The Book of Me, Written By You - Prompt 11: Military

The Book of Me, Written By You
Prompt 11: Military

 

 

[I am third from right; leaders of RBS Express radar train]

"The Book of Me, Written By You" is a GeneaBloggers project created by Julie Goucher of the Anglers Rest blog. The concept: a series of blogging and writing prompts that help family historians capture their own memories and write about themselves.


Prompt 11: Military
This week’s prompt is Military
    •    Did you join the military?
    ◦    Were you encouraged or discouraged?



I participated in the Air Force ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) at Iowa State University, as an integral part of my college/university education. It was an intentional choice. My parents weren't particularly thrilled about the choice, but did not discourage it. My Dad always said: "If you choose to do something, do it well." I did that. I was among the top small handful of leaders throughout my ROTC experience.


My three-year active duty Air Force experience began in July 1961.
See some of it here: http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/search/label/Air%20Force

    •    Did a family member?

My uncle (mother's brother) served in Army Intelligence, part of Occupation Forces in Japan, immediately following World War II - see here and here, for example.
Also, brother-in-law went through same Air Force ROTC program I did, four years ahead of me.

    ◦    Regular or for a particular incident
I served three years of regular service during time of Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis - got out just before Viet Nam Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions passed Congress.

[RBS Express train, on location in rural Nevada]

    •    Did you or your family serve overseas in the line of Service either during a war or a posting

I served in remote locations in the USA only.

    •    Any thoughts, photographs, memories relevant
See links above for a few examples. Also, this post, just earlier this week. The following is the radar "workroom" from the RBS Experess  - our local detachment was similar - in a semi-trailer, rather than a railroad car.

[Airmen at work in radar "workroom" on the RBS Express]

Families are Forever!

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - 4 Generations, in May 1961

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday

4 Generations

 May 1961

I'm approaching the 1000th slide scan, and came across this one earlier this week from May 1941.

You know I love multi-generational photos, and this is a 4 generation image.

Our oldest daughter, Annette, of course, along with Nancy and I on right. My parents, Pete and Eileen (Kinnick) Smith, on left, and, of course her parents in front, Paul and Dorothy (Sorensen) Kinnick.

This was at a picnic in the Bayard, Iowa, City Park near their home, about 10 days before we left Iowa (I had graduated from Iowa State University) and moved to California for my first job there.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - Opperman Family Award and Gathering

Follow Friday - Opperman Family Award and Gathering

I have noticed others have used alternative purposed on this daily theme, so I am also - sharing 'affiliated family' information that you might like to follow - I want to write about them, and this seems appropriate.

National Dairy Shrine Award
George Opperman

On his blog, "I Hate Alzheimers," Mike Opperman recently posted: "Dad is a Pioneer" - a nice story about the National Dairy Shrine, a hall of fame for the dairy industry, induction of his Dad as a 'dairy industry Pioneer.' It is a very appropriate award as you can read in the announcement here. [Scroll down a bit, to see the neat story on George!]

May and George have been important influences in my life. May is the younger sister of my wife Nancy's mother, Ruth (Thomas) Bolger. So, technically, May and George are Aunt and Uncle (by marriage, to me). Both graduated from Iowa State University a few years before I attended. Nancy fondly recalls, as a young girl, riding a train to Beloit, Wisconsin, to stay with them on a short vacation.

They came into my life during my last two years of high school as Nancy and I were 'going steady' and we spent some holidays on their dairy farm in Manning, Iowa, a few miles west of Coon Rapids, our hometown. George spoke to me in very encouraging words about my plan to attend Iowa State. Also, they were just starting their family, as noted in the press release, and we started ours only a few years later. So, though we were a generation apart, our children grew up as contemporaries and are still close friends (as well as cousins) to this day. May and George "seemed like" as much older brother and sister as aunt and uncle. Know what I mean? We and our families scattered across the country, over the years, of course.

So, it was especially nice to their family almost all together again in this nice photo. And, it was especially gratifying to see George get this kind of recognition, even at this stage of his life. I know the family really appreciated even one more recognition of the many things George has done, over the years, for the dairy industry, as well as his family. Neat! ;-)


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - ISU Atomic Energy Lab

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - ISU Atomic Energy Lab

[Click to see enlarged image]

This photo (which I only recently came across) actually should have gone along with the following story I wrote about my work in 1959-1961 at Iowa State University in the Atomic Energy Commission Physics Lab in Ames as a student-assistant to a Ph.D. student in Physics (assisting with his lab work):

http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2011/12/sharing-memories-sunday-senior-year-at.html:

"First, the Ph.D.-level research I was involved with related to determining the electrical properties of a material (as compared to silicon, it turned out) for possible use in making 'computer chips' - as they would eventually be called. In processing the data, I got my first exposure to using the 'computer' of the day [the first electronic digital computer was officially invented at ISU, of course - see ABC at link] - writing initially in 'machine language' - before compilers"

The control box in front of me, to the right, with the black knobs, is where I put electrical pulses through the bits of materials (usually magnesium of some sort) and measured the properties of the sample for my 'boss' to analyze. This was the data that led to his Ph.D. dissertation. I assisted him with preparing tables of the data in the draft of this dissertation, and, received from him on the draft copies of his dissertation, as his 'thank you' for my assistance.

Of course, in the end, silicon won out over magnesium for the eventual manufacture of computer chips... but that came later, of course!


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - Mom and Dad relaxing

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - Mom and Dad relaxing

This was not a terribly common site, as I grew up... my Mom and Dad totally casually relaxing in the yard to the south of our farm house near Coon Rapid, Iowa. This is late July 1960. This is a couple of months before their first grand-daughter, our daughter, Annette, joined the family. We were visiting the farm, from Ames, where I was between my Junior and Senior year at Iowa State University.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Sharing Memories - Lois Tiffany - ISU Professor

Sharing Memories -  Lois Tiffany - ISU Professor

What a pleasant surprise! Among my genealogy blogs I read regularly is a somewhat unusual one: Special Collections Department Blog, Iowa State University Library. The current post is:
"Iowa's Own Mushroom Expert: Lois Tiffany" She was my Botany Professor; Spring 1958, I believe - looked just like the first photo!  ;-)

As is so often the case, I do remember her because she made the subject, which I had not previously paid much attention to, really interesting - and, I learned a lot. So nice to see her, again!

Sharing Memories Sunday - Work at Space Technology Laboratories

Sharing Memories Sunday

Work at Space Technology Laboratories

In my Those Places Thursday post this week, we had moved to Redondo Beach, California, in late May 1961; which lasted about six weeks before we went off to three years in the Air Force.

In case you missed it, I also posted some 1961 photo highlights on Saturday.

Here are my thoughts about that Southern California work experience:

Space Technology Laboratories, at One Space Park, in Manhattan Beach, eventually a part of TRW, Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, was my employer. I was one of about 200 'computer programmers' in this huge, new facility. My job was to work with parameters, on paper and on the big 'main frame' computer, for one of the Atlas Missiles they were building/developing (whether that was actually the project or not, I have no idea - reading, now, it may have been another project). I was one little cog in a very big operation - I had no idea what the were really doing, just did what they told me, and loved it.

As I recall it, it was an iterative process. I would choose (or was given) a 'payload' figure, for the top of the rocket. This was punched into 'punch cards' and verified - you remember punched card, right - 80 columns of data - one digit at a time. I would turn these in one day, the following day, I got back the green-lined paper report. Did the rocket, with that payload, go into orbit, or plunge back to earth. I would read the results from the prior day, and enter a new payload amount - and run it again. I don't remember what I did the rest of the day… that is what I remember doing.

Perhaps, I was thinking about going to Disneyland with Nancy and Annette on the weekend, or, to the beach, or down to San Diego to the zoo. But, most important, I was an ISU college graduate, working in southern California, that paid a nice paycheck.

I think it is probably also safe to say I wasn't too impressed with the prospect of being a 'computer programmer' for the rest of my career… just saying…  ;-)

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Social Saturday - 1961 in Photos

Social Saturday

1961 in Photos

50 Years Ago

As we finish 2011, let's take a look back 50 years, and look at some photos that highlight 1961. I recently posted a Those Thursday Places on our move to California after graduation from ISU. This photos related to before and after that!  ;-)

Here is a fairly special photo from early in May 1961. Grandpa and Grandma Kinnick with Annette and Nancy in the park in Bayard.

A few photos related to graduation day at Iowa State University, in Ames. It was a family affair.

Here is from my ROTC graduation, with Nancy; also my Mom and Dad, left, Nancy's Mom and Dad, right. Pete and Eileen Smith, Ruth and Glenn Bolger. [I'm sure I have it in color, but this is the one on hand...]

At the Pammel Court front yard, some of the young folks.

My brother, Paul, on left, Nancy's brother and sister, Joel and Janice.

Then, a few in California. Here are Annette and Nancy in front of our apartment:

Here I am with Annette - she seems to show up in a lot of these...  ;-)

Annette having her first 'beer' - A&W Root Beer:

Here Annette is walking on Hollywood Hall of Fame - Diana Shore's star.

Annette in her playpen/bed, that she rode in from Iowa to California. This is in the California apartment.

After the 'California adventure' - we went to Biloxi, MS, where I started active duty with the Air Force. In uniform:

With my Ground Electronics School class at Keeler AFB, in Biloxi:

Here is another photo of us in the house in Biloxi, just back from church:

We went back to Iowa, in December, to visit, before moving to Winslow, Arizona, starting in January. We recall it as the "Winter of 1961 Snow Storm."

Family gatherings, when we could, during Christmas visit; here are kids at Bolger's gathering:

Here are all the Kinnicks gathered at the Smith house:

It was a full year!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - Six weeks in So. Calif.

Those Places Thursday

Six weeks in So. California

 

 

Nancy and Annette in front of our apartment in Redondo Beach, California 

(I'm sure that was not originally black and white??)

In the afternoon of my graduation from Iowa State in the morning, one day in late May, 1961, the three of us loaded in the car (the gull-winged Chevrolet) and took off into the west for our new life in southern California. It was a very hot trip - air conditioning was not normal yet… Annette laid in the 'bed' in the back seat in her diaper, and was still sweating, along with us. Quite an experience.

We were pleased to have a nice apartment, not far from my work, not far from the ocean beach. What a life!

Within the first few days of our arrival, I got my orders to report to my first duty assignment in the Air Force, the 8th of August, as I recall. I was to report then to Ground Electronics School at Keesler Air Force Base, in Biloxi, Mississippi, as temporary duty for the rest of the year of 1961.

So, in addition to my work experience at Space Technology Labs, as a computer programmer, we got an 'all-expenses paid' (that is, I was getting a pay check!) six weeks vacation in Southern California. We did take advantage of it with many trips and vacation activities on the few weekends we had available.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Sharing Memories Sunday - Senior Year at ISU - Thoughts on Work

Sharing Memories Sunday

Senior Year at ISU - Thoughts on Work

In my 'Those Places Thursday' post this week, I spoke about our year in Pammel Court during my Senior Year at Iowa State University (ISU), in Ames, Iowa. During that year, I worked part-time as a student worker (from the position of a physics major at the beginning of the year) for a Ph.D. student in physics at the Ames Laboratories of the Atomic Energy Commission, on campus.

First, the Ph.D.-level research I was involved with related to determining the electrical properties of a material (as compared to silicon, it turned out) for possible use in making 'computer chips' - as they would eventually be called. In processing the data, I got my first exposure to using the 'computer' of the day [the first electronic digital computer was officially invented at ISU, of course - see ABC at link] - writing initially in 'machine language' - before compilers. My first strong memory of the experience was writing code on a spreadsheet that took into account the rate of turn of the computer drum as it read the code in order to 'optimize' the processing time. My second strong memory was when, during that year, we were taught, and allowed to use, the new 'Bell Lab Language' which was a first level 'computer programming language' - a forerunner to Fortran, etc., much later on.

The memory is so strong because of the following event, for me. It was the first time in my life, working through an early program, that I was so involved in the process itself, that I completely lost my sense of 'time and place.' I was so engrossed in the project, I forgot to leave work and go home to supper, or whatever was next in my life at that time. Two or three additional hours had passed by, and I did not even realize it. It was the first time that had ever happened to me. It has happened a handful of times since, but not often.

Second, as I alluded to last Sunday, it was during this work experience that I realized I actually had much more interest in administrative work, very likely, than in the specifics of science. My boss, the scientist, sat with his pipe, conjuring how and why those electrons were whirling around in those atoms - and was completely into that. I was not. He disdained the meetings and paperwork involved in the projects - I thought they were the more interesting part.

Third, and finally, I guess, for now, I had my first brush with the opportunity to consider 'computing' as a career option. In fact, in the very short term, I chose: "Yes." I faced a three-year Air Force commitment following graduation; but it might begin anytime during the 12 months following graduation. Space Technology Laboratories in southern California offered me the position of Computer Programmer with the understanding I might be there a month, or 12 months. (More, next Sunday)


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - Pammel Court at ISU

Those Places Thursday

Pammel Court at ISU

Nancy and Annette in front of our Pammel Court home (May 1961).

Last week, I shared our first home as a married couple in the 1959-1960 year, where Nancy was teaching in State Center, Iowa (where we lived), and I was in my junior year at Iowa State University (ISU), in Ames, a few miles to the west.

At the end of the school year in State Center, we moved to 103 Pammel Court, in Ames, just north of campus, along and just east of the main road, just north of the railroad tracks running east and west - yes, it was loud, sometimes.

We were living there, of course, when Annette was born at the Mary Greeley hospital, in Ames, in August 1960. Fall classes had started, and I was carrying and reading my Genetics textbook. Fathers didn't participate in deliveries, back then. We sat in the waiting room; so, I was making good use of my time. That is what I remember. Nancy probably has a different set of memories…  ;-) It was a comfortable small home, build for the G.I.'s coming back from World War II in the late 1940s - but still serviceable nearing 20 years later.

We lived in Pammel Court (1960-1961) until I graduated in the Spring; then moved to California. More on that to follow, of course.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - First Married Home

Those Places Thursday

First Married Home

When we first got married, in August 1959, Nancy and I lived in the upstairs apartment, with outdoor stairs, of the house, above, in State Center, Iowa, where Nancy had a school teaching contract for the 1959-1960 school year, third grade. I was a junior at Iowa State University that year, a few miles to the west. We were able to buy a simple new bedroom set, but the rest of our furniture was all left over from our parents farm homes. But, it was our place, and we were working hard to make it a home.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Those Places Thursday - Farm Home

Those Places Thursday

Farm Home

As I continue this occasional 'Those Places' Thursday theme, today I will focus on 'where I grew up.'

The aerial photo is of the farm in Willow Township, Greene County, Iowa, in 1947, where I lived from about 2 until about 18 (or until I got married, at 20, depending how you count, I suppose). It is just a mile to the east of the Map I shared on a recent Mappy Monday. It was technically my third home, as explained there. 

This view is generally north, and a bit east. The road you can see at the bottom of the photo, running east and west, had an intersection with the north and south road right at the lower left corner, above, behind the trees. That road, paralleled the Carroll-Greene County road a mile to the west, ran one mile to the north to the corner where Willow #3 school sat (north and east of the corner). Two miles directly west of that corner was the location of the Star School-Star Church corner described earlier.

The clump of trees, lower left, beyond the house was 'The Grove' - I built an infamous playhouse there where many stories were told (mostly by me to my cousins, mostly girls; wonder what, if anything they recall about that?) - my younger brothers took it over after I moved on... no telling what went on there, after that.

The buildings are, from the left: House, Wash House, Cob House, Chicken House, Barn (red, of course), Corn Crib, Hog House (north side of road) and the Cattle Shed - all white, on the south side of the road. There was a very large garden west of the grove, north of the house.

Those two years between High School graduation and getting married were taken up with:

1. Summer working in Des Moines with Keck Motors, owned and operated by Mom's uncle and his family.

2. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - dormitory, fall, winter and spring

3. Second summer, lived in Des Moines for awhile working (unsuccessful Vita Craft sales job), then returned home for a while (working at gas station in Coon Rapids, as I had done in high school), before,

4. Iowa State University - dormitory, fall, winter and spring.

5. Summer in apartment with friends near campus, until wedding first week of August.

These are my memories. It was a long time ago, and I now realize these memories don't come as easily as they did years ago. Anyone else have that problem? Comments welcomed.

First married 'home' next...

Families are Forever!  ;-)