Robert E. Bonney:  

Life My name is Robert Bonney but I prefer to use or be called Bob. I live in Coos Bay, Oregon which is on the southern Oregon coast. I am recently widowed (Dec 2020). I am originally from Maine, born in Skowhegan, and lived in Hebron and Greene. I graduated from Greene Central Elementary in 1966 and graduated from Leavitt Area High in Turner in 1970. My older brother, Billy, died in Jan 1962 after being hit by a teen driver unfamiliar with the road; he was only 12 years old. My two younger sisters, Elinor and Sue, both attended Greene Elementary. I, most likely, am not remembered by a majority of my classmates because I tended to stay on the sidelines or in the background during much of my school years. For classmates that do remember me, I lived down the hill off of Route 202, west of what was known as Dagget Hill and just up the hill from the sawmill in Greene. After graduating from Leavitt, I joined the Air Force in Oct 1970. I have four grown children (3 girls and 1 boy), five or more grandchildren, and four or more great-grandchildren. Coos Bay is the ideal place if you are looking for relatively good weather year round due to the low elevation; roughly we are about four hundred feet above sea level so it seldom freezes and rarely gets extremely hot. The biggest deterrent to this location is the 200 plus days of rain. I have been retired from the military (US Air Force) since Nov 1990, so I have been retired for almost 30 years November 2020. I retired as an E-6 (Technical Sergeant). During my 20 year career, I have been to Thailand and Germany; also all of the US states except Washington. I held two careers while on active duty; one as a Law Enforcement/Security Policeman and another as an Aircraft Maintenance Analyst. I spent the majority of these 20 years as an analyst (for clarification: I was considered a glorified statistical analyst or 'bean counter'). Considering this, I have worked with computers from mainframes to PCs. During the past 19 years, I have held several survival type jobs; such as convenience store clerk, dishwasher, custodian, and utility pole inspector. I was a baker, (at the least favorite place to shop for some people - though it was the number one retailer worldwide) Wal-Mart. I was terminated in July 2005. I have an Associates Degree in Business Operations and another one in Computer Networking. In Dec 2007, I contracted kidney (renal) cancer which reared its ugly head out of the clear blue sky. In Jan 2008, I lost my right kidney, the adrenal gland, and part of the renal vein due to the cancer. In late 2008 (maybe 2009) I lost the left adrenal gland due to the cancer and have been on hydrocortisone (synthetic hormone) pills ever since. It helps keep me living. In late 2014, I lost one third (1/3) of my left shoulder blade to the same cancer. In early 2016, it was found that I had numerous tumors on my liver. I have been on chemo pills ever since. Thus far, the cancer is stable. Now that I have written a small book, I think I had better end this. P.S. The last name is pronounced Bonnie (as in the feminine name) but spelled with an EY. Additionally, I have an interesting heritage that dates back to 11th century France. And, if anyone recalls, during elementary school some classmates used to tease me by singing, "my bonnie lies over the ocean". Military Undoubtedly, there are more memories of the military than might be room for in this bio, so I'll try to highlight the best. One of the most significant memories would be the fact that I have seen, traveled through, or been stationed in all of the American states except Washington. Considering, if I had stayed in Maine, not joined the Air Force; most likely, I would not have seen half of these states. States I have been stationed in not including San Antonio, Texas for training (in order from first to last including two foreign countries) are North Dakota (ND), Thailand, Maine, Louisiana, New York, Germany, and Texas. This is not bad for a twenty year career. I was assigned to Minot AFB, ND from Mar to Oct 1971. The best thing I remember about ND, not counting it is very flat, would be the prairie dogs and the wind in winter. During the spring, the prairie dogs are so numerous that the roads are literally covered with road kill. There were so many that you couldn't help but run them over unless you stopped driving your car. The wind, known locally as the 'hawk', would blow at various speeds but mostly above 25 mph (rough quess, not accurate) due to the flatness of the land and the fact that very few trees grew there. My first duty upon arriving at the base in Minot was to help fill sandbags for spring flooding and riding to one of the outlying Minuteman missle sites. Once at this site, I shoveled snow, chopped ice, and pumped water to keep it out of the missle silo. As of Jan 2021, Minot is still an active base. Thailand was a neat place. The scenery in the country was outstanding and very beautiful. Assignment here lasted exactly one year, from Oct 1971 to Oct 1972. The base was located on the southern end of the country, right on the Gulf of Siam. You could go swimming in the ocean whenever you wanted. My best memory of this place was when the Viet Cong (Charlie) decided to attack the base early one morning in early Jan of 1972. Three Charlie came across the fence and a full 500 man police squadron was called out to quell the attack. The only damage done was the engines of one B52 bomber were blown off and another had the rivets loosened on its engines. Both were returned to flying status within 24 hours. There is more to this story but there is not enough room to go into details. This base has been closed and is now an international airport. Ah, Maine and Loring Air Force Base (AFB). I was assigned here from Nov 1972 to Feb 1975. It was nice to be a six hour drive from home. Loring was in Limestone, north of Presque Isle. It is now closed and an inactive miitary installation. My most memorable moment here was when a snow storm blew in from Canada in late Nov of 1974. It came out of nowhere and dumped enough snow to close the base about 2 pm. The roads were unplowed due to the amount of snow and, ah yes, the wind. As soon as the roads were cleared they would fill in due to the wind and snow drifts. I was in Law Enforcement and had to report for duty at 4 pm. My car was snowed in, so I called in to work and told my boss that I would be late. I started walking, a three mile hike, to the base. I got a ride with some guys in a VW bug to the bases north gate, left my glasses in their VW which they returned later, and went to work without the usual 38 special revolver due to the armory being snowed in. We had three emergencies later that night, all at one time. One was a sick kid which I was dispatched to pick up in the housing area. Another was a pregnant woman whom had suffered a miscarriage, the ambulance picked her up. And the other one was a visitor, who suffered from diabetes, and had forgotten his medicine. To make a long story short, despite the adversity of the amount of snow, we got things taken care of with a few minor problems and the help of some of our off-duty fellow policemen. We never received so much as a thank you from anyone except our boss, par for the course. This base has been closed for a few years. . Next assignment was at Barksdale AFB, La. In late 1974 I knew jobs outside the military were scarce and hard to come by and I did not want to be a cop the rest of my career. I decided to reenlist and cross-train into another field. Luckily I chose a field that involved the use of computers. Prior to arriving in Louisiana, I was sent to Chanute AFB, Ill for training in my new field. Throughout the rest of my career I would be sent to this base six more times for additional upgrade training as the computer field changed constantly. I was stationed here from May 1975 to Mar 1980. The most important events that occurred while I was assigned to Barksdale was the tornado that struck Bossier City at 130 am on Dec 3, 1978. It struck just as people were leaving the bars and fortunately no one was seriously hurt except two teenage girls when the storm blew a car through the bedroom wall. As for my apartment, it received no damage. I had a three wall patio that was left intact while the rest of my neighbors had theirs blown down. Wh...Expand for more