Prior to UPT I lived in the small state of Rhode
Island, and now that I am retired I live within the smallest state of mind while
still residing within the state of
Rhode
Island. Jane and I continue our journey together and fortunately our children
and one granddaughter (Alexa) all live within 25 miles of each other. Ken is
married and is a RI state trooper and an Army National Guard pilot who just got
back from a tour in Iraq/Afghanistan (March 2009); Karen is engaged and is a 6th
grade teacher; and Teresa is married and works for a medical research company.
Alexa is Ken’s daughter.
After Del Rio, I went to Vietnam, flying EC-47’s out of Nha Trang and then Phu
Cat. While in Nha Trang, I lived near the civilian terminal at the airport,
several hundred feet in from a pristine beach in a 10 room villa with 9 other
flyboys and two maids. It was like a frat house for older men. Flew about 120
missions and accumulated about 850 combat hours. Nha Trang was a pleasant city
with great beaches, fishing and restaurants and some say an R&R center for all
the combatants. Phu Cat was like a monastery.
Subsequently, I flew C-141’s out of McGuire AFB, NJ and that was an extremely
enjoyable experience which allowed me to get acquainted with the world. Like
Bingo, I would get back to “SANDY” once a month to collect combat pay and get
the tax.jpg)
exemption.
I got off active duty in November 1972 and took a job with Boise Cascade in
Pennsylvania and remained in the Air Force Reserve. I left that job in 1973 and
returned to RI and join the RI National Guard as an air weapons controller and
took a job with the City of Warwick. Subsequently, I went back on active duty
when I took a full time Air Guard Reserve position with the RI Air National
Guard and eventually became the Operations Officer in a Combat and Reporting
center and retired in 1989 as a lieutenant colonel.
Following my military career I took a position with the Warwick RI Police
Department (1991) compiling statistics and reporting these to the RI State
Police and the National Crime
Information
Center a criminal justice information division within the FBI. I retired from
that position in January 2006.
In 1983, I received a MBA from Bryant University I was a member of the RI
National Guard marathon team and completed several marathons in RI, MA and NE. I
was also a member of the RI National Guard biathlon team, but that did now last
long as I was too old to take up that sport with any thought of competing.
However, I did get back into downhill skiing and while participating in a number
of exercises in Italy I got to ski in the Italian Alps. Now that I am retired I
ski a lot up in Vermont and fortunately, my brother has a condo in Sugarbush
(Warren, VT).
Jane and I have traveled some and plan to travel a lot more. We have traveled
extensively within Ireland and been on a number of “Moriarty” tours to County
Kerry. We have been out to the West Coast several times and have taken a few
cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean. We have a sport fishing boat and dock it in
Warwick and travel Narragansett Bay in the summer.
A little history--hopefully correct-- Kevin Murphy, his parents and the
Moriartys kept in contact throughout the years after UPT and via the internet.
Kevin and I then went high tech and got to emailing each other. Kevin and Bob
Fullenkamp stayed in contact for some period after UPT and we reestablished
contact with him around 1996. Shortly thereafter I came upon a (EC-47) website
and we contacted Steve Sohn. We make contact with Dave Nefzger sometime 2008.
It’s been a wonderful journey and 69-03 surely changed my life for the better.