My life as I remember it # 2

My folks Lived at the Auto Port Motel and restaurant as the ranch house on Pugh St. was being finished. I finally got my first 3 week leave, after graduating from munitions school at Lowey # 2 AFB in Denver CO, over the 1953 Thanksgiving holidays. I had brought a girl friend with me, she was a RN and she asked me after we left when my mother was expecting the baby. My younger brother Kenny was born the following spring.

I had to return to Ardmore AFB in Ardmore OK, if you went out the back gate you were in Gene Autry OK. I stayed there from mid December 1953 till March or April 1994. I then went to Greenville SC. and was there till September 1994 I was then sent to Sandia Army base in Albuquerque NM Where I studied nuclear weapons. I was there till June 1995 I took two separate courses. From there I went to the 8th ADS at Lakenheath England. I was there for 18 months. I then was sent to Brisenorten AFB out side of Reading England. I came back to the States in November 1958, I went to Donaldson AFB in Columbus OH Were I was discharged in February 1959. I lived in the Columbus area for a year doing odd jobs. I returned to the North Reading Area for about 2 ½ years. In late December 1959 I went to State College to be with Dad as he had a growth removed from his face (we were afraid it was cancer). On the way back The guy I was riding with panicked on a small patch of ice and we hit 2 tree’s in the middle of a field. I took 130 stitches in the side of my head and a steel screw in my right leg, I was on crutches for 91/2 months and then in a walking cast for 6 more weeks. There went my hopes for reenlisting in the Air force. I then returned to the State College area where I worked as a short order cook at the Electric Diner. From there I went to Riverside CA where I managed a service station (gas station) for a professional billiard player. He used the station as a tax write off but he forgot to tell me this and I really turned the station around and it really started to make money for him
I got bored and moved on. I then went to New Orleans where I finally went to work on the oil rigs as a cook, a good life two weeks at work then a week off. This job helped me get my seaman’s papers I then joined the National Maritime Union and started Sailing as a 2nd cook on freighters and tankers. Then I moved up to Chief Cook and Steward and continued to sail on the big ships. In 1970 shipping tight, it got real hard to find a ship. The US had laid up all the passenger ships, this happened because the US government quit subsidizing them as they said the no longer need them to move vast numbers of troops. This dumped a large number of cooks Stewards into the freighter tanker pool with a lot of seniority so I had to go looking other work. I landed a year contract on a ship called the R/V Hero. It was owned by the National Science Foundation. The crew was employed by the Maritime Research Company - out of Miami FL. It worked the Southern half of South America and the Antarctic Peninsular. The home Port was listed as Palmer Station Antarctica. I ended up spending 7 years on the ship and worked for 3 different company’s before I left. I lived in Punte Arenas Chile for 3 years, I still sort of, own a house there When I left I told the girl that I lived with it was hers but did not have time to get the paperwork done. We had to leave due to the political situation, this was when Alende was President of Chile.

We moved the South American home base, supply base to Ushuaia Argentina I ended up opening a barbeque restaurant there. I was open one season as it was a tourist town and it had a 4 month season and I did not get open till late in the season and did not have enough capital to hold over till the next season. I was offered a job with the ship chandler company that I Use to buy supplies from for the R/V Hero The had started a catering company and gotten the contract to feed the international crews that were going to pull the pipe line under the straights of Magellan. They needed a person that could teach their cooks how to fix American style breakfasts and special things like American biscuits and pancakes. And other things that they needed. They only paid me $1,000 a month but they also paid the rent on the house in Rio Grande. They also paid all the utilities and even the cleaning woman. I also had an unlimited expense account with a $2500 base I also had a full time Argentine driver and two dual wheel Ford 1 ton pickups. One of the major parts of my job was to entertain the big wigs of the oil company and sub contractors. We started with these two camps and when I left we had 10 camps and 4 drivers and 5 pickups. We bought about $20,000 worth of food a week. So I never had to buy cigs, wine, booze ect. So the $1000 was clear.

I JUST spilled water on the keyboard and must close.

BOB