Let's Do The Time Warp Again!

This journal is a great way to post those things you think are important factors in your life......stuff you think impacted you and made you what you are.....and share those things with schoolmates. Obviously, each of us has had different experiences since graduating. All those experiences are interesting. I hope we get to hear everyone's story in detail here. My journey since '65 has had a couple potholes along the way. So here it is........more than you may want to know: I'm basically lazy. I loafed all through High School, copied Steve Lammert's homework...... (smart, huh?) I knew if I went right to college, I'd be wasting my time. (My family didn't have the money to send me anyway, so it was a moot point.) So, after graduation, I figured I'd work at odd jobs until my Uncle Sam needed my services, and there was no question he was gonna ask for my services! L.E. Myer's Construction, Indiana Bell, and part-time at The Frostop, I got my "greetings" letter in May of '66. For perspective on the impact of that letter, I give you this: I slept in the same bedroom in that little house on Morgantown Road for 18 years! David H. and I went to basic training together at Ft. Knox, then I went to advanced training at Ft. Jackson, S.C.. Back to Ft. Knox in '67 for Officer's Candidate School. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant. Primary Flight School in '68 at Mineral Wells, TX.. Advanced Flight Training at Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, GA.. Then at the end of '68, Viet Nam. I spent the first three months of my tour at Pleiku in the Central Highlands. I was then infused with the Americal Division at Chu Lai. The Americal was William Calley's Division (My Lai massacre). One of the pilots from my company was the one that saw what was going on and landed and stopped that madness. That was about a year before I got there. I was a Huey Gunship pilot for my year in Viet Nam. Viet Nam..... The 800 pound gorilla in my life. (The Big Gorilla in lotsa lives!) I came home thinking I had made it through the year unaffected. I was wrong. I'll tell more of that story later. Home from Viet Nam late in '69, I was a 22 year old Captain. What an exciting time........GREAT music, fast cars, I was just glad to be ALIVE! I went back to Savannah, Georgia as a Flight Commander and Instructor, teaching Vietnamese Air Cadets to fly Hueys. That may have been the best job I ever had. I absolutely loved Savannah.....spent almost three years there. But the Army is like many employers....... Up or Out! I applied for a school I needed for my next promotion and was accepted........the Armor Officer's Advanced Course, back at Ft. Knox. It was while I was attending this school that the Army started taking a close look at it's troop levels and budget. There were 40,000 Captains on active duty. The Army needed 10,000. Still short of having my Bachelor's degree........bye-bye Captain Dave! Just before I got out of the Army, I married the second best wife I ever had......a teacher from Savannah. She was a pretty neat lady actually, unfortunately caught up in the most turbulent period of my life. She was a military brat and loved the military life. Getting out of the Army was hard on me, but I think it was harder on her. I took a job selling insurance. I was too young.....people want to buy insurance from guys with gray hair. I sucked at it. I was miserable. I joined an Army Reserve Huey unit at St. Louis, Missouri. Back in the saddle and LOVIN' IT! I paid too little attention to my insurance sales, and got fired. I didn't care. I was putting my wife through school to get her Master's in Education with the hope that she could get a job teaching while I went back to school to finish my Bachelor's. She discovered my philandering just about the time she got her Master's, and decided going back to Mama in Savannah was preferable to staying with me. I think she made the correct decision. I call it "The Bicentennial Divorce". (1976) Drinking is a great way to deaden pain.... (For about a day or two.) I tried it for about a month and realized if I kept drinking, I was gonna lose everything or die, or both. A friend in the Reserve program was the County Executive of a county adjacent to St. Louis. He saw me during this drinking period and was shocked at my appearance. "What the hell is going on with you?" When I told him I was about to lose my home, he said: "I need a Dogcatcher. Come work for the County. All you have to do is drive around and look like you're searching for dogs." I figured I didn't have much choice. In six months I was managing the department and had 22 "Rabies Control Officers" working for me. Then my County Executive friend came to me again...... "The Civil Defense Director is retiring. He's been putting off writing the County's Emergency Operations Plan. You want the job?" It was better than herding a bunch of Dogcatchers, so I agreed to take the position. I wrote the E.O.P. and stayed in that job a year until 1978, but I still wanted to fly full-time. I jumped at the chance when a couple friends in Du Quoin, IL. offered a job as Chief Pilot for their Helicopter Charter Business. At this time I also got my civilian Flight Instructor certificate and started teaching civilians to fly helicopters. I was Safety Officer for the 102nd ARCOM in St. Louis, still flying Hueys, and had been promoted to the rank of Major. In 1980 I met a gal at a New Year's Eve party...... Her beauty knocked me out. Her smile melted my heart. I've been with her since. Our only child, a son, was born in 1983. He is not.......never has been.......a bit like me, thank God! In 1984 the Helicopter Charter business closed. I took a job as Chief Pilot flying a helicopter for the largest construction company in Missouri. In 1986, in a tight economy, they sold their machine and the Army Reserve was my only paycheck for several months. Late in '86 I started my present job flying the Helicopter Ambulance. It's interesting, frequently stessful, sometimes emotional work. I love the job.......but get irritated by company politics sometimes. (Don't we all?) I retired from the Army Reserve in '88. About that same time, a friend and I mortgaged our homes and bought a helicopter to start our own business. In this machine I do flight training, aerial photography, animal herding, and just about any job you can do with a helicopter. For 16 years we have been the Robinson Helicopter Dealership/Service Center for St. Louis and the surrounding area, selling and servicing our customer's helicopters. So I've now been flying helicopters 38 years........it just doesn't seem possible! I have 17,000+ hours in my logbook, (that's more than two full years airborne.) The great majority of that flight time is in helicopters, although I also fly airplanes. I don't like airplanes much.....(they're unsafe!) Today I like bicycling, walking, reading, blogging, and of course, flying. We own property on the Gulf in Florida and go South every three months or so to relax and recharge our batteries. We hope to retire there in the not-too-distant future. I think a lot about CGHS and the family that was our neighborhood. I think we were provided wonderful, stable surroundings that enabled us to grow in an environment where we were comfortable to be ourselves, and I think that affected us all in ways we are just now beginning to realize. TwoDogs has made the comment, and as one of our class leaders he has that right: He's proud of the class of '65. Visiting during reunions, and communicating via email and here at Vandy's Kids, I couldn't agree with him more.