**************
I served a tour of duty in the active Air Force before completing another thirty-some years in the Guard and Reserve. Back in 1970 (-1973) I found myself assigned to my only permanent base, MacDill AFB, in Tampa, Florida.
I served a tour of duty in the active Air Force before completing another thirty-some years in the Guard and Reserve. Back in 1970 (-1973) I found myself assigned to my only permanent base, MacDill AFB, in Tampa, Florida.
I was a newly assigned
personnel clerk, having only just learned to type on an electric typewriter a
few weeks earlier. I served in the CBPO (Consolidated Base Personnel Office)
and in the Separations/Reenlistments/Retirements Section. Day after day I typed
DD Form 214’s which was, and still is the form everyone separating from active
service receives on their last day in uniform.
I met and liked many
interesting young, and not so young men at the CBPO, primarily in my own
section, of which there were six or eight in attendance doing similar duties.
(As I recall, I was the “first one out” when I left active duty in 1973).
Having retired from
reserve service in 2009, my wife and I still drive over to MacDill AFB, a
distance of 50 miles, every 2-3 months, and buy groceries at the commissary.
The CBPO is still there,
and is still being used for the same purpose. Sometime in the past year while
we were visiting MacDill, we stopped by the personnel offices in order for my
wife to procure a new military ID card. While we were there, I stepped up to
the customer service window, and asked the airman, (well, in this case, the
air-lady) whether she would mind me climbing the steps to the second floor, and
check out the office where I used to work. “Airman Jenkins,” responded with a,
“Well, no. I’m sorry you can’t. You understand these are active duty offices.”
(To which I might have responded, “Well, duh…Yes, of course I know that. I told
you I used to work here).
Well, my readers, I would
not be denied. After I asked I thought, “Since its’ easier to apologize than to
ask permission, I shouldn’t have asked permission.” I stepped away from the
sight of the “nay-sayer,” and climbed up to the second floor; on a staircase I
had climbed on a daily basis over the course of three years. (Odd, that was
almost half a century ago).
I mounted the second
floor landing, and took an immediate right, and then another immediate right,
and I was standing in my old place of business. I was surprised to see that
what I was looking at was no longer a separations and reenlistment office, nor
rather an office at all. The approximately 600 square foot office was now a
conference room; complete with tables, and a flat screen television mounted on
the front wall.
My mind momentarily
drifted back to the original layout of the room; 3 typing desks cued up, front
to back, on the far side of the office, next to a row of windows, 2 in the
center, 1 closest to where I now stood, and 1 in the center, back of the room,
where our supervisor, a 50-something Jewish Technical Sergeant sat, (and as far
as I recall did little or nothing throughout the course of the day).
Though sometimes I strain
to recall the given names of my CBPO compatriots, I’ve never forgotten their
surnames.
There was Shannon, and
Ortiz, and Collier, and Finch, and McGibney, and LaLone, (who happened to be a
total twirp) and Barbenell; (and our “big boss,” Senior Master Sergeant Koppel
had a small office across the hall).
They say you can’t go
home again.
Well, I’m not so sure.
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 25. Copyright pending
If you wish to copy, share or save this blog, please include the credit line, above
***************
If you would like to see the titles and access hundreds of my blogs from 2015, do the following:
Click on 2015 in the index to the right of this blog. When my December 31st blog, "The Shot Must Choose You" appears, click on the title. All my 2015 blog titles will come up in the index
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 25. Copyright pending
If you wish to copy, share or save this blog, please include the credit line, above
***************
If you would like to see the titles and access hundreds of my blogs from 2015, do the following:
Click on 2015 in the index to the right of this blog. When my December 31st blog, "The Shot Must Choose You" appears, click on the title. All my 2015 blog titles will come up in the index
No comments:
Post a Comment