My dad served in the Air Force for 20 years. It was exciting growing up and moving around to different parts of the country as he was transferred to different bases. These moves took place as frequently as 7 months, or as long as 3 years apart. As an infant we lived in Germany and England, then Havre and Great Falls, MT (first grade), then Riverside, CA (2nd grade), then Gulfport, MS (3rd grade), then Fallon, NV (3rd and 4th grade), then Riverside, CA (5th to 7th grade), then Mountain Home, ID (8th grade), and finally Riverside, CA (8th and 9th grade), where he retired from the Air Force.
Actually, a couple of those Riverside stays were where the family settled when my dad was stationed at remote sites overseas, and where families couldn’t come with him. Riverside is my mother’s home town.
In 1959 my dad was stationed at Fox Harbor, Newfoundland, for a year when I was 8 years old. We used to make him audio tapes on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, which was high tech at the time. Here is my dad in Fox Harbor:
I do remember how exciting it was when he returned home after the year away, and we were so excited to have him take us to a Dodger baseball game.
The next remote assignment came in 1965-66, when he was stationed in Saudi Arabia for 15 months while I was in 8th and 9th grades. He came home for a short visit in the middle of that assignment, flying standby on Air Force planes. He finished his assignment just after the 6-day Arab-Israeli war, so things were a little dicey over there for him. But we were excited that he retired from the Air Force, we had our dad back, and we could stay in Riverside permanently, where I attended high school.
I’m sure it was a hardship for our family having dad away those many months, especially for my mother, who was raising four and five children at the time. Somehow we managed. That’s just the way it was when you served in the military.
So I’m curious where your dad grew up. Is he a California native like your mom?
I love the picture from Fox Harbor (or is it Harbour?). My dad was also stationed in Newfoundland, but he was in Goose Bay. He volunteered for the Air Force during the Vietnam era (figured he would be drafted, and, hey, maybe he wanted to escape the farm!), and instead of being sent to Asia, the USAF sent him to Canada! He was also in Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. He wasn’t career military.
I bet it was quite a contrast for your dad going from Newfoundland to Saudi Arabia although I see from the dates that he had a few years between.
Andrew and I recently met a retired Marine and his wife, and they said they had figured one time how many years apart they had been during his years in the military. I want to say he missed 11 out of 20 years of marriage and fatherhood, but the exact number slipped my mind.
I enjoyed reading this.
My father grew up near and in Hillsboro, Texas. He joined the Army Air Force late in WWII and ended up making a career out of it. Perhaps I should write a blog post about his military story. In fact, I will.