While I was still in high school I signed up to join the United States Air Force. I was from a small town and needed to make a life for myself. My sister's old boyfriend had joined the Air Force. When he came home on leave he searched me out and encouraged me to join. With few options, I did.
When I arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas in June 1980, while our T.I. was yelling at me and 49 other women, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. We had arrived at the base in the wee hours of morning. They marched us into the Mess Hall to eat cafeteria style. In the months that followed, I was taught to march, about the chain of command, how to fire a rifle/machine gun, about the inner workings of the human mouth and the names of teeth, and numerous dental procedures. All I could do was embrace/endure my new life. I was governmental property for four years whether I liked it or not.
After Basic Training and Tech School, I was shipped out to Edward's Air Force Base on the Mojave Desert in California, from 1980 to 1982. I then swapped with someone and was stationed once again at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas from 1982 to 1984.
Four years turned out to drag on forever! It was my good fortune that during those four years it was in peace-time. There were some good times, many challenging times, and I met and made friends with quite a few people from all across the country. My duty was being a dental assistant. I did very little 'drilling and filling.' I assisted in dental sick call, oral surgery, and Prosthodontics. I worked closely with officers and was pretty professional! On weekends, off duty, I danced and partied at the Airman's Club with the clique I was part of. My personality emerged as time dragged on.
Of the many friends I made, I have lost touch with all of them. The military is like that, at least it was in the early 1980s. Service people moved around a lot. You lost contact. You had to move on with your life, but no one could take away your memories. I do have a photo album with some of my service people and places captured in time. When looking at them I close my eyes and imagine those long ago places and faces...distant memories in my past that no one can share with me, because I have no one left with whom to share it.
It is my hope that one or more of my old service mates (or civilian friends) will plug my name in under a search engine and find me! If so, please contact me...if we parted friends. (I didn't have many enemies, at least one I can think of that I wouldn't want contact from...don't ask!) Friends I most remember: Jeanne McCoombs, Richard Goggin, Richard Sparks, Donna Skawski Saia, Cathy Adams Vermuelin, Jakata Ramos Lewis, Hector Garza, Miguel Cacho, Dwaylon Calhoun, and Michael Mosley, to name a few.
I have come to wish I was more self-assured in my service days. I think I would've taken advantage of the opportunities offered to me, of which I was ignorant. Instead of being a dental assistant, I wish I had gone into journalism and written for the base newspaper! I may have also wanted to become a news reporter.
Were you (or are you currently) in the service?
If so, do you have a comment on my experience in losing old friends?
If you haven't been in the service, but have a past life in which you have lost friends forever, do you have something you wish to share?
Please reply!
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