"Mountain Goat Airplane Patch"

I'd been at McChord about a year, when I found out the recruiter had never offered me a "base of preference" and it had been a requiremment at the time. While the duty ITSELF at McChord was good, I never liked all the rain and overcast. I also didn't like the throngs of people and traffic in the Seattle-Tacoma area. We lived just outside the gate in Lakewood, but it was still "crowded" to me.

CBPO had this "dream sheet" (which didn't always mean anything), but I DID want to stay in the northwest, and here in the State of Idaho pops up this base & town called "Mountain Home." Well, if you'd never BEEN here, what does that name suggest to you? You bet! We'd probably be renting some little "chalet" by a mountain stream, and I'd be working in a supply warehouse right across the street from some coffee shop with a big fireplace! Wife was excited about it too at first. She thought it would be the "enchanted forest" with a cottage in the middle of it!

It's early December of '72, household goods already shipped, we've got our old '60 Pontiac loaded and we're on our way HERE. Across 84, over the "Blues' on the ice & snow. We spent the night in Ontario, and after breakfast in the morning we drove though Boise and started down the last 50 miles or so to Mountain Home. The closer we got, the bleaker it looked from the car. Nothing but wind and snow out there. Mountain Home..........Mountain Home.......oh there WERE "mountains out there", but they were WAY OFF IN THE DISTANCE in both directions. We got into town, topped off at the old Mobil station (about where Les Schwab is today), and asked directions.

As we headed out of town toward the base, there is NOTHING on either side of that ice-covered road but little clumps of sagebrush peeping out through the blankets of snow. It's cold outside and the wind is blowing. Wife starts to weep a little and says............."Michael, there's nothing OUT here!" I said nothing, but I DID think to myself, "Yeah, but that also means there ain't a whole lot of PEOPLE here either! (which was MORE than "OK" with yours truly!)

They had "sponsor programs" in those days. Ours had been TSgt Rich Pringle, and after we got settled into transit billieting, I called him. He had already gotten a house assigned to us and all we had to do is call for our household stuff to get delivered, and we could move in.

Well............Mountain Home was nowhere near a mountain, and our "chalet by the babbling brook" was one of the double-wide "relocatables" out by the edge of nowhere, where coyotes and BADGERS live!

Base Supply, where I'd be working, looked like IT had been around since the Korean War and the "BX" at that time, was in ANOTHER little warehouse not far from where Burger King is on base today............Welcome to Mountain Home!

Actually, I sort of liked the "quaintness" Some of the old structures reminded me a bit of Camp Pendleton (except the DUTY here would be a whole lot easier).........and let me clarify that.............Service life in ANY branch isn't easy. The hours are long, you're technically "on duty" 24/7. There is no such thing as "time & a half for overtime, it is a thankless career for the most part and you're working for peanuts compared to your civilian counterpart.

To ME though, from the very first day I'd set foot at Lowry, the Air Force had been like a "9 to 5" job......in a uniform. This was clearly NOT Camp Pendleton or any other Marine camp. You weren't UP at 0400, and out running somewhere by FIVE! I would never be shot at again, either.

Like I said, service life in any branch is long, taxing and often un-appreciated by the public..........but life in the Corps was so tough, that to ME anyway, my Air Force career was a cakewalk by comparison. When people in the past have asked me if I made a career of the service, I used to say "Yes........twenty two years.........THREE of them in the MILITARY!"

I don't say that anymore, and if it sounds like a put-down of the branch I RETIRED from, it isn't. Each branch has it's own function in national defense, and they're all equally important.

But MY particular situation always put me in "funny spots." I'd be having breakfast in a messhall somewhere and hear a couple of airmen griping about how the bacon wasn't "just right", and there weren't any English muffins this morning................and I couldn't help but think about how we'd be down to our last case of C-Rations up on Hill 861, half-rations of water and a lot of unfriendly folks on the other side of the wire..............and THESE "poor airmen" are a bit short of marmalade this morning! Life is tough.

We'd have a base "RECALL". Guys would be stumbling in around 0600. They'd sign-in, get coffee, wash a Twinkie down with it and complain about having to get UP so early. "Man"......I'd think to myself........."At Camp San Onofre, we'd already have FIVE MILES behind US by 0600 and we ain't had breakfast yet!"

But each time..........I would always have to remind myself that THIS wasn't the Marine Corps............and MIKE BRADBURY...........MIKE BRADBURY...........YOU are now a part of this by your own volition, so SHUT UP....."AIRMAN! If you MISS the abuse, you should have RE-UPPED when that Corporal was running around yelling "Last chance for London, England!"

In years to come, I would get used to the more decent life the Air Force had to offer, living more civilized, and doing a job that would give me skills for the civilian sector when I DID retire. The military has a lot of positive things going for it that EVERY young man should pursue. It's an excellent "character-builder" and a way to serve his country. The Air Force is a good branch.

I have NEVER regretted my time in the Marine Corps, though. MOST of what I am today, the Marine Corps did. I can not only survice, but win. I fear nothing, back down from nothing, and have all the tools I'll ever need, including the "proper attitude and savvy."

Talk about brotherhood? We celebrate the Birthday every year on the 10th of November. Odds are excellent that members of any other branch don't even know what YEAR, let alone what DAY.....that THEIR branch was founded, without having to look it up.

Many Marines have made "second careers" in other branches, for the purpose of learning more appliable skills............ but look at the window stickers on their cars and pickups.

19 of my 22 years were Air Force, proudly served.......but when you see my little volkswagen, look at the window decals, the hat on my head, the tattoos on my arms and most of the t-shirts I like to wear...........

Nothing against the Air Force, where I invested 19 long years.........but they ARE two totally different outfits.

Once a Marine.......ALWAYS a Marine, and there is no such thing as an "EX-Marine."

But..............it's 1972 going into 1973, and here I am getting aquainted with Mountain Home for the FIRST of FOUR...........and still getting used to the Air Force!