[R-390] OT: Lifes paths

Tue Jul 21 09:16:06 EDT 2009

If ya'll will endure me I would like to add to the continum of my first note 
as I realize there is a little more to the story of how strange the path of 
life is...

Before the AF moved us to Keesler we were stationed for a few years at 
Langley VA.  While I didn't serve in the Military I often feel as if I did 
because of my allowed involvement during those years. (try that in today's 
world)  I spent a fair amount of time in the control towers of a couple of 
Air Force bases...even spent a few minutes in an operating GCA unit out on 
the field.  When Dad was with SAC doing Instrument Repair work on KC-135's 
at Offit I got to spend some time in the instrument shop.

At Langely I vividly remember the hulking white hangar across the field that 
belonged to NASA.  Guess I'll never forget some of those images.  During a 
school field trip we toured the insides of one of the wind tunnels at the 
NASA Research Center.

This summer my Son (soon to be 21) landed a 10 week internship with the NASA 
Research Center at Langley and has an office in a brick addition to the 
white hulking hangar I saw as a kid.  He has seen the insides of one of the 
many wind tunnels at NASA and hopes to see a run of one of those tunnels 
before he leaves in a few weeks to return home in preparation for his Junior 
year.  He's studying to be an Aerospace Engineer with minor in math.

Life travels in circles too...

For you Navy guys...while stationed at Langely we also went on a school 
field trip to the Newport News ship yard...in a boat and pulled up behind 
the Aircraft Carrier JFK while under construction.  What an awesome sight...

Thanks for listening guys while I travel down memory lane...

Cecil Acuff
Gulfport MS

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cecil Acuff" <chacuff at cableone.net>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 7:33 AM
Subject: Re: [R-390] OT Apollo 11 Mission

>I am enjoying as much a sense of American Pride just listening to where you
> guys were serving and what you were doing as I had gotten from watching 
> the
> landing.
>
> My Dad woke us boys up (I was 13 and my brother 9) to watch history in the
> making.  Little did we know we would be riding out Hurricane Camille the
> next month.  We lived in Biloxi MS and lived in Air Force base housing as 
> my
> Dad was an air traffic controller at Keesler.  He retired there in 71 (at
> the ripe age of 38) and we settled in Gulfport where I've been ever since.
> Dad is buried at the National Cemetery not a stones throw from where we
> lived in 69 and watched the Apollo landing.  Government recently 
> demolished
> the old housing and built new.  Can't even go to my old address
> anymore...:-(
>
> Funny how life goes...slowly covering our tracks.
>
> Cecil Acuff
> Gulfport MS
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <eldim at att.net>
> To: "rbethman" <rbethman at comcast.net>; <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 4:52 AM
> Subject: Re: [R-390] OT Apollo 11 Mission
>
>
>> We were stationed at Aviano Air Base, Italy on 20 July 1969 and heard it
>> on Armed Forces Radio. If I recall, everyone was jumping with joy.  It is
>> amazing how one can use his/her imagination to visually capture an event
>> of this magnitude.  Unfortunately, we did not have TV service in that
>> area.
>> What a day in history some 40 years ago when I had just turned 26 and 
>> life
>> was still one glorious excursion and adventure.
>> 73,
>> Glen (Battlestar) Galati, KA7BOJ, ex WB0AXK, DL4GG, HL9WA
>> Retired MSGT, USAF
>> -------------- Original message from rbethman
>> <rbethman at comcast.net>: -------------- 
>>
>>
>>> David,
>>>
>>> I was 19, in South East Asia. I went into the consolidated club for a
>>> couple ham and cheese sandwiches after being out on patrol.
>>>
>>> They were showing it on AFRTS with the only TV in the entire outfit.
>>>
>>> I'm tickled for the hame and cheese, and astounded by what was going
>>> on. I had absolutely NO idea what was happening in the rest of the 
>>> world.
>>>
>>> Bob - N0DGN - USA Ret.
>>>
>>> wb5uom at hughes.net wrote: > Ok, its off topic, but you guys on here let 
>>> me
>>> learn that the R-390 was used
>>> in the Apollo Missions.
>>> >
>>> > So, I am curious, where were YOU - today 40 years ago?
>>> > > I myself was 14 and was flying alone on a Braniff Flight over the
>>> > > Carribbean Ocean on my way to the Panama Canal Zone when the Pilot
>>> > > announced we had landed
>>> on the moon.
>>> >
>>> > David/ WB5UOM
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> +------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>> | AM Amateur Radio Operator NØDGN |
>>> +------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>> | Bob Bethman \\\|/// " The absence of a danger |
>>> | \\ ~ ~ // signal does *NOT* mean |
>>> | rbethman at comcast.net (/ @ @ /) that everything is OK " |
>>> +-------------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo----------------------------+
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
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>
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