| Shorty |
I was born 7 April 1949 in Manchester, NH. Grew up there in the snow! I started riding when I was about 14. A group of us got a hold of a Whizzer mounted on a Schwinn bicycle that we used on some old logging roads on the west side of the city. As it turned out, when we were old enough to get a driver’s license we each bought street legal machines, then proceeded to strip them and turn them into scramblers. Spent a couple of summers racing in the dirt during High School. Went broke in the process! I graduated from Central High School in June of 1967 (Industrial Arts Program) then on January 31, 1968 I went into the Army. Basic training at Fort Dix, NJ, AIT at Fort Knox, KY, then I was stationed in the Transportation Brigade at Fort Eustis, VA. I entered Vietnam through Cam Ranh Bay, then enjoyed a Chinook ride to Phu Bai, just south of Hue. I was stationed with the 101st Airborne where I spent 1970 (January through December). I spent a considerable amount of time fixing stuff, generators seemed to require most of my attention, jeeps: M151 and M37 if I remember correctly. I had two breaks in service. The first break was after Nam. Then at the end of November 1974 my wife and I both found ourselves out of work at the same time. With no prospects, I re-entered the Army on the Stripes for Skills program as a printer and plate maker. In eleven months I was out again on a Hardship Discharge. In 1978 I was back in, as a mechanic again, and spent until the end of January 1998 on Active Duty. In 1983 I was selected for flight school and spent the rest of my career as an Army Aviator. During my aviation career I was qualified in the UH-1H Huey, a little boot leg time in the OH-58, the AH-1 Cobra was the most fun to fly. I also flew some Fixed Wing airplanes, C-12C and C-12D (Beech King Air), VC-6 (Early model of the King Air), and the deHavilland Dash-7. I spent 1 year in Vietnam, 3 years in Germany, 5 years in the Panama Canal zone, a year in Turkey, did some duty in Bosnia, and Korea. It was a grand adventure! Now I work on Redstone Arsenal managing aviation maintenance contracts for the same aircraft I flew on Active Duty. |



