Page 14 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2023 - Online Magazine
P. 14
could hang
your clothes
out there
to dry. We
would hang
sheets and
blankets on
the wall, but
they would
just freeze up.
We had a ’47
Plymouth.
Once, the
tires froze to
the ground
and a 2½-ton
truck had to
pull the car to
the base; the
wheels never
turned, they
just slid on
the ice!
But I met a lot
of fine people “I worked at base supply in
from all over charge of ordering Aircraft
the country Out of Commission for Parts
there.” The base (AOCP). I ordered the parts
was originally from North Dakota. Everything
known as “Mile we used had to be flown in.
“I met Lavern Arnold at the 26” due to its We also supported the weather
Church of Christ in Lubbock, proximity to the Army’s Signal recon station and the so-called
and we married on July 14, Corps telegraph station milepost ‘DEW (Distant Early Warning)
1950. (I had had to wait until marker. Thornton supplied parts Line,' which was put in by
she turned 18.) Lavern always for numerous aircraft during President Eisenhower to detect
worked at a bank wherever we that time, including the small Soviet bombers trying to send
were stationed. In January 1954, L-20, C-47 Skytrain transport, and receive messages. They
we boarded the USS General WB-29 and WB-50 Superfortress. would go on a mission every
W.M. Black (AP-135), bound day, and the engines had to
for Seward, Alaska and took a “Lavern came up with our son, be heated up.” The DEW Line
narrow-gauge train to the 5010th Ken, and we rented a house in consisted of 21 stations and
Composite Wing at Eielson AFB, town and eventually moved to covered 3,693 miles, from Alaska
26 miles from Anchorage, near a rental trailer near the base. to Greenland. This led to the
the little town of North Pole. We had a little addition on our creation of the North American
They put us off in the snow, then trailer called a wanigan. You Defense Command, NORAD.
sent us on to the cold barracks.
14 Lubbock Senior Link
