At the Post Office

I was down at the Post Office at about 1130, mailing off a Birthday present and I noticed a man in line with a baseball cap in desert camouflage and an Air Force patch.  He was a bit older, so I doubted he had been to the Sandbox.  Might have been his son or daughter's.

I asked him anyway.  I am normally a shy person, but my company sent me to a course on marketing and the person in charge made a point of saying you need to actually walk up to strangers and introduce yourself and strike up a conversation.  It is good training, in his humble opinion.

I didn't introduce myself (minus 10 points right there), but I did ask him if he had been in the Air Force.  Sure enough--5 years.  He was an airborne radar repairman, just like one of my classmates at UMass Lowell on Monday evenings.  This chap was stationed at RAF Lakenheath, in the UK.  He worked on F-100Ds, which might put him there about the time I was at Bitburg AB, in Germany, in the F-4D.

He remembered the old outfits, the 20th at RAF Wethersfield and the 81st at RAF Bentwaters and the 50th at Hahn AB.  I mentioned the 49th at Spangdahlem AB. I also mentioned that I had been to the UK for a year, with the RAF at their Staff College. That is all gone, what with the various consolidations to save money.

Just a short conversation with a fellow airman and a fun one at that.

Regards  --  Cliff

PS:  About my classmate in College Writing I, he worked on the Harrier and the Tornado and had been to the Sandbox.  An actual RAF chap, without the mustache, but with the accent.