•July 12, 2017•

Before I get into my military experience I want to thank the Honor Flight organization and every guardian on the Springfield to Washington D. C. flight on June 20, 2017.

To me it was an outright great experience that I would have missed out on if had not gone to the Sullivan Medical Clinic to get a dumb-luck (being in the right place at the right time) check-up blood test. Sitting in the waiting room wearing my military baseball cap, I was spotted by Mrs. Marsha Bowyer who later became my and another vet’s, Mr. Gordon Wood’s, Guardian. All I can say is thank you so much. It was a moving experience I’ll take to my grave.

Right after high school graduation in June 1956, I was hired to work for Illinois Bell Telephone Co. in Chicago. In November, (during the Cold War era under President Eisenhower) I overroad my scared emotion of the unknown and joined the Navy Reserves Aviation Dept. where I would do six years service. Two were active duty, followed by two of monthly meetings, plus two weeks of active duty in each year, and two years of stand by duty. But all I did was the first two years. For those last four years, every six months the Navy wanted me to fill out a status form. And that was it.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.