William M. ("Red") Fuller

		From (Red) Bill Fuller, a former ARS Airman From Jan. 1956 until Feb. 1959. After being contacted by Jack Highsmith about a month ago about the reunion a lot of memories started coming back. At the age 19 when I knew all that was to know I decided that if I didn't take charge of my life Uncle Sam would and I would be drafted into the Army. I didn't like that , so I like airplanes, so I joined the Air Force. To show you how smart I was I enlisted May 30, 1955. I spent June,July and August at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. Things I learned fast. When I was sworn in, in Atlanta the first thing I was told was to follow the long yellow line. That was fun!!!
	When I got to Lackland, I learned real fast that if anybody had a stripe on his arm he could yell at you as long as he wanted and I couldn't yell back. I also learned to march in mud with dust in my face at the same time. I figured I was going to die from the heat, but I survived. When I left basic I did not get to yell at a single person. After basic I went to Shepard AFB in Wichita Falls. I learned fast to breathe sand and dust. After six months I survived that. Then I was told that I was going to Lake Charles A.F.B. I got there about Feb.1,1956. Someone took me out to this giant airplane and told me this was where I was going to work. Life just got better. All these men walking around with all these strips and no one yelling at me. I was assigned to 20-826, stayed on it for three years. After two or three weeks I learned we were going T.D.Y to Goose Bay, Labrador( wherever that was)for 60 days. Already getting a sixty day vacation to S.A.C.'s Winter Wonderland Resort. That was a lot of fun. I liked going ever where in a 8' tall half tunnel of snow. I learned fast that this retreat was not what I would call fun. I learned to like different foods while I was there, S.O.S., Noodle Soup, Dehydrated Eggs, Powdered Milk. This food was really good at 3:00 AM, after fifteen or twenty hours of having fun. I also learned to sleep in spite of the noise. Some idiot A.F. Engineer put our barracks beside the runway. I learned that a B-36 could not take off until 3:00 AM. If it wasn't for forty tons of snow on the roof we would have been blown onto the frozen lake. I never did figure out why so many airmen had to spend every night hugging a smelly commode. I don't guess they had running water where they came from. I survived this also. Back at Lake Charles things returned to normal. I learned that Gen. Curtis LeMay was third in command behind God and Jesus. Nobody in S.A.C. could smoke cigars but him. He was always putting us on base alert and trying to blow up our planes. He won every time. I also learned that you could work in 100 degree heat and 110 humidity for many months straight. In the summer or fall of 1956 I went to work and had no Crew Chief. Just gone!. I know why, That crazy airplane was driving us both crazy and he couldn't take it anymore. For many, many months I did not have a boss. I guess the word got out that this plane would kill you. Then Gen. LeMay got this great idea that we had so much fun at Goose Bay that he sent us back for ninety days, in the winter of course. Just Great!! Ninety days working twelve to fifteen hours a day and listening to that same B-36 taking off in the middle of the night. What I did not know was that I was about to have a real bad day. I still did not have a Crew Chief. I was refueling that crazy plane on morning and it must have known I was not a happy camper with it. It prompley sat down on the boom pod. I could walk under the nose gear. I could almost hear the plane thinking-how are you going to get out of this without being stood against a snow bank and shot? The Brass blamed Ol' 826 and not me. That was a good thing. This was when I learned to pray. I knew I had to find the best sheet metal men in S.A.C. if I was ever going to get home. They all stepped up to the plate and performed miracles. I rested while they worked. I decided to go out and see what was going on. I almost had another heart attack, all my friends had gone and stolen all the parts out of the cockpit. I would never leave Goose Bay because no Flight Crew would fly that plane. I prayed again, this time for a fearless crew. One showed up. I voiced my concerns about so many holes in the panels in the cockpit. They said not to worry. Yeah, some of them won't fly if you spill coffee on the floor. This prayer was answered because I decided to sit behind the pilot to make sure he was telling the truth that he could fly us home. He got us back just fine.That summer in 1957 I still had no Crew Chief. Things were going to good to last. Gen. LeMay decided to see how good we could perform in the middle of a Hurricane. He talked to the No.2 in charge and ordered up Hurricane Audrey Another great time!!. I had to stay on the flight line for about twelve hours trying to keep Audrey from turning Ol' 826 over all because it broke some parts. At one time I had a Staff Sgt. from Field Maint. for a Crew Chief. He was afraid of Ol' 826. Heard about the crazy plane I guess. One day after three or four months I thought I saw him running the flight line screaming. I never had another Crew Chief. Gen. LeMay, being a deep thinker, decided we needed to move. We had to go to Bunker Hill A.F.B. Never heard of it. We moved. Also, he decided the Flight Crews and Ground Crews needed to bond with each other, So he invented strip alert. We had to bond together every four or five weeks. To see if we were really bonding he would have someone blow the Air Raid siren at 3:00 AM, and put a stop watch on us to see how fast we could get to our planes and get them rolling. It was scary at Bunker Hill in the winter when all the engine heaters and A.P.U was stuck in two inches of ice and a mad Flight Crew was trying to run over you to be the first one to taxi. Gen. LeMay was never one to let you know what his next move was. He decided we needed another vacation. This time to Harmon A.F.B.Only Gen. LeMay knew where this place was and he wasn't telling, so we go North. After several hours I looked out the window and saw nothing but water. Up ahead I see this cliff sticking out of the ocean and this Pilot flying right at it. He missed the cliff and landed on this runway that ran uphill with trees at the end. He did good. Ninety days of fun in the snow and back to Bunker Hill. All through 1958 still no Crew Chief. I guess Ol' 826 and I had a really bad reputation. I decided to get out of the Air Force at the end of 1958. I was told that an A/2C was not smart enough to be a Crew Chief. You had to be a S/Sgt. I learned something new again. I couldn't do the job I had been doing because I didn't have four stripes. I didn't have the ability. Strange !!. I learned something more valuable than being able to do a job well.I am learning now that I had some good friends all along the way. I am surely looking forward to this reunion. The last thing I learned after I got home was that my Daddy who wasn't too smart had really gotten smart in the forty five months that I was gone. Thanks to a lot of you guys, I had a ball. See you in November. Bill (Red) P.S. Since Jack Highsmith was a good friend, I want to think him for takeing that crazy plane away from me sometimes so I could get a break. If S.A.C. Had a lemon law I would have sent Ol' 826 back to Boeing Aircraft for a full refund!

Bill's Photos

Bill at
the Goose

Bill & Elsa

Andi

Erin

Kelly

Ryan

Shannon &
Kids

Home | Members | Stories | Photos | Memorial | Contact Us | Links | Reunion '05