Chance meetings -
As I look back on this long life I have lived, I believe chance meetings are one of life's greatest blessings. There are probably at least three categories for these - memorable, not so memorable and "why did our paths cross?".
My first memorable one happened in my junior year of high school, which was my first year in the high school building. Some of us juniors had to take tenth grade in the junior high building, while others did their sophomore year in the high school building. When we reported to the high school for eleventh grade orientation, we were assigned to a junior who had spent the previous year at the high school who's job it was to show us the ropes so we, at least, wouldn't get lost the first day of school.
The girl to whom I was assigned, Sally (not her real name), had one of those personalities which made you feel you had known her all your life after spending just five minutes with her. She was tall and brunette with brown eyes and a beautiful smile. I could barely listen to her explain about the combination lock because I was mesmerized with not only her physical beauty, but her personality as well.
It was love at first sight, al least for me, but I soon found out from her friends she had a steady boy friend, no great surprise. I got over it by convincing myself it would have not amounted to anything anyway because she was from a well-to-do family on the other side of town, and I was from a blue collar working class neighborhood. I admired her from a distance all through high school, and she was highly visible because she was elected preisdent of our class as I remember.
After we graduated I lost track of her, and I've always hoped she had the kind of happy life she deserved.
There were several chance meetings during my four years in the Air Force during the Korean War. While waiting for control tower operator school to begin in the summer of 1951 at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi, I was assigned to a "casual" squadron with no definitely assigned duties. Each morning we would "fall out" into formation and be assigned to our duties for the day. One morning the duty sergeant asked if any of us could type and Bob Hanna and I immediately held up our hands since it sounded like a better day than pulling KP or working in the motor pool.
Hanna and I were assigned to an Air Police office near the main gate of the base where the families of servicemen would come to apply for ID cards and other passes. During lulls in our typing we got to be pretty good friends, and I found out he was from Indianapolis and liked basketball. We worked together for a couple of weeks, then my school started and I moved to another squadron and never saw Bob again. After 55 years I still remember him.
In Korea in 1952 I worked in the Taegu Matcon (military air traffic control center) where we controlled the air traffic flying on instruments up to eleven thousand five hundred feet. We gave clearances to bases all over South Korea so most of our contact with the other locations was by landline. I got to be a telephone buddy with guys (no women controllers at the time in Korea) at most of the bases. At first we only knew each other by our call signs, but over time we began to learn names and a little about each other. My call sign was EasyNan and I spoke often to RogerSugar (Shepherd) who
was in base operations at Taegu (K-2) and called in flight plans to us in the center. KingNan (Mel Kampmann from California) was at Kunsan, BakerNan (Robert Brown from Texas) was at Pusan (K-9) and so on. For a year there was close comaraderie even though we only knew each other over the phone. In December 1952 I rotated back to the states and never heard from any of these fellows again. Chance meetings.
I was assigned to Langley AFB in Hampton, Virginia, upon returning from Korea, and here is where my most memorable chance meeting took place. Writing about it here will make this entry too long. The impact is with me even today, but I will leave that story for my next entry.
Copyright Hugh M. Eaton, Jr. June 2006
As I look back on this long life I have lived, I believe chance meetings are one of life's greatest blessings. There are probably at least three categories for these - memorable, not so memorable and "why did our paths cross?".
My first memorable one happened in my junior year of high school, which was my first year in the high school building. Some of us juniors had to take tenth grade in the junior high building, while others did their sophomore year in the high school building. When we reported to the high school for eleventh grade orientation, we were assigned to a junior who had spent the previous year at the high school who's job it was to show us the ropes so we, at least, wouldn't get lost the first day of school.
The girl to whom I was assigned, Sally (not her real name), had one of those personalities which made you feel you had known her all your life after spending just five minutes with her. She was tall and brunette with brown eyes and a beautiful smile. I could barely listen to her explain about the combination lock because I was mesmerized with not only her physical beauty, but her personality as well.
It was love at first sight, al least for me, but I soon found out from her friends she had a steady boy friend, no great surprise. I got over it by convincing myself it would have not amounted to anything anyway because she was from a well-to-do family on the other side of town, and I was from a blue collar working class neighborhood. I admired her from a distance all through high school, and she was highly visible because she was elected preisdent of our class as I remember.
After we graduated I lost track of her, and I've always hoped she had the kind of happy life she deserved.
There were several chance meetings during my four years in the Air Force during the Korean War. While waiting for control tower operator school to begin in the summer of 1951 at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi, I was assigned to a "casual" squadron with no definitely assigned duties. Each morning we would "fall out" into formation and be assigned to our duties for the day. One morning the duty sergeant asked if any of us could type and Bob Hanna and I immediately held up our hands since it sounded like a better day than pulling KP or working in the motor pool.
Hanna and I were assigned to an Air Police office near the main gate of the base where the families of servicemen would come to apply for ID cards and other passes. During lulls in our typing we got to be pretty good friends, and I found out he was from Indianapolis and liked basketball. We worked together for a couple of weeks, then my school started and I moved to another squadron and never saw Bob again. After 55 years I still remember him.
In Korea in 1952 I worked in the Taegu Matcon (military air traffic control center) where we controlled the air traffic flying on instruments up to eleven thousand five hundred feet. We gave clearances to bases all over South Korea so most of our contact with the other locations was by landline. I got to be a telephone buddy with guys (no women controllers at the time in Korea) at most of the bases. At first we only knew each other by our call signs, but over time we began to learn names and a little about each other. My call sign was EasyNan and I spoke often to RogerSugar (Shepherd) who
was in base operations at Taegu (K-2) and called in flight plans to us in the center. KingNan (Mel Kampmann from California) was at Kunsan, BakerNan (Robert Brown from Texas) was at Pusan (K-9) and so on. For a year there was close comaraderie even though we only knew each other over the phone. In December 1952 I rotated back to the states and never heard from any of these fellows again. Chance meetings.
I was assigned to Langley AFB in Hampton, Virginia, upon returning from Korea, and here is where my most memorable chance meeting took place. Writing about it here will make this entry too long. The impact is with me even today, but I will leave that story for my next entry.
Copyright Hugh M. Eaton, Jr. June 2006
posted by easynan | 3:23 PM
1 Comments:
Still waiting for that ending and story about your chance encounter...hope you write more soon.
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