David Quinn:  

Life I was born and raised in Plattsburg, MO. Began elementary school in 1947 in the old grade school building located between Clay Ave. and Broadway St. and later moved to the new Ellis Elementary Grade School after it was built. Graduated from the Plattsburg High School in 1959. Attended a tech school in Kansas City, MO for approximately six months and afterwards went to work for Hallmark Cards in their mail room located in their facility on McGee St. where today the Crown Center is located. I left the employ of Hallmark and enlisted in the United States Air Force with an enlistment date of April 21, 1960. I was sent from Kansas City to Lackland AFB for basic training and after five weeks I was sent on to Keesler AFB to Heavy Ground Radio Repair Technician school. In March of 1961 I arrived at my next assignment at Yokota AB, Japan with the 6988th Radio Squadron Mobile, later changed to 6988th Security Squadron. I spent three years at this assignment the first two and one-half of which were spent as an aircrew member maintaining/repairing electronic signal intercept equipment used on RB-50G/H and RC-130BII Sun Valley II Project aircraft. The last half-year was spent in the operations building maintaining electronic transcription equipment. At the end of March 1964 I was reasigned to the air base group at Norton AFB, California and attached to a small unit with one aircraft, a JC-121 (ex-Navy Early Warning Aircraft) call sign TEACUP ZERO. The aircraft was equipped to validate and align the guidance systems for the ATLAS D missile sites located over much of the western United States. TEACUP was very comfortable old lady and well loved by all who served with her. At the time I arrived at Norton the ATLAS D was already obsolete and late in 1964 the unit was dissolved and all enlisted personnel were transferred to the 2869th Ground Electronic Engineering Installation Agency also located on Norton AFB. I was assigned as team leader and worked the western part of the United States and Asia installing electronics for use by various organizations in the USAF. One in particular was the anti-personnel detection systems installed around the TITAN missile silos in Arizona. There is one silo surviving south of Tucson, Arizona that has been turned into a museum and has tours. The anti-personnel sensing devices are still there around the perimeter of the site and the control equipment is still in the underground control center. In November, 1965 I received orders for reassignment t...Expand for more