Charles Kajkowski:  

After graduating from high school in 1965, I attended the Academy of Aeronautic and worked in Manhattan for Fountains Inc.; a company that designed large display water fountains typically seen around buildings and parks. I did piping and equipment layout and drafting. One of the fountains I worked on is still in operation at 1345 Avenue of the Americans in NYC. You can see it on Google Earth. I also worked on the design of the Delacorte Fountain in the middle of the East River near the UN Building – it has been decommissioned. I dropped out of college and in the Spring of 1968 I entered the Air Force (AF). The four years in the AF were four very long years. The military was not my thing and as a consequence I volunteered for two special assignments that took me away from the military routine. The first was an assignment to Laos (1969 -1970). If you look at the photo of me in the truck with my M-16 rifle you will note that I am not wearing GI clothing. The reason being is that US military was not to be in Laos per International Agreement. In fact none of our equipment and vehicles had USA identification markings. The AF provided me $200 to purchase civilian travel and work clothing and they gave me an American Embassy ID which was my boarding pass for Air America. The US mission in Laos was to help the Royal Lao Government with their civil war against the Communist Pathet Lao and to disrupt the North Vietnamese Army’s supply route (Ho Chi Minh trail) through Laos. Our job was to carry out the US mission. There were few of us Americans in Laos. The group I was with had about 20 men and we were dispersed to different areas in Northern Laos, in teams of 2 to 4 men, with each man having a different specialty skill. Our mode of air travel was CIA’s Air America. It would suffice to say, we were on our own and acted independently. I liked that in spite of the hazards. The second assignment I volunteered for was a 6 month temporary assignment to China Lake, which is a Navy air munition testing base (1971-1972). The base is located in the California desert and I made weekly commutes from Las Vegas. The project involved the testing of a guided bomb and electronic counter measures (ECM) systems. My role was to insure that the munitions, ECM systems and other equipment were installed properly on our F-4 aircraft, and to maintain / repair our aircraft’s armament systems. Our project manager and pilot was Major McCray. I really enjoyed the project, the team, the Navy base, working with the civilians in the electronics lab and working for Major McCray. Our team consisted of only four people including Major McCray and we were the only AF people on the entire Navy base. That was very cool. We were treated extremely well by all. My last base was Nellis AFB (1970 -1972) which is located just north of Las Vegas. I lived in Las Vegas and shared an apartment with another GI. It was there that I met a pretty gal who would become my wife. She was living with her parents who moved to Las Vegas six years earlier from New Jersey. Her name is Janet, I call her Janni. She is a wonderful person and she is my wife and my best friend. I am very fortunate. We were married a month before I was discharged from the AF and we have been married 50 years. I was an E-5 staff sergeant when I received my Honorable Discharge. After the AF, the next 10 years were very busy and very productive years. I started back to college (1973), we bought a new home (1973), I worked full time, and I earned BS E...Expand for more