Tag Archives: Sgt. Hungate

1971 KAFB July-December Part 2: Working with Zoomers

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The Air Force approach to policing. Continue reading →

The approach of the Air Force to policing was substantially different from what the MPs were accustomed to. The Army officers and sergeants interfered much less in the day-to-day operations of the police desk and the guys on patrol. In fact, in my experience they hardly wer involved at all. On the other hand, at four different levels the Air Force brass were much more hands-on. Sometimes they imposed discipline in important areas, but sometimes they were just disruptive.

  • Our flight leader, Tech Sergeant Budick sometimes drove around in the patrol supervisor’s car. On midnight shifts he often came in to talk with Dick Madden about all kinds of subjects, mostly unrelated to work. For example, we learned what a great chess player his son was. “He can see several moves in advance!”
  • SOPSgt. Hungate, the top NCO in the Law Enforcement office (or whatever the Zoomers called it), often visited the police desk. He made certain that we all knew where the SOPs, checklists of tasks to be accomplished in the event of unusual but important circumstances, were, and he encouraged us to familiarize ourselves with them. The SOPs were contained in a big binder behind the police desk. He also asked a lot of questions.
  • Sgt. Hungate’s boss, Capt. Creedon, was not around as often, but he was a stickler for details. I had one unpleasant run-in with him just before I departed.
  • The base commander, a colonel whose name escapes me, liked to drive around in his big Jeep. He always had the onboard radio set to the police band. If something sounded untoward, he would demand to know the details. He even made surprise visits to the police headquarters.

Most MPs found this extra attention annoying, but Russ Eakle seemed to like the new environment. His new partner, whose last name was Fowler, somehow had wangled a transfer into the MP Company. My recollection is that he was formerly a medic, but I may be wrong. I never heard if Fowler called Eakle “Duke” or not.

The Duke appeared in Big Jake in 1970. Maybe it inspired Russ Eakle.

The Duke appeared in Big Jake in 1970. Maybe this inspired Russ Eakle.

One day Russ really surprised me. He approached me in the barracks and told me that he wanted to purchase a motorcycle. Evidently he could not afford to pay cash for it. He said that a bank had told him that it would loan him the money, but he needed someone who was over 21 to co-sign the loan. I might have done this if (1) I did not already know that soon we both were going to be transferred to new posts; (2) I did not already know that I would ETS within a year, and Russ would not; and (3) Someone other than Russ Eakle was doing the asking. Russ was a little put out that I turned him down. Surely I was not the first person whom he asked, was I?

One night I was working the police desk. I am pretty sure that it was early in a midnight shift, but it might have been late in a swing shift. Sgt. Hungate walked up to the desk, which was about five feet high. Dick Madden, Dean Ahrendt, and I were sitting behind the desk. We were sitting on wheeled chairs on a platform raised a foot or so above where Sgt. Hungate was standing. So, we could only see his bald head. From there he could see all three of us, but if he took a step or two back we would be invisible to him.

“10-33, 10-33, 10-37.”

I was sitting nearest the microphone for the radio. Sgt. Hungate told me to issue the code that the station was under duress. At that time I knew the code well. I think that it was 10-37, but I might be wrong. I also knew the code for “all cars”, which I think was 10-33. So, I said, deliberately and loudly “10-33, 10-33, 10-37. I say again: 10-37.” Military personnel always say “say again” rather than “repeat”.

Sgt. Hungate critiqued my delivery. He had wanted me to issue the code in a nonchalant manner. I was aware of his intention, but he did not order me to announce it that way. I, of course, was worried that during such a dull period all the guys on patrol might be “cooping”, i.e., napping or goofing off. He would not be happy with them if no one responded.

What? No Snickers?

What? No Snickers?

Hungate then told us to hide under our work table so that no one could see us without coming behind the police desk. He also ordered us not to make a sound. He also hid in a nearby office. Marshall Anderson, who was patrolling by himself1, broke the radio silence. “Kirtland Police, Police 9, 10-7. I need a candy bar.” “Kirtland Police” was the police desk. Marshall’s vehicle was “Police 9”. “10-7” was a request for a break.

Sgt. Hungate indicate that we should not respond. The desk ALWAYS responded. Guys on patrol were not allowed to take a break without approval from the desk. So, Marshall should have stayed in his truck in the parking lot and asked for a break again.

Instead, Marshall moseyed into the station, came into the area surrounding the police desk. and put his chin over the top of the desk. He could not see us. Then he called out “Hello!” a few times, shrugged, went into the break room, bought his candy bar, and strolled back to his truck in the parking lot.

Another couple of minutes passed. Russ Eakle, who was on patrol with SP5 Fowler, could be heard on the radio. “Kirtland Police, Police 13, say again the last transmission.” We stayed hidden and silent.

Shortly thereafter, Eakle and Fowler entered the station with their weapons drawn. My heart skipped a beat. This was the first (and only) time that I was around any MP with his hand-cannon removed the holster. E&F looked over the top and saw that no one was visible, but they did not come behind the desk. They heard a noise from upstairs, where the captain was working late. We could hear the two of them rapidly ascending the stairs. Hungate called out to them before they got very far, but he was facing two .45’s pointed at him while he explained the exercise.

I could think of many ways that this episode could have ended really badly. I was very relieved when those pistols went back in the holsters. I imagine that someone got chewed out over it, but I don’t remember ever hearing about it again.

SOP_BookThat SOP binder was very useful on a couple of occasions. The first time was when Dean or Dick took a call from the manager at the commissary, who reported that someone had phoned him to warn that a bomb had been planted somewhere in the store. We dutifully executed the prescribed steps in order. The most important assignment was to cordon off the area around the commissary and evacuate everyone from the area. I don’t remember precisely how we managed to do this. We usually only had three cars on patrol. Maybe guys from the traffic area were shanghaied from the Day Room to help out. They were free most of the day.

EODMeanwhile we called the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Team. It was their job to find the devices, if any, to remove them, and to dispose of them safely. Our primary responsibility was to keep everyone out of the danger area until EOD declared the area safe.

The commissary was the size of a major supermarket. It took the EOD team more than an hour to search it thoroughly. They certainly did not want to hear a BOOM after they had declared the area clear. During that time traffic in one of the busiest parts of the base was seriously disrupted. Eventually, however, EOD told us that it was OK to let people back in, and we relayed the message to the guys on patrol.

A few minutes after the dust had settled, a red-faced Sgt. Hungate stormed up to the desk and demanded to know why we had failed to notify the base commander of this incident. Dick showed him the SOP for a bomb scare and pointed out that nowhere did it tell us to contact the base commander. Hungate examined the SOP for himself. We could see that his jaw was tightly clinched as he took the binder away and stomped up the stairs to his office. He returned it later with a revised list of steps for responding to a bomb scare.

Bomb_ThreadAs luck would have it, when, a few weeks later, a second threat was received, our flight was again on duty when it occurred. We followed all the revised procedures in our SOP binder. We sent the patrols to cordon off the BX, which was the size of a K-Mart. Once again the EOD team searched the store, found nothing, and issued the all-clear. This time nobody yelled at us.

Someone might have searched for the perpetrators of these threats, but it was not the patrols. This sort of thing was, as they say in the military, “above our pay-grade”. Either they caught whoever made the threat, or he/she/they was no longer entertained by the sight of us holding up traffic for several hours. There were no further threats while I was in Albuquerque.

The thought occurred to me that if I were planning a major crime on KAFB, I would have someone phone in a bomb threat first. We devoted 100 percent of available police resources to keeping people away from the threatened area. Nowhere in our SOPs did it say what we should do if a major crime was committed while the cops were all deployed to prevent angry motorists from entering thee threatened zone.

Air Force One was our imaginary guest.

Air Force One was our imaginary guest.

Some time later, probably in November or December, we received word that an Inspector General was coming to the base for several days of inspections. Part of that effort would be an assessment of how security forces (us) would respond to unusual situations.

This time our flight was working the swing shift. The day shift had been required to deal with a make-believe landing of Air Force One at the Kirtland air strip. We figured that we were probably off-the-hook, but almost as soon as we sat down, the phone rang. I answered it. It was an unidentified guy claiming to have placed a bomb in the BX. I got as much information from him as I could before he hung up on me. We then executed our instructions as before. I think that we probably helped the base get good grades on the inspection. There was only one chance in sixteen that the same flight would handle all three situations, but it happened to us.

Two other memorable events occurred on our shift during the Air Force period. The first should have been routine. It was a very windy night. The alarms at the bank, the commissary, and the BX all sounded. Since no one was working at the time, they were presumably set off by detectors of sound or motion. It was unusual for all three alarms to sound simultaneously, but we had responded to a fairly large number of such incidents before the Air Force took charge. The MPs walked around the building to make sure that there were no intruders. Then we called someone to reset the alarms.

On this occasion we sent Sam Noce, a Zoomer with considerable experience, and his MP partner to check out the bank. Evidently his experience on the west side of the base did not include the wind setting off alarms. Maybe none of those buildings had sound/motion detectors. In any case, when they arrived at the bank, Sam drew his .38 and crept around the edge of the building with his pistol in the ready position. We had to tell him that although we always checked out the alarms, on windy nights the chance of false positives was close to 100 percent. So, the best strategy is to check thoroughly and, if anything is amiss, call for backup.

JailThe other event occurred at the jail on the old Kirtland side. They had a prisoner, an AWOL I think. Somehow, the jailer, who was a good friend of both Dick and Dean, had made some mistake that allowed the guy to run away. After our shift was over we drove around the base looking for the fugitive, but we never spotted him. I don’t remember whether the jailer got in trouble or not.

There were also a few incidents that did not relate to work. The new base commander organized a committee of enlisted (i.e., ranking below an NCO) personnel. Each unit was represented at their meetings by one person. Somehow, I was chosen to represent the MPs at these gatherings.

It was a meaningless role; the committee had no power. I don’t know what the meetings were supposed to accomplish; I don’t even remember anything that we discussed. The committee met during normal work hours. I was off-duty, and I was not about to don my costume for one of these meetings. So, I showed up in a golf shirt, flared pants, and my cowboy boots. By then I also owned a cowboy hat that I might have also worn. Everybody else was wearing their “Class A’s”. The base commander scowled at me, but he did not say anything.

SEADBy December all of the MPs had been notified of their new duty assignments, and the draftees were told their new ETS dates. I was assigned to Seneca Army Depot, abbreviated SEAD, which was situated between two of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. I was ordered to arrive on January 10. My new ETS date was April 10. So, I would be spending the rest of the winter in one of the snowiest parts of the country.

Almost everyone else was assigned to either Sierra Army Depot (SIAD) in California or Savanna Army Depot (SAAD) in Illinois. Most of my close friends went to Savanna. Despite the fact that I lived closer to SAAD than any of them and farther from SEAD than any of them, I was chosen for SEAD. I might have been the only guy from SBNM who was assigned to SEAD.

One day in December after I had finished working the day shift Lt. Anderson invited me into my office and delivered an encomium on the life of an Air Force officer. I was very short and was eager to return to civilian life. He then asked me if I was a college graduate. I admitted as much. When asked me what I majored I told him “Math”, and he quickly said, “Oh, forget about it. They would make you work with computers.”

PodolakThe Air Force (or maybe just my flight) had an interesting policy for the holiday season. We fielded only a skeleton crew for both Christmas and New Years. The married guys, one of whom one was Dick Madden, all got Christmas off, whereas the unmarried guys, including Dean and me, all got New Years off. Therefore, Dean and I had to work the day shift on Christmas. I missed perhaps the greatest NFL game of all time, the two-overtime victory by Miami over the Chiefs, who were the defending Super Bowl champions. In KC this was known as the “Ed Podolak game”. He contributed a playoff-record 350 total yards: 85 rushing, 110 receiving, and an incredible 155 on returns, but it was not enough.2

On New Years my flight was working mids. I celebrated my day off by sleeping. I don’t know what Dean did.

Yes, I know, but I only drove the danged thing ten yards!

Yes, I know, but I only drove the danged thing ten yards!

One of my least pleasant memories of the ten months in Albuquerque occurred around this time. One of the guys had parked one of the trucks in the wrong place. I needed to move it to a different spot about ten yards away. There were a couple of other parked vehicles, but no one else was driving in the parking lot, which had space for at least twenty vehicles. Capt. Creedon saw me execute this fifteen-second maneuver and somehow noticed that I did not fasten the seatbelt before I did it.

He called me into his office and yelled at me for the better part of an hour. I suppose that he could tell from my body language that I did not take this situation seriously, but I don’t think he understood why. He probably thought that I was not lying or at least exaggerating when I claimed that I was always conscientious about wearing a seat belt when driving. In fact, that was absolutely the only time that I had EVER failed to wear a seat belt while driving. I had even persuaded both of my parents to buckle up.

I just knew that I only had to put up with this kind of Mickey Mouse stuff for only a few more months, and the knowledge revealed itself as a smug look on my face.

1. This certainly indicated that it was a midnight shift. Marshall was well known as a space cadet. We did not trust him to patrol by himself during business hours.

2. Thus ending the first of fifty years of frustration for fans of the KC Chiefs.

1971 KAFB July-December Part 1: Transition

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Working (or not) with the Zoomers. Continue reading →

RipperAt some point in July 1971 the Air Force took over command of the entire complex. A gung-ho Air Force colonel whose name I have repressed and could not find on the Internet replaced General Nye as base commander. One person was now in charge of what was formerly three bases (SBNM, Kirtland AFB, and Manzano Base) that had separate commanders. At the time it seemed unusual to replace a two-star general, General Nye, the commanding officer at SBNM, a mere colonel. It came to mind that Jack D. Ripper, the commanding officer at Burpelson Air Base, was only a one-star general. To my knowledge our new CO did not obsess about fluoride. On the other hand, …

This is the west side of the base. On the west (left) is the Sunport. On the east is the old SBNM. I don’t remember where the jail was. I am not sure that the Mercury Circle area on the north side of Gibson Blvd. was then part of the base.

For reasons that will soon become apparent, I don’t remember too many of the details of the transition. In some ways it was a little weird. From a policing perspective SBNM was much more complicated than Kirtland AFB (KAFB). KAFB had a one-cell jail, and SBNM had none. In every other respect SBNM was larger and much more complicated to police. SBNM contained much more land, had far more permanent residents, and was home to New Mexico’s largest employer, Sandia Labs. The facilities such as the Commissary and BX on SBNM were much larger. I am not sure KAFB even had such stores.

The Law Enforcement Office in which I was working was almost immediately turned over to the Zoomers from KAFB. Capt. Huppmann was replaced by Capt. Creedon, and Sgt. Edison by Sgt. Hungate, who were both much more gung-ho than their counterparts. Another Air Force captain, whose name I don’t remember, was also above Creedon. He might have replaced Capt. Dean. I also remember a Black guy named Lt. Anderson. I don’t know what his precise function was.

FiredI never met the Air Force guys, if any, who replaced Duffy and me. We were not asked to train anyone. We were both simply told not to come to the Law Enforcement office any more and to report to our platoons. Duffy may have been assigned an office job; the Army guys still handled personnel-related issues for MPCO. I am not sure that I even saw Duffy after we were booted out.

As for me, on my first day after getting fired I went downstairs as usual to check the duty roster. Our old platoon was now considered a “flight” consisting of MPs and Air Force “security police”1. Tech Sergeant Budick was now in charge. Sgt. Glenn served as patrol supervisor (a demotion) for a while. I don’t remember if Sgt. Bailey continued to work on the police desk or not. Two Air Force guys, Dick Madden and Dean Ahrendt, worked the desk. I am pretty sure that within a few weeks both Sgt. Glenn and Sgt. Bailey were transferred to other units somewhere. In 2020 it surprises me that I have absolutely no recollection of when or where they (or almost anyone else) went. To me they were just two lifers who were no longer part of my existence.

DisappearThe main thing that I noticed on our flight’s duty roster for that first day was that my name was missing. That meant that I had the day off. It was also missing on the next day and the day after that. Something was definitely amiss. I did not inquire as to who made the duty rosters after the merger, but no one was EVER given three days off in a row. Two days out of nine (we worked three sets of each shift and then had three days off) would be rare. So, I became convinced that my name was not on the official list2 of guys in my flight. For work purposes I had disappeared.

I put together a plan to make the most of the situation. It involved making myself as invisible as possible. I trusted everyone in the platoon, except maybe Russ Eakle, not to rat me out. The strength of the spirit of omertà had already been well demonstrated by the fact that, despite all the investigations no one had been held responsible for trashing the hallway during the night of July 4-5. So, my plan was to avoid all lifers and Eakle entirely. I would also keep contact with the guys in the other platoons down to a minimum. The main element of my strategy was to spend as much time as possible on the UNM golf course. That meant that I had to keep in fairly close contact with Don Beeson and Terry Burnett, my playing partners and source of transportation. Finally, I never brought up my situation at all. If someone asked me about my status, I answered as briefly as possible. I NEVER gloated.

I blame Nixon.

I blame Nixon.

I realized that my failure to report the anomaly in the duty rosters might result in other guys missing out an opportunities to take a day or two off. However, the way that I looked at it, the Nixon government, as represented by the lifers, had stolen at least eighteen months of my life (plus all those years in the reserves) when I was in my prime. I was just getting a few days (OK, weeks) back. I feel certain that almost anyone else in my position would have done the same.

For a few weeks everything went according to plan. I checked that I was not on the duty roster early every morning. On most days I then played golf. If that was not possible, I made myself scarce. Whenever the platoon was working the day shift or the swing shift, I stayed away from the barracks. I spent time in the stores on the base or the movies. I sometimes just found a quiet place to read. At some point I heard that a guy whom I barely knew in another platoon (and who was less discreet than I) had also had been left off of duty rosters. A day or two later his absence was discovered, and he went back on patrol.

UnderwoodMy unanticipated sabbatical lasted almost six weeks. This period is my biggest regret of all of my time in the Army. At the Thrift Shop on the base I had purchased an ancient Underwood portable typewriter. I could have spent that period writing up my recollections of the nine bizarre months that I already spent in the Army. I have long thought that I could have created a best-selling book from this experience.

In 1971 zoomers with this insignia were called sergeants; now they are just senior airmen.

I don’t remember who discovered my situation or how. Perhaps because nobody expected a draftee to volunteer for anything, nobody “jumped in my shit”. One day my name just appeared on our fligh’s duty roster. So, I showed up. However, the routine of guardmount, patrolling, and gate duty only lasted a few days. Thereafter I was assigned to work on the police desk with Sgt. Dick Madden and Sgt. Dean Ahrendt. By the way, in the Air Force a sergeant is only an E-4. So, despite the fact that both of these guys had spent a lot more time in the military than I had, we were all at the same pay grade.

So, I did not actually cost my friends any days off. The only people affected were Dick and Dean, and when they learned that I was joining them, they were delighted that they would now be able to take an occasional day off. Neither of them gainsaid me for taking advantage of my situation. We actually became pretty close friends even though they must have wondered why they had volunteered to spend four years in the Air Force doing the same job as an Army guy whose commitment to active duty was now two and a half years shorter than theirs.

The job itself was pretty much the same as what I had been accustomed to from the time that I worked with Sgt. Bailey. We operated out of the same building as before, but we now called it Kirtland Police headquarters rather than the PMO. Our two primary responsibilities were dispatching patrols to deal with whatever events came up and using the same old manual typewriters to produce reports and logs. A few differences stood out:

  • There was a little more to do. The Kirtland side had an active air strip and a jail. We sometimes had to send someone to relieve the jailer.
  • SP5 Fowler was the only MP that I ever saw with this rank. For MPs the rank after SP4 was sergeant.

    Fowler was the only MP that I ever saw with this rank.

    An SP5 named Fowler, formerly a medic or something, became a member of MPCO and patrolled with Russ Eakle.

  • The base commander was MUCH more active, especially at night. He drove around in his big Jeep, and he always listened to (and occasionally talked on) the police band on the radio. He even occasionally popped into the police station uninvited.
  • Sgt. Glenn had never visited us at the police desk; Sgt. Budick, on the other hand, liked to talk to Dick Madden, especially on midnight shifts.
  • The Air Force guys carried .38 caliber revolvers.
  • Two dozen or more very young, very inexperienced airmen showed up to replace us. Because they had not been trained or tested on the handguns, we could not use them for anything but gate duty. They also lacked security clearances.
  • The Air Force used a different 10 series for coded radio communications. The MPs had to memorize it.

1. General Ripper called his defenders on Burpelson Air Force Base “air police”, but I never heard the Zoomers use that term.

2. In all likelihood the same list used for the duty roster was also used for the list of potential witnesses after the July 4 incident. Mine was the only name missing from either list. This did not occur to me until years later.

1971 SBNM March-June Part 4: The Guys in MPCO

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The cast of characters. Continue reading →

This entry contains my recollections of guys in MPCO SBNM. A few stories are from after the Air Force’s takeover.

I tried to determine what became of the guys whose names I remembered. In the footnotes I have included current information in 2020 about anyone whom I could locate on the Internet or otherwise.

The Second Platoon: I am not positive that Jim Anderson, who lived with his wife off-base, was in our platoon. I don’t have any recollection of dealing with him on duty. My only recollection of him was the visit that a few of us made to his house. It is described here.

I think that Marshall Anderson, whose home was, I think, in Minnesota, arrived shortly before the Air Force took over. I don’t remember seeing him in the barracks, but almost everyone in the platoon lived there. My only strong recollection of him is from the night on which Sgt. Hungate made me and the other guys on the police desk announce over the radio that the police station was “under duress”. This occurred after the Air Force took over. When it has been posted this episode will be described in some detail at a link here.

Charlie Antonelli1 arrived a few weeks after our group did. His room was close to mine, but he did not hang around with my close friends. Al Williams, who knew him better than I did, called him Mad Charles. He played a starring role in the Commander Commander incident, which is described here.

Sgt. Lorenzo Bailey was my boss when I worked on the desk for the second platoon. Those days are described here. He lived off-base. By the time that the Air Force took over he was not around. I don’t know where he was assigned.

Peter Baker was also, I think, from Minnesota. He definitely arrived a few weeks after we did and lived in the second platoon. His involvement in the July 4 celebrations will be discussed in the entry for that amazing day.

I think of Roy Banks and Dale Brooks as a matched pair. They both arrived a month or two after we did and lived in the second platoon barracks. When I was back on the police desk with the Air Force we often used one or the other of them for important tasks. They were both competent and reliable.

BedellAs I recall, Tom Bedell graduated from Kalamazoo College. He was a very good friend. His invaluable contributions to the Wiffle Ball games are described here. I also remember him as being the most enthusiastic performer in my manic attempts to bring to life an “air-chestra” to play the overture from Rossini’s William Tell. The July 4 incident occurred in his room.

He wrote poetry at MPCO SBNM, and he wanted to become a professional writer. He succeeded. He has published many articles, mostly about golf and beer. I read one in a magazine on a US Airways flight and got in touch with him. In 2020 he lives in Vermont. I follow him (@TomBedell) on Twitter.

BrownTom Brachna was from the Akron, OH, area, and I think that he lives in Akron in 2020. He arrived at the base a week or two after I did. His room was directly across from mine, and he was also a close friend. I remember him as being a big fan of the Cleveland Browns2. He had an intense dislike for the Cincinnati Bengals, the upstart team that adopted nearly the same colors as his beloved Brownies, and the treacherous Paul Brown. We went to at least one bar together, as is described here.

Russ Eakle was already on the base when we arrived. I think that he was the only guy from the group already in the platoon who was still around for the Air Force take over. He was also the only guy who rubbed me the wrong way. I kept my distance from him. His approach to police work is sketched here. He also participated in some memorable events after the Air Force took control.

Sgt. Glenn, our platoon sergeant, lived off-base. He hardly ever showed up in the barracks. In fact I have no memory of him ever being there. His attitude toward work was equally laissez faire. I am not sure when he shipped out or where he went.

Randy Hjelm also lived off-base. I think that he arrived at the base before our group did. Randy’s equipment was always in perfect shape. In fact, his whole appearance was exemplary. However, he always was, or at least appeared to be, stoned. I think that he was from Jacksonville, FL, and still lives there in 2020.

My time workin on the police desk with Randy Kennedy only lasted a few weeks until his ETS. Those days are described here.

Al Williams, Bob Willems, Ned Wilson, and Dave Zimmerman were with me in E-10-4 at Ft. Gordon. Ned lived off-base and worked in traffic. Bob and Dave were in other patrol platoons. I saw Bob all the time but Dave not as much. Bob also played a major role in the July 4 incident. I had many great times with A.J., as much as anyone. I have not kept in touch with any of these guys.

I have less clear memories of the following guys. I remember what they did, but I cannot summon their names.

  • The details about the guy living in the barracks from KC who told me that he stole a television and that he wanted to go to Vietnam can be found here.
  • When I started working on the desk I sold my portable radio to a guy from, I think, Minnesota. I offered a fair price. He made an annoying counteroffer. I should have told him to take a hike, but I accepted it.
  • El_CaminoOne guy from one of the southern states had an El Camino. When it wouldn’t start, he enlisted me to push it for him so that he could pop the clutch. This was not one of my finest moments. The same guy refused to use the clutch when he drove one of the MP trucks. He always speed-shifted.
  • I remember taking a newcomer from Chicago out on patrol and showing him the best places to hide the vehicle if you wanted to read, write some letters, or take a nap.

Headquarters: I did not know any of these people very well:

  • Captain Dean sponsored the timed mile described here.He also sponsored the first half of the 4th of July celebration.
  • Lt. Hall’s two unusual encounters with Al Williams are described here and here.
  • SP4 Orsini’s search for a competent typist is described here.
  • A guy named Roone was in charge of taking care of the grounds. I don’t think that he was an MP. Everyone called him Mr. Greenjeans. I hardly knew him, but I saw him almost every day.
  • A guy whose first name (or more likely nickname) was Rowdy was the animal control guy. He also was Doc Malloy’s doubles partner in tennis.
  • SSI am not sure that I ever knew the supply sergeant’s name, but he did me a big favor. I had noticed that a spare door with no handles had been gathering dust in the supply area in the basement. The supply sergeant was scheduled to ETS a few weeks after we arrived. On his last day as supply sergeant I asked him if I could have the door. He said “Take the m***** f*****.” I promptly carried it up to my room, and I laid it across two drawers that I had removed from my dresser and balanced on one edge. It made a perfect table for my stereo, books, and other items. The space in the dresser formerly occupied by the drawers was ideal for my records. Everyone was impressed.

Law Enforcement: Everything that I remember about the other three people in the Law Enforcement Office (Capt. Huppmann, Sgt. Edison, and SP4 Duffy) can be found here.

Other PlatoonsKolbitz: I was good friends who were assigned to one of the other patrolling platoons. Craig Kolbitz3, from Racine, WI, might have been in the same platoon as Bob Willems. If I had to guess, I would put them both in the first platoon, the one that we ordinarily relieved. They were definitely not in the fourth platoon, whose rooms were on the second floor of our building.

Craig hung around and philosophized with the guys on our floor quite often. I don’t think that he played Wiffle Ball with us, but one time his hometown honey (Mary?) dropped by for a visit and watched one of our games. Afterwards Craig kept telling everyone how much she was taken with Bob Willems. I knew that this was baloney because my sidearm sinker was really working that day, and I was almost untouchable. To any girl’s eyes the rest of the guys would have merely been scenery while I was working my magic on the mound.

Doc_TennisDoc Malloy4, who lived on the second floor of our wing of the MP barracks, the home of the fourth platoon, was one of the most amazing people I have ever met. His hair was MUCH longer than anyone else’s. He also had TWO jobs on the side. He was so good looking that he was able to find work as a model. He also gave tennis lessons. One of his clients, as I recall, was the wife of the base commander, General Nye!

I have no idea how he made these arrangements. We did not have telephones in the barracks, and, of course, there were no cell phones yet.

How, you may ask, did Doc get away with having long hair as an MP on a military base? The answer is “very carefully.” Doc had his hair cut so that the hair even with and below his ears was fairly short. The hair above his ears hung down and disguised this fact. When he got ready for duty he positioned his white MP hat on a chair upside down with the bill toward him. He then leaned over and with both hand stuffed his long hair into the hat. He then pressed the hair-filled hat onto his head. Sometimes a couple of attempts were required to perfect the look. On duty he NEVER took his hat off, which, as anyone who has been in the military can tell you, meant that he never went inside. Somehow he pulled it off, even after the Air Force took charge.

Doc represented the MP Company in the base tennis tournaments. He easily won the singles competition. The doubles was a little more difficult. Nobody in the company played at anything close to his level. He selected the animal control guy, Rowdy, as his partner because he seemed to be the best at taking instructions, and he had a passable serve. I think that they did win the doubles tournament. I remember that their basic strategy was for Rowdy to get out of the way after the first volley.

Doc's ideas were two years before Pong!

Doc’s ideas were two years before Pong!

Doc used to bug me to help him design a game based on tennis, ideally for a computer, but he was amenable to the idea of a board game. At the time I had taken exactly one programming class in a language that was used nowhere outside of Ann Arbor, and we had coded our programs on IBM cards! This was 1971: there were no video games, not even in arcades, and no personal computers. If I wrote something, it would need to be text-based with little back and forth. Playing against another person was inconceivable. Playing against a random number generator might be feasible, but how? Text-based terminals existed, but they were rare and expensive.

I had a fair amount experience at playing board games, but I had never designed one. I had no idea where to start. I was savvy enough to understand that ideas were a dime-a-dozen. Execution is key, and marketing trumps execution. This project was definitely not worth my time. I have often wondered if Doc ever did anything with his idea. Atari released Pong in 1973, but it was available only at arcades and fairs even then.

One other MP deserves a section of his own. Charlie Long5 was a legend when our group arrived at MPCO SBNM. Everyone already called him Crazy Charlie Long. He was a dyed-in-the-wiik Texan. My impression was that he was from a small town. He certainly was not from one of the big cities. A member of the fourth platoon, he lived on the second floor on the west wing of the barracks in one of the corner rooms near the parking lot. It was the only room in the whole barracks with a small balcony.

Charlie also had a temper. When he got upset, things tended to get broken. Disclaimer: I personally witnessed only the last of these incidents. So, please mentally insert the word “allegedly” somewhere in every sentence.

Don't get on the wrong side of Roy or Charlie.

Don’t get on the wrong side of Roy or Charlie.

Charlie had a friend in the fourth platoon named Ewald (pronounced EE walled). I am not sure that I ever heard anyone call him by his first name. Ewald had a motorcycle. One day after the fourth platoon had worked the midnight shift, Ewald, who must have had the previous night off, decided to do some rather loud figure-eights on his motorcycle beneath Charlie’s window. After a few minutes of this Charlie emerged on the balcony, leapt over the railing, and wrestled Ewald off of his bike in the same manner that Roy Rogers used to wrestle bad guys off of their horses by leaping from a tree. I never learned the result of this scuffle, but I also never heard of anyone trying that stunt with a motorcycle again.

During slow periods while on patrol Charlie liked to use his .45 to hunt jackrabbits, which were not uncommon out in the undeveloped area in the southern part of the base. I don’t think that he ever hit one. If he did, there probably would not have been much left of it.

An MP truck that he was driving on patrol one day did not meet Charlie’s standards. He got out of the vehicle and punished it by firing several roundss from his pistol into its side. I don’t think that this fixed the problem.

Aside from the time that Al Williams accidentally discharged his .45 at guardmount (described here), I never heard of any other MP ever firing his weapon in the ten months that I was in Albuquerque. I don’t know if Charlie ever got caught; I don’t think so.

Early one morning when I was working the desk with two Air Force guys, Charlie, who had been working the previous shift, stormed into the PMO, loudly vocalized some expletives, and stomped up to the solid wood police desk, which stood at least five feet high. Suddenly Charlie grabbed the edge of the desk with both hands and bit a small chunk out of it. He then spit it out and abruptly departed. The three of us on the other side of the desk looked at one another and then broke out laughing. Maybe we should have detained him for destruction of government property, but it never occurred to us. I should have written “tried to detain him” in the previous sentence.

Although he was also in the notorious fourth platoon, Homer Sandridge6, a graduate of the University of Virginia, was the polar opposite of Crazy Charlie. He was very calm about life and fate. Homer and I had a few philosophical discussions the details of which have escaped me. We might have solved the “troubles” in Ireland or the dispute over Kashmir.

I played golf with Don Beeson and Terry Burnett. I also played a little bridge with Terry. The details are here.

Paul Calandra came to Albuquerque a month or more after we did. He was a major player in the July 4 incident. I did not know him well.

PattonSgt. Suarez, the platoon leader of the third platoon, was a dedicated lifer. He participated in good-natured kidding about the real soldiers as typified by himself and the movie Patton as opposed to the rest of us slackers and the much more popular (in MPCO SBNM) M*A*S*H. When Patton won the Oscar for best picture, he was in his glory.

Sgt. Suarez’s favorite MP was named Kramer. If I ever knew his first name, I have forgotten it. He gave more tickets than anyone, even Russ Eakle. He also missed more duty than anyone because a fairly high percentage of the people that he cited disputed his action in court.

Kramer, like Russ Eakle, longed for more action. One day something occurred that induced Kramer to engage someone in a vehicular chase. Kramer was not able to overtake the offending vehicle before it exited the main gate. Kramer kept up the pursuit on the streets of Albuquerque. I am not sure, but I think that the chase ended in an accident without injuries.

Kramer got in trouble for this. Our policy was never to exceed the speed limit for a chase, and we were NEVER allowed to leave the base in an MP vehicle. What made it worse was that Kramer did not have a civilian driver’s license, and the Albuquerque police officers were not impressed by his MP armband.

If I ever met Jim Jacobson, I don’t remember it. However, when he came across a mention of MPCO SBNM in one of my blog entries, he contacted me by email. I asked him when he had been stationed in Albuquerque and what he did. Here is what he replied: “I worked various security positions till early 1971. Then became a base escort working out of the PMO on Texas next to the MP Co. I worked under Sgt Lezuski (sp) until he was promoted to 1st Sgt of the MP Co under Capt Dean. July 1971 I was promoted to Sgt/E5 and was a patrol supv with AF Sgt Carson and under AF Sgt “Tilly”. Being married and living off base I didn’t get a chance to know new people other than on my flight. Nov 1971 discharged from the service.”

Other guys whom I have only fragmentary memories of:

  • There was a guy named Ayers who came from a southern state. I think that he lived off-base. He called himself General Ayers, and I like to joke around with him.
  • The other guys with whom I played golf are described here.
  • We tried to put together a flag football team to represent the company against other units. The chief organizer was a guy from Florida. We definitely had some practices. We may have even played a game or two before the merger of the bases put the kibosh on it.

1. I have no way to verify it, but I think that Charlie died in 2020, just as I was beginning this project. The obituary is here.

2. The Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996 and became the Ravens. The current Cleveland Browns team first took the field in 1999.

3. I found Craig Kolbitz on the Internet. In 2020 he lives in the Seattle area. He and his wife owned a couple of bars there. He went back to Racine recently to give a speech. It is on Youtube here. Craig came to visit Sue and me once in Rockville in the late seventies or early eighties.

Doc_Beach4. Doc Malloy is now considered a legendary tennis instructor on Hilton Head Island. I located him on Facebook, where he has posted lots of photos of himself with nubile young women.

Long5. I found an obituary in 2020 for a Charlie Long of Kilgore (east of Dallas) TX. The age matches up and the face looks vaguely familiar. You can view it here and here. I have no way to verify whether or not this is Crazy Charlie, but I suspect that it is.


6. In 2020 Homer Sandridge is living in Arnold, MD. I think that he is into sailing.