Late spring or early summer of 1958 we got the word that the 38th Bomb wing was being deactivated and would be reactivated as the 38th Tactical Missile wing. What a bummer, I was getting near the end of my four year tour and was looking forward to a new assignment, but the blunt affect was what are Nelly and I going to do? Continue reading →

I know I am getting nostalgic and at almost 79 I don’t care what you think but I think I should say thanks to my Dad because things have come together in my mind lately that make me want to give him credit for all
the things he did for me.

He gave me good genes, I have out lived the mortality tables, he bought a farm in early 1941 where I learned so much about nature and life it would take volumes to explain, the farm was only a few miles from the local airport and I learned so much by just listening to the flying tales that were told that it made my flying career in the Air Force a piece of cake. Every thing I was asked to do was easy, except a few times when the bullets got to close in Vietnam.

All in all life has been great and I credit my parents and the early surroundings and the many mentors that have taken me under their wings, so I guess I have had many father figures over the years that have in one
way or another have been part of my life and contributed so much that feel compelled to say Thanks Dads

I love you all… Bob

As time went on some of my B-26 pilot friends went on to RB- 57’s at Sembach some went to B-66’s and others just melted into USAFE. Those of us that got to stay at Laon went to B-57 ground school and the altitude chamber and eventually got checked out in the B-57. Continue reading →

While still in the Air Base Group I was assigned to escort the 38th BW soccer team to the play-offs at Kauffburen, Germany. I did not know that we even had a soccer team but they had done well enough in the regional games that we got to go to the play-offs. Continue reading →

Chuck Yeager was on of those people I had heard a lot about and admired but never thought I would ever have any contact with him. While still in the Air Base group flying T-33’s and the L-20 I was told to go to Landstuhl, overnight and meet Lt Col Yeager and take him to Toul AB so he could check out the base where he would be moving his new wing of F-86H’s the hottest fighter in the AF at that time. We met at the base ops counter at the prescribed time, filed a flight plan and were off to Toul AB, France. I let him fly most of the way but I did not let him make the landing I squeeked it on and he said that was good. Continue reading →

After I had served In Laos and Thailand and Vietnam I happened upon a book by Barbara Tuchman. “Stillwell, US involvement in china 1910-1945”. Learning how much Stillwell distrusted the trio I started to have a much different idea of what problem we had been sent to Indo China to solve. My thoughts follow: Continue reading →

If you are wondering where my tales are coming from, I have discovered Google maps and Google earth. As I go around the earth to places I have been it brings back some really interesting memories. I highly recommend this activity to all. Any how I hope you enjoy my recollections of things that happened many years ago. But still need to be told.

As we phased out the B-26 at Laon I got to fly on Tom Mahoney’s wing across the North Atlantic along with Carl Lafoon and our navigators, Continue reading →

Some of you have replied that you liked my recent tales so here is another.

Shortly after Nelly and I got married we bought an old airplane that was setting in the back corner of the hanger at the Loan airport. I was a Maubpassant Brussard (Bussard) a French 1930’s version of the British Gull or the German Klem, Continue reading →

Thank you all for your kind words about “Fathers Day” and several encourage me to keep writing so here is another tale…

Those of us that served at Laon and other places in Europe remember the electricity was different. It was 60 Hertz and 220 Volts. One of the machines in the field maintenance shops called a DuAll which was a big band saw that could cut a lot of things but it couldn’t because all the blades that came with the saw had eventually broken and the supply system only replenished them in 100 ft coils that had to be welded on site. Continue reading →

I found this letter printed on a dot-matrix printer. I had not seen it before, but wanted to included it. The letter is three pages long. Continue reading →