BENJAMIN DONALD HALSTED AND ALBERTINE (Waggi) KRESSIERER
OCS Class 58B, Sixth Squadron, Lima Flight
OUR LIFE DURING AND AFTER OCS
This document is a summary of our life getting through OCS, graduating as a
Second Lieutenant 20 June 1958 and our Air Force Career as an officer, and then working
almost twenty years in industry, and then retirement. This story contains the following
Sections:
INTRODUCTION
OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL: December 1957 June 1958
EIELSON AFB/ALASKAN AIR COMMAND: July 1958 June 1961
OFFUTT AFB, NEBRASKA, HQ SAC: July 1961 August 1965
THAILAND - SOUTHEAST ASIA: September 1965 August 1966
WIESBADEN, GERMANY, HQ USAFE: September 1966 December 1969
BROOKS AFB, TEXAS (AFSC): January 1970 December 1970
PLANNING RESEARCH CORPORATION: January 1971 December 1989
RETIREMENT FROM PLANNING RESEARCH CORPORATION: December 1989
INTRODUCTION: I was born on 7 January 1931 in Taylor County, Texas as the third
child of sharecroppers early in the great depression and the beginning of the dust bowl. I
graduated from high school at Claude (Armstrong County), Texas in May 1948. After working
that summer and fall cutting wheat and ranching I enlisted in the U. S. Air Force on 10
December 1948. My wife and I married on 3 March 1951 in Munich, Germany and we had two
children by 1955. We were offered an "early out" in 1954 as the Korean War
ended, but we decided to stay in the Air Force. Since we elected to make a career of the
Air Force we decided that I should apply for Officer Candidate School and become a
commissioned officer. I had almost ten years service when I entered OCS.
I filed my first application for Officer Candidate School (OCS) on 23 July 1955
but failed the Air Force Officer Qualification Test (AFOQT). I continued to matriculate at
Sacramento State Junior College and I began taking the Air Force Institute of Technology
(AFIT) College Level GED Tests which I completed successfully by early 1956. I again
applied for OCS in July 1956, passed the AFOQT, but failed my eye test. In the next 90
days I memorized the eye test chart and passed. My application for OCS was finally
processed out of Travis AFB on 12 June 1957. Things were getting pretty tight for me
because I would turn 27 on 7 January 1958, the age limit for entry into OCS.
OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL: December 1957 June 1958 - My application for
OCS was approved and we received orders to report to Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas on
27 December 1957. In San Antonio we moved into a one-bedroom apartment at Billy Mitchell
Village near Kelly AFB, where most of the OCS candidates housed their families the six
months we would be in school. I became seriously ill and was running a high fever the two
days before classes were to start, but I could not go on sick call because I might be
hospitalized and miss my class starting date. I was too near the age limit to wait for the
next class. I did report to class on schedule on 27 December 1957.
That night while undergoing indoctrination and hazing by the First Class, I
almost passed out and was taken to the hospital. The diagnosis was flu and I was admitted
to the hospital where I spent the first week of OCS. When I returned to duty a week later,
our Squadron Tactical Officer counseled me that with my delayed start I was rated as the
last man in the squadron. I could either wash back to the next class or press on and try
to catch up. I decided to press on and worked my butt off trying to catch up and to
maintain good grades. I had never learned how to study before, but in OCS I had to learn
or flunk out. So I studied and studied. I spent many hours walking the "ramp" on
weekends. Walking the ramp was the OCS way to correct errors in military appearance and
marching deficiencies. I did not realize when I reported to OCS that I had so many
deficiencies poor shaves, nose and ear hair, poor posture, and wobbling when I
walked or marched. OCS fixed all these problems. The main problem caused by "Ramp
Time" is that it ate up hours that could have been used to study. Fortunately,
however, I did catch up and graduated with OCS Class 58-B on 20 June 1958. I am sure all
of us remember the large group of Airmen from the base waiting at the graduation ceremony
to collect the dollar that we had to pay for the first salute. I gladly paid the dollar
Living in Billy Mitchell Village for our wives and children turned out to be
very traumatic. All of the OCS students were required to live in the barracks. As Second
Class we did not even get weekend time off. We got to see our family only at Chapel
Service on Sundays. Our families were, in essence, on their own. Not long after moving in,
night prowlers started roaming through the apartment complex and at least one rape and
several attempted rapes occurred. Our complaints to the San Antonio Police Department did
bring expanded police surveillance of the Billy Mitchell Apartment complex. At night our
wives would take coffee and cookies to the policemen who were patrolling the area. The
prowler and rapist, an Air Force Air Policeman, was apprehended. This did provide some
relief for our wives but the anxiety still remained.
Upon graduation I had not received assignment orders so we had to remain at
Lackland AFB, and in Billy Mitchell Village. I thought I would work in Finance but the
base had other ideas. I was held at Base Headquarters and assigned permanent Officer of
the Day (OD) duties, 24 hours on and 24 hours off. This was worse duty than being a
student in OCS because the apartment complex was practically empty and I would be gone for
24 hours at a time. But luckily it only lasted about six weeks. Then I received PCS orders
assigning me to Eielson AFB, Alaska as a Data Systems and Statistics Officer. I had
expected to be assigned as an Assistant Finance Officer and even today have no idea why
the Air Force decided to make a Data Processing Officer out of me. However, we were not
about to argue about the assignment. We had been in Billy Mitchell Village too long.
EIELSON AFB/ALASKAN AIR COMMAND: July 1958 June 1961 - The mission of
the Alaskan Air Command was to provide Air Defense of the northwest sector of the North
American Continent. They had several Air Defense Units flying diverse aircraft stationed
at Elmendorf and Ladd Bases, with forward elements (two or three aircraft) operating out
of remote locations such as Galena, Nome, and Kotzebue. Their job was to shoot down any
Russian bombers that tried to attack targets in North America by flying over Alaskan air
space. There was also Army units under the Army Command stationed in Alaska to protect
against Russian paratrooper attacks or land invasions such as the Japanese accomplished in
the Aleutian Islands in World War II. The 5010th Air Base Wing at Eielson AFB,
at Mile 26 out of Fairbanks, had a different mission. First, we supported the Strategic
Air Command REFLEX mission by pre-positioning B-47 Bombers and crews to attack Russian
targets with nuclear bombs should the order ever be given. Eielson also housed and
supported the U-2 reconnaissance flights over Russia that found and photographed Russian
military targets such as air bases and missile sites. And Eielson supported the Cold
Weather Testing of aircraft being developed and flight-tested by the Air Force Systems
Command. Our job in the 5010th Air Base Wing was to provide base level logistical support
to these operational missions. My job was to provide base level data processing support
(called Data Systems and Statistics) to the base support functions and the operational
missions. I reported in to the 5010 Air Base Wing in August 1958.
We served almost three years at Eielson. Waggi finally got her drivers license
in Fairbanks, which gave her more freedom and independence. An interesting family activity
at Eielson was to drive out to the base garbage dump and watch the bears foraging for
food. We would normally stay in the car with the doors locked, but too many people would
get out of their cars, which was very dangerous with wild bears. Finally, the base
commander made the base garbage dump "Off Limits." We would also have "Bear
Alerts" when bears would wander on to the base, by the mess hall, near the elementary
school. We built a ski lodge on the base and sledding with our kids was fun. The base fire
department would set up skating rinks in the playgrounds and ice-skating was a fun
activity. Winters were very long, dark and cold down to 60 degrees below zero.
Keeping a car running in such cold weather was difficult and you always had to be careful
to avoid frostbite, especially to the lungs. Summers (some would say that summer came on a
nice weekend in July) were warm (up to 90 degrees) and very dusty. Fishing was a very
interesting activity and you always had to have a gun because of the threat from bears. In
the summer you also had to carry a lot of mosquito repellant.
One of our main recreational activities at Eielson was playing poker with our
neighbors in our eight-unit apartment. We usually had from six to eight players as some
people would have other plans. In the summer it was day light all night long. In the
winter it was dark almost all day long. One of our favorite nighttime activities in the
winter was to watch the Auroras Borealis, or Northern Lights, play across the northern
sky. I joined the Toastmasters and Waggi joined the Toastmistress Clubs at Eielson; we
became bowlers and participated in both regular unit leagues and mixed doubles; and for
the first time ever, we had a completely new experience and became active in the Parent
Teachers Association. Things went very well in Alaska and, in 1960, we borrowed $1,500
from the Bank of Alaska for Waggi, Gisela and Deborah to fly over the North Pole to
Germany. They stayed most of the summer with Waggis family at Number 9 Reifenstuel
Strasse in Munich, the place where we had met and married. While they were in Germany, I
spent two weeks with the Haupts and other Eielson AFB personnel fishing for King Salmon on
the Kenai Peninsula just south of Anchorage. My work went well but I did have my first
episode of a bleeding peptic ulcer that would eventually cause me to be retired early from
the Air Force.
OFFUTT AFB, NEBRASKA, HQ SAC: July 1961 August 1965
I reported to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska on 23 June 1961. We bought a two
bedroom house with a full basement, a single car garage (in the basement) and a fenced
back yard for $15,200, located at 801 West 32nd street, fairly close to the
Bellevue gate and the flight line of Offutt AFB. We were to live there for over four years
until I was shipped out to South East Asia.
The temperature was about 100 degrees with a 90 percent relative humidity when
our furniture was delivered. The house was not air-conditioned but heat had never bothered
me before. I was working furiously putting things together in the basement when I became
incapacitated and unable to breathe. Waggi took me to the base hospital where I was
admitted, being felled with an allergy and an asthma attack. I had to take allergy shoots
all the time we were at Offutt. What a way to start to work at a new organization.
The mission of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) was to deter war, and should war
start, to win. SAC operated such a large command of strategic nuclear-armed
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and long rang bombers capable of delivering
massive megatons of nuclear bombs that Russia dared not attack the United States. SAC
personnel were extremely well trained and indoctrinated that they would deliver if called
upon. The 544th Technical Reconnaissance Wing, a part of the Directorate of
Intelligence, processed and exploited the intelligence information necessary to support
the SAC mission. That is, we interpreted the imagery intelligence (II), the electronic
intelligence (ELINT), and other kinds of intelligence such a Human Intelligence (HUMINT)
to select the targets and prepare the war plans to bomb these targets with minimum
casualties. To do this job we used a lot of powerful computers. Running these computers
was the job of the Data Systems Center.
At the Data Systems Center and was assigned as the Minicard Operations Officer.
One of the jobs of the Data Systems Center was to maintain the library of intelligence
documents that were required to support intelligence analysts in doing their work.
Minicard was a microfiche based automated document storage and retrieval system developed
by Eastman Kodak to support this library function. There were other Minicard systems, one
at the Defense Intelligence Agency and one at the Central Intelligence Agency and we
exchanged microfiche with each other as we automated the storage and retrieval of millions
of classified intelligence documents. As the Minicard Operations Officer I was responsible
for supervising the NCOs and Airmen who operated the Minicard equipment such as
cameras, film processing equipment, microfiche readers/printers, computers and paper tape
cutting machines. I enjoyed this work greatly and never felt better about the job I was
performing.
I attended Squadron Officer School at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama from 24
April 3 August 1962, which was a great learning experience. Within a week of
returning to Offutt my ulcer acted up again and I was hospitalized for about two weeks
with several blood transfusions. The Cuban Missile Crisis started in October 1962. First,
we worked around the clock to retrieve all the data from Minicard and build target lists
and a war plan should SAC be tasked to bomb Cuba. Then I was pulled out of Minicard and
assigned to a Special Projects Office to pick up U-2 film in Florida, fly it to Offutt for
processing, and then ship copies to the national agencies providing intelligence to the
President and the National Security staff. Needless to say, the Russians backed down
(thank goodness) and we won but SAC was ready to go with nuclear weapons against
Russia or Cuba. As the crisis phased down I went back to Minicard and was promoted to
Captain in 1962.
We had a wonderful four years living in Bellevue. Waggi became a Girl Scout
Leader and Cookie Chairman for the District. Once a year a large 18 wheeler truck would
back up to our one car garage and unload its load of Girl Scout cookies, literally filling
the garage and overflowing into the basement. Our job was to sell all these cookies,
collect, and account for all the money. I bowled on the DSC bowling team and played
catcher for the Base slow pitch softball league. In Squadron Officers School I had become
a "jock" and started playing handball and working out at the base gym most ever
day. In 1963 I was assigned me the task of helping our IBM contractors design a new
Intelligence Data Handling System, called SAC System 70. We took this briefing to the Air
Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Washington, D. C. but were not
successful in getting the funding to implement the system. By Congressional direction, the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was to develop, test, and evaluate an
"on-line" system called DIAOLS (DIA On Line System) as an experiment to see if
"on-line systems" could improve the collection, processing, production and
dissemination of intelligence data. Though we were turned down in 1963, it should be noted
that we did, as contractors, implement SAC System 70 at SAC in the 1970s and 80s.
I had a short assignment as the Data System Center Executive Officer but later
took over the Programming Shop for the IBM 7094 and 1401 Computer Systems. About this time
we received a large group of new Second Lieutenants right out of the Reserve Officer
Training Corps (ROTC) to work in the Data Systems Center. Many of those Second Lieutenants
became lifetime friends and made life around the Center very interesting. We had many
Center parties, with lots of good guitar playing and singing of current college songs as
well as old favorites in houses occupied by these new assignees. We would also have large
gatherings at social events and parties at the Officers Club. Most of the time we would go
to lunch at the Officers Club and about once a month many of our wives would join us. I
remember one of these young wives commenting that she had never realized how enjoyable Air
Force life could be. We partied but we mostly did very good work defending our country at
Offutt AFB. SAC was one of the major reasons that the Reagan Administration could claim
victory in the Cold War. But then the war in Vietnam was another story.
THAILAND - SOUTHEAST ASIA: September 1965 August 1966 - The Vietnam
conflict had its history in President Eisenhowers futile attempt to bail out the
French when the Vietnamese beat them at Dien Bien Phu. The Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi
Minh,
turned more and more to the communist for support, as opposed to the United States. As a
part of the "Containment Policy", and in support of the "Domino
Theory," the United States, under Eisenhower, started a counter regime in Saigon to
halt the spread of Communism. More and more U.S. military advisors were assigned to the
Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to support the South Vietnamese to try to stem
the pending victory of the north over the south. President Kennedy expanded our
involvement and when he was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson took over and massive numbers of
U.S. military were shipped to Vietnam and committed to battle. This massive build up was
started in 1965, including very large elements of the Tactical Air Force. I was part of
that build-up.
In July 1965 I received orders for a permanent change of station from Offutt
AFB to Takhli Air Base in Thailand as a base level Data Processing Officer. SAC protested
this reassignment but the political pressure to build up the forces in South East Asia
overrode SACs protest. Waggi decided to stay in Baird, Texas so we sold our house in
Bellevue, packed our house hold goods, drove to Baird, Texas, bought a FHA repossessed
house, moved our furniture in, and I left for Travis Air Force Base, California.
When I arrived at Don Muang Air Base, Bangkok, Thailand in early September, I
was diverted from Takhli Air Base to the 6236th Combat Support Group at Don
Muang, near Bangkok. Thailand Air Base units flew missions against North Vietnam in
support of 7th Air Force requirements but were subordinate to 13th
Air Force at Clark Air Base, Philippines Islands, for logistical support. The massive
problems the 13th Air Force units were having in effectively absorbing the
rapid deployment of troops to South East Asia was degrading the combat effectiveness of
the command. Tactical Air Command Squadrons were arriving at bases in Thailand (Takhli,
Korat, Ubon, Udon, and Nakhon Phanom) with no advance notice and no base facilities
(billeting, personnel, finance, supply) to take care of the personnel. The 6236th
Combat Support Group had the responsibility to set up support functions at all bases in
Thailand. It was mass confusion and mayhem. People were arriving with no personnel or pay
records, and some of their families did not even know where they were stationed. I was
given the job of trying to straighten out this mess.
I went to the Personnel Officer to get a team of five personnel specialists,
and then I got the Finance Officer to give me five finance personnel and $100,000 cash.
The base commander gave me top priority on the use of a C-47 airplane and crew. We first
flew to Takhli, stopped by the Wing Commanders office and said we are here to help take
care of your people. The staff set us up in a hanger and sent the word to all units to
report there on a pre-selected schedule for processing. We were mobbed, and I thought we
were going to be lynched. I found the most senior operational officer I could (a
Lieutenant Colonel F-105 Squadron Commander) and got him to agree that he would call off
his mob and let us process the enlisted personnel first. He got his First Sergeant and
told him to organize his troops and bring them in incrementally. Our personnel section
would do their work and then the person would proceed to the finance guys for processing.
No one had pay records because in those days the Air Force policy was that pay records had
to be mailed, not hand carried. Most all personnel needed money to send to their families
so we would use their ID Card to type their name on a payroll form, get a copy of their
orders, and I would pay them in cash. Then I would send a telegram (TWX) to their last
organization; to Headquarters 13th Air Force; Headquarters Pacific Air Force in
Hawaii; and to the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center in Denver, Colorado. It took us
about three days to process the personnel at Takhli. We returned to Don Muang to replenish
our supplies and money and then, on a weekly schedule, we went to Korat, Udorn, Ubon, and
Nakon Phanom. And we set up satellite personnel offices at each base. After that first big
swing to all the bases we would deploy our strike force to a base only when a new squadron
arrived. It did not take long before the Air Force changed their policy and had pay
records and personnel records hand carried. But it took a long time to straighten out the
original mess. I continued this work for six months until the deployment of tactical
squadrons slacked off. During that period we also opened up branch offices for Finance and
Personnel at each of the Thailand bases.
I did get two breaks while in Thailand. I flew to Headquarters 13th
Air Force, Clark Air Base, Philippines to brief and coordinate our base support activities
and to take a physical examination for the regular Air Force. I again failed the physical
because of my medical history of a peptic ulcer. On another break we took a C-47 from Ubon
and flew to Chang Mai in northern Thailand for a "three day pass."
The next effort was to open the Data Systems and Statistics Office at each
base. For this effort I was sent on Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders to the 8th
Tactical Fighter Wing, Royal Thai Air Base at Ubon, a provincial capital. This base was
operating in the remote boondocks of Thailand. Senior Master Sergeant Jackson arrived at
Ubon about the same time I did. Together we designed and had built a plywood hooch
our data processing building. We had one of the few buildings on the base with air
conditioning. The work in Thailand was very challenging and rewarding, and except for the
separation from my family, I enjoyed being there.
We did start a fast pitch softball league on base and a bowling league in a
Thai Bowling Alley in Ubon. We had a base theater for movies, which served, as the Base
Chapel on Sundays. I was able to stay on base for about three weeks before I had to find
off base housing there were just not enough plywood hoochs to accommodate all
personnel. New arrivals had priority for on base hooch space. I bought a 50cc motorcycle
for transportation and often the flight surgeons and I would ride off base around Ubon and
to remote villages where they would examine and treat children while I handed out candy.
I would have completed my tour in September 1966 but was able to leave early
when a C-141 Transport came in with a plane load of missiles and was returning to Travis
AFB, California the next day with five F-4 engines. I made sure I was on that flight,
which got me home about two weeks early. Waggi and I had made reservations in San
Francisco for a few days honeymoon upon my return, but this early return messed up these
plans. I hitched a ride to the San Francisco airport, got the only available seat (first
class at that) on the next American Airlines flight to Dallas, and in Dallas caught the
next plane to Abilene. When the plane landed and taxied to the gate I could see Waggi and
the children walking out of the terminal onto the tarmac. What a thrill this was. We had
been separated about eleven months and fifteen days.
Our stay in Baird was short because I had already received a port call about
mid-September for departure from McGuire AFB, New Jersey to Rhine Main Air Base,
Frankfurt, Germany.
WIESBADEN, GERMANY, HQ USAFE: September 1966 December 1969
In Wiesbaden we lived in the American Arms Military Hotel for about six weeks
until we were assigned quarters, close to the American run Department of Defense (DOD)
Schools, the commissary, and walking distance to the Base Exchange shopping area. We had a
great view of the Rhine River from our balcony.
I went to work in the Data Processing Shop of the Deputy Chief of Staff,
Intelligence, where I was given the job of setting up a new staff organization, the
Systems Management Division. Running this Division I would be in charge of developing
Intelligence Requirements for Data Processing Support along with the appropriate budget to
provide that support. I would then process these requirements through Headquarters, United
States Forces, European Command (USEUCOM) at Camp DeLogue, Paris, France (later to be
moved to Patch Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany); Headquarters, United States Air Force and
the Defense Intelligence Agency, both in Washington, D.C. This was staff work at the
highest level and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This work also included the production of the
Directorate Annex to the Five Year Intelligence Plan; the Automation Data Processing Plan;
The Consolidated Intelligence Program; the Contractor Statement of Work; the Directorate
Mission and Organizational Operating Instructions, and Manpower Requirements. These System
Management Documents set the base line plan and budget for operating the Directorate of
Intelligence Data Processing for the next five years. We had a cadre of six IBM
Contractors under a general, worldwide Intelligence Data Handling Systems (IDHS) contract.
These were exceptionally high quality programmers but they lacked a sense of direction
insofar as USAFE requirements. By reworking the Contractor Statement of Work we brought
the IBM programmers efforts in sync with our needs. We integrated them in with our
military staff and the IBM people were much happier with their work.
In December 1966 we received the best news we had ever had in regards to my Air
Force Career I was promoted to Major two years
"below the Zone". Along
with this "below the zone" promotion was an automatic selection for appointment
to the Regular Air Force and nomination to attend the Air Force Command and Staff College
at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. But again, I failed the physical for regular because of my
history of peptic ulcer. This was the fourth time I had been selected for regular and the
fourth time I had failed the physical. Here, in less than a year, I had my biggest high
and then my lowest low in my Air Force career. But I kept working just as hard as ever.
Because of security requirements, we had to build a new "shielded and
secure" Computer Facility by refurbishing an existing building at the 497th
Reconnaissance Technical Group Compound located at Schierstein on the Rhine River. I took
over duties as Chief of the Computer Operations Division, plus continuing my work as Chief
of the Systems Management Division. When the computer facility was completed we then had
to physically relocating the IBM 7010 Computer from the fourth floor of Building A-17 at
Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden to the new computer facility at Scherstein Compound. We
also installed the IBM 360-20 AUTODIN System in the facility.
Then we got the worst news ever concerning my Air Force career. Because I had
failed the physical examination for regular (which means I was a "reserve"
officer), I was given a mandatory retirement date of 31 December 1970. This was a
devastating blow to our plans that I would remain in the Air Force for at least 30 years
and longer if possible. This also meant that my career progression plan, laid out by the
Military Personnel Center with my bosses and me, was completely negated unless I
could get a waiver to stay on active duty. We had only three options: 1) we could complete
my tour in September 1970 and then return to the States for retirement processing,
probably at McGuire AFB, New Jersey; 2) I could try to find a position as a civil servant
in Europe or back in the States and transition to the new status when I retired in
December 1970, or sooner; and 3) I could curtail our assignment in Germany, return to the
States as soon as possible, and fight this mandatory retirement date. Based on the advice
and concurrence of the Air Staff and with the approval of the Military Personnel Center at
Randolph AFB, San Antonio, Texas we opted for this third choice. The Military Personnel
Center decided that I would be assigned to the School of Aerospace Medicine of the Air
Force Systems Command at Brooks AFB, San Antonio, Texas. Their reasoning was that the
School of Aerospace Medicine would be the best assignment to get a waiver approved so that
I could stay on active duty. Also, being at Brooks AFB, I would be very close to the
Military Personnel Center to assist and coordinate this waiver effort. Unfortunately, this
did not turn out to be the case.
In the meantime, in early 1969, I finished the work I had started in late 1966
of identifying and documenting all USAFE Intelligence Requirements for Data Processing
work at Wiesbaden. In the documentation we identified the Computer Systems Requirements to
satisfy these functional requirements and requested approval for the procurement of an IBM
360-50 Computer System, to be developed as an on-line, interactive computer system with
terminals at the Intelligence Analysts work locations. I personally staffed this document
through the USAFE and USEUCOM Headquarters. I then hand carried the document back to
Washington, D.C. and walked it through the Air Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
In about two weeks we had all the signatures and approvals completed and the up grade of
the USAFE Intelligence Data Handling System was assured. In the summer of 1969 I was
selected to attend the Department of Defense Computer Institute course in Washington, D.C.
for Specifications for Selection Course in preparation for procuring the IBM 360-50
Computer for Headquarters USAFE.
BROOKS AFB, TEXAS (AFSC): January 1970 December 1970: In December 1969
we departed Wiesbaden, Germany and traveled to Brooks AFB, San Antonio, Texas. My
assignment was to be the Comptroller for the 6570th Air Base Group. But the
Base Commander had other ideas. He needed an officer to take over as Commander of the
Headquarter Squadron, a consolidated unit that contained the nearly 1,000 enlisted
personnel assigned to Brooks AFB. As an inducement to accept this assignment the Base
Commander offered me immediate assignment to Senior Officers Quarters in base housing.
That way we did not have to buy or rent a house the year we would be at Brooks AFB. Waggi
and I accepted.
Our tour at Brooks AFB was a "Country Club Assignment," but I did
work very hard at preparing my appeal of being retired at the end of 1970 and in getting
the personnel of the Squadron shaped up. I called the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers
together for a Commanders Beer Call. These senior sergeants were mostly Non-
Commissioned Officers in charge of the various mission divisions on the base. I explained
that it was their personnel and their Squadron and they were personally responsible to
their Division Chiefs (usually full Colonels) and to me as the Commander for the moral,
welfare and performance of their troops. If they had a problem with one or several of
their personnel, they would bring the problem to the First Sergeant, a Chief Master
Sergeant, and to me. We would take whatever action they wanted - from a "chewing
out," assignment to additional training, issuance of a formal reprimand, to an
Article 15, to a courts martial. We also wanted the "troops" to be publicly
commended for good work, which we would do at monthly Commanders Call. I continued
these Senior NCO/ Beer Call meetings monthly. The results were that the NCOs took
charge, assumed their responsibilities and authority and the morale and performance of the
troops could be visibly observed.
I prepared my appeal requesting that I be allowed to stay on active duty as a
reserve office and had it all coordinated through the Air Staff and Military Personnel
Center for processing. Unfortunately, back in Wiesbaden we made one major mistake. The Air
Force Systems Command was historically obstinate about the approval of anything that they
could not find specific authority for in Air Force Regulations. Although the Military
Personnel Center told Systems Command they wanted my "waiver package" we could
not get the command to forward the package even with or without their approval. I should
have been reassigned to Strategic Air Command or to the Air Staff in Washington
anywhere but Systems Command. My inclination was to keep fighting the system but time was
getting short. So I gave up on finding any way to stay in the service and started looking
for a job with industry.
In September 1970 I was hired by Planning Research Corporation to start work at
SAC Headquarters in Nebraska on 4 January 1971, after my retirement on 31 December 1970.
We had a retirement ceremony on 17 December 1970 and then we moved into the Base
Guesthouse. That day, as we returned to the Guesthouse about 10:00 PM, I received a call
from my sister-in-law that my father had suddenly died from a heart attack in Claude,
Texas. After we finalized my Fathers burial and estate we departed for Omaha,
Nebraska from Claude, Texas on Christmas day, 25 December 1970.
PLANNING RESEARCH CORPORATION: January 1971 December 1989 - We bought a
house at 712 Donegal Drive in Papillion, Nebraska and our furniture was delivered on 31
December 70. That night we had one of the infamous Nebraska blizzards and were snowed in
for three days. But we dug out and on Monday 4 January 1971 I reported to work at the PRC
office in Bellevue, Nebraska. That same day I was re-indoctrinated for access to special
intelligence and went to work as a Systems Analyst. There were five of us employees
assigned as Systems Analysts designing capabilities for the Program Assisted Console
Evaluation and Review (PACER) System. PACER was developed by PRC for SAC (as an
experiment) under contract to Rome Air Development Center, located at Rome, New York. The
experiment had proved successful and PACER had just gone "operational." My first
job was to design and develop the "Air Order of Battle" capability. Other
analysts were designing other order of battle capabilities. The System was called the
"Strategic Estimates System (SES) and was right down my alley as I had specified the
same capability for Headquarters USAFE Intelligence in Wiesbaden. As we implemented the
Strategic Estimates System I was appointed the Section Leader of a new task to design and
develop the SAC Warning Data Estimates System (SACWARDENS). When our Site Manager was
transferred to Company Headquarters I was promoted to be the PRC Manager at SAC. Major
General Jim Brown, the SAC Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, had me, as a
contractor, begin attending the weekly DCS/I Staff Meetings to facilitate the automation
of intelligence functions. I freely and willingly gave my advice on what should be done.
This may have been the apex of my Air Force career. We stayed at SAC four years and six
months until the Company finally convinced us to move to Company Headquarters in McLean,
Virginia to become a Department Manager. Also, while at SAC, I attended the University of
Nebraska at Omaha under the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation Program for disabled
veterans and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1974.
In July 1975 we relocated from Papillion, Nebraska to the Company Headquarters
at McLean, Virginia. We bought a house in Vienna, Virginia maybe twenty miles from down
town Washington, D.C. I ran a department that included the Advanced Imagery Requirements
and Exploitation System (AIRES), being developed for the Defense Intelligence Agency under
contract with Rome Air Development Center (RADC), and two other projects.
In the fall of 1977 a member of the Air Staff and the Chief of the Intelligence
and Reconnaissance Division of Rome Air Development Center, Rome, New York, came to my
office at PRC. They had an urgent need to support the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), at
Hickam AFB, Hawaii in developing and automated operations and intelligence system in Korea
under the "Constant Watch" Program. From Hawaii we were to go on to the Air
Division at Osan Air Base, Korea to do the data collection and analysis to develop this
system for the U.S. Air Force Component in Korea. I gladly accepted the challenge.
In Korea we worked with Lieutenant Colonel Sang Kil Kim, Republic of Korea Air
Force (ROKAF) Director of Intelligence for the Korean Air Force Combat Air Command. He was
our sponsor, escort officer and interpreter. In about 45 days we covered every Air Base
and functional area in Korea and we then took the data back to Headquarters PACAF for
analysis and design. I placed a team of contractor personnel in Hawaii to do the work The
results of this effort was that PRC was selected to build, implement and sustain the best
and most extensive Automated Operations and Intelligence Support Computer System that had
ever been developed. We even transferred this system technology to a USAFE function in
Germany.
At one time I had to resign from PRC because the boss I worked for was just too
mean and malicious to his subordinates. I could not put up with his meanness and
derogatory way of treating people, so I had no choice but to resign. I worked in
Washington D. C. and Hawaii for Calspan Corporation, in Buffalo, New York, (at a 33%
increase in salary) to lead their effort to get into the Department of Defense Command,
Control and Intelligence Data Processing Business. Then in May 1979 the President of
PRCs Government Information Systems (GIS) Group talked me into rejoining PRC as a
Vice President. There were also some financial inducements. I had no problems with Calspan
but I still felt a deep loyalty for PRC.
During the fourteen years we lived in Vienna, Virginia many of Waggis
family in Germany came to visit us and we toured them through Washington D. C. and
Virginia. Also during this time there were several deaths in Waggis family that
caused us to make emergency trips to Munich. Her stepfather (one of her favorite people in
the whole world) died of cancer in 1976; her sister died from brain surgery in 1978 at age
46; her father died in 1983 at age 81; and her mother died in 1986 at age 77. It is
difficult to live so far away from your family.
When I returned to PRC in 1978 I had our work in Hawaii and Korea; our work in
Europe at SHAPE Headquarters, Mons, Belgium, Allied Forces Central Command at
Brunsum,
Holland, Tactical Systems Technology Transfer at Spangdalham Air Base, Germany,
Communications System Processor (CSP) support at Headquarters USAFE, Ramstein Air Base,
Germany, the USAREUR CCIS Project at Headquarters USAREUR, Campbell Barracks, Heidelberg,
Germany, and the Headquarters, USEUCOM WWMCCS and EUCOM AIDES projects at Patch Barracks,
Stuttgart, Germany; our work at the Air Force Security Command, Kelly AFB, San Antonio,
Texas; our work at the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) soon to become the
Central Command, MacDill AFB, Florida; work at The Atlantic Command ( a NATO Command),
Norfolk, Virginia; Scientific and Technical Intelligence work at the Foreign Technology
Division, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio and at the Army Scientific and Technical Facility,
Charlottesville, Virginia; the work at the Naval Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the
JINTACCS work at the Air Force Electronics Systems Division, Hanscom AFB, Bedford,
Massachusetts, and the Army Communications work at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. I had three
Departments set up to do this work The Pacific Systems Department, the Tactical
Systems Department, and the European Systems Department.
One of our great joys in the job I now had were the frequent trips that
Waggi
and I got to take to Europe. Either before or after the business part of a trip we would
stop in Munich and visit with Waggis family. One of my main activities on these
stopovers was to go mountain hiking in the lower Alps in Bavaria and Austria with
Waggis brother-in-law. We would even hike from Germany into Austria and return.
My main function as the Division Vice President was to insure the generation of
the budgeted revenue, profit and overhead; superior technical and management performance
of contracts; and company growth by capturing follow on contracts and new business. I did
this job by building business plans and then conducting frequent staff visits to
Departments, projects and client managers to evaluate how we were doing and to find and
solve problems. For example, about every three or four months I would start at NATO
Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, then on to Headquarters, SHAPE at Mons, Belgium, and
then cover the several projects, ending at USEUCOM at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart,
Germany. I would also visit the projects in Hawaii on about the same schedule and the
projects in the States on about a six-month schedule. I would also bring all the
Department Managers together in McLean for a thorough Division Review about every six
months. Starting about 1983 Waggi would join me on many of these trips (at company
expense) and she was a great help. It was especially beneficial when she would meet with
the wives of our employees at these "remote" places and discuss things from a
womans perspective. Also, back about 1976, we started a business relation with a
Washington, D. C. Tax Lawyer and Real Estate Agent that proved very successful. We still
maintain that relationship today.
RETIREMENT FROM PLANNING RESEARCH CORPORATION: December 1989 -
In September of 1988 I had my first Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), which is a
"small" stroke. It took me three days to recover my senses. These strokes cause
dementia (similar to Alzheimers Disease). I had two other TIAs in rapid succession.
The medical prognosis was that there was no cure and I would continue to be afflicted by
this condition. This prognosis has proven to be correct and my mental condition has
continued to deteriorate. Waggi and I discussed just what we should do. I was not ready to
retire, but really did not want to continue working in this demented mental state. Over a
period of several months we reviewed our financial condition and considered our options.
We had a good profitable business of buying and selling town houses in Virginia. I had
built up a very good PRC Pension Fund, a solid Employee Savings and Stock Ownership Plan
account (ESSOP) and an ever growing Independent Retirement Account (IRA). We owned many
shares of PRC stock and had accrued many more shares from stock options and bonuses, and I
had my lifetime Air Force retirement pay. The sale of PRC to Emhart at $20.00 per share
and then the sale of Emhart to Black and Decker at $40.00 a share significantly improved
our financial condition to where it appeared that we could retire comfortably. And we both
had Social Security entitlements that would start paying off as early as 1993. The problem
then became one of if we should retire, where should we retire.
We considered Germany, but it was too expensive, too crowded, and too cold in
the winter, and neither of us really wanted to leave the United States. We loved living in
Virginia, so Vienna or other Virginia locations were distinct possibilities. Probably
ninety percent of our good friends lived there (that was before we re-discovered our OCS
classmates). But Virginia taxes were excessive, cost of living was too expensive and the
area was too crowded. Fourteen years living in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. was
enough. Florida was a possibility, but it was too hot, too humid, and filled with too many
tourists and snowbirds. Arizona was a possible good choice. Of course, there was Texas
especially, San Antonio or Austin. In December 1988 we visited Texas and after
Christmas we drove to Abilene, looking at the housing market. Texas was in the throes of a
big "Oil Bust" and the price of houses was very depressed. Many had been
repossessed and were sitting empty. Dyess AFB, with a Wing of B-1 Bombers, a squadron of
KC 135 Tankers, and a Wing of C-130 Transports, looked very solid and fairly safe from
base closures. Bergstrom AFB at Austin, on the other hand, did not look too solid from a
base closure standpoint. San Antonio, as always, looked very good to us, but like
Washington, D.C. it was just too big and crowded. It was also too hot and humid in the
summer. What really tipped the scale to Abilene was that we found a house for sale that
Waggi just loved. It was a 3,800 square foot, five bedrooms, three car garage, and brick
house on a large triangular lot that would provide the privacy that Waggi liked.
We made a cash offer for the house which was immediately accepted. Waggi
returned to Abilene near the first of June 1989 and took possession of the house. She
stayed for two weeks and had the house thoroughly cleaned, painted inside and out and
renovated as needed. She returned to Virginia just in time to ship our furniture to Texas
and clean the house in Tamarack.
We sold or house in May 1989 about the same time we took possession of a town
house we had bought as an investment. We decided to keep the town house as rental
property. In June 1989 we moved our furniture to Abilene, loaded both cars to the maximum
and drove to Texas as a caravan, Waggi driving one car and me the other. We had CB radios
so we could stay in contact. I could only stay in Abilene about ten days and returned to
Virginia over the Fourth of July holiday. Our Grandson came to live with
"Grossmama" for a while to help as Waggi settled in and got the house in order.
In Virginia I rented some furniture and moved into our new town house. Waggi flew back to
Virginia for a few weeks and than back to Texas. The end of August 1989 I was through with
my work and renters were signed up for the town house. I arrived in Abilene there on Labor
Day, 1989. I had not really retired or terminated from PRC just yet because I had enough
accrued vacation to carry me on full salary for some time. After I did retire near the end
of 1989 I received almost my full annual bonus from PRC. I thought that was especially
considerate of my ex bosses. PRC also gave me a consulting agreement to return to McLean
to help whenever they should call.
My first six weeks were spent on my hands and knees in the year digging weeds
and getting grass to grow. The prior owners had let the yard deteriorate over the past
three years. I also put up shelves and other odd jobs that Waggi needed to have done. Then
I seriously began to learn to play golf at Dyess AFB. I joined in with the "early
bird" golfers who liked to start very early in the morning. We would play golf Monday
through Friday all year long, even when it got down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Golf became
my retirement passion and at my peak in1996 I finally shot a 77 as my best ever score. For
several years I carried a fifteen handicap. Unfortunately, things went down hill for us in
the summer of 1996 when I had two fairly severe TIAs. Sorry to say, this large group of
about thirty "early bird" golfers has dwindled down to only three other AF
retirees and me. We play about once a week.
Waggi became very active in the Officers Wives Club Bowling League and carried
a very good average for a long time. She was the only "retired officers"
wife bowling in the league and was really admired and respected by the younger wives.
Later she developed an agonizing case of fibromyalgia, which causes debilitating pain and
fatigue in the muscles, and she finally had to quit bowling. Waggi also became active in
the Garden Gate Garden Club, which is more a social club than a garden activity. They do
study plants and travel to many nice places in Texas like Dallas, Granbury and
Fredericksburg. Waggi had started learning oil painting in Virginia and in Texas oil
painting became her main avocation. She attends painting classes every Tuesday with a real
fun group and she produces her best oil paintings ever.
Both Waggi and I got deeply involved in reconstituting our local homeowners
association in our Fairway Oaks Subdivision. During the oil bust so many homeowners went
under that the homeowners association became inactive. Not long after we moved in one of
our neighbors and a few others of us initiated action to reactivate the association
a function so necessary in any such community. We had had several house burglaries and we
also wanted to start up a Neighborhood Watch program. Waggi and I became the principal
helpers and workers. We worked many long hours building a Neighborhood Directory and
establishing a Neighborhood Watch Program with Block Captains with surveillance and
reporting procedures. In a couple of years the Abilene Police Department reported that
Fairway Oaks had the best Neighborhood Watch Program in Abilene. And the Homeowners
Association is back active and leading in community affairs.
One activity we started when we arrived in Abilene was traveling the state
especially during the annual spring wildflower season that occurs during April and May. We
would hit the road and just roam through the hill country and other areas of Texas,
including places I had lived as a kid. These have been very nostalgic travels. Sometimes
Waggi and I would often just take off on our own, visiting places like Big Bend Park on
the Rio Grande, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Padre and South Padre Islands. We toured the
Texas/Mexico border from Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and
Langtry,
where Judge Roy Bean held court as the "law west of the Pecos" River. We took a
weeklong trip to tour and explore East Texas, which we extended, into a trip to Shreveport
and Bossier City, Louisiana. We also started visiting with my old high school buddies in
Texas. We spent a week on a resort at Lake Travis and covered that part of the hill
country like a glove. We also visited Halsted, Texas, a disappearing small Texas community
near LaGrange in Fayette County. This was real Texas historical country. On our
anniversary one year, we took our daughter and grandson to the Texas Independence Day
celebration at Washington on the Brazos State Park, the first capital of Texas. We then
went on to Brooks AFB and San Antonio. Of course, we went to Fredericksburg many times and
also climbed Enchanted Rock, the largest piece of granite ever found and a strenuous climb
with a great view. Naturally, we toured Galveston, Houston, the NASA Space Center, the
Battleship Texas and the San Jacinto Battlefield where Sam Houston won Texas independence
by beating Santa Anna, the President of Mexico. In Amarillo we visited the Palo Dura
Canyon and my parents graves in Claude; and took a day trip out to Alibates National
Monument, on to Adobe Walls, where buffalo hunters had beaten a large army of Comanche,
Kiowa and Cheyenne Indians in the summer of 1874. We swung back by the Bivins 7X Ranch at
Channing, Texas where my brother and I had been cowboys when we joined the Air Force in
1948. We attended my Claude High School Seniors 48 reunion in 1988, 1993 and again 1998.
It was great to see the large percentage of classmates that attended. We had a senior
class of twelve.
We went back to Virginia several times to take care of our rental business and
to visit old friends. In 1990 we took a long trip to California to visit some cousins that
I had not seen since the early 1940s. On the way we stopped in Tucson, Arizona and
renewed our friendship with fellow Air Force retirees. From Los Angeles we went through
Sequoia National Park and then met family members at Brownsville and Rackerby on the
western edge of the Tahoe National Forrest. Then we spent a week at a resort on Lake
Tahoe. On our return trip, we drove through the Nevada desert to Las Vegas and then on to
Albuquerque, New Mexico where we visited with Air Force friends from our tour Alaska. In
May of 1994, while Waggis cousin was visiting with us in Abilene, we took another
long trip to Sand Point, Idaho (and Canada) though Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Washington,
Idaho, Yellow Stone National Park, Utah, New Mexico and back to Abilene. On this trip we
visited with other Air Force friends from Alaska days. Then in 1995 we took a trip through
Chicago (visited Halstead Street) to Wisconsin where we visited with a friend from Travis
AFB, California. And then met other Air Force friends at Green Bay for a weeks stay in a
nice golfing resort on Lake Michigan. Then Waggi and I drove on around the Great Lakes and
came back through Dayton, Ohio to visit our son. We have also taken several trips back to
Europe, especially Germany and Austria. One year we visited London for a week with our
daughter and her husband. Another year they traveled to Germany and Austria with us.
Later, we took a bus tour through New England with our good friends from Abilene. In
August 1998 we took our grandson in August 1998 to Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. Of
coarse, we attended the OCS 58B meeting in Kerrville in October 1998 and then the 41st
Reunion in San Antonio in April/May 1999. In August 1999 we took our first cruise
from London through the Baltic Sea to see the capitols of Scandinavia, Berlin, Germany and
St. Petersburg, Russia. Waggi and our two daughters, Gisela, Deborah, and a friend, all
took a seven-day trip to Paris and Biarritz, on the coast of France in May 1999.
My main work now is genealogy, which I started back about 1970. I have
researched my mothers Ohlhausen family back to the 1400s in Germany, their
immigration to the United States in 1817 and their trek westward to Missouri, Illinois,
Arkansas and then to Mason County, Texas in 1874. I have published one book, "The
Ohlhausens of Mason County, Texas" in the fall of 1996. This book is still in draft
form because of the "fire of March 1997." I am now researching and about to
publish a book on my Halsted family. I did lose a lot of my genealogy research data when
our house burned down on 7 March 1997. The house burned to the ground and we lost
practically everything, but we were able to rebuild and now have a larger and more
comfortable house than we started with. We just dont have as many family pictures or
mementos from our travels around the world and we also lost about thirty of Waggis
oil paintings. Luckily, however, she is rapidly replacing the lost paintings with new and
better productions.
Retirement has been great. If it was any better we could not stand it. The only
problem I have found with retirement is that you get no days off, no weekends, no
holidays, no sick time, and no vacation. Retirement is twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week. It is a full time job. My principal endeavors are conducting genealogical research
on the Halsted and Ohlhausen families, participating in the activities of The Retired
Officers Association (TROA) and the Fairway Oaks Homeowners Association. Waggis
avocation is socializing with her many friends in and around Abilene, participating in the
activities of the Garden Gate Garden Club, and oil painting. Together we both love to
travel, visit old friends, see new places and make new friends.
We do hope that you have enjoyed our family story and we are looking forward to
the next OCS Class 58 B reunion in 2003.
Current address: 20 Muirfield, Abilene, Texas. 79606-5120. Tel: (915) 695-7722.
E-Mail address: benwaggi@aol.com