I joined the USAF on September 13, 1966 after flunking out of college! I was on the delayed enlistment program. I scored 95 in both Mechanical and Electronic and wanted to do something with mechanics because I was burned out with electronics having been in it since I was about 7 years old. My recruiter had been a crew chief and talked me out of it saying how easy the electronics guys had it compared to them out on the flight line all day long. If I knew where that guy was, I'd give him a hug today because it was the best decision I ever was forced into!
I was supposed to go in October but he called me a week or so before and told me he had a guy who was being drafted and asked if he could take my spot. So I deferred until Tuesday November 22nd, 1966. Went to the induction center in Kansas City on a train from Hutchinson, KS. Spent the night, inducted the next day the 23rd. Flew to Lackland that evening on Braniff. Problems in Dallas due to kids going home for Thanksgiving. Finally got into Lackland about midnight at the reception station. Did a bunch of paperwork. They took us to a chow hall and had SOS then on to barracks. They let us sleep late, 0800 or so then to breakfast and hell started.
Thanksgiving dinner was the worst I have ever had!! Of course there were no normal activities on Thanksgiving day. One of the T.I.'s came in and taught us some marching drills. That is about all I remember. I don't recall when we actually got our haircuts and uniforms etc. but seems like it wasn't until Monday. They didn't cut much off of me 'cause I wore my hair pretty short, about 1/4 inch, anyway.
I'll skip basic except for telling about career choosing day. I was so tired and it was so boring that I fell asleep! When it came time to choose, I chose aircraft communications or something like that cause I saw it on the board when I woke up. I had no idea what it was!
A couple of weeks later I was told to report to a building at 0700. That was all. I went and was in there with about 30-50 others. A guy came out and told us we were all chosen to be in special AFS's and we would be watching a slide presentation with explanations about all the AF's in the room. They handed out papers and said if yours says '991', I think, on it, then you would only see a building because it was so secret they couldn't tell us anything about it. I looked and that is what mine said. They told us we would be interviewed by and officer probably a Captain or Major and we were to forget protocol and treat him as if he were our dad or brother! We filled out lots of paperwork of which I remember one was a psychological test and the other was for a Top Secret security clearance.
From the questionnaire they thought I might have diabetes so he called a doctor over at Wilford right then and sent me over there. They ran GGT on me a week later and eventually the decision was 'early Diabetes' whatever that is but I didn't get the job. They did run a Top Secret on me though because you know how long it takes to make decisions especially back then before computers.
I went from there to Keesler in Biloxi, MS for aircraft communications training. They put us in a room and basically assigned at random our AFS. I got Aircraft Radio Repair and was put in the accelerated program. I didn't like Keesler much but survived and was glad I was in accelerated for basic electronics. The radio school was ok. I missed honor student by a few tenths of a point.
My PCS was at Hill AFB, Ogden, UT. I arrived there about August 1967 or so. It was the 4677 Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron or DSES. We flew EB-57B,C & D models which had multiple ECM systems in them to fly against the enemy, the USAF. It was very good duty. Unfortunately we had a CMS that I didn't get along with too well.
I went on several TDYs during that time including Canada and Michigan. I spent 6 months on two 90 day TDYs at Lockburn AFB in Columbus, OH. That was pretty good duty. We had no more than 3 D models there at a time and usually only 2. there were 6 of us. We lived in transient barracks and had maids. The rooms weren't great but ok us bachelors. They flew us their in the backseat of a B-57D so I got to go to 50,000 feet.
I wanted to get away from the CSM so I volunteered for Vietnam. I knew that would definitely get me out of there. It did, to Phan Rang.