I am not sure where Sylvestere went from there - I lost contact but Lew Jordan went to Ankara, Turkey and I went to Karamursel, Turkey. >From Turkey, they sent me to Forbes and put me in Ground Communications and assigned me as liaison officer to the missile wing. They closed out the Atlases and sent me to Bergstron Texas where I was Base Communications maintenance officer. Then I moved to Seymour Johnson AFB, NC and was Director of Communications-Electronics Division for the Bomb Wing on a TAC base.

I got passed over twice for major and got RIF'ed I was a ground officer working for rated supervisors, did not have a college degree, had not gotten to a combat area to win any "hero" medals and stood up a couple of times when I was told to shut up!!) I re-enlisted as SSgt and cross-trained, OJT, into Bio-medical Equipment Repair and moved over to the SJAFB hospital. A few months later, I got a "palace-line" assignment to Tonsonnut (sp?) Viet Nam and got there as they were closing it all down. About 3 weeks later they moved me to Ubon, Thailand and was unauthorized there. After about 30 days, they shipped me to Osan, Korea and I was overage there for several months; got curtailed and transferred back to SJAFB where I stayed until Aug '75 and retired. I did pick up major in the "ready reserves" and retired as major.

After I retired, I went back and worked at the SJAFB hosptial, civil service, as "Assistant Administrator for Plant Management" but after about 18 months I quit and went to school on my GI bill. First, I got an Associate degree in Horticulture. Decided that if I was going to grow the bushes that I should learn how to sell them!! Went back and got an Associate degree in Business; decided I had learned just enough business to get into trouble so I went over to N. C. Wesleyan College and got a four-year degree in business. By then I realized there is no money on horticulture so I went back and completed a 4-year degree in accounting.

About then I got interested in the new rescue squad being organized in our rural area so I got my EMT certification and volunteered. Upgraded to intermediate and later to paramedic. Meanwhile, I got hired by I.R.S. and worked with them for about a year: I did not like them and they did not like me so we parted company. Between volunteering with the rescue squad, I did some non-profit farming (did not intend it to be non-profit but that is the way of most farming!!!) Anyway, I finally left the rescue squad a couple years ago ( am still an honorary member) and now spend more time "non-profit farming" growing produce for whoever will buy it.

As of lately, I have been spending a lot of time on the computer writing letters to congressmen and newspapers trying to get support to get Senate Bill s-2003 and House bill HR2966/HR3573 passed. There are over 300 house members who have signed on to co-sponsor HR3573 and about 35 senate members have signed on to S-2003. Unfortunately, Congressman Shows, a junior democrat representative from Miss. introduced the "Keep Our Promise to Military Retirees" bill and the republican leadership seems to be bent on preventing it from passing so democrats won't get credit for a good thing!! It is going to take a lot of people calling and writing them to convince them to do the right thing about it. There is a good explanation of the bills on the TROA website: www.troa.org.

Call your senator and your congressman, toll free: (877)778-9001 or (877)762-8762 or (888) 762-8768.