Col Harris and I made a couple of trips to Westover to scout out what they had to offer and make plans for our move, SAC was the host, all their B-52’s had been sent to Guam to support the Vietnam war and we where going to be a tenant. We started neogations , I demanded the hanger adjacent to Base Ops, I also demanded the north ramp for our aircraft parking area and the end of the building opposing the hanger but still the closest building to our proposed flight line for the ground power section. Our engine shop would collocate with the SAC engine shop, likewise the avionics shops, hydraulic shop, machine shop, welding shop, life support system shop, parachute shop, the engine run up stand and the engine trim pad were shared. The hanger I selected had two story wings on each side, Col Harris and Kirby Nunn would get the ground floor corner nearest Base Ops, Personal equipment would get ground floor quarters also near the flight line, periodic maintenance shops filled most of the other ground floor space. Squadron Ops got the upper floor nearest our proposed flight line and Maintenance offices used up most of the upper floor of the west wing. In other words I wanted to minimize travel time for every one. It was just common sense, I think Col Harris agreed.

Of course SAC objected to what I had planed and the Pentagon acted as arbitrator to iron out the final joint occupancy agreement, finally I said, something to the effect, the Air Force had sent me to Command and
Staff college, Maintenance officers school and the Maintenance Staff
officers course all to make me a better manager. What do you want me to do, forget all that good learning just because some entrenched entities don’t want to be up rooted? I wanted to build an efficient organization and use the best management principles that I knew. We got every thing
that was important. That was the start of a five year run of operating
the Maintenance section of a squadron that did a pretty good job
performing our mission.

We sent as many airplanes as we could out on a week long mission and
loaded up every thing we could of our possessions at Otis, formed up a
caravan, took the essentials and were ready to recover our aircraft at
Westover when they came back to their new home. We had sent most of the spare parts, nonessential people and equipment on ahead and they had mostly settled in by the time we moved the airplanes. Some of the maintenance types where not worth keeping, so by prior arrangement with Air Defence Command they were left behind and they got new assignments we would get pot luck on replacements. I kept the best 157 and gave up about 100 that could or should have done a better job, in my opinion, but even being short handed for a year or so the job got done and the squadron performed it’s mission quite well, it is nice to be able to select the people that work for you.

Bill Glass was one of them, he was already a Chief Master Sergeant and he came to me at Otis and asked if I would take him to Westover, I did a bit of checking and gladly accepted him as my top maintenance enlisted man in the Maintenance section, he is largely responsible for recruiting the court recorder that ran my APR and OER system that proved so successful. I tried my best to get him elected to be Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force but he lost out to a more politically connected one. The last time I saw Bill he was a Loan officer at the Mac Dill AFB Credit union, he was quite a guy.

A local brewery in Chickipee, MA had a keg of draft beer in their lobby
and visitors where welcomed with a glass of their refreshing brew. I don’t know who worked it out but, if we would send a pickup each Friday
afternoon about closing time we could have what was left in the barrel,
if it was near empty they would throw in a extra at no charge. So the
game was, get all the planes repaired and ready to launch on Monday and when we got as many as possible of the planes back on the ready line every one could share the free beer, it was usually after 9PM when we got everything under control and the tap was opened. The maintenance types loved it and even some of the other squadron members would join us. Yes, a few over indulged and a few wives objected and I would apologize and watch certain ones to make sure they did not over imbibe. Yeah, Nelly was not happy that each Friday after supper I would go have a beer with my men when we could have been at the officers club dancing. Yes, she put up with a lot but all in all our life was pretty good. I have to mention that Nelly was more or less ordered to stuff some Cohogs (clams stuffed with a bread dressing) by one of the senior wives in the squadron that wore her husbands rank and boy did she react, she would never have any contact with that family again.

Nelly would never ever eat another clam even though I loved both clams and oysters. That is just one of many adjustments that one makes in a marriage. We both loved lobsters and a few times we would drive up to Booth Bay Harbor, ME to our favorite lobster shack for a feast. On our first visit there we had a normal serving, but Nelly liked it so much that she wanted more, so we shared another lobster. It was one of those times that you don’t forget. We took Nelly’s parents there to have
“homard in, France”, for the first time, Mama the perfect lady, that had
been taught to never eat food with the fingers, was having a really hard
time with her lobster so I finally broke every thing for her so all she had to do was pick it out with the lobster fork and dip it in the lemon butter to enjoy. We took them back once more near the end of their visit. The children likewise learned to like lobster and the cost of living went up again.

As the Vietnam war wound down SAC announced that the B-52’s would not be returning to Westover but would be sent directly to Davis-Monthan for disposition and that they would also give up host status for the base. I ended up being in charge of all aircraft maintenance facilities on the base but soon, Air Defence Command sent word that our squadron was also
being deactivated and our airplanes were to be transferred to the Vermont Air National Guard at Burlington. I had heard horror stories about the Air Guard complaining about the Air Force transferring junk airplanes to them. I short stopped that by inviting their inspectors to join us in the transfer inspections and we would fix any thing that they were not happy with, it worked fine, except for the extra starter that I had my
troops build into the tail section of each airplane. Of course it was not part of the normal equipment, but it allowed us to never delay a
departure because of a failed starter which had been on the my list of the five high items that caused failed missions or aborts. Oh yes the pentagon was not happy with me for having taken the problem into my own hands and installed a spare starter in each tail section of our airplanes. No they did not court Marshall me but they threatened to.
Eventually it was adopted as a good idea . We got the extra starters from those Navy engines that had been shipped to us to change out all B-57 engines, for both of the B-57 squadrons remaining in the Air Force, we just ordered the necessary parts to convert them to B-57 starters. I saw it as recycling at the best.

Yeah, I pushed the edge of the envelope in trying to do the best job that I could with what I had to work with, even Col Harris got upset with me a
few times when I brought embarrassment to the squadron but in every case my decisions where logical and based on common sense, it made for a better squadron and more mission accomplishment.

Don Jones taught us that we needed to be more careful about our explosives, on two occasions Don hit the wrong switch and dropped one of the tip tanks on the ramp in both cases both tip tanks should have dropped, we went through the fleet and made better connections, and making the squibs a part of our periodic inspections. Yes, over time they had become corroded and we were learning how to make the B-57 a safer airplane.

Air Defense Command wanted me to become the chief of maintenance at our sister squadron at Malmstrom, AFB in Montana. Nelly and the children were not enthusiastic about going there so I asked Bill Glass my Chief Master Sergeant to use his pull in the Pentagon. I told him I had a
volunteer statement in to return to Europe since 1958 and since this
would be my last assignment I thought I should get what I and the family
desired and that the Air Force should send me to Europe. My orders to
Hahn AB Germany came that afternoon, don’t ever underestimate the power of the senior sergeants organization. I am still in awe of what they can do. Col Harris went to Duluth Air Base Group as Commander, Lt Col Jones went as advisor to the Vermount Air Guard and Bill Glass retired to the Tampa area and Nelly the children and I went off to a new adventure in Germany. I will tell you all about it later in the next episode… Bob