.020 --> 08:56.187 wives of the wings staff . I mean , it 08:56.187 --> 08:58.242 was , uh , you could , you could see 08:58.242 --> 09:00.409 the smoke coming out of the ears . But 09:00.409 --> 09:02.576 anyway , that , you know , got through 09:02.576 --> 09:04.687 that , and obviously the next day the 09:04.687 --> 09:06.576 DEO called me and he had a little 09:06.576 --> 09:08.909 discussion with me , but chuckled a bit , 09:08.909 --> 09:12.390 you know , so it's boys boys . So we , 09:12.400 --> 09:14.909 uh , what happened was the next day I , 09:15.030 --> 09:18.359 I , uh , called a commander's call for 09:18.359 --> 09:22.289 squadron . Yeah Everybody came in . 09:22.369 --> 09:25.119 We had a , we had a kind of auditory 09:25.119 --> 09:29.010 meeting space in 497 and uh everybody 09:29.010 --> 09:32.390 was in there . Uh , I 09:32.840 --> 09:36.679 briskly walked in to the , to the 09:36.679 --> 09:38.830 room at the front , and everybody 09:38.830 --> 09:42.200 standing at attention . And 09:42.200 --> 09:46.020 proceeded to Hm , give me a little 09:46.159 --> 09:48.159 piece of my mind , you know , as to 09:48.159 --> 09:50.437 what went on , but now with those guys , 09:50.437 --> 09:52.603 I still don't know who planned thing , 09:52.603 --> 09:54.669 you know , still don't . And then I 09:54.669 --> 09:56.891 walked out . I just left him . I didn't 09:56.891 --> 09:58.891 that easy , you know , dismissed or 09:58.891 --> 10:01.250 anything . And you know , those , those , 10:01.549 --> 10:05.330 those guys were going , oh man . The 10:05.330 --> 10:07.330 other thing was I went back into my 10:07.330 --> 10:09.700 office and closed the door . And 10:09.700 --> 10:11.589 proceeded to have one of the best 10:11.589 --> 10:14.010 laughs I've ever had in my life . Uh , 10:14.020 --> 10:17.979 and , and , uh , uh , I mean , 10:18.270 --> 10:20.437 we ought to be talking about operation 10:20.437 --> 10:22.492 show since we're really a recon unit 10:22.492 --> 10:24.603 looking at the bad guys and doing all 10:24.603 --> 10:26.548 that stuff , but there was so much 10:26.548 --> 10:28.603 health that went on in that unit and 10:28.603 --> 10:30.659 the organization that really made it 10:30.659 --> 10:33.570 what it was , um . Uh , like I say , 10:33.650 --> 10:35.929 that the execs I had took care of me , 10:35.969 --> 10:38.369 we had another thing that people who 10:38.369 --> 10:40.591 were there at the time would remember , 10:40.591 --> 10:42.758 but , but nobody else would know about 10:42.758 --> 10:44.980 it . We've kind of done some remodeling 10:44.980 --> 10:47.849 and the squatter area and and uh . Um , 10:48.299 --> 10:51.650 uh , my office moved a little bit , and , 10:51.659 --> 10:54.330 and exact out in front of me and , and , 10:54.340 --> 10:56.562 uh , the ops officer was in the other , 10:56.562 --> 10:59.059 other room , but one of the things we 10:59.059 --> 11:02.539 did , it was one of our fundraisers for 11:02.539 --> 11:05.179 the kids and whatnot , and we , I think 11:05.179 --> 11:07.859 we joined them with CMC at the time , 11:07.900 --> 11:10.340 I'm not sure . Anyway , when it was 11:10.340 --> 11:14.010 over , we had some funds left over , 11:14.179 --> 11:17.400 put it that way . Well , John Singleton , 11:17.440 --> 11:19.659 who was the captain , who was my , my 11:19.659 --> 11:21.826 middle lieutenant , I think he was the 11:21.826 --> 11:24.048 captain , exactly at the time , came up 11:24.048 --> 11:26.048 with this bright idea . Of a window 11:26.048 --> 11:28.500 from my office . It was a normal window , 11:28.900 --> 11:32.020 but he came up with this stained glass 11:32.020 --> 11:34.780 window that had the fifty-fifth on it 11:34.780 --> 11:36.891 and everything else and I hope to God 11:36.891 --> 11:39.609 it's still there somewhere , but it was 11:39.859 --> 11:43.380 fantastic and , and , and of course we 11:43.380 --> 11:45.602 were questioned about that , you know , 11:45.602 --> 11:47.824 where the funds come from , etc . etc . 11:47.824 --> 11:49.880 from for some time after that and we 11:49.880 --> 11:51.936 Just , I don't know , I don't know , 11:51.936 --> 11:54.158 somebody else did , but it was , it was 11:54.158 --> 11:56.324 a great little speedycor thing to , to 11:56.324 --> 12:00.190 take care of . Um . Like I say , 12:00.270 --> 12:02.679 we did get the , the uh the award from 12:02.679 --> 12:06.520 uh uh . Zack and I can remember 12:06.520 --> 12:08.687 the air division commander coming down 12:08.687 --> 12:11.330 and we had uh calls and . Got 12:11.330 --> 12:13.386 recognized , recognized a few of our 12:13.386 --> 12:15.719 people for it was , it was a good thing . 12:15.719 --> 12:17.886 It was , uh , it was good . But uh all 12:17.886 --> 12:20.210 good things must come to an end . And 12:20.210 --> 12:22.266 uh at that , uh , you know , we , we 12:22.266 --> 12:26.059 rotated squadron commanders that . 1415 , 12:26.140 --> 12:28.251 16 months or something like that , so 12:28.251 --> 12:30.760 it was uh . It was a time to make a 12:30.760 --> 12:34.599 change , um . And uh 12:34.929 --> 12:38.000 uh . In the , in the interim , I can't 12:38.000 --> 12:40.167 remember before I changed or not , but 12:40.167 --> 12:42.222 anyway , I got promoted to colonel . 12:42.500 --> 12:44.278 Thanks to Larry . Thanks to Dan 12:44.278 --> 12:46.056 Peterson too . Dan was the wing 12:46.056 --> 12:50.049 commander at the time . And so , uh , I 12:50.049 --> 12:52.160 moved over to the maintenance side of 12:52.160 --> 12:54.820 the house and I became , we call them , 12:55.130 --> 12:57.297 I don't know what they call them now , 12:57.297 --> 12:59.297 LGMAs , or something like that . At 12:59.297 --> 13:01.463 that time I was a DCM deputy commander 13:01.463 --> 13:03.574 for maintenance , and I moved over to 13:03.574 --> 13:06.239 become his assistant , and that was an 13:06.239 --> 13:09.789 education . Uh , because I went from a 13:10.080 --> 13:13.859 unit of 100 . 10 13:14.260 --> 13:17.359 something officers to uh an 13:17.359 --> 13:20.690 organization of about 6 or 700 lied to 13:20.690 --> 13:23.580 us . And you know , when you step into 13:23.580 --> 13:27.530 something like that , uh , You can tell 13:27.530 --> 13:30.070 they sort of wonder what do we got now ? 13:30.159 --> 13:32.215 Who do we have to train now ? Well , 13:32.280 --> 13:34.502 one thing I found , found out you don't 13:34.502 --> 13:36.724 do in a maintenance organization , show 13:36.724 --> 13:38.900 up in a flight suit . Uh , you know , 13:39.229 --> 13:42.159 bad thing . I got myself on some , some . 13:43.580 --> 13:46.030 VDUs and , and whatnot , uh , after 13:46.030 --> 13:48.086 that , to become one of the , one of 13:48.086 --> 13:50.380 the guys . Another thing I learned was 13:51.580 --> 13:55.229 That The best educator is Chief 13:55.229 --> 13:58.510 Master Sergeant . You know , uh , and 13:58.780 --> 14:01.309 you listen to them . If there's a 14:01.309 --> 14:03.789 decision to be made , gee , what do you 14:03.789 --> 14:06.309 think ? Well , it might not come 14:06.309 --> 14:08.476 through in the most kindest of terms , 14:08.476 --> 14:11.200 shall we say . But you do agree with 14:11.200 --> 14:13.367 them , and that , that that's probably 14:13.367 --> 14:15.144 it . But , uh , well , like the 14:15.144 --> 14:17.719 squadron was , uh , a bunch of good 14:17.719 --> 14:19.997 people in maintenance was the same way . 14:19.997 --> 14:22.108 The thing was interesting maintenance 14:22.108 --> 14:25.549 is that It was driven home to you that 14:26.119 --> 14:28.349 operations didn't own the airplanes . 14:28.690 --> 14:31.599 Maintenance owned the airplanes , and 14:31.599 --> 14:35.489 we had what ? 12 RCs , 12 ECs , 14:35.500 --> 14:37.333 I think . There were a couple of 14:37.333 --> 14:40.190 tankers and 4 E4s at the time , so we 14:40.190 --> 14:43.869 had a Uh , a pretty big inventory , uh . 14:45.520 --> 14:48.500 And besides launching the RV of the RCs , 14:48.820 --> 14:51.140 we also took care of the looking glass , 14:51.340 --> 14:54.239 which was You know , long since gone 14:54.239 --> 14:56.183 now , but it was the ECs have been 14:56.183 --> 14:58.295 around forever with all the , all the 14:58.295 --> 15:00.869 hardware on them were 20 years old , uh , 15:01.239 --> 15:04.190 but it was , uh , 24 hours a day , 7 15:04.190 --> 15:06.023 days a week , we always have one 15:06.023 --> 15:08.246 airborne , so on the 8-hour shift , you 15:08.246 --> 15:10.246 know , we , we get them off , and I 15:10.246 --> 15:12.190 tell you . I've never seen so many 15:12.190 --> 15:14.079 things go wrong with airplanes at 15:14.079 --> 15:16.190 takeoff time than there was in the EC 15:16.190 --> 15:18.301 group . And part of the problem was , 15:18.301 --> 15:20.468 is you always had a general officer on 15:20.468 --> 15:24.070 board , so Uh It , it became 15:24.070 --> 15:26.549 very expedient to , to get the airplane 15:26.549 --> 15:28.716 fixed and , and , and get it out . But 15:29.190 --> 15:31.412 some of the , some of the generals were 15:31.412 --> 15:33.134 absolutely super people . They 15:33.229 --> 15:36.309 understood exactly what was going on . 15:36.390 --> 15:39.190 They understood the situation , um . 15:40.179 --> 15:43.960 Some of them have a they had a 15:43.960 --> 15:46.016 little different attitudes , I would 15:46.016 --> 15:47.904 say , uh , and they were a little 15:47.904 --> 15:49.849 harder to get along with . But one 15:49.849 --> 15:52.750 thing , just an example of that is , uh , 15:53.080 --> 15:55.599 as you know , Omaha can get some 15:55.599 --> 15:59.179 winners with Snow , and then the snow 15:59.179 --> 16:01.401 melts , and then it gets cold , there's 16:01.401 --> 16:03.568 the ice , and then it gets snow on top 16:03.568 --> 16:06.320 of that , which doesn't make for , uh , 16:06.330 --> 16:09.280 at , at 11 o'clock at night on a winter 16:09.280 --> 16:11.447 night , doesn't make for good , good , 16:11.447 --> 16:14.520 uh , uh , conditions to operate in and 16:14.520 --> 16:17.000 out on the flight line . I don't know 16:17.000 --> 16:20.080 how many times though . I saw 16:21.140 --> 16:24.280 A 2 striper or something out there . 16:25.359 --> 16:28.669 Uh , doing whatever they had to do , uh , 16:28.679 --> 16:30.790 to , to clear the airplane and get it 16:30.790 --> 16:32.820 ready to go , to , to take care of 16:32.820 --> 16:35.710 everything , uh . And , you know , 16:35.809 --> 16:37.865 ironically , these are the same ones 16:37.865 --> 16:39.976 that if they had a , a , a family , a 16:39.976 --> 16:43.109 wife and a family were . We're Uh 16:43.969 --> 16:46.136 Some type of base course hopefully and 16:46.136 --> 16:48.191 living on food stamps and and things 16:48.191 --> 16:51.419 like that . And , but , you know , uh , 16:51.429 --> 16:55.210 at , at 10 degrees , wind , snow and 16:55.210 --> 16:58.409 ice , at midnight , they always did 16:58.409 --> 17:01.200 their job . They did it extremely well . 17:01.289 --> 17:03.489 I was very , very proud to have been a 17:03.489 --> 17:05.520 part of that , uh , part of that 17:05.520 --> 17:07.819 organization . I feel that . Uh , 17:07.989 --> 17:11.369 really rounded out by , uh , Uh , 17:11.540 --> 17:13.540 thoughts about the Air Force . I've 17:13.540 --> 17:15.707 been in staff positions , I've been to 17:15.707 --> 17:17.929 the air staff , I've been in school and 17:17.929 --> 17:20.262 then a bunch of things , but , you know , 17:20.262 --> 17:20.020 until the rubber meets the road , you 17:20.020 --> 17:22.359 don't really understand and Yeah 17:24.078 --> 17:26.438 It did when you were in ops , but it , 17:26.759 --> 17:29.389 it not like when you were out there on 17:29.389 --> 17:32.718 the line . Uh , Les Swan was the DCM at 17:32.718 --> 17:34.940 the time and he was a , he was a really 17:34.940 --> 17:38.319 good guy and uh . And it was , it was 17:38.319 --> 17:40.375 just a great experience , uh , doing 17:40.375 --> 17:43.540 that . Then after that , I went off 17:43.540 --> 17:46.130 to NATO headquarters in Brussels for a 17:46.130 --> 17:48.849 few years and uh then came back to 17:48.849 --> 17:52.489 offer again . That uh it was a 513 17:52.489 --> 17:53.930 electronic uh 17:56.030 --> 17:58.810 Uh It was a technical group for it out 17:58.810 --> 18:01.839 of the air war first time , but . I 18:01.839 --> 18:04.319 still kept my uh connections up with 18:04.319 --> 18:06.486 the fifty-fifth of the people who were 18:06.486 --> 18:08.652 down there because it was such a great 18:08.652 --> 18:11.689 group , uh , and Uh 18:13.079 --> 18:15.246 To come back and see some of the folks 18:15.246 --> 18:17.959 here and and touch base with them is . 18:18.660 --> 18:21.050 It means a lot . I hope it means as 18:21.050 --> 18:23.530 much to them as it means to me just to 18:23.530 --> 18:25.697 see them and and remember what went on 18:25.697 --> 18:28.689 in the past . I retired after 27 years 18:28.689 --> 18:32.459 in the Air Force and uh Like I say , I 18:32.459 --> 18:36.339 think that being squad commando 343 was 18:36.339 --> 18:38.283 probably the highlight of those 27 18:38.283 --> 18:40.339 years , just because of the people I 18:40.339 --> 18:43.609 met and what we did . Uh , and how we 18:43.609 --> 18:47.150 supported the mission , so . That's 18:47.150 --> 18:49.317 really about it that I've got to say . 18:49.317 --> 18:52.829 I appreciate this time to , to uh pass 18:52.829 --> 18:56.630 on what I . So I have uh um . 18:57.819 --> 19:00.041 I'm sorry to see old building 497 ago , 19:00.109 --> 19:02.770 that was uh . That was something that 19:02.770 --> 19:06.010 initially we , we had our uh our uh 19:06.010 --> 19:09.630 staff meetings over . Uh , in one of 19:09.630 --> 19:11.949 the old hangars , uh , that was before 19:11.949 --> 19:14.060 the new main headquarters was built , 19:14.060 --> 19:16.116 and then that was built down there , 19:16.116 --> 19:18.171 but I mean , and the other thing , I 19:18.171 --> 19:20.338 just , sorry , I don't mean to . But , 19:20.338 --> 19:22.505 but the other thing that was great was 19:22.505 --> 19:24.616 not only the people that , you know , 19:24.616 --> 19:26.782 the , the folks in the young squadrons 19:26.782 --> 19:28.949 there , but Uh , uh , the wing staff , 19:28.949 --> 19:32.140 we had a great Uh , relationship 19:32.140 --> 19:34.300 between , uh , well , us , the first 19:34.300 --> 19:36.939 acts , the second acts , 3:43 , 69 , 19:36.949 --> 19:39.920 85th , you know , everybody just They 19:39.920 --> 19:42.142 were dedicated to the mission that they 19:42.142 --> 19:45.719 did , but I think it was more , uh , a 19:45.719 --> 19:47.886 great deal of it was accomplished just 19:47.886 --> 19:49.997 because of the organization they were 19:49.997 --> 19:51.997 in , so couldn't have asked for the 19:51.997 --> 19:54.219 better . And I've seen something that I 19:54.219 --> 19:56.275 wouldn't ask for . OK , that's all I 19:56.275 --> 19:56.339 got . Thanks guys .