From Home To Rome

About three and a half weeks after the "incident" on Oregon State 20, I looked down and watched the land turn into ocean from that Boeing 707 as we started over the Atlantic, and I remember smiling and thinking "Well.......if they're looking for me NOW, they'll be lookin' forever!"

I couldn't know it at the time, but the next 18 months was going to be the BEST assignment in my entire Air force career. Due to overseas restrictions, I had to leave my guns home with Mom & Dad, but that was ok. I'd sent uniforms and civilian clothes ahead, and just took one suitcase and my Gibson guitar with me.

When we landed in Rome, I felt strangely "safe." I still had it in the back of my mind, that somehow the cops back home were "on my trail." Maybe I WANTED to feel like that, as I boarded the train for Brindisi. The trains in those stations were very outdated and reminded you of the "Murder on the Orient Express." As it rolled and swayed in the night, you almost expected to see Humphrey Bogart or Peter Ustinov making their way through the club cars as it rolled through a lot of quaint little towns. You almost felt like you'd "gotten away with something!" That little "fantasy game" alone, turned it into a fun ride. Although I was suffering from "jet lag", the coffee aboard that train kept me awake so I wouldn't miss my stop.

To put it into perspective, you know how Italy is shaped like a boot.............well, imagine that boot to be a COWBOY BOOT, and Brindisi is EXACTLY where the "spur" would be. San Vito Air Station was just a few miles north of there. It was around 0900 THEIR time when I got off the train. I bought a telephone token coin and called the number I'd been given before I checked out of Mountain Home, and called a TSgt Jackson, who I'd been told to ask for. This TOO sounded a bit intriguing. he said to stay where I was and he'd be down shortly to pick me up.

"Stay where I was"........I was in a small train depot in a strange country...........where did he THINK I was gonna go?

He showed up about an hour later, I loaded my stuff into his car and we took off for the base. San Vito was along a slim stretch of paved road, with the beachline of the Mediterranean on the right, and the access road to the gate stemming off to the left.

I'd never seen anything before or since quite like this, and as we checked through the entry gate, the right side looked fairly normal........barracks buildings and other structures like you'd find on any other base.

But to the left was an ENORMOUS chainlink and protected fence that was easily 60 or 70 feet high and spanned in a huge circle that had to be about two hundred yards in diameter! Dead in the center was a one-level building with antennas sticking out in various places. I asked Jackson what it was, and he replied, the "elephant cage," and said nothing further about it. He asked me if I was tired from the trip, and I said "Man you don't know the half of it!"

"Yeah, I figured that from looking at you. Let's get you checked into your barracks." In short order, I had my assigned room in a barracks that wasn't too far from the chowhall. but I needed sleep more than anything else, so I took my room key, tossed my issued-linen on the room desk, hit the bare pillow and mattress, and SLEPT!

The sun hadn't come up yet the next morning, when I finally woke up. I ambled on down the hallway to the latrine & shower bay. Boy that water felt good, after being in uniform almost non-stop over the past couple of days. The chowhall was just opening when I got there, and the sun was up when I finished breakfast. I found the Supply Squadron Orderly Room, checked-in, got my in-processing checklist and started "filling-in the squares." San Vito was a fairly small base, so it didn't take very long to check-in.

I'd be working at the main warehouse, in the pickup & delivery section. It was a fairly quiet base, as there were NO AIRCRAFT here, not even a pad to land a helicopter. There was a small "base housing" area for those who were there for 3-year tours with their families, a small rec center & gym, movie theater, post office, a VERY small BX, an NCO Club, Officer's club, commissary and softball field. That was about it. If you were a jogger in fair shape, you could run the entire perimeter in about 45 minutes, IF that.

Now, at this particular point in time, I'd only been in the Air Force about four years, but even though I wasn't a "seasoned" veteran of "Airdale life", even the old "Bazookaman" here, knew that there was more to this simple-looking outpost than what was showing on the surface.

I had to make a couple of briefings before going to work. One was a Security Check to VERIFY that I was who I was supposed to be, and I had to answer questions about my past that they already KNEW about before my Top Secret Clearance was ever assigned to me. San Vito already had all the info before I ever got there, so I figured this was just some kind of "double-check"

"Man----I'm not some kind of James Bond---------just a supply driver, what IS this?" I thought..........

TSgt Jackson, (the guy who had picked me up at the train station), was also my "sponsor/chaperone" for the first week or so. And after I'd "passed inspection" with the "gestapo" (as I called them), he told me just enough to "wet my apetite" and nothing more.

For the most part, I'd just be delivering everyday supplies to different units around the base......paint, light bulbs, office supplies, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. You were only told what you needed to know. Once in a while, there would be something specially coded for that building out in the middle of the "Elephant Cage." Jackson had gone with me on my first delivery out there, and I had the push-button code to get in through the outside gate. At the delivery door to the building itself, you rang the buzzer, the guy came and signed for whatever it was, you got back into the pickup and left. You asked no questions about anything that didn't concern you.

Sounded like a lot of "cloak & dagger" to me, but as long as you just did your job, life was good. The weather was warm, off base, the Italian people were very cordial to Americans, the beaches were beautiful and so were the women. Food was fantastic, there were really GOOD Rec Center tours around the countryside. Any problems I'd had back home were thousands of miles and nearly two oceans away.

Once in a great while, there was one other driver besides me, and every now and then, they'd send one of us up to the remote site at Martina Franca with a sealed classified box. Sometimes an OSI guy would make the trip WITH you. You'd drive up to the gate, someone would come out and sign for it, and you'd be on your way. I remember ONE particular run, they'd loaded something very heavy in a large locked steel container. I wasn't given a key to it. When I got to Martina Franca, they had me get out of the truck at the gate, and just step inside the guard shack, while someone from INSIDE the compound came to the gate, took my supply truck, and drove it to "WHEREVER", un-loaded it for me, brought the truck back to the gate with a signed receipt and............"Have a good trip back!" It had taken about a half hour, and I just sat there in the shack and had coffee with the Security Police.

I never knew what I was carrying on these trips. Might have been some radar module for a spy satellite-----or a case of toilet paper--------Didn't WANT to know. Duty was good and the road time was relaxing. The rest of the week I was delivering plumbing stuff for the barracks, hospital supplies to the clinic, etc. As Jackson had told me, just "do your job, don't ask questions, and don't stick your nose anywhere it doesn't belong, and you'll get along just fine here." And he was right. THIS was gonna be a GOOD TOUR!