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Some
memories from G. I. friends......
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Lee
[ Shorty ] Gordon... by
Dennis Pell..
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I
finished school in 1942 and started
work January 1943 at Little
Staughton airfield..
where part of the Mighty Eighth were
gradually establishing themselves,
calling this, Station 127, 2nd SAD,
[ Strategic Air Depot ]...
We had four GI's seconded to work
with us, two were plumbers, two
electricians..
A guy by the name of Cavalier was
one of the electricians..
and he would occasionally take
me around to his orderly room,
where the guys would shower aircraft
magazines on to me...
In one of them I read this account
of one aircraft being shot down over
a target area..
one parachute seen to deploy right
away and was thought to be that of
the ball turret gunner,
and later to be confirmed that it
was, as he was small enough to wear
a chute in the ball and was quick to
abandon ship, he of course was to
become a POW..
His name was Lee [ Shorty ]
Gordon.....
It didn't end there though, as he
made three escape attempts, and
finally made it home to Chelveston..
on the third attempt, unannounced..
he has remained in my memory all
these years...
I was over the moon when, in 1988 we
met at the reunion of the 305th Can
Do Boys...
I somehow think someone forewarned
him about this devout English fan..
as when we did meet in the Bedford
Moat House Hotel, we met like
brothers
and stayed together most of
the evening....
On greeting him, I said, " come on,
I've been waiting for forty years to
meet you"...
which made him laugh
somewhat...
We did correspond with one another
on a regular basis, then his mail
ceased..
and I couldn't find out what
happened to him..
I finally found the 305th Bomb
Group association web site and found
out what I didn't want to hear,
he had been bed ridden for quite
awhile, suffering a stroke and dementia,
I was given his address and phone
number at the care home.
I sent him this photo, as I thought
it would be the best way to
communicate with him..
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I
got a nice letter from his daughter
telling me that he had the picture
on the wall of his room,
which would mean he was still
remembering me, perhaps..
He then passed away, peacefully in
his sleep, November 14, at the age
of 84...
funny really as this is round about
the time I sent the picture...
So tomorrow I am going up to
Chelveston to sit there awhile as
this is his interment day..
sorry to be so sad, but this is
it.... Dennis
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Ship
or fly... by Gary T
Fish...
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Our
experiences going to... and
returning from.. Chelveston..
First of all I spent several days at
Manhattan beach AFS in NY... before
leaving for England.. in Jan 1958...
I then flew out of McGuire AFB with
a stopover in the Azores ..
landed somewhere.. in England..
everything always seemed to happen
at night in the dark..
I had no idea where I was .. or
where I was going.. then proceeded
by train by myself to RAF Chelveston..
It was Saturday night.. and they
picked me up at the train station in
Wellingborough..
Took me to the base, and put me in a
"Quonset" hut and told me
to wait..
until Monday morning...when I
could check in...
I was only 19.. and had no idea what
the hell I was doing.. or
how.. or where I had been...
Anyway, after being at Chelveston
for just over 4 years...
and by now acquiring a wife
and a son.. it was discharge time...
Why still now the AF decided
to give us the option of returning
to the US by commercial carrier...
I do not know... Must have
been some sort of
"politics" involved
somewhere..
We decided to return by ship.. the
SS United States.. The other choice
was a commercial airliner..
I know that there was at least one
bus load of Air Force personnel and
their dependents...
who left on that cold and dark
morning from Chelveston..
Of course it included my wife
Marion, our son Andrew 18 months
old.. and myself..
We headed for Southampton.. and from
there set sail for NY, NY., US
of A....
after 5 days at sea, with a wealth
of pleasant experiences, we reached
NY sailing by the "Statue of
Liberty".. What a thrilling
sight.. We had to get off the ship
about 8 pm and then since we were so
close to home we were able to get a
bus and arrived in Stroudsburg
around 3 in the morning..
A few days later my dad took me to
McGuire AFB.. where I was discharged
on Jan 14th 1962
All in all I would say that the trip
home was a very educational and eye
opening experience for the 3 of
us...
Since then we have gone on many many
cruises but those had to be paid for
by us.. not the US Air Force
Is there anyone out there that just
might have been with us on that
particular
"crossing"?.....
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B. S. A. Troop....
by... Hank Howard.....
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I was the scoutmaster
of a troop of Boy Scouts at
Chelveston...
there were about 20 boys.. mostly
living in the Chelveston housing
area....
but also some dependent kids from
Raunds, Chelveston, Higham and
Rushden...
Harvey Breeding.. [ a buddy I have
recently located, living in Delaware
] helped me in the troop...
One year we took the 20 boys in an
Air Force truck to Wales.. We
actually climbed Mount Snowden..
It was quite a challenge... and if I
had to do it over....I would really
have to think about it first....
I remember one of the boys froze on
me as we crossed a crag..
where we had heavy updrafts in the
mountains and he was scared to
proceed....
We also caught hell from a farmer...
who had sheep in a field
when we took a wrong route through
his field... sidestepping all the
sheep dung!!
He was shouting at us in Welsh.. and
chased us with a big staff he used
to herd his sheep....
We took the boys to some castles
around Caernarvan...
and went to the town with the
longest name in the world...think it
had 32 letters...
forget what it was now....
Hank! was it.. "LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH"
otherwise known as "Llanfair
P.G" [ that's more than 32 tho..]
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Wicksteed park.....by Gary
Fish.
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Gary
says.. Here we go again, another
holiday in England. Up early this
morning..
what! should we do today?, I
know, lets go to Kettering and
Wicksteed park...
So we get everyone
together and head for the bus stop
in Raunds square. The bus finally
comes and we get on, I insist we sit
up top... funny, no one else
up here, must be a tourist
thing... anyway, we're on our
way. First stop is Stanwyck, next
Finedon, are you with us?,
Burton Latimer, [home of
Weetabix], Marions' favourite
cereal, not mine...
Then comes
Barton Seagrave, I'm having a good
time, watching the English
people...
or are they watching me?, How can
they tell I'm American?.
Finally we get to the park and after
walking around for awhile and going
on a couple of rides with the kids,
old Gary, decides that he fancies
a "hot dog", the
girls bring me one and as I look at
it, I wonder...
can it be
true... is everything really bigger
in America !!
So I take the
"DOG" and smother..
plaster.. it with mustard, just like
I do at home..
. I take a
bite...actually half of it and look
around, why is everyone looking at
me!.
Then it hits me,
"WOW". my mouth is on
fire, someone give me a drink,
quick......
Anyway, we must remember..
that, when we go to England,
the mustard is so much hotter than
at home.. After a few more rides and
a good walk around, I decided that I
needed another one of those
"dogs"...
This time I put
tomato sauce on it.... After the bus
ride back and finally arriving in
Raunds, we picked up some fish and
chips and a jar of pickled
onions and had those for
dinner...
Couldn't you just eat some of those
?, right about now.......
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"Old
Harry Nichols" The bloke...... by Henry
"Hank" Howard.....
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How
many of you remember "Old
Harry" the bloke?.
He worked on
Chelveston for the Ministry of
Defence.. He was a civilian
boilerman and he kept the heat on at
the main hangar, the clubs and the
fire station..
He was a colourful
person, used to flog cigarettes and
tell the worst stories...
Loved to
smoke American cigarettes.. You
could set your watch 5 days a week
when he'd show up for coffee at the
fire station.. Rode around on an old
black bicycle and lived in Raunds...
Peddled home and back every day he
worked, never owned a car...
He was our main football pools man
and horse bet runner, we used him as
a bookie!!.. He was a great guy and
loved Americans...
We were always
taken care of by Harry's concerned
attention..
Many times he would eat
lunch with us and enjoyed eating
American cooked meals...
as we cooked
out at the Crash Station...
Rain, fog, or snow... he was there
on his bike for us guys...........
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Harry
"The bloke" [ ministry
boiler man Chelveston]
Hank Howard... and the Fire
Chief...Al Wise...
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'
A fine day' ..by Gary Fish |
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While
visiting England a couple of years
ago, we decided to walk from Raunds
to the site of Chelveston A F B. It
turned out to be quite an exciting
day. First of all we walked around
the front gate area, fences are up
and that's as far as we could
get.... We would have loved to have
been able to go on base and roam
around. So then, we decided to walk
on to the village of Yeldon and try
to see the old N. C. O. club... Are
you with me so far , can't you just
picture it.? Upon arriving in
Yeldon, we proceeded to look around
the church and stopped to admire one
of the finest thatched cottages one
could possibly see anywhere,
anyway, then we walked up the
road a little further and there it
was......the old N. C. O. club, ' wow
', what flashbacks!. An old
gentleman farmer was there, so I
explained our situation to him and
he agreed to let us look around. We
went into the building, climbing
over his equipment and crawling over
bales of hay and all at once there
it was.... The old bar area and with
it, still intact, the " Mural
", does anyone still remember
it ?, a scene of New York,
emphasizing the Statue of Liberty,
and The Empire State building......
After getting back out we thanked
the farmer and then walked back to
the Chelveston area. We met some
ladies who were living in the base
housing area and introduced
ourselves, their husbands were
stationed at Molesworth. I explained
that I had been stationed there in
1958 - 61 and they were full
of questions about the old base, and
the ' good old days ' at Chelveston.
We then started on our walk
back to Raunds, stopping on the way
for a ' pint' and a bag of 'crisps'
at Chelveston pub. What a fine and
wonderous day it was.
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Tainted
meat...by, Hank Howard.....
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In
the early 60's we didn't make much
money being in the USAF..
anyway.. the boys at the crash
station were allowed to be on separate
rations.....
We would buy food from the
commissary and prepare our meals out
on the flightline.....
. Asst., Chief T/Sgt Earl Moran would
get the BIGGEST steak!! and cook it in
front of all of us...
. So one day with a lot of kidding of
the guys, he said "I dare anyone
to to eat this steak"....
then he spit on the steak in the
frying pan....
So we all sat around and finally...
Sgt Casey Kanolos got up to challenge
him...
Casey got a big cooking fork...
speared the steak and took it from the
frying pan....
right before Moran's eyes...
took it to the cutting board..
near the sink....
surgically removed the piece of steak
with a knife....
then washed the remaining part
off.. "real" good.. in the
sink.....
He then returned the steak to
the skillet... albeit for the hole in
the middle..
and ate it...piece for piece....
telling old Earl Moran how
"GOOD" it tasted, that was
really funny.......
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