Greetings:
In the January, 2016 issue of The American Legion on page 42 you requested stories on basic training. I offer "our" story in place of my story. It actually began in 1965 when she was 12 and I was 13 and it is still being written today.
On Wednesday, Sept., 18, 1974, little over two weeks after getting married, we both raised our right hands in Portland, Ore., and enlisted in the Air Force. I was not 20/20 uncorrectable and could not fly, so we enlisted her for four and me for six years. A few hours later we kissed as we got off the bus at different locations at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for basic training.
In the following days, each one caught sight of the other a time or two, but it was the U.S. Post Office that brought our training flights together. Within the first day or two, we were given our basic training flight address; I found out that the girls only had two basic training squadrons and Flight 166 looked to be hers, but I could not be sure. I wrote several letters to her—using my information and replacing first name, SSAN and flight information—at two or three different flights. All but one was returned.
Once we had contact with the other, we started setting meetings at different locations and soon had our respective flights following along. In basic, I was going to one AFSC and she to another. Later in basic I was told the Air Force was winding down some of its enlisted training, and I had enlisted with a guaranteed field so I was given another choice of fields. With less than two months of marriage I was given the option of selecting a replacement, and I still recall asking the airman who told me of the change and my options whether he could tell me where my wife was going with her "open" enlistment. He looked at me and said, "She is here now?"
That is where I learned the term Aircrew Egress and how cold it was at Chanute Air Force Base, Ill., at that time of the year.
The Air Force kept us together from enlistment, basic training to our separation from the force. In a way, it set the basis with our later cross-training for our jobs after discharge. I just sent Christmas greetings along to another couple that met and married once in the Air Force who turned into best friends over the civilian years. They invited us to dinner on our Christmas Eve deployment in 1978 to Osan Air Base, South Korea, at the "721 Joint Spouse Dorm." We look fondly back on basic training, in so many ways the foundation of our marriage and life together.
