While I was out of town............

I was asked about the line “that happened when I was out of town.” I am reliably informed I use some variant of it fairly frequently in conversation.

Basically, the U.S. Air Force was nice enough to let me see a fair amount of the world. During my 26 years of service (which they now call employment....interesting change of viewpoint), I spent roughly 21 years somewhere other than the United States.

I enlisted in 1966, did Basic and Technical Training in Amarillo, Texas, then went to Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany for what was supposed to be 3 years, and turned into 4.

During that time, I spent a few months in the States on temporary duty (various schools, for the most part), and a little under three weeks on a leave in California 1967 that featured my fiancee informing me (a) we were not going to get married the next week, as I had supposed, and (b) she was getting married to a draft-dodging weasel who convinced he was my best friend [insert the rest of that cliche here]. A couple of years later, I married a lovely lady from Ireland, who shared my life and travels for 26 years.

In 1971, I went to Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. Late 1972 to early 1974 was Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and various interesting points in between. From there, I went to England for just over 4 years RAF Alconbury), and was about to do a fifth when I got accepted to Officer Training School.

So mid-1978 to early 1980 was OTS in Texas and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. After that, 1908 to 1983 was Aviano Air Base, Italy, followed by RAF Mildenhall U.K., followed by NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany. Those last three locations included temporary duty to more locations than I want to remember. Mid 1991 brought us back to the States, where I did 1 year at Travis Air Force Base, California and then retired.

Out of 26 years in the USAF, I was in the States for about 5 years. The last stretch overseas was 11 years, with 2 weeks in California, and about 3 months total temporary duty at various Stateside locations.

The result seems to have been a mild disorientation, particularly regarding the eddies and swirls of the Mainstream during the periods 1973 to 1978 and 1980 to 1991. ....... and I’m not real sure about a lot of the 1990's. Just to add to the general fun, I spent four or five years in the middle 1990's bouncing in and out of clinical depression. I don’t recommend that.

As I said, I was out of town a lot.