Vernon Fix:  

> After leaving Pomona High School, and spending 2 years at La Verne College, where I successfully blew up the plumbing in the chemistry lab, I headed out of town and joined the Air Force. This turned out pretty dumb since the Korean War was almost over, and during those years it was almost impossible to get promoted. > > The Air Force, in their infinite wisdom, decided to teach me the Russian Language, since I had been so "successful" with Latin in High School (straight A's) and French in college (straight c's). In the Russian Language course which was conducted with full academic credit at Syracuse University, New York I went to class with Colonels, as well as with other Airmen and Air Force officers. The class was taught by "displaced" Russians (remember the cold war?) and I was doing very well in my studies. > About 9/10 of the way thru the one year class, I was called in by my commanding officer and told that I had orders for Goose Bay, Labrador, and that I was shipping out the next day. Of course, the Air Force would give no reason for this at the time; it took me 12 years to find out why this happened. After 12 years (I was long since out of the AF) I learned that my brother, who was an Air Force officer who was at the time working on a very ultra top secret project that prevented him, and any member of his family, from being assigned overseas or even leaving the country, (we would be a target of capture and interrogation by the Soviet Union and should we fall into their hands might be coerced into revealing secrets) Or, in my case, since I didn't know any secrets, might be a hostage for obtaining secrets from my brother. Really 007 stuff! > Well, on the way to Goose Bay, I stopped at Pepperrell AFB St John's Newfoundland, where the command authority for Goose Bay was located. My assignment to Goose Bay was in an Air Force specialty code that didn't exist at Goose Bay, but was in fact needed at Pepperrell. (Later, I learned that the specialty code that was assigned to me was a typo.) > In any event they assigned me to the Headquarters Squadron at Pepperrell AFBase, working as an Administrative Assistant, Base education, under a civilian who was working in a Colonel's job (he was a very old man who had actually served the Horse Cavalry), and a Technical Sergeant Paul S Craig who was working in a Major's job. This office was in charge of the base school, K thru 12, and all the programs the AF has for off duty education for AF officers and airmen. > About 6 months later, both the civilian and the sergeant were sent back to the states, and I was the only one in the office, doing three jobs and getting paid the second lowest pay in the Air Force. My job was to enroll base personnel in the various programs that the Air Force offered, and to process these enrollments with the appropriate Air Force schools, as well as the University of Maryland classes that were meeting on campus. I told the University of Maryland visiting professors that I needed some sort of title for the work I was doing, other than Airman 3rd Class Fix. So they came up with a title for me, and appointed me "Assistant Associate Dean for Enrollment", and presented me with an appropriate plaque for the wall, etc. I was 21 at the time, may have been the youngest "Dean" that the University of Maryland ever had! Of course, this was a fake position that was totally fabricated by the professors. > > So now, I am the only one in the base education office, which was about 10,000 square feet, and downstairs from my barracks assignment. A large section of the office was divided into small filing cubicles where I kept the class books and courses to give to those I was able to enroll in classes. There was a lot of room in the cubicles behind the books, where almost anything could be stored. > I was approached by squadron members to keep their liquor hidden in the cubicles, and since they all outranked me, I yielded to their pressure since they couldn't keep the booze in their barracks upstairs. At one time I had at least 200 Litres of booze on hand and was wondering what would happen to me if it was discovered. > > A big inspection was announced of the barracks, and to include the office. With help from Airmen and Sergeants, > we placed all the booze in a big shipping cases that I had received shipments of books in, put some books on top, and nailed them shut. During the inspection, a "smart" inspector decided to open the heavy crates to see what was inside. They sent for a crowbar, and before they found one, a base alert was sounded, (sirens and everything) and we all had to "fall in" outside. The alert required the inspectors to return to their own Squadron, and they never returned to the crates!. > > Later, I learned from my First Sergeant that the entire base alert was generated by his contacts in the next higher headquarters, at his request, to keep our booze stash from being discovered! I heard that the "stash" was there for several years after I returned to the states. > > In June, 1956, I went home on leave from Newfoundland and got married to Jeanette McCarley, who was Claremont HS class of 1954, and who I had only seen occasionally for two years. Surprisingly, even though separated for a while ,our marriage flourished for 17 years, and we had three daughters. When I rotated from "overseas", I was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base where Jeanette and I lived in Base Housing. My job there was doing the Morning Report for a small squadron which operated the base Aircraft Control Tower. Strictly "Sergeant Bilko" stuff. This was a small squadron and the "Morning report" usually consisted of "All present and accounted for". So, for the rest of the day, I had little to do, except look busy. > > I got out of the Air Force in 1958, having served three years and 6 months. Korean conflict was suspended, and the Air Force wanted to release as many airmen as they could, so they gave me a Christmas present of an early out. I received an Honorable Discharge, and immediately enrolled at San Jose State College, where I took a Bachelor's Degree (Cum Laude) with honors in business, graduating in 1959. For some unknown reason, when I received my diploma, it said "Master of Arts" "With Distinction" "Honors in Business". > As a lot of you know from personal experience, when you graduate from a California State school, you don't receive your diploma at the graduation exercise, but in the mail sometime after. So I was surprised at the higher degree I received, and inquired why that had happened. I never received any response to my inquiry. Maybe, in somebody's infinite wisdom, it was decided I should receive a Masters Degree? Another Typo! During this time, I became friends with Tom and Barbara Keller; Tom has left us thanks to Marlboro, but I am still a close friend of Barbara Keller and her family, after more than 50 years. > While in college, I had been offered a job in the Purchasing Department of North American Aviation, Inglewood. I had also been working and had been licensed in insurance by Aetna Life and Casualty, supplementing my GI bill with occasional sales. > I started at North American Aviation in the purchasing department as a Material Substitutions Clerk in the F108 Fighter Program. This job involved coordination between Engineers, who wanted (for example) the latest honeycomb Titanium used in the aircraft, which at the time existed only in imaginations or scientific laboratories, and Purchasing agents who could not possibly supply the unavailable and nonexistent material. So engineering had to settle for some other material until the high tech stuff became available). > As tension between the United States and the Soviet Union eased, the F108 fighter aircraft program was cancelled and I was transferred to North American Aviation's B70 (Valkrie) program. It appeared to me that this program would also be canceled, and in fact they only built two of several hundred plan...Expand for more