Military Service
1951-1955
Muzzy always thought that the military was where Pops shined the very brightest.
Memories from Maine
> About fifteen years ago, the men in Pop's crew, who are all still close to one another, had a reunion. It became very clear that they held Pops in such high, almost mythical, esteem that it was like how the men in Saving Private Ryon looked up to the Tom Hanks' character. And just like the movie, little did Pop's men know that he didn't see himself even remotely as they did. Seeing yourself as less than others do seems to be a common characteristic of men who lead other men well. No ego, just put your shoulder into it with everything you've got, and they will too…
> In Florida, there was a runway where you had to land heading towards the ocean. That approach had a tailwind, and worse, had a large dune you had to clear and then quickly drop down to make the runway. Most pilots could not maintain control of the plane in what was essentially a stall. And so they either hit the dune or came in too hot and ended up in the sea. Several perished.
Pops was one of the few that just got what was needed. So they assigned him to teach others. The problem was, to teach, the student had to be in control of the plane. Pops said that more than once, he was sure they were going to crash and likely die. One time, in a way you could tell still really shook him, he said that had he grabbed control even one millisecond later, they both would have been goners.
> Despite all the achievements in other areas, Muzzy always thought that the military was where Pops shined the very brightest. He was a natural, but then he was a natural at so much. But he was also comfortable in the military. Perhaps the most comfortable he ever was. She said if they could do it all over again, she would encourage him to stay in the service.
> Stationed most of the time in Brunswick, Maine, Muzz started getting pregnant – 7 pregnancies in 5 years. Apparently, when he was out on tour, they missed each other very much.
Jim and Dave were both Bath, Maine babies.
(The two miscarriages were girls).
> As noted earlier: when higher-ups in the military or State Department were negotiating treaties and such, they would fly Pops all over the world to play with the foreign dignitaries because he could lose to them by one stroke, without them knowing. The pictures of him by the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx are from when he played with Anwar Sadat.
> Pops drove with the same fluidity with which he flew. We would often be driving us all in some huge Suburbanesque vehicle late at night on a mountain pass. There being no one else on the road, the lines would disappear, you could just feel him at the yoke of his plane banking this way and that, free as a bird…
Alaska!
> He left active service as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) and entered the Naval Reserve for many years.
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Resolute Bay!
Egypt!
> Pops traveled the world in the service. And because of golf got to experience much more than just the base and surroundings.
But what he found the most interesting was flying in, over, and around the North and South Pole. Vast stretches of ice or wilderness, not another soul for hundreds of miles, conditions so tricky you would often lose orientation, he reveled in these regions' serious otherness. Dave, his son, inherited that.
Hutchinson
Rome!
AUDIO: Carrier Story (salty language)
AUDIO: Flying Stories
AUDIO: Flying Stories (longer, interesting to some)
AUDIO: Cuban Missile Crisis
Military acknowlegements