Sandra Palumbo:  

After 'bookworming' myself through high school, I enjoyed one and a half years of college at UWM, where my attention toward learning was distracted by the lure of a newly discovered social life; subsequently, when my attendance in the student union exceeded my class attendances, the university benevolently gave me a semester off to come to my senses and hopefully re-ignite my passion for learning. During my semester sabbatical, I accepted an offer to work as clerical assistant to the Ground Communications Officer at General Billy Mitchell Field active Air Force Reserve base in Milwaukee where I managed Top Secret records. Because of an inherited fascination with airplanes and flight, I never ceased to be thrilled by the sound of aircraft taking off and landing everyday that I was at the base.I was able to travel to air base with my father(he was a Lt Colonel Command Pilot and Squadron Commander),and shared in the salute given my father whenever we entered and parted the base--I never ceased to be awed by the honor bestowed my father with that simple gesture. In my role as communications clerk at the base, I was responsible for receipt and dissemination of electronically transmitted information; which included news of one of history's tragic events--the loss of one of our aircraft and a crew of 9 that went down into the ocean in Devil's [Bermuda] Triangle on June 5, 1965. The plane was piloted by my father's best friend. (My father was originally assigned the mission to fly a replacement engine to a stranded plane on Grand Turk Island.but bemoaned having to fly it in leiu of attending a base function. His friend offered to flip a coin for the mission and of course lost. After a long and extensi...Expand for more