So... what constitutes a successful reunion? My definition, you might ask? If your face aches and your stomach is sore from so much laughing and smiling THEN you know the reunion is a success.

It has been 28 years since Misawa. Twenty-eight years. Yeowie. Time sure has flown. Up until Helen contacted me I've had an occasion to think about my time in Japan, but like everyone else there have been so many other things that have taken my full attention that those passing thoughts have been just that; passing thoughts. Now, I've got that bit of "me" time again and along comes myFamily.com and I just can't help myself as I find the need to relive a bit of the past.  

When people ask I tell them that the Air Force was my middle ground. Some kids have the opportunity to go to college and that is their first step from home into semi-real world. The Air Force was that for me. The military was my first step of kinda sorta independence but still I was attached to a lifeline with those three basic human/personal needs provided (food, shelter, security).

Most of us have made life long friends through the military. Sure, sometimes that connection only amounts to Christmas cards and phone calls, but there is still a connection, a bond that just can't be broken. And, such a strong connection it is, too. Even when we lose contact with those friends we still feel them in our lives, as their shadows seem to follow us. Now, I feel as though I'm going to meet friends that should have been in that snap shot of time all those twenty-eight years ago but have just come into my life as of late.  

Our stories are the same but different and together we will pull together a huge puzzle that shows a vast and complicated picture of the unique people who were chosen to do a job that few outside our circle understood. This group was a breed apart and even the upper echelons acknowledged this uniqueness while at the same time regular Air Force personnel were quite irked by our lack of military compliance. Yet, the powers that be allowed the lack of military bearing in exchange for the results this group of Security Service personnel was able to produce.

Now, all these years later, the cold war is over and so much of what we saw and heard and participated in has been "officially" declassified. It seems some strange hand of fate has pulled us back together with a need to huddle around and tell those stories of where we were in our flow of life during Sputnik, the Cuban missile crisis, the Pueblo incident or the planes that just never came back. And, if we have a darned good time while we're at it, then all the better. Goodness knows if there is a lighter side to any group, this one has a "lighter" side. I think laughter and a sense of family is the one thing that kept this wily bunch sane when in your face reality, and the very heartbeat of the world was far more real on a daily basis than the normal populace could ever begin to comprehend.

The trip from Pearland to San Antonio was flawless as I grabbed the beltway (toll road) a few miles from the house and headed to the other side of Houston to hit I10. As expected, I10 was a holy mess and I was white knuckled until I was out of Houston proper and into Katy. 

Initially, I was concerned that Isidore might train his/her eye on Galveston, but the weather channel assured me that our fortune was Louisiana's misfortune. Still, there was a pretty stiff breeze most of the way to San Antonio and it was almost comfortable as the temperatures were only in the 80s.

In all honesty, I didn’t know what I’d find at the end of my four-hour drive to San Antonio. It was like going to meet your future in-laws for the first time, you wonder what their impression will be and will you be able to fold yourself into the family.

Reached the Red Roof Inn about 3 p.m. and with the difference in weather brought the beginnings of a terrific headache, which prompted me to take two Excedrin Migraine tablets and an hour nap before heading off to the Windjammer. I arrived about 6:30 and found the parking lot packed. OK, I'll fess up. I pulled a "man" thing. I wandered the 410 Loop for about 30 minutes before locating the Windjammer. I remembered Helen saying it was just a few miles away from the Red Roof Inn. I had gotten the address out of the phone directory and I stayed in a pretty tight area but the "man" part of it is I didn't stop and ask.  

Have to say I've not made it a habit of going into bars since the Air Force days and I was a bit hesitant to walk into one alone. Had to laugh though as there was a lady in the parking lot just chatting away - well - really - arguing with herself. Evidentially the party had already gotten pretty wound up.

The Windjammer was packed. People were wall-to-wall with conversations being carried on in both small and large groups. I found a cluster of folks around the sign-in-book and waited in line for my turn. There on the sign-in table were those wonderful little "HELLO My Name Is", so I put Margaret Ganter on mine and stuck it over my heart (ya didn't know I had one of those, did ya?). Fred Teschner was the first person I met as he was herding people over to sign-in. Fred helped me locate Helen after suggesting that I add Daberko to my nametag. I told him I didn't think I had enough chest for all that but we made do. I'm sure you'll all be shocked to learn that Helen was at a table surrounded by her many fans. I scanned the room to see if there were any faces I might accidentally recognize and noticed a group of smiley faces and recognized "The Babb-man" and with him was Terry McGee, Russ Butcher, Ben Whitten, Pete Herbst and Bill Dolittle. I've never been a big touchy/feelie hugging type of person but something came over me and it was hugs all around.

In meeting these folks I have to wonder why is it that when men get older they look more distinguished, like a fine classic car and something to be admired? When a woman hits a certain age she can more closely be identified along the lines of a Studebaker, more an interesting novelty. This is a rhetorical question and I am not expecting an answer, nor do I want one, cause if I know you guys as I think I do...well, I just don't want an answer. It was just something that I observed and wondered to myself.

Wayne said he'd made a bet with Terry when I walked in that I was "Maggie" and of course he won. This had to be a good guess as I'm nothing like the picture posted. Unfortunately, I'm just almost twice what my picture represents. But, Wayne won the bet and it might be interesting to see if he will collect. As a consolation prize I got a big smooch on my right face cheek (see, I know you guys so I clarified that before I was asked) from Wayne for helping him win his bet. 

I learned that Terry had been in Texas since Saturday visiting with his son and daughter-in-law. They had hoped to come with him to San Antonio but the younger McGee's duty called - the army is jealous of time away from her, especially with today's world climate.  

BJ made an entrance as only he could. I recognized him without anyone having to point him out. For some reason I thought of CHEERS and felt like everyone should yell "BJ" instead of Norm when he entered the room. BJ immediately set up shop for the sales of Operation Eye Sight cigarette lighters and Misawa coins and then he promptly turned the business over to his beautiful wife and walked away to visit. MEN!

Just after the group picture was taken Jerry Freeman made the rounds and left fairly early saying he needed to get the wife back to the hotel. Jerry is the character in person he is on site. And speaking of the group picture; the crowd was so large this year that a super double wide-angle lens would be challenged. Naturally, with this group scrunched up together, some on the floor, some on creaking knees, some scrunched down and others on tippie toes, it was only natural some interesting comments reminiscent of Misawa were made. Without being overly graphic, lets just say BJ was the "butt" of some good humor. Or, is it his butt was the focus of the humor? They were discussing something about exams and enjoying the bent over position he had found himself in for the picture. Now, what could they mean?

Pete Herbst, Bill Dolittle, Helen and I decided to step outside to try and catch a breeze. With all the body heat in the Windjammer it was almost unbearable or maybe it is an age thing. Helen and I had the opportunity to speak to Jane Dolittle on Bill's phone. Unfortunately, Jane was not able to join us this year because of a sick friend. I think she has her priorities in proper order.

I saw names I recognized from myfamily and spoke to some folks who were on site but don't input as often and yours truly. It was wonderful that Jim Willis made the trip and a real pleasure to meet him even so briefly, as he is a real social butterfly. Lots of fun to watch him work the floor, maybe that is why his nickname is Beachball.

Oh yes, lets not forget that our Helen was honored by Don Maddux for all her efforts in locating and bringing people into this family. This is, as we all know, an honor well earned.

I didn’t have the opportunity to meet the owner of the Windjammer, but I’d like to say that I know this party was a huge success because of his efforts and that he and his staff worked themselves to death trying to keep everyone’s thirst quenched.

You’ll note that I’m switching back and forth between writing styles. Currently, I'm writing this as a journal so as I type this I'm typing it as I originally wrote it (but you had better believe I'm using check spell), somewhere down the road you’ll probably notice I’ll switch gears.

So, in my journal I wrote: "I'm sitting here at 7:30 a.m., Thursday writing this so I won't forget too much." We left the Windjammer about 11:15 and I sat up until midnight scribbling notes. Naturally my headache returned so I popped a couple more Excedrin and hoped my brain would eventually stop churning so I would get some sleep. Far too many thoughts kept running through my head of things that I didn't want to not mention.   This is going to be an impossible task.

The Red Roof Inn is directly across highway 90 from Lackland and you can see Wilford Hall peaking over the top of the bridge’s incline. When I awoke the first thing I did was try to remember what it was like to be eighteen again and hitting the sidewalk at 0515, wearing the dress of the day and having our rooms in inspection order. Then I thought, hell, I'm up at 0430 and out the door by 0500 and my dress of the day is a Smurf blue set of Nomex. Of course, Bruce is also still in bed when I leave so forget bouncing a quarter off of it unless I'm looking for a real ugly awakening.

Russ had mentioned he'd been up for 30 hours and I'll have to get the why of that when we get together later. But, it was interesting to note that Russ was able to recognize Wayne in the motel parking lot after all these years just from his profile. They said they immediately spotted their bud Terry, as well.

Unfortunately, I missed a recollection session these guys had where they were talking about some of life's most embarrassing moments. Wouldn't you know those moments happened at Misawa. For some reason those particular reminiscence were not rehashed in my presence. Darn, might have been fun to share with this forum.

Terry still contends that he spent a lot of time in the alley but it was because he was looking for buddy and roommate Russ. Yes Terry, a likely story. I believe you. SERIOUSLY! (For the 70s crowd, you'll note my use of SERIOUSLY in its proper context).

Terry volunteered he is 61 and a lively discussion of who was older, Terry or Russ, ensued. Not sure that was ever fully resolved. Don't know what Terry is taking, but I want some, as he looks younger than me - and I'm not telling my age, but it isn't 61.

As you'd expect, there were cameras flashing one after another. Wayne showed Russ how to work his disposable camera so Russ, true to his on-line reputation, should have some interesting shots. Well OK, before I'm told on, Russ then showed me how to make the flash work on my disposable camera and I too have been known for unique angles in my short picture taking career. On my list of things to do is take a photography class.

There should be one very interesting picture when a young man who lifted his shirt and showed us his nipple ring and caught our whole group off guard. Don't think he was a Misawan.

Thursday I ran into Helen on her way to the 6924^th’s meeting. We chatted a few moments while the troops gathered to caravan to Kelly and their gathering. My plans, once the sinus meds kicked in was to head for the San Antonio Zoo. I broke out the rusty trusty Greater San Antonio business pages and found that by gollie the zoo is directly behind our San Antonio Corporate office. Of course, getting there from that side of San Antonio would be different from how I would normally make the trek while staying there on business. We generally stay at the Drury Inn – Airport.

Right down the road from the zoo is the Oriental Gardens, but I was a bit wilted after the zoo so I have saved that for another time.

Seems I have animal (OK, avian) magnetism, as I had a cockatoo herding me in one of the walk through open birdhouses. He had a real love affair with my shoes and showed me his plume, ruffled his feathers and spread his tail feathers so I could see how gorgeous he was. What a flirt. He didn’t like me talking to the other birds or taking pictures of them. Other folks would walk in and he’d check them out but would always return to me if I showed signs of walking toward the door. The other visitors got a kick out of watching him try to back me away from the door. Do you think Reebok would be interested? I could just see the commercials.

It was far too warm for most of the animals to be moving. One large spotted leopard put on a bit of a show by calling out mournfully as he paced his cage. Such a beautiful animal; it just kills me to see them caged and alone. The shock of the zoo visit was it cost $7.00. Geeze, I remember when we’d visit the zoo in Dallas for free. Am I showing my age, or what?

Friday evening Helen dropped by around 10 p.m. and we talked until about 1 a.m. We discussed if we should call the guys and try to set up breakfast but nixed that in the event they were asleep. So, when Helen called me the following morning around 6:30 a.m. we divided and conquered. Helen called Wayne and I called Russ.

I hadn’t realized that Russ and Terry were rooming together and it was Terry who answered the phone. So, I got two hits in one call. Life is good! I figure if I’m up EVERYONE should be up. The plan was to get them going and to meet for breakfast somewhere.

I’ll let Helen tell of her conversation with Wayne at 6:30, but needless to say he wasn’t expecting a wake-up call at that time. He put us off until almost 9 a.m. We met the boys at their hotel then took off to the VFW. Helen, Mom that she is, assigned Wayne the task of rounding up the troops and having them ready to go.

The 6924^th, one of Wayne and Fred Teschner’s old units was putting on a breakfast at the local VFW and since this was graduation day at Lackland and the local eateries would be overflowing, the VFW option was appealing. Besides, it was so nice of them to invite us to join them.

The breakfast was great! They had anything you could imagine including, get this Lloyd, SOS over biscuits. Yummy. Now, if I can just win the quilt that Jerry Freeman is raffling off for this church. For those of you who don’t know, Jerry makes quilts AND they are gorgeous and I do mean gorgeous.

I’ll make a note here, but I’m sure the guys will elaborate, but guess who had security called on them? Why? Well, lets see, it is 2:30 a.m. and Wayne, Russ, Terry and Ben were still going strong telling stories and reminiscing. Evidentially, the next door neighbors weren’t all that interested. Party poop-ers. But, what can I say but, YES! Ya still got it guys – who’d have thunk these respected middle aged gentlemen would still need to be reined in? Oh, all right, so you’re not really all that surprised. And of course, Terry said that he was there just looking for Russ! Isn’t he just the best roommate?

Friday morning we were missing Bill Dolittle and Ben Whitten. We knew that Ben had headed home, but we didn’t know Bill’s status. We could only assume his ill friend had become a top priority and we hoped he made it back home safely.

Fortunately, we did pick up Pete again at the Memorial ceremony at Lackland as well as relocated Jim Willis.

The ceremony began at 11:30. Bagpipers played several songs immediately prior to the ceremony and a color guard and honor guard was in place prior to, during and immediately following the ceremony. Being in full dress blues, I thought for sure one of those young folks would go down in the heat as they stood at parade rest for almost thirty minutes and it was in the upper 80s or lower 90s. The Bagpipers seemed fine in the heat as they were in kilts and now and again there would be a slight breeze to cool them off.

I’ll post the ceremony’s program on the myfamily site. This year, the person honored was a SSgt. Shane Kimmett who went down in March 2002 on a training mission in the mountains of Puerto Rico. SSgt. Kimmett’s wife was there for the unveiling of a plaque in his honor. She was a beautiful young lady who held up well under the circumstances. I couldn’t help but wonder how she felt about his sacrifice and her loss. An awful high price for sure. So many families in times past have paid this price.

A moment was given for those in the crowd to recognize other fallen members. Helen recalled Aubrey "Sandy" Sanderson for those of us who came to know him for a brief time on our site.

A prayer was offered, Amazing Grace was played on the bagpipes, a twenty-one gun salute was given and finally the missing man fly-over. I held it together until that moment, but there is something about that above all other forms of salute that just rips my heart to pieces. I couldn’t hold back tears as I watched this singular aircraft shooting straight for heaven. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful sky for this tribute. There wasn’t a cloud to be found and we watched as the jet became nothing but a tiny spec lost in the blue emptiness above us. I was in good company as I saw some crusty old timers dabbing their eyes, as well.

The crowd disbursed and headed deeper onto the base for the Freedom through Vigilance Picnic.

Fred and Helen set-up the sign-in book again to capture names of potential new site members. It was later in the day that while going through the list I ran across George Binkley’s name. George had mentioned he didn’t think he’d make this year’s picnic but seeing his name I wanted to be sure and find him before days end.

As it turns out Russ knew George in Pakistan and Misawa (I believe – I kind of got lost in the rush of conversation). Russ, once pointed in the general direction that someone had last seen George, spotted him in the crowd. It was fun to watch them get reacquainted. As it happened, George was back in town to take his daughter to dinner for her birthday and to catch up on some work that needed to be done around his home in San Antonio. I’m not sure when he was going to be heading back to Oklahoma. What a great big teddy bear he turned out to be.

Wayne knew EVERYONE and bounced around from person to person like a bumblebee in spring.

There are so many others that I met but can’t recall their names and I’m very sorry if I’ve missed mentioning them. I don’t mean to slight anyone, as this whole experience was quite overwhelming. I do remember speaking to a Jim Stephens. Jim Willis introduced me to a couple of fellows who had driven in from Houston that morning. They were not ex-Misawa folks but from one of the bases in England, 53-54 era. As with all security folks they were a couple of real characters.

The picnic wound down around 4 p.m. and we headed back to the hotel after a few false starts as I remembered I had Babysan in the car and I wanted to pass it off to the next reader. For those of you who don’t know, Babysan was a book written by Hume in the 40s of the occupation of Japan by our military. It gives a timeless account of the interaction between American servicemen and the local female population. This book is owned by Don Baran who sent it to Helen, who sent it to Dutch, who sent it to me. I passed this book on to Wayne who will continue to pass Babysan along on a US tour that will rival the best traveled among us.

By the time I got back to the room I was ready to take a nice cool shower. The temperature had been in the nineties and this poor pale face was a nice apple red.

Helen took off to the 6924^th dinner and the guys are somewhere. I did laundry as I hadn’t packed as well as I thought and I crashed quite early. Guess it was the heat.

Saturday morning Helen and I got together to go to the Freedom Through Vigilance award ceremony. But, before heading that direction we had to drop by and leave Russ his glasses that were left in my car. As well, he had left his camera on the picnic table and Helen had retrieved it. I’d decided to head back to Houston after the ceremony so we said our goodbye, so longs, farewell and adios. Terry had left early to return to Temple, Texas to spend a bit more time with his family and I don’t know where Wayne was at that time.

Because last year’s activities were canceled due to 9/11 there were twelve individuals that was honored, eight were for 2001 and four for 2002. After the ceremony, which was held in a courtyard between buildings (did wonders for my already sun burned face) we headed toward the AIA briefing. True to form, Helen made yet another contact with a fellow I had been sitting by during the presentation. This is the surprise person we’re waiting for Dutch to make contact with. This fellow went through language school in Syracuse at the same time period AND when Helen gave him her business card with the myfamily information and I mentioned Dutch had created the companions site for us, he named Dutch by first and last name.

While Helen chatted with this fellow, I spoke with his friend who lives in Maryland. He had been stationed in Yokota and had briefly visited Misawa. As it turns out, the man I was speaking with from Maryland was the one who convinced his friend, and ex-Misawa person who lives in San Antonio, to attend this activity. So, to the very end Helen was sleuthing.

We stood in a line to shake hands with the award recipients and some of them recognized Helen. What a kick.

We ran into Pete in the meeting room. With him was his lovely wife Carol who had flown in the previous evening. They had dinner downtown after he retrieved her from the airport and they would be heading to College Station (I believe they said) to visit family on Sunday. I’m glad I had to opportunity to meet Pete’s wife as he does speak of her often on site. I gave Pete the phone number for Russ and Wayne as they were going to try and hook up for the FTV dinner that evening. Pete was going to memorize the number, but just in case, I gave the paper with Russ’ number on it to his wife. Not that I didn’t trust your memory, Pete.

I took Helen back to the Red Roof Inn where we said our farewell and around 12:30 p.m. I headed toward home.

During the drive I had time to reflect a bit and I worried that even though I tried to journal my thoughts and experiences that I’d not come close to capturing the essence of this gathering. I’m sure as time goes by much more of what I’ve seen and heard will come back to me and I’ll obsess over not incorporating it into this writing. I’m depending on the others who were there to fill in the blanks.

One last thought. Helen said that she was going through her logbook and found where she had contacted me in July of 2001. This was prior to her development of the myfamily web-site. In less than a year, as I think the web-site didn’t go live until November, I’ve met a huge number of people though myfamily. Some of those I’ve met on-line were in Misawa during the same time span but I didn’t know them while in Misawa, such as Helen. There are many more during other time slots I’ve met, as well. I feel as though through people’s writing I’ve gleaned insight into who they really were and who they really are now. In meeting a good number of people in person over the last few days, I have to say one can not hide in cyberspace their true self. Each personality, every assumption based on their writings has been right on and I’m not an analyst by any stretch of the imagination. The folks in the USAFSS are one special group. I don’t know how the Air Force did it, but they did manage to bring together people who were able to work and play together during some most interesting times. We are a very fortunate group of people.