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1963 Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, TX in T-37 |
I started my Air Force career at Del Rio
Texas for pilot training. I reported at Laughlin AFB on 17 Sep
1963 for Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 65XB, and admittedly I did
not have a clue what UPT was about. I got through it and graduated
with my class despite spending three weeks over Christmas in the
hospital with a bad case of sinusitis. I even completed the course
work early so I had 11 hours of formation flying just for the fun of it.
I graduated on 04 August 1963 with an Air Force aeronautical rating of
PILOT.
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| After UPT everyone headed for
Stead AFB at Reno, NV for "Survival Training". This was three
weeks of fun and great food. Actually it really was interesting.
We learned what to do if we had to get out of an airplane over "enemy
territory". This included a ten days of "academics", including
learning how to disable a man with ones hands. During that time we
also made backpacks and clothing out of parachutes. Then a
week in the mountains in teams of 14, traveling 6 to 10 miles a day to
meet "partisans". And then three days as as a team of two
traveling 11 miles over two nights with no lights of any kind. And
the last three days was in a simulated prisoner of war camp. |
Saigon 1966
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After survival training, a break for the Orono High School class of
1959 reunion, and a drive from Texas to Shaw AFB, SC for the real Air
Force and the RF-4C |
| Since the RF-4C was a brand new airplane, we had to
learn how to fly it. |
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