Pictures: Places We Worked or Visited, on Military Duty

[Solace in Solitude]

I don't know if there is any interest out there... but, these are pictures I pulled off the web... places I worked and/or visited... that I found interesting:

Wheelus AB, Tripoli, Libya: My first USAF duty station - here's the main gate... this is the gate that Col Chappie James had and F104 parked, with the cannons pointed down the highway, after Quadaffi overthrew Kind Idris, Labor Day, 1969:

NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado: My second USAF duty station. I was part of "Current Intelligence"... we tracked all launches, to determine trajectory and target in time to determine the appropriate response, if any: Note: This picture is more current than when I was stationed there.

Whitehouse Communications Agency "Checkmate" Entrance: I was ordered to a "job interview", while stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB (DMAFB), Tucson, AZ. This is what the actual entrance looked like in 1973. My orders said, "Report, in a civilian suit, to the corner of Courthouse Road and Eighth Street, in Arlington, VA, at 9am on (some day) September, 1973". That was it... turned out I was reporting to the guard shack at the National Security Agency. I reported and was transported, in an unmarked station wagon", to the 'alley' shown in this picture. Once you turned down the alley, it jogged to the left and then back to the right (you couldn't see down the alley from the street) and then the guys showed up with M16s... I interviewed and was then briefed on the job... and was told "four year controlled tour, with automatic 4 year extensions... could finish a career here". I declined the job... I didn't see any way to support my Wife and two daughters in D.C.

Hendrik Coal Mine, HQ Armed Forces Central Europe (AFCENT), Brunssum, the Netherlands: After DMAFB, I rotated to the Air Force Manpower and Personnel Center, at Randolph AFB, Universal City, TX. I spent 7 years there and then rotated to HQ AFCENT. A portion of my work was performed here:

2nd Allied Tactical Air Force (2ATAF) Bunker, Maastricht, The Netherlands. While at AFCENT, I was transported, by staff car, to the 2ATAF bunker every day. The computer access at Hendrik Mine was so atrociously slow that the only way to actually accomplish my mission (developing war gaming software for NATO) was to accompany my partner (a Scottish NATO civilian; retired UK Royal Army WO-1 (highest WO rank)) to 2ATAF. He and I worked this project for 2.5+ years of the time I was at AFCENT.

Continued....

EDIT:

Current list of veterans in the Veterans' Highway thread

@pngunme
@Chungas Revenge
@Colorado Boy-74-FJ40
@rkymtnflyfisher
@spotcruiser
@UltraFJ
@dieseldog
@krzyabncanuck
@sggoat
@FluByU
@WB8LBZ
@M0untaineer
@69LC
@Cdbailey
@FJCowboy
@ErikinSC
@reconranger
@CharlestonG8R
@honk
@Beau Diddly
@collk22
@daniel.watters
@Walkerm916
@Scuddyp4
@little_joe
@Ocho77
@jclarke450
@TexAZ
@divemedic
@ElPolloBlanco
@Helipilot
@brew8
@t_tentech
@firestopper
@Hugh Heifer
@awynne56
@thebrassnuckles
@KliersLC
@Alex Fogg
@Big Ed
@ExpoGeorgia
@David1947
@Boss Hog
@David1947
@coinoperated40
@OyajiJon
@jimep
@BIG RENO AL
@greenbeasty
@120mm
@98WhiteT4R
@joabmc
@gator25
@LCHardriver_02
@vspec
@Zoombyu
@erymer
@newbcruiser
@Booch
@kevos37
@KingAir Driver
@dangerclose11b
@Wayne
@shawnfj40
@kevin colton
@RredFJ40
@nafod
@ras0ne
@aaronrules
@jdayment

Current list of non-veterans in the Veterans' Highway thread

@JohnnyC
@fj401978
@JohnVee


​

 

[Solace in Solitude]

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Mons, Belgium: I spent many NATO exercises here at SHAPE... in the War Room... I was the IT Guy, responsible for user support:

Erwin Bunker at Boerfink, Germany: I also spent many NATO exercises here at Erwin... same responsibilities as I had at SHAPE:

Eban Emael, Belgium: A visit to Eban Emael was part of my farewell party, when I rotated back to the States. If anyone is not familiar with Eban Emael, you'll find reading about it quite interesting!!

There are more... but these were the most interesting... to me...

Please post up your favorites... or most interesting...

 

[120mm]

Fair warning; I am Forrest Gump when it comes to my military career.

Camp Lejeune, NC December 1982

Red Square, Moscow, USSR, March 1985

Camp Harris, Coburg, Germany, Former East-West border fence, March 1990.

Taji, Iraq, 2010. I was in the initial invasion in 2003, but was too busy to take pictures.

Hohenfels, Germany. 1988-89, 2006-2008, 2015 - present

 

[120mm]

Rishkoor, Afghanistan. Visited Angelina Jolie's school, but she wasn't there.

That's okay, because my partner could've been Angelina's prettier sister. Photo is from the Queen's palace west of Kabul.

Helmand Province, Dasht-e Marjah 2009

 

[120mm]

Some mountaintop battlefield in Central Afghanistan

Herat, Afghanistan

Kunduz, Afghanistan

Faryab, Afghanistan (Yes, that's me on horseback)

 

[Solace in Solitude]

Great pics, Drew!!

Your Angelina reference was coincidental... She, Brad Pitt and 'the kids' lived across the alley from our Smithville, TX house while he was filming The Tree of Life. I never saw them... our Daughter and her husband were living there at the time... they did.

Keep 'em coming guys!!

 

[Big Ed]

I remember those tanks at Taji, that was on the way out the North gate.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

I've visited a number military cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery, and have never seen one more sobering than the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten, NL... something about being interred, for eternity, in the foreign land where you died... and being cared for, so lovingly by the Dutch people, whom you helped to liberate from the Nazis...

Dedicated 1960
Burials 8301
Missing in Action 1722

 

[Solace in Solitude]

I'm going to take the liberty to include the following... if you read it, you may understand what I mean about this cemetery... this is the full Memorial Day speech, as delivered by a descendant of one of the men interred at Margraten... his words give insight into my feelings for de Nederlanders:

REMARKS OF ARTHUR CHOTIN

MAY 24, 2014
​

Major General Van der Louw, Prime Minister Rutte, Commissioner Bovens, General Breedlove, Ambassador Broas, Congresswoman Morella, members of the American WWII Orphans Network (AWON), Ladies and Gentlemen, Dames en Heren.

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy, in response to a question from a reporter about the inequities of military service, famously told Americans "life isn't fair." But my family, and the families of the 10,022 men and women buried or remembered here, already knew. For my mother, that harsh statement became personal on November 3, 1945, months after the war in Europe had ended, when my father, delivering the paperwork that would begin the process of sending men in his unit, including him, back home, was killed when the jeep he was in collided with a truck.

Life isn't fair. And as my 60 new brothers and sisters from AWON who are here today know all too well, the effects of that unfairness impacts those of us left behind for our entire lives.

I never knew my father. He was sent overseas when I was ten weeks old and killed a month before my first birthday. For my entire life, my mother couldn't talk about him without crying. I didn't want to make her cry, so I didn't ask. But, even though I didn't know him I think of him almost every day; what he missed and what my mother and I missed. So here I am, 70 years old, more than twice the age of the father I never played catch with, never argued with, never even hugged, and the single thought in my mind today is that I hope he would be proud of me. Oh the power these dead have over those they left behind.

But for my family, and the families of the other soldiers buried and remembered here, there was a comfort because we learned about the incredible efforts made by the people of the Netherlands to adopt these graves. First the BurgerComité Margraten and more recently the Stichting Adoptie Graven, The Foundation for Adopting Graves.

What would cause a nation recovering from losses and trauma of their own to adopt the sons and daughters of another nation? And what would keep that commitment alive for all of these years, when the memory of that war has begun to fade? It speaks to the character of the Netherlands and its people that every single grave in this cemetery and virtually every single name on that wall has been adopted. It is a unique occurrence in the history of civilization. And it is deserving of recognition, and of thanks.

Yet I imagine that for many of the adopters, there is the question of why more families of these dead never visited the graves of their sons, their brothers, their husbands, their fathers. Traveling to Europe from the United States was very expensive in those days. Surviving widows suddenly found themselves single-parents, raising their fatherless children in many cases with the main bread winner no longer alive. Parents were getting older and didn't travel and sisters and brothers were too young to come here on their own. But for my mother, although she never told me this directly, somewhere deep inside she held out the hope that one day there would be a knock at the door and she would learn that ... it had all been a big mistake. Coming here and seeing my father's grave would make it real and would destroy that dream.

She never came. She never remarried. She mourned him until the day she died. But in her sadness she always had a special place in her heart for the people of the Netherlands and for those who had adopted graves. She would have been so honored to meet members of the Adoption Committee, and Petra, Boy and Pim Naaijkens who have adopted five graves here, including my fathers'. When she met Dutch people traveling in the United States she made a point of speaking with them and thanking them. And when I traveled here for the first time in 1974 she devoured the letters I wrote and the pictures I took.

So where does this lead? It leads to the fact that I, and the hundreds of thousands of natural born descendants of these 10,022 want you, their adopted descendants, to know how appreciated you are and how grateful we are to each and every one of you. You have made a positive difference in the lives of those these dead have left behind.

And so, namens mijn vader, on behalf of my father, S/Sgt Max Chotin, United States Army, serial number 32193094; namens zijn vrouw, on behalf of his wife, my mother, Sylvia Chotin, who if any part of life is fair is with my father today looking down on all of us; namens zijn dochter in wet, on behalf of his daughter-in-law, my wife, Betsy, who has joined me in mourning and missing my father since the day of our marriage; namens zijn oudste kleinzoon, on behalf of his eldest grandson, Matthew, who is named for my father; namens Matthew's vrouw, on behalf of Matthew's wife Sharon who this fall will give birth to his great grandchild; namens zijn jongste kleinzoon, on behalf of his youngest grandson, David, who, when he visited here for the first time, left a letter he had written to his grandfather telling him how thankful he was for his sacrifice and the sacrifice of the others buried here so that David and his generation could be free; namens de leden van AWON, on behalf of the members of AWON, many of whom, the Margraten Kids, have parents buried here; on all of their behalf I stand here today:

Door het maken van deze dode deel van uw famile, by making these dead part of your family, you have become part of our family. You have created a bond between us that will never be broken. So, from this day forward, from now until the end of time, hartelijk bedank, a heartfelt thank you. May the kindness and compassion you have shown them, and us, be returned to you many times over. We thank you, we salute you, we are forever grateful. Bedankt

 

[Big Ed]

My allergies just started acting up.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

My allergies just started acting up.

Yeah, I teared up too, Ed...

 

[Big Ed]

I really like personal stories like this, rather than this army moved here and that army moved there. While in Iraq I was reading a book called "Citizen Soldiers". It isn't about the National Guard as some would think, it's about the transformation from citizen to soldier that millions went through in WWII. It's all personal stories, I would recommend it if anyone wants a book to read.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

I really like personal stories like this, rather than this army moved here and that army moved there. While in Iraq I was reading a book called "Citizen Soldiers". It isn't about the National Guard as some would think, it's about the transformation from citizen to soldier that millions went through in WWII. It's all personal stories, I would recommend it if anyone wants a book to read.

View attachment 1265488

Thanks Ed!!

 

[highground]

Fair warning; I am Forrest Gump when it comes to my military career.

Camp Lejeune, NC December 1982

Red Square, Moscow, USSR, March 1985

Camp Harris, Coburg, Germany, Former East-West border fence, March 1990.

Taji, Iraq, 2010. I was in the initial invasion in 2003, but was too busy to take pictures.

Hohenfels, Germany. 1988-89, 2006-2008, 2015 - present

Hey Drew, I have several pictures of the Boneyard at Taji as well, I was also there in 2010. Small world!
Lee

 

[highground]

Hi Y'all, I'm gonna throw in a few from back in the stone age.

I started here at MCAS Cherry Point in mid 77 after graduation from PI and my "A" school at Millington, spent some time there and then moved on to MCAS Iwakuni Japan. We were flying the old A-4's, F-4's (Still my all time favorite fast mover) A6's, OV-10 Bronco's, and the then new AV-8A Harriers.

We did several rotations in and out of 29 Stumps, California in 77 during my time in the States.

While in Iwakuni Japan late 77-80 we did 3 "Team Spirit" exercises in Korea and worked with the Korean Marines, great bunch of guys. We made more trips than I can remember to Okinawa, Kadena AB, especially riding in the back of a C-130 for hours on end laying down in an old M151A1 Jeep trying to sleep it off. We always did air combat missions with the Air Force as either the aggressor or OPFOR

Visited many times to Korea

And of course what OCONUS assignment for Marines would be complete without multiple trips to Subic Bay, Philippines? WOW, what a great place to work and party!! 7.5 Pesos to one Greenback at the time, WOOHOO!

 

[highground]

And on we go! Fast forward 20+ years and now an Army Warrant Officer in Iraq! I was based out of Taji, spent a lot of time at the embassy in Baghdad, Mosul, Speicher, Balad, and Q-West with a nice 3 or 4 hole sand golf course and yes I played it in a K pot and IBA! As my Navy brethren used to say on the PA system, That is All!

 

[120mm]

Ha. I helped set up Anaconda and Taji during OIF I. And fought like hell to not have Speicher set up, because it is a stupid place to put a FOB. Not surprisingly, Speicher was a hotbed for insurgent activity.

 

[Big Ed]

fought like hell to not have Speicher set up, because it is a stupid place to put a FOB. Not surprisingly, Speicher was a hotbed for insurgent activity.

It was one of the very few places we always had to be in full battle rattle.

 

[highground]

It was one of the very few places we always had to be in full battle rattle.

I agree, a huge mistake to put a FOB there and we were especially NOT welcome there.

 

[120mm]

I was on the V Corps planning cell in early 2003 for putting in FOBs and LSAs and saw the whole thing unravel before my eyes like a low speed traffic accident on an icy mountain road.

The USAF was pushing hard to make BIAP into the primary LSA for all of Iraq and a particular unit, I forget which, which was already sitting in the Speicher location was whinging and crying about staying there. We won the battle for Balad SE to become the main LSA, but lost the battle to relocate Speicher.

Morons.