308 SMW Reunion – Welcome

NOTE: Many of the photos will enlarge if clicked upon.
NOTE: This entry and the following six are not copyrighted by the author and are intended to be in the public domain.












For most of us who attended the 308 Strategic Missile Wing reunion of 2007, the trip to Little Rock was a long journey. But it we felt as if we had come home when we were greeted with warm smiles from Ron Shertzer (in white shirt, above) and Vince Maes at the Welcome Desk of the Comfort Inn & Suites in Little Rock.

The second reunion of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing was held September 13 to 16, 2007. It also recognized the 20th anniversary of the wing’s deactivation.


A number of activities were prepared and most of the attendees seemed to take part in many of the events.


Back in “those good old days” long gone now for many years, the work we did here sometimes seemed routine, like another day at the office, and sometimes it was very far from that, but for 25 years, this wing, and these guys, kept the largest ICBM our country has ever had, on constant alert, ready to launch in defense of the United States if directed by National Command Authorities,

Finally, that great missile system, like most of us here now today, was honorably retired. Once, we proudly claimed that peace was our profession, now let us pray that peace may be our heritage.

Hors d'Oeuvres

The first evening had no meal planned. Each of us were to find our own place to eat.

But we were all so new to Little Rock and so enamored with each other’s presence that we wanted to swarm.

Fortunately the hotel had provided an hors d’Oeuvres selection in one of the rooms on the main floor.

We swarmed there for a bit and ate a bit, but the beer was pricy ($4 a bottle!) so we did eat, most of us did – and had a beer or glass of wine, then we swarmed back "Upstairs" to the “hospitality suite”

"Upstairs"

Amazing stories were told up here, way above the clouds of truth, but we recognized its ring in every thing we said and most of what we heard.





Wow - what a night! The History Channel really missed a prize opportunity. But we didn’t miss a thing. It looks like a great reunion, well put together and well thought out. One of the key players in all this besides Ron Shertzer, was Willliam Leslie, shown here in a white cap.



There was a game on TV, but tonight the real game was here in this room. And even way up here and on into the night, new arrivals kept coming in.

Tales were told, questions were answered, great mysteries were finally solved, and outrageous laughter was the rule of the evening.

In the top photo here, Dan Reichel shows how the contractors solved the zero-leak valve problems, demonstrating with a hard to open bottle of wine, and below, George McClintock and Gene Secor (with mustache) still analyze a problem that occurred 40 years ago.

Jacksonville Museum of Military History

Vince Maes was the first person to welcome me to the reunion. He is also one of the head guys in charge of the Jacksonville Museum of Military History. Jacksonville is a tiny town next to Little Rock AFB. At least it used to be tiny, now it is a pretty good sized place. You can’t help but be struck by all of the Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and so on restaurants in the place. Kind of tells you where we have fought our wars.


The museum seems small until you walk into it. It’s easy to get lost at first, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s all military and has a lot of stuff you need to know about because you already knew about most of it, but had forgotten, and there are answers to questions you had long ago


Then you run into yourself! Well, it really isn’t you but we all know the guy. He stands stiff and uncertain, looks a lot like a manikin. You recognize the outfit, the shoes, and the coveralls and the hat. He reminds us of something that happened a long time ago. And we forget that "he" really is a manikin, because we resemble manikins ourselves as we stand and stare at the exhibits.

If you have anything you have been hanging onto for all these years that is a part of Little Rock missiles, and also a part of “you”, then donate that part of “you” to this museum so when people come here from all around, for centuries to come, they will run into YOU! I donated a 1968 dash-one (in horrible shape), and an ancient log book for the year 1964, from 374-5. "What the hell is a 'log book'”? I can almost hear some smart young whippersnapper ask. Well, go to the museum and find out. You won't believe we ever did such a thing. Buried in its pages are stories of how hard we worked. Mainly to try to keep the place clean. Contact the museum at the numbers shown above.


You will be surprised at all the military history associated with this part of Arkansas. Apparently there was a huge munitions factory here that provided for the American military forces. Part of the museum honors the role played by women, especially during World War II as production workers.

The 308th Strategic Missile Wing is well represented here, and Vince and the guys did us and the wing proud.

Thank you, all of you people who work at the museum. You are doing a very important job.


After the museum, we ate lunch at Cody’s. This was the only place in Jacksonville that I felt hadn’t changed a bit, unless maybe it had regressed – back to the 1940’s or 50’s.

And then we drove across the road and onto Little Rock Air Force Base.

LRAFB

The base seemed much, much larger than I remembered it when I left for the last time in 1968, almost 40 years ago. I finally got on the thing and then got lost and never really recovered, but did find the house I had lived in when I was stationed here (how could 5 people have lived in such a TINY place?),
Found the BX and went in there. Bought a map, fittingly enough.
Nothing really looked familiar except for the flight line. I briefly felt at home there for a while. I guess something about the flight line becomes part of one's DNA. But I couldn't just linger there. I would be arrested, or maybe fired upon by a hidden sniper – well, things have changed, right? Finally I just gravitated to some of the marvelous green spaces on the base.

Enjoyed the monumental airplanes and the rentry vehicle of the Titan II, the warhead that carried its thermo-nuclear weapon, We didn't dwell on the thought but the reason for this entire missile wing once rested on such weapons, or "bombs", as some of my friends who were B-58 pilots used to call them. "You got 18 bombs?" "That's all you got in your whole wing?" Yep, that was it. Turned out to be enough.

Little Rock and the River Front

On the way back from North Little Rock to the hotel, my wife suggested we stop off in the city of Little Rock. I reluctanty agreed. I told her I remembered Little Rock well enough and really didn’t want to see it again.



Well, it has changed, and now after going there again, so have I. First we stopped at the RiverFront, and we didn’t ever really leave after that. It has everything, including a dog fountain.






I had seen it before briefly, long ago, and remembered it as a swamp filled with direlicts, abandoned machinery and snakes. They have replaced all that  with museums, amphitheaters, restaurants, art shops, sculptures, and farmers' markets.  It is now THE place to be in Little Rock. and it is a symbol of hope for all of America’s cities.





We had supper at Bosco’s. I highly recommend the place. In fact, even if you don’t want to go to Little Rock, go there anyway, just to have a pizza at Bosco’s. http://www.boscosbeer.com/

We toured almost all of the art shops, bought presents and a few trophies.






The Riverfront was at it's best while we were there. The breezes were cool and soft, the sky was clear. Birds hopped around and kids slid about on wheeled heels. In-line skating was in vogue, Mexican performers were present at the great bandstand and mariachi music was inspiring. The trolly ran by, back and forth, across the bridge to North Little Rock and back again and again.

Then we walked slowly back to our car listening to the music that cascaded from the bands, orchestras and groups, and even sidewalk musicians who were playing that night at many locations along the street. We walked along surrounded by other tourists, walking by the still open art shops, restaurants, and cafes.


Finally we arrived back to the hotel, where we called in on our magic phone for "Scottie" and were “beamed up” to "Upstairs" again. Now we had even MORE stories to tell!

The Banquet

Finaly, time for words of wisdom. We were all decked out in our finery, looking about as good as we could. It’s not quite mess dress but that was then, and this is now. We were always sharp. Always will be.


Col. Rich Green, former 308 Wing Commander, was our Master of Ceremony. He told some stories we had not heard before. Not even "Upstairs".

We ate a meal reminiscent of the old days in countless lost Officers Open Messes. It was OK. Just like all of those were back in the old days. And we ate it in a room that was specially reserved for us, even though the hotel couldn’t quite spell the word “missile”. I guess that proves our mission to preserve Peace must have been a success.














We had a nice turnout with a lot of people showing up just in time for the banquet. In the back of the room a special table carried items for sale such as pins, decals, CDs, books, and DVDs.


John Womack, former Senior Instructor Crew Commander and author of of the book "Titan Tales", talked about the Early Days, back when we thought we knew what we were doing, but we didn't know what we were doing would really do, since a lot of things did not work the way tech-data said it should work. He also said a word or two about the launch of “Giant Train”, the Titan II he and his crew launched from Vandenberg AFB in California, in 1966.




Col. Charles Simpson, former Chief of Staff, 57th Air Division, and Executive Director of the Association of Air Force Missileers www.afmissileers.org was the speaker of the evening and he showed a PowerPoint presentation of all the missiles in the Air Force other than the Titan II.



Col. John Chambers, who was wing commander of the 390 SMW in Tucson and ALSO the Wing commander of the 308 SMW in Little Rock, helped present some awards, including several nice plaques and couple of bright red piggies, and then Col. Green and Maes help lead the wing in a hog-callin . What’s a hog-callin? It goes kind of like “Ahhhhh, Woooooooooeeee -PIG! Sooooooooooeeeehhhieee! Well, we need a lot of practice in that. For most of us early guys it was the first real squeal we ever heard. I really missed the connection with anything. Apparently it all had to do with something about a local college football team.




There will be another reunion next year in or around Tuscon, Arizona. It will be the 390th SMW reunion, and they have invited us all to come. Where to go to find out? Try here: http://www.308smw.com/contact.html Also the museum in Jacksonville would be another good place to begin. Give Vince Maes a call, or better yet, drop by. Vince can also explain "hog-calling" to you and maybe even show you how it's done.

Lenoir Sculpture Fair 2007

Had no idea of what to expect at the Lenoir Sculpture Fair. Knew it was their 23rd year and that the sculpture chosen as best in show will be exhibited permanently on the sidewalks of downtown Lenoir. Turned out to be quite a show with more than 200 pieces on exhibit, and according to the newspaper, some 40,000 visitors came by to see them over the 4-day show. Artists came from across the United States and some from overseas.

Visitors came from all over. My vote for the best in show was the park itself, Broyhill Park, a 20 acre beauty with walking trails and playgrounds, and about 3 blocks from downtown. Today it was crammed with art and happy viewers. Music was supplied by a high school orchestra which played an amazing repertoire of Beethoven, Mozart, Hyden, and other classical composers. They were good.