Month: April 2016

Mom Gets an Amateur Radio License

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201 Maco Terrace Greenville, SC in 2012
201 Maco Terrace Greenville, SC in 2012

The earliest memory of this military brat has my Dad stationed at Donaldson Air Force Base. Our family lived in a small, wooden framed house located at 201 Maco Terrace in Greenville, South Carolina.

Our across the street neighbors were Don and Doris Bedford. Don was a propane route salesman. Doris was a homemaker, part-time school crossing guard, and sometime honky-tonk girl guitar player and singer. They had three children. The oldest two were daughters Donna and Cheryl. The youngest was son Dee.

Doris Bedford considerably influenced my family and me. She sang like Kitty Wells and played an electric guitar. She frequently worked at area honky-tonks performing to earn the extra dollars her family needed. She would become my Mother and I’s first guitar teacher. That is a story for another time.

Doris also held an FCC Extra Class Federal Communications Commission Amateur Radio license – K4AOH. She was an HAM. She had learned Morse code and obtained her license as a teenager during World War Two while working for the US government.

Me and my brother - 1957
Me and my brother – 1957

Mother became enamored with the possibility of talking to people around the world via Morse Code or voice on a radio. My father already held an Amateur Radio license earned through his primary military job specialty as a radar technician and secondary specialty as a radio technician. When Doris suggested Mother get her license, Dad encouraged her as well.

About this time, my Dad reenlisted in the United States Air Force, He also had a new duty assignment that transferred the family across the USA to Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona. My parents were buying the house at 201 Maco Terrace in Greenville and decided to keep it. Their thought in 1958 was to move back to South Carolina in 1967 when Dad retired from the USAF.

The transfer to Arizona motivated my mother to study harder and faster. No, she didn’t pass the tests and get her license before we left Greenville.

After we arrived and got settled in our rented house in Glendale, Arizona, Mother continued studying in hot pursuit of her HAM license. Doris Bedford introduced Mother to Ken and Gertrude Pond. They were an older couple who lived in Phoenix and both held their FCC license.

Me in 1960 at 2420 Navajo, Luke AFB, AZ
Me in front of 2420 Navajo, Luke AFB, AZ in 1960.

I still remember mother buying 78 RPM records that had the familiar dit dah of Morse Code as she studied her radio theory and Morse Code. I helped my mom learn the code by playing the records for her and sometimes sending the code for her to practice using an old military surplus Morse code key. I was proud of how she learned the code. I also learned the code, but at five years old I couldn’t send or receive it as fast as was required to pass the license. I eventually would.

I remember how excited we were when mother passed her Novice Class license. She received the call sign KN7JYX. The N meant she held a Novice class license. It meant she could only be on the airwaves using code. She would have to pass the General Class exams before she could use voice communication. The General Class license required sending and receiving the code at 25 words per minute, as well as additional electronic theory. She passed the exam, and the call sign dropped the N, becoming K7JYX.

We built the first HAM radio from military surplus parts. I still remember the first antenna. It was an inverted V. It had a center conductor and wires going down from each it, one on each side. I helped put up the antenna. The first time we tested it under a radio frequency load we took a Florissant light bulb outside and held it near the antenna. With a good foot between the glass tube and the wires, the antenna light up like a spotlight!

With her license Mother was able to talk to Doris back in South Carolina. Mother would remain active in Amateur Radio until her death. She went on to earn Amateur Advanced and Extra Class license. Her Morse Code speed was over 75 words a minute for the Extra Class license.

She was proud as I went on to earSkywarn Certn the HAM radio and Morse Code merit badges as a Boy Scout. I also passed the exams for the Novice Class, Technician Class, and General Class FCC license. My call sign is N5FRJ.

Over the years, I have run a two-meter repeater from the steeple of one church I served and had my HAM rig in my office at three churches I served. For years and decades, I was also a National Weather Service Skywarn Certified Weather Spotter – a storm chaser.

One of the fun things about being a military brat was all the interesting people and lifelong friends you meet and make. The Bedford’s were friends until Don and Doris died.

GraveWhen we moved back to Texas in 1963 Mother had her HAM call sign changed for Texas and became W5MWK. HAM radio was so important to my parents that their call signs are on their tombstone. It was wonderful sharing a lifelong interest with my Mother.

Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, and award-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories and Beyond Imagination. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffee house, he supports his writing, reading, and book reviewing habit working as an IT application support analyst. He is a former Captain in the US Army. His blog Kepler’s Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs. You can visit him at http://www.jimmiekepler.com.

Wadsworth Longfellow Home

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Wadsworth-Longfellow_House,_Portland,_MEAdventures filled my life growing up as a military brat. Some of the most memorable were school field trips. A few of these excursions were life changing, opening a new world of ideas and possibilities. Two of the most impactful were trips that occurred as a student at Portsmouth Junior High School in New Hampshire. The first journey took me to the Wadsworth-Longfellow home in Portland, Maine.

The sojourn included a poetry reading. It was my first exposure to real poetry. Seeing the home and the study desk somehow made the poet real to me. Hearing the words read aloud with passion and pacing tugged at my heart and soul.

Longfellow went to Europe for three years following college graduation in 1825. He returned to his alma mater, Bowdoin College, in 1829 and taught there until he accepted a professorship at Harvard University.

I learned field trips could be more than just a fun trip that kept you out of class for a day. A drive to a historical figure’s home provided experiential learning. Seeing the home and hearing poetry read made learning fresh and adventurous.

In the future, I’ll write about a trip to the Robert Frost farm in New Hampshire. It was the second impactful field trip during my tenure in New Hampshire public schools. Adventures filled the life of this military brat.

The photo  is in the public domain.

Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, and award-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories and Beyond Imagination. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffeehouse, he supports his writing, reading, and book reviewing habit working as an IT application support analyst. He is a former Captain in the US Army. His blog Kepler’s Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs. You can visit him at http://www.jimmiekepler.com.

Church and the Military Brat

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Luke Air Force Base Chapel
Luke Air Force Base Chapel

I have a tough question for you. When and where do you first remember attending church services?

I told you the question was hard. No, I am not asking you to recall what you’ve been told by your mother or grandma about church attendance, but what you can remember. In my case, the year is 1960. I had just turned six years old in November 1959. In February, my family moved from Glendale, Arizona into base housing on Luke Air Force Base near Glendale.

Once on Luke AFB, I was quickly recruited and joined Cub Scouts. I can read your mind. You’re thinking, “Cub Scouts? I thought you were asking about a church.”

I’ll tie it all together, I promise. The first time I remember going to church was attending the Luke AFB chapel service on a Sunday where they recognized the Cub Scouts. We got to wear our uniforms. We sat together. The Chaplain recognized our Cub Scout Pack at church, introducing each of us and everyone politely clapped.

At the chapel, I filled out a card where they got my name, telephone number, address, and religious affiliation. For the religious affiliation, I wrote Baptist. I did that because my mother told me to.

A few days later someone called from the Luke AFB Chaplain office. They assigned me to a Sunday school class. Sunday school met at the Luke Elementary School located near my house. The Base Chapel was the other direction. It was through the main gate and at Luke AFB.

I attended Sunday School the next Sunday. My Sunday school class was almost everyone in my elementary school class. Some gave me a hard time for not attending until now.

When asked why I hadn’t been before I said I had never heard of Sunday school. When they laughed at me, I bristled up and asked why they hadn’t invited me. That shut them up.

In August 1963, I started attending Trinity Baptist Church in Seguin, Texas with my mother, brother and Uncle Lee, Aunt Leona, and their three girls. My father was in Vietnam from August 1963 to August 1964. I was never asked to join the Sunday school class or church since my family was military. When told I didn’t have have to fill out a form since my family would be moving next summer because we weren’t permanent to town. I was heartbroken. They made me feel second-class.

A year later the family was in El Paso, Texas with dad stationed at Biggs Air Force Base. There father was the Sunday school director for the Protestant Chapel. He worked with Chaplains Henry and Gurtiss. Major Henry was a Presbyterian while LTC. Gurtiss was a Lutheran. We didn’t have a Baptist chaplain.

The summer of 1965 I attended my first vacation Bible school. My mother was the director. I learned the books of the Bible in order. We used plaster of paris molds to make Bible verse plaques. We would paint the plaque and give the to our parents who would keep them until the day they died. We also made plaster of paris imprints of our hands. Vacation Bible school was fun. Again, it was the same kids in my class as at school. The best part may have been the snow cones we had for refreshments.

I would attend other Sunday schools on other military bases. It wasn’t until my dad retired from the USAF that we joined a civilian church and Sunday school. But, that is another story for another time.

Picture Source: It is in the Public Domain. Works of the United States Government are not protected by copyright and are thus in the public domain.  http://www.luke.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-130702-054.jpg

Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, and award-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories and Beyond Imagination. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffee house, he supports his writing, reading, and book reviewing habit working as an IT application support analyst. He is a former Captain in the US Army. His blog Kepler’s Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs. You can visit him at http://www.jimmiekepler.com.

Atomic Bomb Duck and Cover Drills

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Duck & Cover Drill

One event we took very seriously when I was growing up as a military brat was the atomic bomb drills. From 1959 when I started public school through the school spring semester of 1967 the drill was ever present. We conducted them as regularly as we did fire drills.

In the 1970s as a United States Army officer, I served as officer of the guard that guarded some of our tactical nuclear weapons. We had the bomb. The “we” here is the good old USA.

They also had they bomb. The “they” is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the U.S.S.R. From the day I started school I remember having atomic bomb “duck and cover drills”.

We had these air raid drills when I was in grade school and junior high school. They were similar fire drills except you don’t run outside. You go to a part of the building that was deemed to be most safe in the event of an attack and cover your head, perhaps get under the desk.

There was a big national campaign. Teachers in selected cities were encouraged to conduct drills where they would suddenly yell, “Drop!” and students were expected to kneel under their desks with their hands clutched around their heads and necks.

I got my set of “dog tags” in 1959. They were the metal “dog tags,” like those worn by World War II soldiers so that the bodies of students could be identified after an attack. I got my set of real “dog tags” when I served as an US Army office more in the 1970s.

The US Government promoted these “preparedness” measures around the country. The Federal Civil Defense Administration decided the best way to do that was to commission an educational film that would appeal to children. In 1951, the agency awarded a contract for the production to a New York firm known as Archer Films. Archer Films called in teachers to meet with them and got the endorsement of the National Education Association.

An administrator at a private school in McLean, Virginia, mentioned that they had participated in the “duck and cover” drills. That was the first time the producers had heard the drills called that, and they thought the phrase would work as a title.

The producers went to work on a script that would combine live actors and an animated turtle to encourage kids to duck down to the ground and get under some form of cover – a desk, a table or next to a wall – if they ever saw a bright flash of light. The flash would presumably be produced by an atomic blast.

The hero of the film was the animated Turtle named Bert who wore a pith helmet and quickly ducked his head into his shell when a monkey in a tree set off a firecracker nearby.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis our entire elementary school was evacuated and moved to the safety of the desert and an underground base that could hold the entire school. I was a third grader at the time and have a vivid memory of the event. My younger brother who was in the first grade has no memory of the facility or the evacuation. I have found no one that can verify where we were taken.

The “duck and cover drills” continued at all the schools I attended until my dad retired from the United States Air Force. It seems the civilian schools didn’t fear the bomb like the military schools. Maybe it was because the bases where the military schools were located were also prime targets.

Being a military brat was always an adventure. We knew we were living through history. Our parents taught us to pay attention the world around us and the events we were living through.

Source: Some material is drawn from information found at:  http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_04.html

Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, and award-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories and Beyond Imagination. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffee house, he supports his writing, reading, and book reviewing habit working as an IT application support analyst. He is a former Captain in the US Army. His blog Kepler’s Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs. You can visit him at http://www.jimmiekepler.com.