August 1952, Pittsburgh. Along with other enlistees, I was on a train en route to Ithaca, N.Y., and Sampson Air force Base. We left Pittsburgh in the evening and arrived at Sampson early the next morning. Our first encounter with a I.I. was at the train station which was, conveniently, on the base. We were herded into the dining hall for breakfast and then assigned our barracks. I was assigned to the 1936th Basic Military Indoctrination Squadron, then went into the long lines to receive our clothing, and instructions on how to pack the duffel bag and foot locker to carry our belongings on our various assignments. We followed our Technical Instruction and were introduced to formation marching, carrying all our possessions then assigned our bunk.
Noon time and our whole barracks fell out in formation to go to chow. Returning to our barracks, we were informed that we would have to GI (clean) the floors and put shoe polish down to preserve the wood. We had a week to do this. One of the men in the squadron was the son of the owner of the Kiwi Shoe Polish company, and he called and had a case of brown shoe polish delivered. We used various pieces of cloth to apply the polish, and someone decided to use his GI blanket to buff the floor. This job earned us a free hour to have a smoke and clean up.
One of the memorable spots was when we were out on bivouac and having war games and E&E (Escape and Evasion). We had, in our group, a young German who had been in the Luftwaffe at 16. We were out in the field at night when he was captured by the aggressors. He escaped from his captors only to be re-captured. When asked why he had escaped, his reply was, “I was taught while in Germany to escape whenever I had the occasion.”
My fondest time was when we had our Fourth Weekend Pass to see any of our relatives who had come to visit. I was met by my wife and we had three days in a hotel to spend together. Then it was over and I had to return to reality.
Our training was to be 12 weeks, but was cut short to 9 because of the demand for personnel. We received orders and were placed on buses to go to an airport and then to our technical school. I was assigned to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Miss., and completed the radio operator course in 32 weeks. I then was assigned to the 1966 AACS on Iwo Jima for a year.
I retired from the Air Force in 1972 with a great deal of fond memories.