Here, I did not want to be.  Some folks liked it up here, but I was not among them.  I worked the year (1970), in Maintenance Control.  I was in a C-141 unit, the 438th Military Airlift Wing.  I just did not like this part of the country and I could not get my family up here because of the housing situation.

Had a good friend named Jim Dowdy at McGuire.  Jim and I spent many a day, touring the countryside, making flea markets and swapmeets.  We both got into coin collecting on a small scale just for something to occupy our off duty time. Jim did finally get his family up there, not to long before I left.  Wonder where Jim is today, would like to hear from him.

I did however, make my final promotion here, receiving a line number (notice of promotion) for MSgt, I believe it was in May.  There was only one MSgt stripe made in the squadron and I got it.  I was the junior ranking TSgt, having only 13 or 15 months in grade, I can't remember which.  I feel sure that my tour in Vietnam and my accomplishments there, played a great part of this promotion, so shortly after my last. This truely came as a surprise to me and made a few folks very upset, but it was no fault of mine that they did not get it.

I had to wait until Janurary 1st, 1971 to put the stripe on.  By this time I was enroute to my next, and my last duty station at Little Rock AFB, Jacksonville, Arkansas.  I would arrive in Arkansas just before Christmas and stay out on leave until after the 1st of Janurary.  I wanted to be wearing the new rank when I signed in to the new assignment, (Creates Less Hate and Discontent that way). Now off to the 62nd TAS at Little Rock AFB, Ark.