Before Colorado
There was the
U.S. Air Force

The Airmen in the picture above were also assigned with me at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the preventive medicine office. I am on the left and then Richard, Kerry and Ed. We had a good time at work and spent time after work together also. After this picture was taken Kerry was assigned to an Air Base in Turkey I was assigned to Anderson AFB on the island of Guam, Marianna's Islands. And then not too long after I received my orders Ed was also assigned to Anderson AFB.

Doug at a gate to a Titan II missile silo for a preventive medicine inspection. I was given a password before I left the air base and had to remember it to gain access to the entrance of the silo. There were 18 missile silos surrounding Tucson at the time that I was there. Once a month we would have to go and do an inspection of the living quarters and test the well water. If there was a fuel transfer we would have to be present to be observers in case of a leak and notify local authorities of the potential toxic fumes. We usually drove pickups but once in a while we would be able to hitch a ride on a helicopter if one was going to where we needed to inspect.

I was first stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base during the Vietnam War. The base was a training base for F4C Phantom Jets. The jets would take off in groups of 4 and do manuvers over the desert and then come back and land. During this time it was the busiest airport in the world. Our office went go to different locations around Tucson and take noise measurements to see if the sound decibels were in a safe level. We also inspected the different shops on the base for toxic chemicals.

Davis-Monthan AFB Flightline by Doug

Control Tower at Davis-Monthan AFB. My car is on our right and the two sports cars next to it were owned by friends of mine.

Here I am enjoying the Arizona desert with my 1958 MGA Roadster. ..

Sometimes you just have to ignore the signs and climb over the barracades to get the best view. Picture taken by another airman while on a weekend trip to the Grand Canyon.

Anderson Air Force Base, Guam

My second assignment was on the island of Guam at Anderson Air Force Base. B-52 Bombers in 1968 and 1969 launched from Anderson Air Force Base on Guam with their destination Viet Nam where bombing missions against Viet Cong base operations were carried out.. The duties from our preventive medicine office were similar to back in Arizona. Inspect shops on base for toxic hazards. Water samples , inspect swimming pools, and on Anderson if planes came from out of the country we inspected planes for insects and rodents and checked stewardess health paperwork to make sure it was correct.

When we were off duty we spent a lot of time on Tarague beach which was a coconut plantation at one time but was a beautiful beach with white coral sand when I was there. We also played golf on the Anderson AFB course which was new and had out cropings of coral (which made the golf balls do erratic bounces ) It was also on the edge of a cliff and beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. This cliff also was responseable for down drafts and crazy wind currents which would affect the trajectory of the golf balls. There was another golf course on the US Navy base. It was much older and had beautiful tropical vegetation on it.

This is the car that I had while on Guam. It had several places where the rust had eaten away the body and had been bondo-ed but it ran just fine.

In 1969 the Viet Nam war was winding down and the military was sending more and more troops home by giving them early outs. This means that even though I had signed up for 4 years I was able to get out a couple of months early which I really looked forward to.