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Misc.Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Zip your do-dah G.I.
MEMORIAL DAY
A few years ago there were still a handful of vets from the Spanish American war around. They are all gone now. There might be a dozen or more left that served in WW I. If there are any WW I vets they'd have to be about 100 years old now.
I was born in 1936 when Hitler was on the rise and rolling across Europe. It was before the engagement of America, but in the news every day. By the time I was 3 or 4 years old WW II was in full swing. By then it was certain that America was about to take part. And it did.
Families with members serving in the war had small banners posted on the inside of their front windows. One gold star in the center meant one service person, two meant two, and so forth. A lot of people complained about "that crafty fox Roosevelt" but the nation was solidly behind him and the war effort.
In school and in church there were folks who sold "War Bonds" to support the troops. Everybody bought them. There were blank "War Bond" books. You purchased stamps like postage stamps and glued them on the pages. When a book was filled you took it to the bank and redeemed it for a War Bond. Every family I knew saved for their War Bond books.
THE KOREAN WAR
The war finally ended and I continued to grow up. By the time I was in 8th or 9th grade in school, an equally deadly confrontation had begun in Korea. I was 18 in 1954 and the Korean Police Action was going full tilt. I joined the U.S. Airforce and took my basic training at Parks AFB near Dublin, California. Immediately following basic I attended an electronics tech school at Lowry AFB in Aurora, Colorado. After completing the electronics courses there I was sent to Biloxi for more training, and then on to the Missile Guidance System school at Orlando Air Force Base in Orlando, Florida. After more training I was sent with my unit to Sembach AFB in Germany.
Sembach AFB was an recently used Luftwaffe Base that the Americans took over. It was nestled in a rural area of rolling green hills just outside of the small farm town of Sembach. It was a beautiful place of rolling green hills and small farms. When we had some time off, which was often, we drove a few miles to Kaiserslautern, a much larger town. Kaiserslautern provided lots of stores, beer bars, and other entertainments.
The guidance system was a special radar based technology called "Shanicle" by the Martin Company/Baltimore (the manufacturer). It was composed of two base radar stations that controlled the azimuth (direction) and two base radar stations that controlled the range (distance). The four stations were widely spread apart. The distance between each pair was around 25 miles, and the distance between pairs was about 100 miles. The missile was launched (from behind the center of the base station locations) toward the target. Once aloft the base stations assumed control and guided the missile onward to the target. The theory was pretty good, but in practice the electronics were crude and unreliable. There were a number of failed launches but not in Germany. In order to actually launch and quide the missile to it's target we had to go south. Very south.
Our unit went on regular trips from Sembach, Germany (home base) to Wheelus AFB, Tripoli, Libya near the African Guided Missile Test Range. My unit flew in C-119 cargo planes. There is nothing quite like them flying today. The fuselage looked like a huge pod with two large prop engines at the front of twin booms that ran straight back and past the rear of the pod, ending at the twin tail area. There was a minor wing from one boom to the other. At the rear of the pod were two enormous clam shell doors. Theoretically the pod could hold a tank or a jeep or a weapons carrier, and then parachute it out the open clam shell doors. In our case it held only frozen officers and airmen going to and from
This was an outstanding military base. There was bright sun, the blue Mediterranean, white washed quarters for the troops, and a terrific golf course. When off the base on leave or R & R our troops had to be alert. Not all of the natives were friendly.
During the times I spent there between 1956 and 1958, Gamal Abdul Nasser was the dictator of Egypt. His regime was threatening the Suez Canal and rattling sabers all over the Arab world. Egyptians on the Libyan border were considered hostile. We (the Americans) shared the region with a few British units. They taught us a lot, especially how to keep the "wogs" at bay.
1. The British treated the Arabs very firmlym with no nonsense, and with a
2. The British were spit upon, stoned, and generally hated more than we were by the Arabs in Tripoli.
3. Most Libyan Arabs were sympathetic to Nasser and his attempt to build a United Arab Republic.
When traveling off base in the back of open trucks we were sometimes stoned by hidden Arab boys, and once in a while when walking the streets of Tripoli's old town (the Arab quarter) we'd be spit upon. If the British caught a spitter or stoner they would beat him bloody on the spot. We Americans were ordered to walk away. The British soldiers warned us that the only language the young Arabs understood was brutal retribution. It was a very uncomfortable feeling to know we were disliked because we were American.
THE WAR IN IRAQ
50 years or so years later, Americans are still disliked by most of the Arab world and still understand only brute force. You would think they might have learned better in 50 years, but they haven't. In Iraq we have learned that it is their religion that ferments most of the hate between us. Western scholars and historians have known this for years, but failed to get it across to the general public.
Fundamental Extremist Islam is our enemy, and always has been.
END
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