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An Unforgettable Character
April 9, 2011
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John T, a smiling little Irishman, was my first
active duty Air Force crew chief. No, wait; he was
my second crew chief. I remember my first crew chief
now, but I can't recall his name, although I can
still see his face. He reminded me somewhat of the
movie actor Guy Madison. I guess old John T must
have made more of an impression on me. I've
certainly never forgotten his name after nearly
fifty years.
John T was a much-decorated WW
II Army combat vet, and a really, really gentle
little guy. He had a puckish sense of humor and an
encyclopedic knowledge of electronics. He also
suffered from the effects of PTSD, although that
term wasn't used in those days. I just thought he
liked to drink, and never wondered what caused his
attraction to booze, or his need for it.
Matter of fact, I don't believe I ever really saw
John T completely sober from the day I met him until
the day he was unceremoniously ushered from Uncle
Sam's Air Force some two years later. By then, I was
the crew chief. John T had been relieved of all duty
responsibilities and was no longer allowed to enter
the operations/maintenance facilities.
John
T, even in his mellowest state, still knew his
radar. After I took over as crew chief, I called him
one day with a problem I couldn't solve. This
‘drunk' had me get out a schematic, and he walked me
through it to the problem's source. He was in the
barracks without benefit of a schematic, supposedly
unfit for duty. Yet, he could ‘see' the schematic in
his mind's eye.
I'm not excusing his
drinking, although he never drank on duty as far as
I know. He just never completely sobered up before
he got to work. Sometimes, he was a little late
getting there. Still, he took great pride in his
crew, and he taught us to have that same pride in
how we did our jobs.
He brooked no laxness
from us. To him, keeping the radar in top operating
condition was our only reason for being on site, and
he made sure that we lived up to that obligation. He
may have been a drunk, but he certainly had
character. Too bad the term ‘Shell Shock' was
regarded as an insult back in those days, and PTSD
had never been heard of. John T might have gotten
the help he needed.
He was still smiling the
last time I saw him as he finally departed the Air
Force, busted from five stripes to two, his
uniformed chest resplendent with service ribbons. He
had earned more than anybody else I ever personally
knew or served with. (It was rumored that he had
only one or two less decorations than the famed
Audie Murphy.) His mental demons were probably also
smiling.
A few years later, when I was
stationed in Spain, I met a survivor of the Bataan
Death March. One thing that I noticed almost at
once: he and John T had the same smile – big, wide,
lots of teeth – never quite making it to their eyes. |
 By
Thurman P. Woodfork
Copyright 2002
About
Author...
Thurman P. Woodfork (Woody) spent his
Air Force career as a radar repairman in places as disparate as
Biloxi, Mississippi; Cut Bank, Montana; Tin City, Alaska; Rosas,
Spain and Tay Ninh, Vietnam. In Vietnam, he was assigned to
Detachment 7 of the 619th Tactical Control Squadron, a Forward Air
Command Post located on Trai Trang Sup. Trang Sup was an Army
Special Forces camp situated about fifty miles northwest of Saigon
in Tay Ninh province, close to the Cambodian border.
After Vietnam, Woody remained in the Air Force for nine more years.
Visit
Thurman P. Woodfork's site for more information |
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