Joseph Walck:  

JoeWalck at Comcast dot net-email me! Posted June 2015; not a member, so signing guest book no good. -Life has been almost perfect! High school was good, but not great...but good. Good classmates and good teachers. Some great teachers...some really BAD (sorry Mr. Dickey(history)... and why did I always have Science/Biology after lunch...as I would cover my eyes in class and doze off...and in gym first thing in the morning, in the cold...always first period! I had trouble with studies in HS...and now realize I had pretty severe dyslexia... reversing letters, numbers, inability to take notes, forgetting formulas, names, dates...looking back now, what a waste of an early education. I made up for it when I went back to college at 45...anyway...School and studies weren't the most important things in my life (at least with dyslexia, I didn't realize what all I was missing). I was very involved in Boy Scouts, and advanced in a world parallel to school. It was a good world, with good deeds done daily, and always being prepared. I became an Eagle Scout. A lot different than the peer pressure in school. All girls scared me then, until my graduation summer...then it was too late for all those great girls I enjoyed almost knowing in school, that I was too bashful/afraid to talk to. C. Lockwood, MaryAnn P., Susie W. That time was gone.. If only I'd matured a couple of years earlier... then the Summers 66/67...and I found the summers of love...and her, Denise Dietz(EHS 65)...long platinum blond hair, killer looks...and she was in love with me! Swim parties at Richard Fowler's house...and swimming at Lytle Creek Lake...and hootenanny at Valley College, always with Denise, usually with Dennis Haaf and Talmadge Bell(anyone know their location?). Off to Northern Arizona University 1966/67...away from home and...now dances, parties, girls, and the girl back home...the draft...losing college deferment...join Navy...get married...live happily ever after...then real LIFE happened. I enlisted in Nov. of '67 in Berkeley, an easy place to find an opening, after 1 year at NAU. The Navy gave me 3 choices of what I wanted to be. I volunteered for Gunnersmate or Torpedoman(I thought those "PT" boats looked like fun...) I took Parachute Rigger as a last choice, 'was told no one ever got PR School. I scored pretty high(something I never seemed to do in HS)...so sent off to Lakehurst N.J. to PR Aircrew Survival Equipmentman school, and then orders to El Centro as a Senior Navy Test Parachutist. I married Denise Dietz (EHS '65) in '68...a truly great marriage. I loved her so. I had great fun, and terror, for a couple of years as a Senior Test Jumper, we did every type of jump possible, from HALO, to mass(there were only 12 of us), static lines out of the C-130, low jumps out of helo's, to high jumps from our A-3(B-66) jet at 200kts... and water jumps at Salton Sea from our C-47. 100 parachute jumps/35 test jumps. I promised to quit jumping at 100, and/so child, Shannon, born 9 months later(now have 18 yr old grandson). Time for transfer...Vietnam? ...I trained as plane captain/door gunner on H-2 helo, but at last minute, transferred to the Apollo recovery backup helo squad...Expand for more