March 28, 2009 – 4:14 pm
Started September 12, 2001 (updated March, 2009)
Chapter 1
I was born in a small mining town of Hurley, New Mexico, January 22, 1930. Their was four of us children in the family, starting with my older brother David Edward, my sister, Mary Helen, my brother, Harry Stephen Baker Jr. (Buss) and my self, Harvey Linn. I was named after two of Dads’ friends, Harvey Forsyth and Linn Stutler. My mothers’ name was Ida Inez Kimmick Baker. My Father’s name Harry Stephen Baker, I found out later he was named after his Grandfather, Stephen Harry Baker.
When I was born it was at the start of the great depression in our Country. Jobs were very hard to come by because very few businesses were operating. Kennecott Copper Corporation owned this small town we lived in. They were not mining Copper at the time but they were keeping all the mining and milling equipment in good operational condition so it would be ready to go when we came out of the depression. The few people that were on the payroll in Hurley were there to maintain the equipment and the town. My Dad was an electrician. He and his Partner Hank Early, worked on everything electrical from street lights, town telephones, and power lines that ran from Hurley to Santa Rita where the mine was located- 15 miles away. Hurley had a power generating plant that generated all the power for both Hurley and Santa Rita. The power plant burned coal to generate power. It had a loud steam whistle that blew three times a day. First at seven thirty in the morning, then at twelve o’clock noon, and at four thirty. When the noon whistle blew all of us in the family came home to have lunch together. It made us into a close knit family.
Due to the fact that only the families of the Care takers lived in Hurley, a lot of the houses in town were vacant. The vacant houses had boards over the windows to protect them and weeds were taking over the yards, even growing up in some of the streets.
We had a company store like most mining towns and a meat market. You could buy about everything you needed at the store, including coal for our stoves. But we had to go up to the mountains and cut wood and haul it home for fule. When I was a boy it was my assigned job to cut wood and bring in coal every evening to last the night. My brother Buss-who was eight years older than me- was exempt from house jobs because he had a job as a janitor at the school and worked every day after school. In this way he brought home a little extra money. My brother Dave worked with my Dad repairing electric motors for farmers in the area, this too brought home extra money. My sister was good at working with ladies hair, so she gave permanents to ladies in the area for her extra money. My Mothers’ job was to take care of all of us, and she did a wonderful job of it. Our meals were always ready at the exact time. She washed our cloths and mended them. The house was always clean and in good order. All the quilts on our beds were made by her. One of her favorite sayings was , “Idle hands work for the devil.”
We had a lot of transients coming through Hurley at this time, people looking for work or food. A person would come to our door and ask,” to do work for food.” We didn’t have any work for them but we would give them something to eat, if we had something to
spare. It wasn’t too wise to have them around your house very long , they were down on
life and you didn’t know what they might do. I think half of our nation was starving at that point in time. The Republicans had really put our country in a deep hole.
Our refrigerator consisted of a wooden box built into a kitchen window. It was covered with burlap bags. These bags were wetted down several times a day with the garden hose. It did preserve our food pretty well. One morning my mother opened the box to get food out for breakfast and nothing was in there. A board had been removed and all the food was taken out. My Dad was the type of person that had a hot fast temper. I expected him to be really mad, but all he said was, “someone must have been really hungry.”
In 1937 my Grandmother , Julia Ann Kimmick passed away. It was determined by her children to sell the Kimmick homestead. They accomplished this and each took their share of the money from the sale. My Mother and Father bought a section of ranch land, 16 miles southwest of of Hurley. A section of land is 640 acers. We had 40 acers of rich bottom land and the rest was grazing pasture land. This gave me a lot of extra jobs in the family but I didn’t mind at all because I loved the ranch. I could do all the evening chores my self but my Mom and Dad worked with me on it. This helped out because I liked to go out and hunt rabbits after the work was done in the evening. The chores consisted of feeding the chickens, gathering the eggs, feeding the Hogs, and getting the three milk cows in and milk them. My Mom and Dad had a big garden they worked on. The ranch gave us most of the food we needed. Mom made buttermilk, butter, Jack cheese, and cottage cheese. We fed the leftover milk to the hogs. They loved it and it sure made them have good tasting pork.
On the bottom land we raised mostly corn and feed for the live stock. We had a team of big farm horses and I was taught how to use them with the farm equipment. Later on my Dad bought a farm tractor and I was taught how to use it. I really enjoyed driving that thing. My Dad gave me two acres of the bottom land to do whatever I wanted to do with it. I found out that you could get a good price for beans so I put the two acres into beans. They were really growing good and it looked like I was going to make some good money off my beans. In two days time a flock of grasshoppers came in and striped every plant on my two acre. I was only about 10 years old at the time and learned how hard it could be being a farmer.
It wasn’t all work and no play in the family, we played a lot. The only trouble was I was the baby of the family and everyone in the family picked on me . But most of the time I did get back at them. My brother Dave had a model ‘T’ Ford. I liked to go for rides in it. One day he told me he would give me a ride in it after he got it fixed. He worked on it then took it out for a test drive. He met up with his girl friend while he was out and made a date to take her for a ride that after noon. When he told me I couldn’t come along I got mad. After he went into the house I got up on the front bumper of the Model ‘T’ and peed in the radiator. When Dave came out and started his car, he told a friend, “it smells like someone peed in my radiator.” On occasion a joke got out of hand. They had a local rodeo going on in the area and I got a job of being a proder. I was given a rod with a metal end on it. When I put it against something and pushed a button it applied an electric shock. It was used to make cattle leave the shoot faster for roping. My brother Buss was going to ride a bucking bronco in the rodeo. Just before he was ready to come out of the shoot I gave the horse a jolt of electricity. That horse went totally crazy, he jumped and knocked the big heavy shoot gate all the way down. In the process the saddle got turned sideways and Buss got his foot hung up in the sturp. The horse went running out dragging Buss and the saddle with him and kicking the hell out of both of them. With luck the sturp came loose and Buss was freed. He was out cold and I thought I had killed
him. In a few minutes he came out of it OK. I never, ever, told Buss about that prank.
We had a Mexican family living on the ranch and we remained living in town because my Dad could be called out to work at any time of night. The Mexican family consisted of Grandfather and Grandmother along with son and daughter in law. Also, there was many children and some grandchildren. They were a nice family. It was their duty to take
Care of the morning chores such as milking the cows. They got to keep all the milk in the morning for themselves. Other work chores was done by them too. Both men worked for the mill in Hurley, therefore this was a good deal for them. They got free rent and a lot of produce from the ranch. At the same time they were a big help to us.
We had a pasture in town that anyone could use to keep their horses in. My brother Buss had three horses he kept there. Sometimes on the weekends I would want to go for a horse ride so I would use one of Busses horses and ride down to the ranch which was 16 miles away. When I would come over the top of the hill above the ranch, the little Mexicans kids would see me and run to tell their Grandmother. She knew I loved Tacos so she would start making a plate of Tacos for me. They tasted so good, especially after a long ride like that. At that time Tacos were not well known all over the country like they are now, so that was a kind of a secret treat too.
One evening my Dad had to work overtime so it was up to me to do the chores at the ranch. I had learned to drive when I was eight years old and now I was ten years old so I was an old hand at driving a car. In New Mexico at that time, a drivers license was not required so any person could drive a car that could handle it. My Mom would be staying home to make supper for us. Just when I was getting ready to leave, my sister and brother in law came by and said, “ they would give me a hand with the chores at the ranch.” We came home after the chores were done but there wasn’t any body there. Our supper was half cooked but put aside, so we knew something was wrong. Jack said , “I bet the Old Man has been hurt at work. He referred to my Dad as the Old Man, not meaning any disrespect. Jack got on the phone and called the Electric Shop, they told him my Dad had been in an accident and was in the Hospital. Hank and my Dad had been working in the power plant that evening and a big electrical switch exploded. These things are filled with oil which becomes very hot because the purpose of the oil is to dissipate heat that is generated in the switch. Hank was down low working on it and my Dad was behind him when it blew. The main blast of the explosion went over Hank because he was down low but the main part of it hit my Dad head on. For some reason he got a millisecond warning that the thing was going to blow and he put his hands over his eyes, which saved his eyes. He was turned around after the blast and the thing blew again, this time catching him in the back. The second blast blew him all the way down a ten foot set of metal stairs. A Mexican laborer was working there and he helped my Dad get his burning cloths off and much of his skin came off with them but it saved his life. I don’t know who the Mexican guy was, I wish I did know, our family owes him a big thanks.
When we got to the hospital the grown ups went in first to see him and they made me stay in the waiting room. I guess my Dad asked for me because they came out in awhile and told me to go in and see him. When I went in I saw this guy I didn’t recognize that had a head as big as two heads and it looked like cooked beef steak. I thought I was in the wrong room and turned to go out when I heard someone say, “Harve.” Then I went over to him and he said it again so I knew it was my Dad. The doctors told the family he didn’t have much of a chance of pulling through. At one time my Dad had just about became an alcoholic but he had quit drinking two years before this accident. After the accident the
Doctors wanted to give him dope to kill the pain but he refused. He said all he wanted was a shot of good Scotch Whiskey. The Doctor was a good friend of his so the Doctor brought him a bottle of Scotch Whiskey. The Doctor told the nurse to give him some any time he wanted it . From that time on my Dad started drinking again and kept it up until he died. But he did recover from that bad burn and lived 11 years longer. However, he only lived to the age of 54, of which I am sure was caused by that burn accident. He healed up from these bad burns with no noticeable scarring. My Dad had a natural ability to doctor, at his direction his doctor friend did everything he told him to do in his daily treatments when the doctor came to the house. Dad wouldn’t allow any big scabs to form. He would have the doctor trim them off with a knife and scissors. At one time he even had the doctor working on him with sandpaper. This was before the time of Plastic Surgery, these methods in later years are used in Plastic Surgery. At any rate, my Dad didn’t have any notable scares when he fully recovered.
My folks sure had a lot of trust in me, they had to go to El Paso, Texas for two weeks for special treatments of some kind from a doctor down there. At the time I was eleven years old, they left me at home alone with the car, the house to take care of, guns to go hunting with, and the responsibility of taking care of the ranch. Also, I had to go to school every day. During that time I didn’t miss one day of school. A lot of the time a couple of my friends would go to the ranch with me and help with the chores. After we finished the chores we would go hunting and shoot a couple of cotton tail rabbits. We would bring them home and cook them up for supper. To us, fried rabbit was much better than fried chicken. Jack rabbits were no good to eat, they didn’t have much meat on them and a lot of them had ticks. The Jack rabbits were used for target practice, the county would pay 2 cents for a pair of Jack rabbit ears. They ate up too much of the range grass in the area when they were allowed to overpopulate.
All the of things I have told about, made it a fun year for me in 1941. This was the last year before World War two started. Most Americans of that time can remember what they were doing December 7th, 1941. My sister, Mary Helen, and my sister in law, Daphney had gone to the ranch with me to help with the chores. On the way home we were playing the car radio and a guy cut in on the music and said, “The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor and sunk many of our ships. I asked Mary Helen, “ where is Pearl Harbor?” She said, “ I don’t know but if they have sunk our ships it must belong to us and this will mean War.” So we hurried home and it was in an uproar when we got there. Everyone in town was Mad. I can’t believe how fast Army soldiers were there from Fort Bliss in El Paso to guard the mill and the equipment at the mine. The New Mexico National Guards was being activated into active duty. They were an Artillery Division and they had already got orders to depart for Hawaii. My two brothers, Buss and Dave, went down to register for the draft the next morning. They both wanted to go into the service right away but because they were both married they didn’t get their draft notices for several months. Buss didn’t want to wait any longer so he went down and joined the Navy. Dave wanted to enlist too but Dorothy talked him into staying at home as long as he could. That ment that when he was called , it would be the Army Infantry he would be going into. Even though I was only twelve years old after the War got going, I had a Wartime job too. I was in a group that was to be messengers. We had an armband with a bolt of lightening on it, which designated us as messengers. Our job was to ride our bicycles carrying messages wherever required. They also gave us a Red Cross First Aid course.
The Mill and Copper mine were essential to the War Effort, so they were very heavily guarded. But a saboteur still managed to get a job in the Mill. The FBI was tracking him and they had an agent working right beside him in the Mill. The Saboteur had a big mean black dog. He would tie him under a tree when he went into the mess hall to eat. The dog was so mean he would not let anyone near him. So me and some of my friends attempted to make friends with him. We would pitch an Ice cream cone to him and he loved them. It got to the point, we could sit next him and he wouldn’t do a thing to us. He would lick the Ice Cream while we held the cone. The old Saboteur came out one day and caught us doing it and got mad as heck. His dog was supposed to be mean. A couple days later the FBI checked his room in the bunk house and found enough explosives to blow the mill sky high. He had got wise that they were on to him and he had left out for El Paso and was attempting to go into Mexico when they nabbed him. We never saw or heard of the guy again. I guess the Government didn’t want his buddies to know we had him.
With the start of spring in 1943, my Dad decided he would like to move to California and work in defense work out there. He had worked for Kennecott Copper Company for about 28 years and wanted a change. Also he wanted to be near my Grandpa Baker because Grandpa was getting pretty old. My Grandma Baker had died in 1940 in California. We had gone out there for the funeral and we had drove all night to get there. I had been sleeping in the car when we got there and when I woke up I thought I had gone to Heaven, everything was so beautiful, flowers everywhere with tall Palm trees all around us. At that point in time in New Mexico, all plants were dead and brown. So, when my Dad decided to go to California I didn’t mind at all. I had fallen in love with the place when we had went out there. Grandpa Baker was one of my favorite people so I was looking forward to living near him.
There is one other favorite person I need to tell about before I get out of the New Mexico portion of my childhood. In the year of 1937 or 1938- don’t remember for sure- two of my friends and I were riding down the street in Hurley on our Donkeys. We saw a young handsome man walking toward us coming from the train depot. He walked up to us and asked,” do you know where the Bakers live”? In a small town you keep your eye on a stranger until you know what he is up to. I pointed toward my house and said,”they live over there. One of my friends pointed to me and said,”he is Harvey Baker. The guys face lit up and he said,” I’m your Uncle Carol. I still didn’t believe him and he knew it so he told me,”I’m your Dads brother and your Dads name is Harry Baker. Since he knew my Dad’s name he must be who he says he is.
Carol was born in New Mexico but was raised in California. After he graduated from High School he moved back to New Mexico and lived there the rest of his life. Most of the time he was in law enforcement. From the time he moved back to New Mexico until the time I moved to California we became very close, he was like another big brother to me. After he had been back to New Mexico for a couple years he started going with a young lady that was a School Teacher. At the time I was having a hard time with my reading, So Florence started working with me on it and before long she had me reading and enjoying it. To this day I have to have a good book to read at night before I go to sleep.
Chapter 2
After Bus enlisted in the Navy, Daphney and the kids moved to California because her folks had moved out there and she could stay with them while Bus was in the Service. Also, he would most likely be leaving from some Sea Port in California after his military training was completed. And that was the way it turned out, he was assigned to a new type of small patrol craft. I found out in later years that there was only two of this type of ships built for the Navy. One was assigned to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific. They were sort of experimental, they and the ability to fire a lot of rockets. His ship served well in the War in the Pacific, it took part in many invasions including Iwo Jima. It was sunk in the battle of Okinawa with Bus on it. Out of a crew of 75 only 32 was left alive ,of which he was one of the survivors.
When my brother Dave was drafted into the Army he was assigned to Camp Roberts, California for military training. Camp Roberts is located in the Desert and is a very hot place to be. Dave had very curly hair and dark complexion, so when he completed his military training he looked like an Afro-American. He and Bus both got to visit us before they shipped out to the War in the Pacific. Dave served in the 32nd Infantry Division and took part in many battles of Pacific Islands. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor. The 32nd Infantry Division had more continues Combat time than any other Division in the US Army.
We found that living in War time California was a lot different than living in War time New Mexico. Everything was blacked out at night time, we had to drive with parking lights on and all the windows were blacked out. When we first moved to California, we lived with my Grandpa Baker in Hawthorne. There was a big shortage of housing during the war, in most all cities in the United States. My Uncle Sam lived with Grandpa Baker and when we moved there he moved in with a friend of his and gave his room to my Mom and Dad. I slept with Grandpa Baker in his bed. I was really impressed with Grandpas’ night time proceedures, he would pull his fiddle out from under his bed and tune it up. It had a bunch of rattle snake rattles in it, he said,” it gave it better sound.” Next, he would pull out a fifth of Irish Whiskey from under his bed and pour himself a shot. He would down it in one drink without making a face at all. Then he would start playing som fine Irish tunes on his fiddle. The March of Billy Owens was my favorite. A few years later when I was serving in the U.S. Army Air Force, we were marching to the Billy Owens March, I had just received word that Grandpa Baker had passed away. It took all my will power to keep a straight face and stay in ranks.I started thinking, ” could it be possible that Grandpa Baker is watching me”? I straightened up and marched the best march a soldier ever marched.
Before I started to school in California, Grandpa Baker gave me a haircut. To me it was a funny looking haircut, Grandpa said, “he cut it curley for me.” My hair had been straight, low and behold, when it grew back in, it grew back in curley. Grandpa insisted he was the one to take me and start me into school. So we went to Hawthrone Jr. High and he enrolled me. I felt we were a funny looking Pair, me with a funny haircut and Grandpa with his big Western hat and big handle bar Mustache. A Lady from the school office was taking me around to show me where my classes would be and Grandpa waited in the hallway. When we got back, about three lady teachers were around him looking at mim with admiring eyes and listening to his stories. After that, when I met one of the teachers, they would ask,” how is your Grandpa?” In New Mexico I had been pretty good at sports, so when I started playing football in my new school I did pretty well. This got me aquainted faster with the other kids. It got to the point that boys would ask me,” where did you get that haircut,” I would like one like it. My time at Hawthorne Jr. High only lasted about three months, then we moved to Gardena California. My Aunt Edna had a small two bedroom shack in her back yard that she and her husband lived in when they first got married. It wasn’t much but it was a great find in those War years. Again, my liking of sports got me started good with the other kids at Gardena High. In Gym class we were in try-outs for the school wrestling team. I had always loved to wrestle, so I was really having fun. I had beat all the guys I had wrestled and another guy had beat all the kids he had wrestled. It was between he and I for who would be picked for the school wrestling team. I had watched him wrestle and he had one favorite trick he used for all his wins. His name was Kerry. When we started wrestling I knew what he was going to try to do, and I was ready for him. When a guy would reach for him with both hands, he would grab the guys wrist with both of his hands then start going backwords fast, then he would fall down on his back with his feet going up into the guys stomach. He would then flip the guy over so he would land on his back. Then he would roll over on top of him and pin him for a count of three.When he attemped to use this on me, I got him. When he fell back on his back , I sidestepped his feet and he missed. I then fell on top of him holding one of his arms down with both of my knees and the other arm down with both of my hands. He was pinned down for a count of three.So I became a member of the school wrestling team.
I was just making a lot of friends in Gardena when we moved again. It was my fault we moved this time.I got some cleaning solvent to clean my dress pants with. I put my soaking pants on a cloths line in my Aunts back yard. The wind came up and started whipping my pants around throwing cleaning solvent on some of her best plants. It killed them dead. She was irate and started yelling at me. My Dad, Being a hot tempered Baker like her, started yelling at her. Needless to say, we were looking for a new place to live.We moved in with Uncle Clyde and Aunt Willena who lived in Bell Gardens. California. It was pretty crowded because they had five children at home ranging from 5 to 16 years of age. They consisted of three boys and three girls. The boys were the older of the group.My cousins were glad to have me there so that made it a little better.We lived there about a month. One day, two of my cousins and I were goofing around near the Rio Honda River. We found a small boat there and it ended up with us playing with it in the water with our cloths on. We went home soaking wet. I did not know at the time that I was coming down with the Mumps.From that excursion it caused them to go down on me. I became very Ill. At the same time my folks found a three room house to rent on Eastern Ave. in Bell Gardens. So I moved into our new dwelling a very sick kid. It was only with the help of Heavenly Father that I made it through that. Futher more, it didn’t make me sterile.
After the mumps, my body started growing very rappidly. My hair had been light and it turned dark and curley. The things that were happening to me was making me more successfull at sports than ever. We lived in the rent house for a couple months after I got over the mumps then my Mom and Dad found a house they wanted to buy in Bell Gardens on Shull Street. It was great, I had my own bed room where I could work on my model airplanes and be private. We had a big nice yard with a lot of plants. At last I could have a dog again. I made all the teams in school and started getting a lot of close friends.California schools have a lot of pretty girls, at this point in time I was starting to get interested in them. I had my first date with a girl there, she was a friend of my cousins. It was fun but she wasn’t my type, she wanted to go steal stuff out of parked cars. I found an excuse that I had to get home right away. But I met several other nice girls after that. Then one very special girl turned up. My friend J. V. Nichols interduced me to a pretty little girl with Auburn hair and gray eyes. I looked her in the eyes and something clicked, I knew and I think she knew that something special was taking place. We went together for about two years after that and I was very much in love.
My Dad had money set aside for me to go to college on. I intended to go to college then go into the Air Force to become a piolet. That is all I had every wanted to do since I had been a little kid. When I was a teenager I was big for my age so I could lie about my age and get good paying jobs in the summer time.Worked one summer for a glass manufacturing company and other summers for a local steel plant..During this time I had another close friend that could never get a job in the summer, I don’t know why, he tried hard enough to find a job. His name was Tommy Turner. He and his twin sister were like a brother and sister to me. They were always over at my house. Billie-his sister- had a horse named champ that she loved. The horse got a sore on his back that turned out to be a malignant tumer. The Vet told her the horse did not have a chance of getting well. She was at our house crying and my Dad told her he may be able to treat the horse. He told her to bring the horse over every day for him to treat it. She did, and after about a month the tumer was gone and never came back. After that Billie worshiped the ground he walked on.
Nan started talking more and more about getting married. I wanted to marry her as much as she wanted to marry me, but I wanted to go about it in a different way. I wanted to go through college with her at my side, then go into the Service and get married after I got a Commission. One evening after I had cashed my paycheck, she saw my paystub. She said you make almost as much money as my Dad, we could get married on that much money. I was using my sister’s car that evening and Nan had me convinced we should get married. So we headed out for Yuma , Arizona to get married. When we were about half way there I started thinking, this isn’t the right way to go about this. I really liked her Dad and I thought, this will break his heart. Little did I know at the time that the reason she wanted to get married so bad was that her Dad wanted her married so he could be out on his own. When I turned around and came back home we had a bad argument, sher thought I didn’t want to marry her. I told her if she wanted to get married that much I would go into the Service and learn a trade then we could get married. She told me if I ever went into the Service she would be married when I came back. We broke up and it really did a number on me. I did’t know how to make up with her again and my dumb pride wouldn’t let me give in. I was so tore up I droped out of school. After that I did go into the Air Force. My Dad wouldn’t sign for me to enlist but I did talk my Mom into signing for me.I enlisted without my Dad knowing about it. He said the reason he wouldn’t sign for me is because I had two brothers that had went through heavy combat in World II and it would be bad luck for a third son to go into combat. After I was in basic training and he found out about it he said, “if you want it that bad I guess I can’t stop you.” When I came home from Basic Training, Nan was married to a guy named Harold Carter.
Chapter 3
I started basic training June, 30th, 1947 at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. It was an extra hot and dry summer in Texas that year. Every day it was about 110 to 115 degrees and 90 percent humidity. Out marching and other physical training, it was like being in a steam bath. I would start out in the morning with nice clean green fatigues and when I would come in during the late afternoon they would be all white with salt from my body. The showers had cement floors with showers that would allow 10 guys to shower at one time. We would take our fatigues in there with us and and put them on the floor, then using a GI brush and GI soap we would scrub the salt out of them. Then we would hang them up and they would be dry by morning to wear again. This was a daily procedure. In those days I was in good physical condition so I made it through Basic Training with few problems. Some guys really had a hard time of it. They gave us a bunch of tests to determine what Tech Schools we could qualify for. My highest scores were in Electronics so I was selected to attend Radar school after Basic Taining. My self and the other guys selected for Radar were sent to Keesler AFB, Mississippi. The school wasn’t there yet, it was in the process of being moved there from Bocca Raton, Florida. That ment that we were there for about three moinths pulling shit details, such as Guard Duty, KP,and setting up the class rooms for the school. When the school was all set up, they didn’t start us into class right away, they brought a new bunch in from Basic Training and started them in. We were kept on pulling shit detail. As it turned out one of the guys in our group had a Dad that was a full Bird Colonel in the Air Force and was with the Air Force Inspector Generals Office. The Old Colonel was so mad when his son told him what happened, he flew down to Keesler from Washington D.C. He had that Squadron Commander in his office standing at attion while he chewed his Ass out. Needless to say, the group that had started school was pulled out and we started into Class. I went through 13 weeks of Electronics fundimentals and the next step would be to go into training on the Radar Equipment. But, they had all the equipment in use with other Classes that were ahead of us. That ment we were back to pulling shit detail again.
It would be about three months before we could get started back in Class. Pulling shit detail for that long a time was a bad situation to be in. One time per week you would be assigned to Guard Duty and one time per week you would be assigned to KP. The rest of the time during the week we would be doing other things like riding with the Base Garbage Truck empting garbage cans. When you was assigned Guard Duty you reported to the Guard House at 1600 hrs-4PM-in Class A uniforms. You then stood an open ranks inspection. After the inspection you went to chow in the Stockade mess hall. When chow was over you went to the armory and was issued an M-1 30 Caliber Carbine with one magazine of Ammo. We were again formed in open ranks and was assigned a number, every two guys got the same number. The other guy with your same number would be your releaf on Guard post.You would walk a Guard post for three hours then be releaved for three hours. This went on all night long. Also we got to eat a meal in the middle of the night. This gave us a welcome break from being out on a cold night. At 0700 Hrs, we were again formed into ranks. At the same time the prisoners from the Stockade were formed into ranks. The Sergeant of the Guard would pick off four prisoners from their ranks and march them out a few paces then halt them. He would then look at his roster and call one of our names from the roster. When your name was called you would march out of ranks to the place where the prisoners were waiting. The Sergeant of the Guard would give you a slip of paper telling you where to take the prisoners for a work detail. You would keep them there for the period of time instructed, guarding them and making them work. After the deatail was done you would march them back to the stockade. Most of the prisoners were only in the stockade for a short time for a minor offense, they would be out in a couple of months and go back to regular duty. You didn’t have to worry too much about them trying to escape. But sometimes you was assigned General Prisoners, they were guys that had committed crimes like Rape, Robbery, or Murder. These guys you had to watch like a hawk because thery would try to escape. They were only being held long enough to be sent on to Fort Levenworth.We wouldn’t have them out to work, they would only be out to be marched to sick call or to the legal oiffice to see a Lawyer. The rule was, any prisoner you allowed to escape you had to serve out his sentence. One time I had four General Prisoners out and I checked my Ammo in the Magazine that had been issued me.There was only two rounds in it. I wasn’t about to let the Prisoners know about that.
KP duty was a very hated thing. The guys in school had to be in class by 0600 hours, that ment they had to be fed at 0500 hours. To accomplish this you had to report to the Base Mess Hall by 0300 hours to help the Cooks get breakfast ready for the whole Base. After the evening meal was done we had to scrub down the Mess Hall and the Kitchen. We would finally get off duty about eight or nine O’clock at night, depending on when we were done. Each week we would have either Guard Duty or KP. When we were not doing these two thing we were working on other jobs all over the Base. Most of us would go into town when we had money to get away for awhile. One Saturday night a buddy and I went out for a night on the town. We had about two hours to kill before the last buss ran back to the base. There was a night club that had a live country western band. It was a pretty nice place and they catered to GIs. When we walked in we spoted an empty table next to the dance floor.While we were walking over to that table I noticed an attractive lady staring at me like I was something special. Also, I noticed she was sitting with my duty Sergeant, the guy that assigns us to work details in my unit. For the rest of the evening I didn’t see her take her eyes off me one time. Even when she was dancing she was looking at me all the time. After my buddy and I ordered a drink I told him I was going over to say hello to Sergeant Sibley.When I walked up to their table, before I could say a word, Lilly stood up and held out her hand. I took her hand and asked Sergeant Sibley if he would mind if I danced with his lady. He said,” no, not at all.” I really hadn’t intended to ask her to dance because I’m not a good dancer. We danced about three or four times that evening and one dance I asked if I could see her again. She replied, “Maybe”. The next time we danced she put a piece of paper in my hand and told me to put it in my pocket. While we were dancing I told her I had to go get my last buss back to the base. Sergeant Sibley didn’t have to go back to the base for bed check because of his rank. After I got on the buss I looked at the paper she gave me and it had her name and phone number on it. The next day being Sunday and me having a day off, I called her and asked if she would like to go to a movie with me. She said yes and that was our first date.
After that I went into town every time I could get a Pass to see Lilly. Being a PFC I didn’t have very much money but we would do things that wouldn’t take much money.We would go for walks along the Gulf Beach and she would show me the area and tell me all about it. She showed me all the fishing boats and told me about the fishing industery.All of her family worked in the fishing industry all their lives. Going into town to see Lilly was about the only bright thing I had to look forward to. Pulling those work details about drove me crazy. The Air Force didn’t think it was too fair to us either. They told us if any of us didn’t want to wait any longer to get in school we could put in for a reassignment. I jumped at that, Radar school would have been a good field to get into but I couldn’t take those dumb work details any longer. I thought I would be assigned to some other Technical School but when my orders came out it was for Germany in the Army of Occupation. When I told Lil I would be leaving she got tears in her eyes. I felt bad about it too because I had become to like her very much. At the time I was just 18 and she was 23. She had been married before and had a 18 month old daughter. One thing led to another that night and we decided to get married. I had about a month before I had to leave, so three days later we got married. I didn’t know you had to get permission from your Commanding Officer to get married so when I told my first Sergeant about being married he explained it to me. He went in and talked to the Commander then came out and said the Commander wanted to see me. So I went in and reported to the Commander. He didn’t really chew me out after I told him I didn’t know about having to get permission to get married, He said,”I’m sure you didn’t know because what I have seen of you your a good soldier.” Also, he said,”you will be shipping out in a month so for a wedding gift I will give you as much time off as I can, and he did. Lil and I had a pretty nice Honeymoon before I left out for overseas. I reported into Camp Kilmer, New Jersy for processing to get on a troop ship for Germany.
When I got to Germany and got with the German people, I couldn’t believe they had been our enemies just a few months ago. They were a hard working and honest people. They didn’t hold any hatred toward us and they didn’t feel sorry for themselves. Me being a young person that liked to play tricks on people, some times, I would do things to them to make them mad. As an example, cigaretts were of short supply on the German market, so they would do about anything for a cigarett. When an American Soldier would be smoking a cigarett around some old men they would wait for him to throw down the Butt, then they would run after it to get it first. One day I was in downtown Wiesbaden walking along the Strassa smoking a cigarett and about four old men were following me waiting for me to throw the cigarett butt down. When I did, I gave it a long flip. They ran after it and one get it first. Right away I lit up another cigarett, and got their attention then dropped it about four feet in front of me. This time they all wanted it bad since it was like a new cigarett. They started fighting over it and I yelled, Halt! They all stopped because at that point in time if a German didn’t do what an American told them to do they could go to jail for six months. I walked over and gave each of them a new cigarett. The Old Guys were really happy and shaking my hand like crazy,
At that time in Germany their money was worthless. Cigaretts and coffee was like gold, you could go into a place and order food and drink then lay down two cigaretts and that would pay for it. They didn’t have much food at that time but some places you could get get a good Hot Dog. After I had been there months, Our Military Government pulled a switch with the German Mark. Overnight, they made the Germans turn in all their Money and we issued a new Mark with a set value of about 33 cents. After that the Germans could actually buy things with money for the first time since the war was over. Needless to say the black market started up then too. A GI could sell a carton of cigaretts for 120 Marks.That was bout 39 dollars a carton you could make selling your ration of cigaretts. We were authorized two cartons a week and we paid 10 cents a pack for them. A lot of guys made some big money at that but I never did. You could get in some big trouble doing that if the CID cought you. Most all of us sold cigaretts but not for profit. just for partering. Usually the CID wouldn’t bother you for that.
About this same time. the Berlin Airlift started and that was the start of the Cold War. The Russians attempted to run us out of Berlin. They were going to do this by closing the roads and railroads that ran through their Zone of occupation. This way we could not get supplies into our Zones of occupation in Berlin. They also would not let food into Civillians in Berlin from other parts of Germany. We went to work and worked our butts off setting up the Logistics to operate a major undertaking of supplying Berlin by Aircraft. We succeeded in supplying all our Military and the German people
in Berlin with coal, food, and other needs, for one full year. The Russians didn’t think we could do it but we did. They finally backed off because they knew if it went much further there would be all out War.
Lil asked me to get out of the Air Force because our marriage couldn’t work being apart so much. I loved the Air Force but I thought it would be only fair to Lil to try to make go of our marriage, so I got out at the end of my enlistment. We then went to Bell Gardens-my home town- and I went to work as a civillian.
When I got back, I went by Biloxi, Mississippi and Lil and I got on a straight through train for Los Angeles. My sister, Mary Helen was at the depot to meet us and took us home to my folk’s house. We lived with my folks all the time we were in California. My folks liked her and accepted her so we got along fine.
we got on a straight through train to Los Angeles and my sister, Mary Helen, was ther4e to meet us. She took us to my folk’s home in Bell Gardens. They liked Lil right off and asked us to stay there with them. For all the time we lived in California we lived with my folks. As I said, they all liked Lil so we got along fine. I got my first job at Maywood Glass Co. They mad all kinds of glass bottles. My job was working in the box section, we put together cardboard boxes and sent them down chutes to the packers working below. They got the bottles coming off the assembly lines and packed them in the boxes for shipment. I worked the Midnight shift.
One day I was feeling bad and called in to tell them I wouldn’t be that night. The next day I got a call from the front office and they wanted me to come in to see them. The manager told me I hadn’t called in and they lost a lot of production because there was no one there to replace me, so they were giving me my two week notice. I got mad and told him I did call in and I was giving him my notice of right now and walked out. As I walked out I heard him yelling, “you can’t do that.”
After that he gave me some trouble about collecting the money they owed me but I won out after I told him I was taking it to the Fed. wage collectors office.
About two weeks after that I got a job at the same factory my dad worked for, it was the US Spring and Bumper Co. They had two different locations about two blocks apart. At one location they shaped and punched to bumpers from 1/8 in. thick metal slabs. At the other plant where my Dad worked they Chrome plated the bumpers. I worked on the punch press assembly line, we made an hourly wage of $1.15. We had to turn out a quota of bumpers each shift and anything over that quota we got extra pay for each bumper. Most of the time we would make time and a half and sometimes we would make double time in pay. So we worked really hard turning out bumpers. I worked the evening shift and all the guys working with me just got out of Military Service. On the day shift they had old guys that had been with the Company for years. They turned out just a few extra bumpers and let it go at that. One evening when were coming to work, they told us, “you guys are going to work yourself out of a job. We just laughed at them. My Dad worked the evening shift too because that was the shift he liked. One evening when we were having our evening meal when we got off work, my Dad said, “what in the hell are you guys doing over there, there is so many bumpers at the Chrome plating they don’t have any room to stack them. Mom and Lil fixed our evening meal and we all ate before we went to bed. About a week after my Dad told me that, I was laid off.
After that I couldn’t find any job that was worth taking. I had always wanted to be a Military person but I had thought about being a Police Officer also. So I went down and applied for the Los Angeles Dept. They ran me through some physical tests that were very easy and I passed the written test with no problems. They told me I had been accepted to attend the Police Academy and I would be hearing from them. What they didn’t tell me was since I was only 19 years old I would have to wait until I was 20 and a half to enter the Academy. I waited about a month and didn’t hear from them so I sent Lil back to Mississippi, She was pregnant with Linda at this time. I was going to New Mexico and see if I could go to work for Kennecott Copper Co. My brother Dave was chief Electrician there and said he thought he could get me on in the Electric Dept. I stayed with my Brother Dave and his wife Dorothy & family all the time I was in New Mexico.
I didn’t get a job in the Electric Dept. with my Brother but I did get a job in the smelter. All the big Bosses were there when I was a Kid living there, and they remembered me. I went to school with some of their Kids. They all liked me. I started in as Labor using a shovel, I worked one week at that and got promoted up. Every week I would get a promotion up to the next higher position. When I got promoted up to feeding the furnace, the Mexicans working there went on strike. They had a union but the Whites didn’t belong to any union, we didn’t need a union because the Company treated us good any way. Any way they were striking over me getting so many promotions and some of them had worked there for years on the same job. They had a good reason to strike but I wasn’t going to turn down any of my promotions. They got a little rowdy around Silver City. My Uncle, Bob Kimmick, was Chief of Police there. and he passed out Submachine Guns to his Deputies. The Mexicans had been yelling, “Harvey Baker not fair!” Any way, they broke up and went home. The Company informed them that if they didn’t report in for work the next morning, they wouldn’t have a job. They all reported in for work the next morning. The average wage at that time was 50 dollars week, I was making 150 dollars a week and sometimes more when I got over time. I got a leave from the Company to go be with Lil when Linda was born. I would have the same job when I got back or better, HA! New Mexico was where I intended to stay, Dave and Dorothy was looking for place for us to live when I came back from Mississippi.
I got to Mississippi the the day before Linda was born, she was born at noon the next day. It was just like she had waited for me to get there. We were staying in a trailor on a lot next to Lil’s folks Home. They had given the lot to Lil. Linda was born October, 29, 1950. At this point in time the Korean War had started and our troops were having some pretty hard battles over there. I felt like I should be there too. When I got out of the service I had to register for the draft, they classified me 4A.While I was there in Mississippi I got notice from the Air Force Reserves saying get my personal things in order and be ready to be recalled in about a Month. At the same time I got notice from my draft board moving me up to 1A and telling me I had one month before I would be inducted in the Army. Also, at the same time I got a letter from the Los Angeles Police Dept. say I had an Academy start date of 1 July 1951. I didn’t know which way to turn, so I waited around until the first part of December, 1950. At that time I said to hell with it all and went out to Keesler, Air Force Base and reenlisted in the Air Force. I had been out over 18 months so I had to come back in as a PFC. I was passing up all the things I had wanted to do as a Civilian. They sent me to the induction center in Jackson, Miss. Since I had Military service they put me in charge of the recruits being sent to San Antonio, Texas for Basic Training. When we got there they had so many guys coming into the Air Force, they didn’t have enough Drill Instructors to train the troops so they made me a Drill Instructor. I ended up training the guys I had come there with. When I got finished I really had a sharp outfit.
When I got orders to leave there it was for Sampson AFB, New York. They were opening a new Base for Basic Training. I wasn’t being sent there as a DI, I was being sent there in my Air Force job Specialty which was Teletype Equipment Repairman. Sampson had been a Navy Base during World 2 so we were reopening the whole Base. They didn’t have a Communication center so it was my job to set up the Comm Center. All the teletype equipment was there but I didn’t even have any tools to work with. I did have a TL-29, a Military pocket knife with screwdriver on it. So I got all the Teletypes working with just a pocket knife. We now had a Base Communication Center.
After we got fully operational, we got one pain in the Butt. The Comm Center was located in the Base Headquarters. In the building next ours was the OSI, (Office of Special Investigation.) Their office didn’t have any big crimes to be investigating , so they kept getting on us hoping to find some Security Regulation we may have broken. They didn’t find anything but they kept trying. We burned our trash from the Comm Center in a burn barrel in back of our building. What we burned was Restricted old Teletype messages. A couple times the OSI had me in their office questioning me about some of our procedures, They even had the Comm Officer in there a couple times.
The OSI burned their classified stuff in the same barrel we did. They all wore Civilian Clothes and no one was supposed to know their rank. One day I was taking some Comm Center trash down to burn and I found that the last people that used the burn barrel didn’t make sure everything was burned. We had a poker there to stir it up and make sure it all burned. When I looked at the stuff in the barrel I saw it was Classified Confidential OSI material. It was about five sheets of paper that only burned on the edges. It gave the name and rank of several Agents and was signed by Major Turke, Commanding. I took their paper work and stuffed it into my shirt, then burned my trash. I took the OSI stuff up to the Comm Officer and showed him. He said let’s go Sgt Baker, (I had just been promoted to Buck Sergeant) and we took the OSI material to Base Commander’s Office and showed it to him. He read it over and said I’ll take care of this.
About three days later, Harry Cirillie and I were having coffee in the Coffee Shop. Harry was in charge of all the Teletype Operators. At that time Major Turke walked in and stopped at our table. He said, “that wasn’t very fair Sgt. Baker.” I said, “Sorry about that Major Turke.” He got red in the face and walked off. I had pointed out that he had been compromised.
I found A 1936 Chevy that was in good running condition, for $125.00. Also I found a place to rent that we could afford, so I took a short leave and got a Bus for Biloxi, Miss. I brought Lil and the Girls back to New on the train. That was really a bad trip, we had a layover in Philadelphia for 4 hours. There was no place to get anything to eat or drink. It was a bad place to be with two little Kids. I never rode an American train again after that. After we got to New York, we had about four months before I came out on Orders to go overseas. I had taken it for granted that I would be going to Korea some day, but when I came out on Orders and it was for Germany again, I couldn’t believe it. The Orders said, “I had been nominated for Air Force Security Service and I had to fill out the paper work for a Security Clearance before shipping out. I have an idea it was someone named Turke that nominated me. I found out, the outfit I would be going to was an Intelligence gathering operation under National Security Agency. (NSA) This was in December, 1951 and they gave me a 30 day leave to go see my family in California before I left.
Lil, the Kids and I got on a Bus for Los Angeles. We stayed at my Sister’s house while we were there. I didn’t have the money to send them to Biloxi, where they would be staying while I was overseas. Mary Helen said it would be OK for them to stay there until I could send them some money to go to Biloxi. They lived with her for about a month until I could send some money from overseas. During that time Mary Helen got pretty attached to Linda.
I arrived at my unit, 12th Radio Squadron Mobile, as we were known by. It was based in Landsberg , Germany, which was in southern Germany, just a few miles from Munich, Germany. I couldn’t take part in any Operations because I didn’t have my Security Clearance yet. I was assigned to the Military Police, so I did Military Police duty for about two months until my Clearance came through approved. Shortly after my Clearance came through I was reassigned to the 6910th Security Group in Darmstadt, Germany. I was Sworn in Landsberg, before I left out for Darmstadt. After I was sworn in they said, “Welcome to the family.” At that time I didn’t have any idea how many years I would belong to that family.
I had been with the 6910th about three months when I got a letter from a buddy of mine that was stationed at Keesler AFB as a Radar Instructor. We had gone through Basic Training together and had kept in touch since then. He told me in the letter that he had seen Lil out dancing with the same guy three different times. I wrote to Lil and asked her about it. In a return letter she said she had been going out with a guy she liked a lot. But, she said, “she wanted to stay married to me and if I promised to get out of the Air Force when I got back she would break off with this guy she was seeing and not see him again.” I wrote back and told her she may as well keep seeing that guy because I was staying in the Air Force. About two weeks later I got Divorce papers in the mail, stating she wasn’t asking for any child support. I signed the papers and sent them back. About two weeks later I got the final decree, it stated I had to pay $157.00 a month child support. I didn’t fight it because that is the amount the government paid you if you had dependents. So nothing would be coming out of my base pay. At that time I didn’t ever want to get married again.
The work we were doing in the 6910th was of the utmost importance to our Country. As an example, the Russians suddenly started massing their forces in Combat formation. The whole East Zone become extremely active and they started moving their Army toward the West German border. They massed all along our boarder in attack formation. We were keeping tabs on everything they were doing. After they massed along our boarder, they went into Radio Silence. This is what any army does before an attack. Needless to say we were on full alert too, and the people in Washington were thinking about shooting first and asking questions later. Through our sources we found out the Russian Commander had given all his troops a three day pass to go to town and get drunk for doing such a good job in the maneuvers. We got the word out in a FLASH message to Washington telling them what had happened. So they didn’t shoot and the Russians pulled back to their normal positions.
Me and six of my Buddies was sent to North Africa on an operation. We were to be there about two months. I wrote to my folks and friends and told them I wouldn’t be able to write to them for awhile but they could keep writing to my address they have and I would get the mail later. Our mission only took a month and a half then we went back to Germany. I had picked up my stack of mail in the mail room and went to my room and sat on my bunk to read them. One letter was from my mother and when I opened it, an Obituary Notice fell out, my Dad had died of a Heart Attack. This really tore me up. It had happened two weeks before. I took the notice down to our Admin section and talked to the Seargent major. He said he would go in and talk to the Commander and see if they could send me home. The Commander called me in and told me he had talked to the Red Cross-who had to approve it-and they said it had been too long ago to approve it. He said, “Sgt Baker I can’t send you home but I can give you a three day pass to go out and get drunk to help see you through this.” I said,” I’ll take it Sir.” My buddies found out what happened and they came into see me. My buddy Nick said he would go to town with me so I could get good and drunk and he could take care of me. I told him I would be glad to have him along. Nick was a Staff Sergeant and he had been in charge of our group when we went to North Africa. When we got into town we went to a Gasthaus and started drinking.
I drank and I drank but I could not get drunk, I was as sober as a judge. But Nick was getting a big one tied on. We were thinking about getting something to eat when in through the door walked one of the most Beautiful women I had ever seen. She had Platinum Blond hair and pretty Blue Eyes. Her complexion was like Peaches and Cream. She was well dressed and had a lot of poise. The table she sat at was across the room from us but facing us. I told Nick, “Man that is a good looking Gal. He said, “forget it, that’s Officer Material.” So I started look at my menu to order something to eat. The table where she had sat had a news paper there and she was reading it. I looked up from my menu and saw her looking right me. It embarrassed her to get caught looking. I told Nick, I’m going over there and talk to that pretty girl. I asked her if she would like to come over and join me and my Buddy for diner. She said, “you and your Buddy can come over to my table if you would like.” So, I went over and got Nick, we picked up our drinks and went over to her table. I sat on one side of her and Nick was starting to sit on the other side of her when he spilled some of his drink on her Nice Dress. She blurted out with a couple of words in Russian. Nick caught it right away and started saying we got a Commie among us and speaking some words in Russian. I told him, “cool it, Nick.” He knew right off what I meant, It was not to be known He could speak Russian. So after that he didn’t say another word. I told Mijka, “If you can come with me to take Nick back to the Barracks we can back to town and Eat a good meal. Mijka’s name is pronounced, Me-ka. She thought a minute, and said she was waiting on a train and only had a three hour layover. I told her I was sure she would be able to catch her Train. We went out and got a taxie on the street, then went to the Base. She waited in the taxi while I took Nick up to his room. When I got him to his room he went right to his bed and passed out. I got his shoes off and loosened his tie and put a blanket over him. Mijka and I went to a Gasthaus close to the Bahnhoff. They had good food there and we had a lot of spare time to talk.
I told her about my Dad Passing Away and why I was in town to get drunk and couldn’t. She told me some things that made me feel much better. I could tell she really cared. I liked her a lot right from the start. She asked me what I intended to do the rest of my three days. I told her I had thought about catching a train for Wiesbaden and looking up some German friends I had there. Mijka was on her way to a town about 16 Kilometers North of Darmstadt. She was going to work at a Hotel that was owned by some friends of Mother and Father, she was sure they could give me a room there if I wanted to come with her. I bought a ticket and caught the same train she did. The people at the Hotel were really nice and did have a room for me. They got Mijka set up in her room and she didn’t have to work until the next day. We spent the rest of the evening in my room eating snacks and drinking coffee, just talking and getting to know each other. She was half White Russian and half Polish. Her father had fought against the Communist in Russia and when the Communist won, he escaped to Poland where he met her mother. He hated the Communist so bad he went to Germany and joined the German Army fighting the Communist in Spain. He remained with the German Army through World War II. Mijka, her Mother, and her Brother waited in Germany for her Dad to come home, which he did. Mijka had hatred for the Communist about as much as her Dad did. That was a sad three days I spent because of my Dad, but at the same time it was a happy three days because of Mijka. She really saw me through that hard time.
After that three days, I went back to Zwingberg every chance I got to be with Mijka. We were so compatible, we liked the same food, and we liked doing the same things together. She found a nice room living with an 80 year old lady. We had more privacy there than at the Hotel. Also, the neighbors were nice and liked both of us. The house was on a small street, not big enough for two cars to pass in most places, but more cows were brought up that street than cars used it. A funny thing happened one night, I got off duty at eleven O’clock in the evening and went to the Bahnhoff and got a train for Zwingberg. At that point in time, we had to wear our uniforms off base. This was because Germany was still classed as being occupied by us. I was wearing my rain coat because there was a rain all evening. When we got off the train, all the Germans were walking in a group up to the town square. Most of the towns in Germany have a town square in the middle of town. From this Square, streets branch out in every direction. When we hit the town square all the Germans split up and started walking in every direction. This left me out in the open and a Military Police Jeep was sitting there looking right at me. I had taken off my hat so I wouldn’t stand out as a GI. They had a Midnight curfew on for lower ranking guys. Even if you had a pass, you still had to be off the street after mid-night. I was a Buck Sergeant at the time. One of the streets off the square led to Mijka’s place, so I took off running. The Jeep had already started when he saw me so he was on the chase. The window to Mijka’s room was right on the street so when I got there I pounded on the wooden shutter and yelled, “Mijka, open your window, the MP’s are after me. She had that window open in nothing flat and I dove in. She got the window shut real fast and the Jeep went speeding by. A month later, I made Staff Sergeant and wouldn’t have to worry about the MP’s any more.
As I said before, we liked to do things together, one thing we liked to do is take short trips to some of the bigger cities, like Heidelberg or Frankfurt. We liked to go to Museums and things like that. Then have a good meal at a first class Gasthaus, then get the train back to Zwingberg. Mijka found out I liked to build model airplanes, so she fixed me up a place to work on my models. I had a small model airplane engine and some balsa wood. I would design my own models and put my engine on them, then take them out to a field to test fly them. Most of the Kids in town got to know me from that. Speaking of flying, I got to be friends with one guy that drank with me at the Hotel Bar. He had been a fighter Pilot in World War ll. At that time Germans couldn’t own airplanes but they could own Gliders. He had one that He built himself. He offered to teach me to fly it but all the time I was there we never got good enough weather to do it.
Another thing Mijka and I liked to do is hike in the hills above Zwingberg. The Germans kept their woods neat and clean with well marked hiking paths. We would take a blanket with us and find a nice spot just to sit and watch the birds and other animals. One time we were sitting just above the hiking path and a young German guy came up riding his motorcycle. He wasn’t watching the path and he hit a rock that was sticking up and threw him off balance, he went over the side down a bank. His motorcycle hit another rock and flipped him over. He hit pretty hard and it knocked him out. I went down and checked him out, it looked like he was OK, just knocked out. There was a small steam a few feet down and I took my handkerchief and got it wet, then I took it and wiped his face off. He started to come to and I helped him sit up. After awhile he could stand and asked me to help him get his bike up the hill and I did. The front wheel got bent from hitting the rock but it started up OK. He said he was going to ride it slowly back to town. After he left, Mijka was running her fingers over my face and she said, “what a nice face you have, and a kind one too. At that time we both knew we were very much in Love.
Later on I asked her, “Would you like to marry me? She said, “yes she would.” I told her we had to put a lot of thought into it and it would take time because I had to get permission from the Air Force to get married and do all the other paper work. Mijka had no idea of what kind of work I was in, I had told her I was a truck driver. So she didn’t know anything of what was involved. I didn’t put in to marry her because I would lose my Security Clearance right then. They would put me to work in some Flunky job that would drive me crazy. I was due to rotate back to the States in about a month. I told Mijka I was going to have to go to the States and I would take care of the things we needed to do to get her Visa and bring her there to get married. She said OK, but she wanted to go back up to Northern Germany and spend the time with her folks. She said staying there in Zwingber would remind her too much of me and make it that much harder. So I put her on the train to go back to her folks. That parting was really hard on both of us.
When I was ready to rotate back to the States they gave me my choice of being assigned to NSA in Washington D.C. or to Air Force Security Service in San Antonio, Texas. I picked San Antonio because I heard there was a weekly flight from there to Los Angeles and I could get hops on it to go home. I had about a year left on my hitch and would be due to reenlist in December, 1954. I wrote and told Mijka I was going to get out of the Service and then put in for a Visa to get her to the States and we would get married then. As a Civilian I didn’t have to get anyone’s permission to get married. I asked her, ” if she minded waiting that long?” She said, “she didn’t, she trusted me to get it done.” My Mom and her were writing letters back and forth.
I put my time in San Antonio then took my discharge in December 1954. I went home and was staying with my Sister, Mary Helen in Bell Gardens, California. She was glad to have me there, most of my childhood, she raised me. That made us very close. My Mom, lived at the place she worked for as a cook It was a Convalescent Home. They gave her a pretty nice room. I was home for Christmas for the first time in a long time. Right after Christmas I started checking into what it would take for Mijka to get her Visa. I sent all the paper work to her that was required by me to be her sponsor. Right after that my Buddy, Tommy Turner came up on a pass from San Diego. He and I had gone to school together and were close friends. He went in the Navy about the same time I went into the Air Force. He was going to stick with the Navy for Retirement. Tommy was assigned to a Submarine in San Diego and got to come home pretty often. He was engaged to a young lady that was my niece’s friend. Tom asked me if I would go on a double date with them. He knew a college girl that he thought I would like and he would ask her to go out with us. I hadn’t been out anywhere since I had been home. Just going out for a dinner shouldn’t harm anything. So we went out the next evening for dinner. Tom introduced me to Jeanne Browning. She was very intelligent and interesting to talk to. We had a good meal then went to a movie. I called Tom, “TR,” because his name was Thomas Richard. Anyway, TR asked us if we would like to go up to Big Bear and play in the snow, the next Saturday. All of us said we would like to go.
TR had a pretty new Mercury Car and he loaded the trunk up with a camp cooking stove, a bunch of ready made Hamburger patties, and all the rest of the stuff to make a good Hamburger. We got up to Big Bear and the snow was just right. We had intended to rent a cabin for the day so we would have a place to cook and get warm after being out in the snow. But all the cabins were taken so we would just have to warm up in the car and find some other place to cook. We rented a couple two man sleds and went to the sled run, it was a long run. Jeanne and I were getting on our sled with her in the rear. I told her to wrap her legs around me, at first she wouldn’t do it. I told her that was the only way to do it if she didn’t want drag her legs in the snow, so she did. I told her to lean in the same direction I did when we were going down. We made it through all the turns and got down to the bottom of the run. TR and Janet turned over on the first turn.
We started out for home and hit a big traffic jam. It was only moving about 5 feet every five minutes. I got out of the car and went around and opened the trunk. Then I fired up the cooking stove and started cooking hamburgers. Jeanne came out and was putting the Hamburgers together as I cooked them. The people in the car behind us was getting a kick out that. We had time to get our Hamburgers in the car and the cooking stuff put away and we were still moving slowly in the traffic line. This gave us time to eat our Hamburgers without rushing. We had some Cokes in an ice chest with us in the back seat. After playing in the snow all day we were really hungry. We had not had anything to eat all day.
During that trip, Jeanne and I had made a date for me to come to her school and pick her up at the girls Dorm, Friday evening. We were going out to eat, then I would take her home. She attended Pepperdine University. When she graduated from High School, they gave her a full Scholarship through college for her grades she made in High School. I didn’t think our date would be of any harm since we were just friends and I was bored from staying home so much. But things didn’t turn out that simple, We found out we were very attracted to each other sexually. The sexual desire we had for each other got so strong, neither of us could break it off.
I was really in a mixed up situation at this point in time, Mijka could be coming over and I did still love her, my time was about to run out for being able to go back into the Air Force and keep my rank. Also, I had the strong lust for Jeanne. I decided losing my rank would be too big a loss. March Air Force Base in Riverside, California was a SAC Base-Strategic Air Command. I had heard SAC had priority in keeping their personnel, some of them had been at the same base for years. So I decided to reenlist in SAC. There was also a saying that when you went into NSA, you was in it for life. This would test the power of SAC to see how good their priority is in keeping personnel. I went to March AFB and reenlisted. They put me to work in the Communication Center as a Cryptographer. It felt good just doing regular Air Force duties again.
My Sister had let me use her spare car until I got moved on to the Base OK. I took my Reenlistment Bonus and went car hunting. After trying a couple cars at a used car lot, that I didn’t like, the salesman said,” I think I have just what you’re looking for.” He took me back into their work shop and showed me a car I liked right off the bat. It was a 1952 Olds 88. I took it for a test drive and really fell in love with it, that car sure had the getup and go.
You could be driving along at 50 miles per hour and tromp down on the gas and it would burn rubber digging out. 1952 was the year an Olds 88 won the Daytona 500. The Olds I bought had been built special for someone. It had a lot of little things on it that other Olds 88′s didn’t have. The area between the back window and the rear side window, was chrome plated. I’m sure the speed was more than a normal Olds 88.
I was doing a lot of traveling from March AFB and home. The sexual desire that Jeanne and I had for each other had got out of hand. Both of us knew we were playing with fire but we couldn’t stop. We couldn’t even go some place without stopping and finding a place to park and have sex. One weekend when I went home, Jeanne seemed upset. She informed me she was pregnant. I’m not against abortion, but it should be used only when it has to be used. We talked it over and both of us felt the same way about it. We decided to get married, so our baby would have a family. Jeanne was giving up a lot with her scholarship and I was giving up someone I had loved very much. But when I think of our little Daughter and the person she has grown up to be, I know it was the right decision. Lynn, has given me a lot of happiness every since she has came into my life.
I did not have the heart to write and tell Mijka, I just could not stand to hurt her like that. I went over and told Mom what was going on and Jeanne and I were getting married. She said I was doing the right thing. Mom was still writing to Mijka so I asked her if she would write and tell her, she said,” she would.” A couple weeks later I saw a letter from Mijka on Mom’s table, and I read it. She said she was very sad that I had found someone else and she would probable always love me, but things happen in life that you have no control over, so you can’t do anything about it.
Jeanne and I were married on the 14h of May at her Mother’s house in Bell Gardens. I had found a small apartment in Riverside, California. We went there right after we were married. I didn’t have any leave time to go anywhere on our Honey Moon. We got to enjoy our apartment about three months before we had to leave. I was in the Comm Center one day and a teletype operator called me over and said, “a message was coming in on me.” I read the message, it was from Head Quarters USAF in Washington. They said I was to report to Lowery AFB, Colorado no later than such and such date. I was authorized to bring my dependents. I could not believe these orders, because Lowery is a Training Command Base and they would have little use for my skills. SAC sent a message right back to USAF saying I was essential to the SAC mission and they requested that I stay in my present assignment. USAF came back and said,” Sergeant Baker will report to Lowery AFB as directed.
So, Jeanne and I checked out of our apartment, packed up, and headed for Lowery AFB. After I got there I didn’t have to report in for a couple days so this gave us time to find a place to live. It was hard to find a place to rent but we finally found a half built house that the people wanted to rent it out. They had dug out a basement then built it in with the windows just above ground. There was an outside door to get into the basement. They had it fully furnished with a bed and everything else. We took it because we didn’t have anything to move into an unfurnished place. As it turned out , it was a fun place to live in, Jeanne loved it. We just kicked back and relaxed for the few days before I had to report in to my new outfit. I drove out to the base and found the outfit I was to report into. It consisted of about five of the old wooden barracks. I went in and found the 1st Sergeant to report in. I asked him,”what will I be doing in this outfit”? He checked me over to make sure I was who I said I was, then he told me, “This outfit is going overseas.” Then he took me into a Restricted room and showed me my real orders, they were Classified. Yep, NSA again. I would be going to Norway. The whole unit would be going to Germany, then we would split up. Some of us would go to Turkey, and some of us would go to Norway, the rest would stay in Germany. The whole unit had only 250 men in it. Most of us would be given $300 dollars for Civilian Clothes. I told the 1st Sergeant my pregnant wife was there with me and I had been given travel pay to bring her along. He said,” they would cut orders immediately for me to take her home.” They were sending me overseas even though my wife was pregnant. This is usually against Air Force Regulations, but NSA can do whatever they want to do.
Jeanne and I cranked up the Olds and headed for California. I had taught her to drive and she had her driver’s license. I’m glad we got it because she would have the Olds while I was overseas. I got A Grayhound Bus to come back to Denver. The Unit left for overseas shortly after that. We ended up at a closed German Air Field. It had a landing strip but very few buildings. The Air Force had sent a team in there before we got there to make it livable. It had a small Kitchen and they had assigned a cook to cook for us while we were there. They had given him money to go down town and buy food to cook for us. He did a good job of it, we had good steaks to eat most of the time. This Air Field had been used a little during the Berlin Air Lift, the Air Force had opened it for awhile then closed it again after the Air Lift was over. The German name of the place was Oberphfenhoffen. While we were there we got instruction on what we would do on our mission. Then we headed out to our assigned locations.
This mission had been planned by NSA and the Air Force. The CIA got wind of what we were doing in Washington and used their Political pull to get put in charge of it. Everything had been going pretty smooth until they took over, then everything started getting screwed up. As an example, we were flew up to Norway in a Military Plane and landed out in the middle of nowhere, on a solid sheet of ice. We were dropped off there with our baggage and had to walk to a town. We were supposed to be American Tourists, but no Tourist would be traveling like that. On top of that we didn’t have any Passports, so we were just on our own. We could not admit to anyone we were Military. The plan was for us to split up into two’s and find a place to stay. Me and my Buddy found a small Hotel and we checked in. In Europe everyone has an ID number, any time you register in a Hotel you must use this number. We told the guy we left our Passports in Germany,that is the number Americans are expected to put down. He said, “just put some number down.” We made up numbers and put them down. The next morning me and my Buddy were up bright and early and left the place before the Police came around checking the numbers. The Police check every Hotel every day.
My Partner and I got a Taxi and asked the Driver where we could find a place to rent by the month. He took us to a big apartment building and we were both able to rent rooms. It was a two story building with Halls about 50 yards long. The Toilets were located in the middle of the Halls. They had no Hot Water but they were nice and clean. If you wanted a bath and shave, you did that in the basement where they had baths and a place to shave. They also had Steam Baths. We contacted our Boss later on with a phone number they had given us before we left Germany. Found out later on he was at the embassy in Oslo. He asked where we were at and we described it to him. He said,”that is perfect, is there more rooms so the other guys can get in there”? We told him we thought there was. It ended up our whole group was staying there. We worked our mission while living there. It proved to be a perfect place. It came time for Lynn to be born, All Jeanne had for notifying me was my Civilian address in Norway. I was up on the side of a mountain running a telephone wire through some trees, the tree line was only up near the top of the mountain so I could see if anyone was coming up from down below. I was on skis up there, skiing was the main mode of transportation in that area. I had never been on skis in my life until I got to Norway. I had trouble going down hill – had to take it slow – but I could ski across country good. Anyway, I saw a guy coming up the hill to where I was at. He seemed to know exactly where I was at. The guy was on snow shoes and coming right to me. I was ready for anything, but I could tell he wasn’t armed, so I just waited for him. He walked up to me and asked, “are you Harvey Baker?” That caught me totally off guard. He turned out to be from the Red Cross in the embassy in Oslo. He said,”your wife had a baby girl.” That was another surprise for me, he gave me all the details, date, weight and so forth. I asked him how he found me and he said,”I found one of your group and he told me how to find you.” At that point, I gained a lot of respect for the Red Cross.
The CIA was always trying to tell us what to do, we knew it wouldn’t work so we did it our way. We completed the mission and it was a total success. We received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Citation for it. The Air Force flew in two C-119 Airplanes and landed them in about the same spot where we were dropped off when we came there. Except it was daytime now, not at night and very dark. We flew back into Germany and this time we were at an Air Base named Furstenfeldbruch. Everyone was to get new assignments to Bases in the States. A guy from personnel came up to me and said,”They were very short of Crypto people in the European Command, so I was going to have to stay there for a full overseas tour”. Everyone else was getting their assignments to the States. My assignment was to the 1st Tactical Missile Squadron, located in Bitburg, Germany. It was a new outfit that had just been started up there. Bitburg was in the French Zone, next to Luxemberg. I wrote and told Jeanne about it and I would put in for base housing as soon as I got there, then her and Lynn could be coming over there. It would be about three months waiting time to get into Base Housing.
I reported into the Commander of the 1st Tactical Missile Squadron and he was real interested in me. He interviewed me for almost an hour, about my training and experience. The more I talked the more happy he looked. Then he explained what my duties would be, He had two Tractor-trailor vans he wanted to build two full Communication Centers. He had all the equipment to do it with, he just needed someone that knew Teletype Repair and Crypto. So he made me NCOIC of Teletype and Crypto. We had a Communication Center in our Operations Building, but we would be Mobile a big part of the time operating out in the field and moving all over the place. We had Missiles mounted on Tractor-trailer rigs. They could be Launched from anywhere we were at in West Germany.
The teletype crew I would be supervising was a good bunch, so that made me feel much better. One of the guys was on light duty because he was just coming back from along stay in the Hospital, caused by a car wreck. His name was Nurango. I told him he was going to be working with me on the New Vans, I would do all the hard work, all he had to do was hand me things and go get things I needed. The rest of the crew would be working in the Communication Center full time.
The Commander had told me I could build the Vans any way I wanted to, he just wanted operation results. I loved to engineer things, so this was right down my alley.
I started work on the Comm Vans, the Commander cooperated well, anything I said I needed he would get it for me some way. I came across a new electronic device that really got my attention. You could transmit teletype pulses into it and on the output you could pick off the pulses as many times as you wanted to, to separate line processing units. We had Guidance Detachments all over West Germany that we sent teletype messages to. I designed a switching system that allowed the teletype Operator to select the Detachments he wanted to transmit to. If he wanted to go out to all of them, he flipped all the switches. Then he would run the teletype tape through the Transmitter Distributor and all the detachments would receive it at the same time. The old way of doing it, the operator would have to run the tape through a separate distributor for each detachment. This was very time consuming. Our new system allowed us to need much less equipment and do a better job too. Another thing I did to improve our efficiency was to speed up our Teletype Machines to operate at 100 Words per minute. The normal speed for teletypes at that time was 68 words per minute. I was in charge of the teletypes at our detachments, so I was able to do this for the Communication between us and our detachments.
We went on our first alert after we got the Comm Vans completed. The alert lasted two days and we were setup and operating out in the woods in Southern Germany. They had Communications tests setup, our Wing Headquarters would send a message to one of our Detachments, which had to go through our Group Hq. and then through us. When they got the Reply from the Detachment, they rated us by the time it took. It really blew their minds when they sent messages to our Dets. at one time and we used our switching system to blast them to all of our detachments with one transmission. When they got the replies back, they couldn’t believe the short time it took. There was another Missile Group like us and we were in competition with them. I knew the guy that was in charge of Communications in their outfit, and I didn’t like him. We was way ahead of that Group on Comm. rating and the big Brass in NATO couldn’t figure out why. In fact they were so curious, they sent a Two Star General down from NATO HQ. to check us out. My Commander turned him over to me to explain our operations. When I got done, all he could say was, “I’m impressed, I just can’t tell you how impressed I am.”
After Major Jones got his points in with all the Commanders up the Chain of Command, as far as he was concerned I was the only NCO that could do anything right. When he would find something that was not working right, he would start yelling, “Sergeant Baker, Sergeant Baker.” We were out in the field on a training alert and Major Jones started yelling for me. He told me our parameter security was no good, he walked right through it and no one saw him. You are in charge of it now. The people we had assigned to it was 12 Military Policeman with a young Buck Sergeant in charge. None of them had been trained in Security. I got twelve more Airman assigned to Security from the different sections. We had four 30 Cal. Machine guns, I placed them in positions so they could provide each other with covering fire. The other troops dug Foxholes around the area. They would come out and make foot patrols at staggered times. I left the Buck Sergeant in charge of Security with enough troops to have three shifts of Guards. It worked fine after that and no one got through that Security Net.
Major Jones got to me again. He called me into his office and told me our Motor Pool was a mess, records were not being kept, and he had two vehicles signed out to him that he had no idea where they were at. One six-by cost more than two Caddies. He said,” I’m making you NCOIC of the Motor Pool.” This was one heck of a big job, we had a lot of costly Vehicles in our Motor Pool. I would have to see that maintenance was done on the Vehicles when due and that they were all accounted for. I had no experience with Motor Pool regulations, and there were many. So I took a couple of my troops down to take over the Motor Pool.
Major Jones was right, it was a mess. Trip tickets were not being used, someone would come in and tell the guy that was in charge, he was taking a jeep, and off he would go with a jeep. No record of who he was or where the jeep was going. I assigned one of my men to start making up Trip Tickets, no vehicle could leave the Motor Pool without a Trip Ticket. I was reading the Regulations pertaining to Motor Pools, like crazy. I got a great lucky break, A former Staff Sergeant that had been assigned to one of our Detachments as NCOIC of the Military Police in the Unit. He had got in trouble with a German Girl that said he had raped her. She was his former Girl Friend. Ike Boston was a Black Man. He was tried in German Court and they found him innocent. The Commander and First Sergeant of that Unit took a stripe from him for conduct unbecoming an NCO. They relieved him of his Duties and sent him to our Squadron.
Our Commander assigned him to me. Our First Sergeant was a Red Neck and didn’t like Black People. He told me to get something on Ike Boston so they could boot him out of the Service. I told him I would judge him as I saw him. Ike had twelve years of service that he would lose if they kicked him out. I assigned him to the Motor Pool. I interviewed him and found out he had worked in a Motor Pool at one time. Not only that, he was a Dispatcher working with Trip Tickets and Vehicle Records. Needless to say I put him in charge of the Motor Pool with my full backing. The first thing we did was go looking for our two missing Vehicles, we found both of them. One was in Maintenance in Wiesbaden and the other was at one of our Detachments. From then on the Motor Pool ran smooth as a whistle. I got Ike promoted back up to Staff Sergeant.
All this took place before I got into Base Housing and got Jeanne and Lynn over there. When I finally got into Base Housing, I was there about a week before Jeanne and Lynn got there. I had all my troops over for a party, as a way to say thanks for doing a good job. Some got drunk but nothing got out of hand. All and all we had a good time. When Jeanne and Lynn got there I had to go to Frankfurt to meet them when they got off the plane. I had grown a mustache and when I first met Lynn she touched my mustache and said,”Goggy”. That was her word for Doggie. We took a German Train for our trip back to Bitburg. They were selling Hard Cider on the train and Jeanne bought a bottle for Lynn. She really tied one on, Giggling and acting funny.
During the rest of our tour in Germany, our son David was born and our son Steven was conceived. I got everyone that worked for me promoted but I didn’t get promoted, after all the work I put into that outfit. Major Jones put me in for promotions with write-ups like I could walk on water, but he didn’t follow up on it and go up to Group Headquarters to beat on some desks. For Sergeant promotions, they passed them out from Group. The Air Force only gave out a few promotion slots and the Desk Jockies at Group would grab them. If Major Jones would have gone up there and raised Hell I would have got promoted. So I left Germany as a Staff Sergeant.
On rotation back to the States, I was assigned to Stewart AFB in Upper State New York. As it turned out Jeanne’s Uncle Clyde and Aunt Darlene were living in Buffalo, New York. He was a Tech. Rep. working for an Aircraft Company. We visited with them for a few days and Jeanne and the Kids stayed there while I went down to Neuburgh, New York to find us a place to live close to Stewart AFB. Stewart was close to West Point, Military Academy. The only thing I could find to rent was 12 miles away from the Base, in a Farm District. I had bought an old 1952 Chrysler. It seemed to run good until Jeanne and the Kids got there. I was coming from the Base one night and suddenly I heard a clunk in the Engine. It was dead, but I got it pulled over to the side of the road. The next day a Friend towed it to the house for me. We had a Garage so I put the car in there to work on it. At this point in time, Jeanne was far along in being pregnant with Steve. Also, winter had set in and it was so cold in that unheated Garage that the tools stuck to my hands. I found that the Cam Shaft had busted to pieces. A nut broke off one of the Piston Rods and got into the Cam Shaft. Who ever owned that car before had not taken care of it. The oil pan had a sludge in it like tire. With luck, I found a new Cam Shaft that I had enough money to buy. I got the nut replaced on the Piston Rod and the Cam Shaft installed. With the first try it started up and ran good. All the time I had been working on the car, I had been hitch hiking to the Base. I finally felt Secure having a car again.
Two weeks later I was coming from the Base and I heard that some clunk in the Engine. My friend towed me home again and I knew how to open the engine to look at the Cam Shaft this time. Sure enough, the Cam Shaft was shattered again. I sold the thing for junk for 25 dollars. But this still left us in a bad situation, I was having to hitch hike into work and Jeanne could be having Steve at any time. When Steve was ready to be born, she would have to get over to West Point, where the only Military Hospital was in the area. It was 12 miles away from where we lived. All the Neighbors in the area heard of our problem and they organized a stand-by watch for us. Someone would be available to take her over there when the time came. The one that was on standby would call her and give her their phone number to use when the time came. As it turned out, a guy that had never been married and didn’t have any kids was the one that got the call. He was really nervous but he got her to West Point on time. A guy that worked with me loaned me his car for a few days and he rode with someone else that lived close to him. So I was able to get over to see Jeanne and Steve at the Hospital. A couple days later I was able to bring them home. We didn’t have the money to buy a Crib for Steve, so we put a pillow in a dresser drawer and he slept in it.
I knew we couldn’t go on like we were, It was costing us more money each month just to live than I was being paid. Upper State New York is a wonderful place to live if you have the money to live there, but we didn’t. Fuel Oil for heat cost me half my pay each month. After rent and money for food, we had nothing. A message came into my unit wanting Crypto People to volunteer for Missile School in the launching and guidance of the Missile. They wanted to get this one type of Missile operational as soon as possible. We had been trained in the same type of Circuitry being used in this Missile. This Circuitry had never been released to the public before. This was about the same time as Computers were being developed and they used a lot of this type of Circuitry that had been Classified a few years before. So I volunteered for Missile school.
This got us out of that high priced area. Jeanne and the Kids went to California to live with her Mother, while I was in Missile training. I was in Fort Walden Beach, Florida for 9 months. I rented a house right on the beach. We could go out in our back yard and fish. Jeanne and the Kids joined me there after I had been there for about a month. After training, I was to be assigned to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This time we got into Base Housing on Otis, AFB. Mass.which is on Cape Cod. The Base Housing was new and very nice, we were enjoying it very much. Also Cape Cod is an interesting place to live. My work with Missiles was interesting too. I’m getting a little ahead of the story, When Jeanne was in California, she bought a 1952 Pontiac and she drove it to Florida from California with the three Kids. Steve was just a little guy at that time and just learning to walk. When they pulled up in the yard late at night, the engine in the Pontiac was clanging so hard I thought a Push Rod was going through the Block. The next day I dropped the oil pan and checked the bearings out. Sure enough, two Bearings were totally wore out. Luckily they hadn’t damaged the Crank Shaft. So I bought replacement bearings for the Mains and Push Rods. Our whole yard was covered with Beach Sand so I had to be extra careful not to get dirt in the bearings I was installing. When I got it put back together it ran fine. So we drove it up to Otis, AFB, Mass.
During this time, I had to go to Alaska two times on TDY. This was because of Communication Security problems up there. I was sent by HQ. USAF, so the unit I was assigned to at Otis couldn’t do anything to stop it. While I was up there, A Personnel Officer at the headquarters in Mass. got the bright Idea of changing my Air Force Specialty Code to Radio Electronics. At that time the Air Force had what they called Proficiency Pay. It was different pay rates for some specialties because they wanted to keep them in the Air Force. It was the specialties that required a lot of training. They had three grades of Propay, P1 paid 25dollars more a month, P2 paid 50 dollars a month, and P3 paid 75dollars a month. My Specialty was P3, and they wanted to hang a P2 Specialty on me which would have been a cut in pay of 25 dollars a month. I fought Personnel at Otis on it but they wouldn’t give in. So I did something that is a No! No! in the Air Force, I went over their heads directly to USAF Headquarters in Washington. I received a direct teletype message from the AF Chief of Staff saying I would be reassigned within 24 hours. They also contacted that Personnel Officer up there and Fired him. They contacted the Base Commander at Otis and told him to reassign me back into a Crypto assignment no later than 24 hours from then. When my Orders came out it was for Topsham AF Station in Brunswick, Maine. So over night, Jeanne, the Kids, and I were on our way to Maine.
Maine was a nice place, it was beautiful and had a lot of fun things to do. I liked it better than any place back East. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the cold winters and deep snow. We lived in a town called Bath, Maine The people there were wonderful. After a few months we got into Base Housing. The main advantage to that was I didn’t have to drive so far to work in the bad snow storms they had there. I worked at an Air Defense Control Center. I worked in Communications but that wasn’t enough to keep me busy so they gave me an extra job at a desk and being on call for Communication problems around the clock. I didn’t mind the desk job because the things I was doing was interesting and I learned a lot about how the Air Force operates. I worked in plans and programs. This was an important function in Air Force Management.
One night about two O’clock in the morning I got a call to go to the Comm Centrer for a Comm. Problem. From our back door to the car port it was a solid sheet of ice. I had both hands in my pockets digging for my car keys, my feet went out from under me and landed on my sholder. As I was laying on the ice I said to myself, “I’m going to volunteer for Hawaii.” I worked most of the night and left the Comm. Center about 8 O’clock in the morning. As I was going home I saw the personnel Office and thought, I’m going in and volunteer for Hawaii. It was a sort of a joke with myself because you hardly ever got what you asked for and I was due to go over seas again. At that time Hawaii was classed as an over seas tour. About a month later I couldn’t believe it when I came out on orders for an over seas tour to Hawaii. I was being assigned to a Major Air Force Headquarters. It was a desk Job, but a very important one. I was to be Communications Security advisor to the Air Force Commander of the Pacific and South East Asia Area.
Everyone in the family really loved Hawaii and we lived on the beach. I could sit at our dining room table and look out the window and see whales swimming by in the ocean. Also, we lived next to a section of the beach that was owned by the Army, so we could swim and have a life guard available. They had a snack bar to get something to eat and drink while you was sun bathing. We went to a Church and the people were wonderful. They had a lot of get togethers with some fine Hawaiian food. I ate my first raw fish there and liked it. The kids could go to school barefooted and wearing shorts. There was always something fun to do over there.
My duties were very interesting even though it was a desk job. I was away from the desk a lot traveling to places all over the Pacific and South East Asia Area. Any time a Communication Problem came up in one of our Air Force Units, they sent one of us from our office out to check into it. Then we would come back and Brief our Colonel on what we found with recommendations of what should be done to correct the problem. In some cases, the Colonel would send us over to Brief the General. These trips we took were referred to as Staff visits. While on some of these trips, I got some ideas that would improve our ability to direct and support our units out in the field. They were good enough ideas that the Air Force Hq. in Washington adapted them AF Wide. It also got my Colonel promoted to Brigadier General. He deserved it, because I could not have brought it about without his backing and support with the idea. Also, he put me in for promotion and I didn’t make it. The Colonel was so mad, he went direct to the Area Commanding General and asked, “why he couldn’t get a very Outstanding Sergeant promoted.” The General said he didn’t know why, but was giving the Colonel full authority to find out why. He did exactly that, he had every Personnel Officer and their sergeants report to him, that had anything to do with promotions. From his investigation, he found that Personnel Officers had a Secret code system that was only known to them. If they didn’t want someone promoted, they would stick their Secret Code into the guys Personnel Service Records. The other Personnel Officers would see to it that he was never promoted. This information was forwarded to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in Washington. None of the General Officers had any knowledge of this Secret Code and they raised Hell. The Chief of Staff put out an Order to remove these Secret Codes from the Service Records and never use them again. They also change the promotion system, many of the changes came from the Colonels’ recommendations. Shortly after this, I received two promotions in a row, to Master Sergeant.
When my time was up in Hawaii, I could have extended, but that Island was getting smaller all the time. I was raised up in the wide open spaces of the South West and I felt like I needed that again. Orders came out for me to be assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. We left Hawaii by Commercial Air Line and arrived in San Francisco. My Sister and her Husband were at the Air Port to meet us. They took us to their home in Orangevale, Ca. My car had been shipped by boat to San Francisco and wouldn’t be there for another week. While we were at my Sister’s house we got word that Jeanne’s Uncle in Ft. Worth, Texas had passed away. They were pretty close because he had helped raise her when she was a little girl. So we got her a ticket to go to Ft, Worth and be with her family. That meant that I would be driving across country to Ohio with our three kids. She would go to Ohio from Ft. Worth after I got there and found us a place to live.when my car came in, I took a Bus to San Francisco and then drove it back to Orangevale. I had a nice visit with my Sister and Brother in law. We did a lot fishing and had good luck. I got my car checked out, making it ready for the trip to Ohio.
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My Dad, Harvey Baker, died this year, exactly a month after his 80th birthday. Every birthday he had steak and wine, because as soon as he was born, they gave him a piece of steak to chew on. On this birthday he missed his steak dinner, because he went into the hospital on birthday morning.