Page 73 - Stand Down Vietnam

I enjoyed my off-duty work with the kids, but my
military assignments were a lot more exciting. I met a
lot of VIP personnel.

The thing I liked the most about our tour in Hawaii was
when my father came over and they had a surprise
birthday party for me. They took me to see the belly
dancers.

During our tour, Jean’s father died, and she went back
to Kentucky for a month. I was the cook while she was
gone. I fixed the kids' breakfast, paid for their
school lunch and then cooked a lot of the same stuff
for dinner. I told my daughters they had to teach me
better.

A neighbor told Tim that if he could repair an old VW,
he could have it. He got it running and had that VW
the entire time we were in Hawaii.

The thing I least liked about my tour in Hawaii was
that we had to leave.

My next assignment was back to New River, North
Carolina. That’s where I started my career. Plus,
five of the families that we had been in Haiti with
were also at New River at the time and some of the
people from Hawaii were also being transferred to New

River. But I was diverted to another base at Cherry
Point because of my rank.

I became the Chief of Operations for the Marine Corps
Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina. I had a
driver and a secretary. I became the “Targets Chief”
also.

The night we moved into housing we had twenty-six
inches of snow on the ground. So, from Hawaii to snow.