Hup! Twoop! Three! Four! - Part 3

  In the summer of 1969, I was still in England but reassigned to the 2180th Comm. Squadron at USAF High Wycombe, also known as RAF Daws Hill.  Unlike RAF Mildenhall which was a large base with a small village, USAF High Wycombe was a small base (an 'Air Station') with a city.  The communications at the base was part of the "Southern Tropo System" which went from England to Spain and on to Turkey.  Little did I know at the time that I would be assigned to the Turkish end later.

  It was a very nice area and I liked it very much.  We were an easy trip to London and I went there several times.  In downtown High Wycombe there was a clothing store called Carnaby's where I outfitted myself with attire that was appropriate for the time.  Also there was Wimpy's and I tried their burgers for the first time, they were yummy.  Of course I had already been indoctrinated to fish 'n chips.

  My duty section was 'Tech Control' and was located in an old WWII Command Post located in an underground bomb shelter.  It was large and completely underground and had double walls with about eight feet in between.  I use to enjoy exploring the structure both inside and between the walls.  It was fascinating to see the command center with the consoles and the status boards and imagined what the place was like in it's hay day.

  Tech Control was quite small, a little room with equipment racks full of patch panels and test gear.  Through these patch panels all of the circuits passed through.  In the next room were more racks with line amps and the like.  Farther down the hall, was the base telephone switchboard.  There worked my good buddy 'Slots' Boyer (He liked to play the slot machines).  When we happen to work the graveyard shift at the same time, we would often play 'Battleships' via the telephone from our work locations.  At the opposite end of the hall was located the crypto room.  This was where the secured circuits were encrypted and decrypted.  Needless to say, it was kept locked up tight as a drum.  Also the reason we had security police at the entrance of the building controlling entry.

  Probably the most exciting thing that happened on the job was the day that all of our communications went down for about eight hours.  Now, to appreciate the gravity of the situation, let me explain how much communication that encompassed:

  Teletype circuits were modulated into voice channels.  We could put 12 teletype channels into each voice channel.  12 voice channels could be modulated into each 'group'.  Five 'groups' could be modulated into each 'supergroup'.  We had a total of 5 'supergroups'.  That is a total of 300 voice channels or 3600 teletype channels.  These were channels that were being used by every command in the Air Force including SAC (Strategic Air Command) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  So when all these circuits went inoperative, there was some concern.  Finally the problem was found at a microwave repeater site in Ringstead, England.  Microwave is wideband communication comprised of many channels filling up the spectrum.  One of these channels is reserved for the 'pilot tone'.  It is a -10 dB tone used to help keep the microwave shot on frequency.  The -10 dB tone malfunctioned and increased it's level to +40 Db which was an increase of 50 dB.  The results was the entire band splattered into mush.  Hence, nothing worked.  Now wasn't that an exciting story?

  Pizza wasn't common cuisine in England in 1969 but lucky for us, a retired American GI retired in High Wycombe and opened the only pizza shop around called Jay's Pizza.  It wasn't great pizza but pizza nonetheless, and he was opened late.

  One time I was driving to our base at South Ruislip which was located between us and London.  In England, most intersections are comprised of 'roundabouts', what we would call a rotary.  During my travel, I came upon an 'experimental junction', yes, that is the way it was posted.  Instead of a roundabout, it was a crossing intersection but had additional lanes going through it, very curious.  I was on the main road and crossing through the 'experimental junction' I had the right of way.  However, I was hit broadside from the smaller road that crossed.  My built-like-a-tank 1949 MG four door salon (sedan) was hit by a late model Ford Escort.  Needless to say, I won.  My right front fender was dented and the other guy's car was in very bad shape.  When I got out of the car to encounter the man and tell him what I thought of his driving skills, I was surprised to find that he was a deaf-mute.  Only I would have such luck.  

  All too soon, my stay in High Wycombe and in England, ended.  But I did have a jolly good time!

The Invisible Mother

  I received this in an email, today, and thought it was a great tribute to mothers. 
Why wait until Mother's Day?       

                                       The Invisible Mother

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way

one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to
be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' 
Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping
the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can

see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair

of hands, nothing more! 'Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open
this??'  Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm
a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What
number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30,
please.' Some days I'm a crystal ball; 'Where's my other sock?, Where's
my phone?, What's for dinner?'
  I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes
that studied history, music and literature, but now, they had disappeared
into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going,
she's gone!
  One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a
friend from England . She had just come back from a fabulous trip, and
she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there,
looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to
compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she
turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you
this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly
sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'With admiration
for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'
  In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would
discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I
could pattern my work:
1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of
their names.
2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see
finished.
3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
4) The passion of their building was fuelled by their faith that the eyes of
God saw everything.
  A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the
cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny
bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are
you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be
covered by the roof?   No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied,
'Because God sees.'
  I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost
as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the sacrifices you make
every day, even when no one around you does.  No act of kindness you've
done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, no Cub Scout
meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over.
You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will
become.'
  I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one
of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work
on something that their name will never be on. The  writer of the book went
so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because
there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.
  When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's
bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the
morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for
3 hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a
monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if
there is anything more to say to his friend, he'd say, 'You're gonna love it
there...'
   As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if
we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will
marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been
added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. - Abraham Lincoln

Music, Bullets, & Dreams...

  Another song I liked was Deep Purple  (click to listen) by Nino Tempo and April Stevens in 1963.  I was surprised to learn that it was first a hit in 1938, yes, even before my time.  And, of course, Donny and Marie Osmond did a pretty good cover of it in 1975.

  In 1963, I was a freshman in high school.  Life was so exciting at that age, and the social pressures!  Probably the most dramatic news of that year, was Kennedy's assassination in November.  I heard about it over the school PA system just as the school day was closing.  Riding home on the bus, the normal din was completely absent, absolute silence.  Everyone was affected.  Another emotional event, but of a different sort, was three months previous when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have A Dream' speech.  Then, five years later, he too, was assassinated.

  We have come a long way since 1963, but in some ways we have yet to prove we are an intelligent life form.  There have been many depictions in books and movies of the human race as a violent species, usually being observed by an alien race.  Sometimes they judge that we don't deserve to survive and should be destroyed or maybe they think that we are accomplishing that all by ourselves.  Perhaps they would be right, but there are still heroes amongst us that give me hope.

  In closing, one more song to listen to:  Abraham, Martin & John  by Dion, released in 1968.  It speaks for itself.

Hup! Twoop! Three! Four! - Part 2



My barracks at RAF Mildenhall, 1969

Hard at work on a burger & chips

  Now I am stationed in England, more specifically, RAF Mildenhall, November, 1968.  There is a pretty good history of the base here.  I have previously made mention of England in another entry, so let's review!  Ok, are we up to speed?  Pay attention, there will be a test later.  The unit that I was assigned to (as a 'Tech Controller') was Detachment 7 of the  2nd Mobile Communications Group which had the nickname of Talking Bird.  Typically, mobile communication groups are over-the-road packages, that, of course, could be transported by air.  We were a communications outfit that was on standby if emergency communications needed to be set up in a hurry.  It was comprised of an HF (high frequency) package that had (if my memory serves me correctly!) a four channel multiplexed system, two voice channels and two teletype channels with encryption.  It was all mounted on a rolling frame of sorts.  It could then be rolled up into a C-130 cargo plane along with the antenna package and all the peripherals.  Then the plane would deploy somewhere and we would set up.  The most difficult part of the set up was the antennas.  They were log periodic antennas which means they were large at one end and got smaller toward the other end.  The large end was a telescoping tower that probably went up about 40 or 50 feet.  The small end was a mast about half as high.  Strung in between were all the elements in incrementing lengths.  It looked like a very odd fence when completed.  Similar to the picture below.

  Unfortunately, I never went on a deployment so never saw the unit in action.  After a year, I was reassigned and I think Talking Bird was phased out.

(ring, ring)...."Hello, I Want Your Money!"

  The downside to the advancement in technology is that it provides so-called entrepreneurs more means to get into your face and try and sell you something.

  A large percentage of the phone calls I receive at home are 'junk calls'.  Their uninvited calls interrupt your personal life and demands your attention, then to add insult to injury, they try to convince you that you need something that you don't want.  Or perhaps they are being paid to play on your sensibilities by soliciting donations from you.  How much time and/or money are THEY donating to the cause?  Or they want you to get into debt more so they can 'help' you get out of debt.  I like the sketch where Jerry Seinfeld gets a junk call and asks the caller for his or her home phone number so he can call them back at an inconvenient time to talk to them further.  I was given a ray of hope when the government started a 'Do Not Call' registry so that junk callers can be reported.  That didn't amount to much.  By law, solicitors are suppose to identify themselves on the caller ID, yeah, right.  Then there are the con artists that are trying to steal from you.

  What about those pesky 'pop ups' on the computer.  Do they really think I am going to buy something from someone who practices those methods of advertising?  Or they try and strike fear in your heart by faking that your computer has detected a virus and you need to buy protection immediately.  Not to mention those that pretend (phishing) to be your bank, or other provider, and wanting account numbers and passwords.

  I don't mind junk mail (from the post office).  I deal with that at a time I designate, not on demand like a phone call, where I can simply throw it away.  Sometimes the credit card solicitations get out of hand.  I simply stuff it all into their postage paid envelope and mail it back to them with a 'No Thank You'.  That seems to put it back in check for awhile.

  Thanks for letting me unload, I feel much better, now!

Hup! Twoop! Three! Four! - Part 1





A Tech Control mock-up at school, circa 1968.

  This series is a sequel, of sorts, to my September 23, 2010 entry: Good Morning Vietnam! 

  After I finished basic training at Lackland AFB (San Antonio, Texas) in the spring of 1968, the next stop was Keesler AFB (Biloxi, Mississippi) for technical training.  I was to be a Telecommunications Systems Controller.  My original hope was to be in radio maintenance, but it turned out that I enjoyed my designated career field.  Primarily, we were the telecommunications circuit managers and troubleshooters for Air Force Communications. For the time period I was in, the lion's share of the equipment we were trained on was still vacuum tube technology and the solid state stuff was relatively new on the scene.  Normally, the training, which included basic electronics, lasted 29 weeks, but because I had a talent for electronics, I was able to complete the course in 19 weeks.



3396 Squadron



  Keesler was a large base with two well defined areas.  The first being the main base, the second was called 'The Triangle' because it was in the shape of, well, a triangle.  It was primarily housing for most of the students in the form of barracks.  There were two to a room and it wasn't bad, considering it was all concrete and tile.

  I was in the 3396th squadron which was in a good location because it was close to a swimming pool and a little BX.  The down side was the necessity of marching to the main base for classes at Thompson Hall.  After awhile I figured out that if you were a 'Road Guard', you didn't have to march, just walk alongside the group and hold out a 'STOP' paddle at intersections.  Well, I found a 'STOP' paddle somewhere and designated myself a road guard for the rest of the time I was in school.



I am the geeky guy in glasses in the front row.



  There were a dozen in the class, as in any military group, a myriad of personalities.  The training itself wasn't too difficult and even interesting.  There was theory in antenna propagation, multiplexing, teletype (yup, archaic stuff), transmitters, receivers, etc.  There were patch panel procedures for managing circuits, as well as how to test circuits.   And of course there was the 'red tape' training that told us all about the dictates from our 'bible', the publication from the DCA (Defense Communication Administration) known as the

DCS 310-55-1, DCS being Defense Communication System.  The military loves it's acronyms! 



  We used what was called a Jack Field for each circuit, four jacks for DC circuits (teletype) and eight jacks for audio circuits.  A 'normal' circuit had no cables patched into it.  If we needed to patch the user to another circuit, we would plug into the user's Equipment jack and plug the other end into a Line of another circuit.  If the user's equipment was bad, we would plug into the user's Line jack and plug the other end into the Equipment jack of spare gear.  There was also a Monitor jack associated with each Equipment jack and each Line jack.  Pretty straight forward, but every move required an entry into the Station Log that was always in the typewriter (remember those?).



I am almost too embarrassed to
post this.....



  Eventually, training was completed and then I had to wait a couple weeks for orders.  They kept me busy, in the meantime, bossing around new troops, fresh out of basic, in the linen supply room.  I left with two stripes which translates to an Airman First Class.  When I was in basic training, they had us fill out a 'Dream Sheet' which asks us where we would like to be assigned after technical training.  It was called a Dream Sheet because it had the reputation of never sending you where you want to go.  I put down as my first choice, England, and as my second choice, Germany.  Well, as luck would have it, when my orders came, it was for England.

Ogenki Desuka? (How Are You?)

  Without minimizing the devestation of Japan from the tsunami, I thought it would be a nice change to talk about something positive.

  In 1963, the hit song Sukiyaki came out by Kyu Sakamoto.  It was the only Japanese language song that ever made the charts in the US.  I liked it because it had a great sound even though I didn't know what was being said.  However, an English version of it came out in 1981 by A Taste Of Honey.  Click here and see if it sounds familiar!

As I Live And Breathe....

  Each life is a singularity, a phenomenon.  Ironic when you consider that there are almost 7 billion people in the world.  What makes this a personal experience instead of a statistic is the fact that we interact with each other at some level.  The World society is made up of many subsets of smaller societies until we come down to our own circle of friends and family. 

  Now that I am somewhere inside or outside the last quarter of my life, I think about my mortality more frequently.  More to the point, I become aware of the mortality of others that I am associated with.  All too often I hear about someone that I know incurring a life changing affliction or even death.  One of my character flaws is that I don't cope with conflict well.  I have a tendency to 'shut down'.  The knowledge of a friend or family member being stricken or leaving this mortal existence is no exception.  I might be perceived as uncaring and unconcerned which, in fact, the opposite would be the case.  It is probably a defense mechanism I developed while growing up and being moved around a lot.  Or perhaps it because I like to fix things and there are some things I just cannot fix and that sometimes frustrates me.  And the fact that they are sometimes younger then me certainly doesn't help!

  The point I am trying to make to you and to myself is that the quality of life is more important then the quantity.  I am rooting for you in mind, heart and spirit, even if I don't seem to show it, although I should.  No matter what our age is, what our health is, and what our social status is; we should keep up the good fight, be an example others and lend a hand when we can, while we sojourn through our lives together.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Singin' The Blues....

  When it comes to music, sometimes I am in the mood for something that has a blues flavour.  When I was seven years old,  my first exposure to anything close to that was in 1956 when Elvis Presley came out with his first number one song, Heatbreak Hotel.  Even though it is a rock 'n roll song, it sounds bluesy to me!  I have never been a big Elvis fan, but there are a few of his songs that I enjoy and this was one of them.

  Can you handle more blues?  John Lee Hooker does I'm In The Mood with Bonnie Raitt helping out.  Or how about  Muddy Waters with I Want To Be Loved.  They're all gone now, except for Bonnie.  Click and listen.

Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy. - Dan Castellaneta

The Literary Corner

   Unlike my sister and my wife, I am not an avid reader.  When I do read, it is usually of a technical nature but that doesn't really count, does it?  When I was in the eighth grade, I was reading David Copperfield which, I thought at the time, was an enormous novel (over 900 pages) and wondered if I would ever finish it.  Somehow I did and since then, on those rare occasions when I do read a novel, Charles Dickens is sometimes a choice. 

  Those that know me know that I enjoy watching TV which also includes movies.  My taste in movies is quite broad and includes classics and period films.  The last one I saw was Tolstoy's War And Peace which is probably not a book I would read as it contains 1225 pages, but you never know.  I am told the movie follows the book fairly closely.  It was a 1956 production with Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Mel Ferrar and runs for over three and a half hours.  It elaborated on Napoleon and his attempted invasion of Russia which did not go exactly as planned.

  Once I was really brave and proceeded to read Homer's Odyssey.  After getting part way through it, I gave up because I have a linear brain and the book isn't written chronologically.  I had a difficult time trying to follow it, but I gave it a shot.  Now Winnie-The-Pooh on the other hand.........

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

It's A Living - Part 10 - The Last!



Fujitsu 2000

NCR 7445

  It was a bit of a shock to be laid off (see previous entry).  What made it even more insulting was being

told over the phone, at Christmastime, no less.  But it was a blessing in disguise.  I immediately started to think about my options and always thought the best advice was "do what you do best".  Well, that was easy, cash registers.  So after a little scouting around, I applied to and was hired by DUMAC Business Systems, based in Syracuse, NY.  DUMAC. I soon learned it was a sound company that has been operating since 1952.  That is impressive.  I went into the new year of 2004 with a new job.  I wasn't going to be working in Syracuse, but be a remote field engineer for upstate New York, which meant finding a home in the capital district area of Albany.  We chose to live in East Greenbush, on the other side of the Hudson River from Albany.



  My primary area of work is servicing supermarket scanning systems, with occasional installs.  In addition, I may do quick service (fast food) systems from time to time, always Wendy's (a favourite restaurant for me!).  They are always the Panasonic line.

Also occasionally servicing CCTV (closed circuit TV) systems, again, predominately in Wendy's.

NCR 7452

  The prevailing systems  I work on are the Fujitsu 2000 and 3000.  Windows based POS systems using Scanmaster or ISS45 for the store application.  The NCR 7445 has finally died off and the NCR 7452 is almost gone.  We have recently taken on an IBM scanning system.

  I really enjoy this line of work, always have and always will.  I get to work with great co-workers, great customers and there is plenty of variety to the job.

I hope to continue working at DUMAC until I retire and that is good news for you, because that makes this my last blog entry of this series!  Cheers!

 

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. - Confucius

Musical Intermission

  I thought we were about due for a musical flashback.  Today's song is another I like (why would I play a song I didn't like??) called Raindrops by Dee Clark which he recorded in 1961.  I was a big man of 12 years old at the time which would put me in 7th grade at Frisbee School in Kittery, Maine.  An excellent R&B song.  Just click on the title and give a listen.

Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain. - Billie Holiday