Colonel "Chuck" Yaeger

           Commanding Officer of the

      417th Fighter Bomber Squadron

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As we sat at the end of the runway we watched Colonel Yeager bring his plane in for a landing.

 We never tired of watching the jets and this was a remarkable landing. 

We were in Fertstenfelbruck near Munich for a month temporary mission from Toule Air Base.  A group of planes, gunners and support technicians were sent there on a rotation basis.

  Supplies could never quite keep up with the squadron and we were running out of tires.  A fighter squadron needs tires if they are to accomplish all their practice runs. 

 “Did you see that?” I asked my buddy.

 Col. Yeager had brought his plane round and touched down on the runway, but he kept the nose up the whole length of the runway before he lowered the nose wheel so lightly that the tires would suffer as little wear as possible.

Miller replied “He wrote the book on flying; his stories are legend”

“He is our kind of guy Kelley, a down home, country boy who doesn’t put on any airs.

 I had a great time with him when we went back to Nellis for the Gunnery Conference and Competition – he was born to fly and knows all the tricks of the trade. 

I’ve heard talk that the upper echelon in Washington really appreciate his knowledge and experience too, that is why he had to make this trip back to Frankfurt.

 This Suez Canal Crises has everyone in a tizzy and they need Colonel Yeager.

When I first got to Europe in 1957, I was in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Hahn Air Base in Germany and Colonel Chuck Yeager was our commanding officer at that time.

The whole squadron knew what a great pilot he was and that he broke the sound barrier, even although it was ‘top secret’, but we loved to watch him fly.

 When the squadron moved to Toule Base outside Nancy in France The Colonel did not like it, he much preferred Germany where he had made a lot of German friends who invited him to go on hunting trips -  that is the other thing Colonel Yaeger was really good at – besides flying - shooting. 

In France the weather socked in so much in the winter we could not practice as much as we needed to. The Colonel was always disappointed that our squadron did not win the gunnery competition every year.

We started going to Wheelus Air Force Base near Tripoli, Libya during the three cold months of the year as this was the perfect place to get in all the gunnery and night flying practice.

 While we were down there the living accommodations, recreation and food was not up to standards, but everyone worked hard from the mechanics and the gunnery specialist to the pilots.

“Hey – did ya know the military police cited us for being out of uniform?”

 “How out of uniform?” 

“It was so hot we took off our shirts while we were working.

 The Colonel found out about the citation and tore them a strip and said his guys were here to work, not to look pretty, and if not wearing shirts made them more comfortable, that was fine with him”. 

Page No 3

In May of 1958 we took the train to Frankfurt and almost as soon as we got there, there was a MATS flight leaving for Mildenhalll Air Force base in England.

 We tried to sign up for that flight, but we were told our passes were only good for “the continent of Europe” and that did not include “the United Kingdom”. 

Miller, who chatted up every female he ran into, looked for a secretary. 

He found a pretty girl sitting at a typewriter and leaned over her to ask “Hey honey, you look like you wanna help a couple of stranded souls – do us a favour and type two little old letters on these here orders so we can go to England, eh cutie? 

No way, do you know how much trouble I will be in – falsifying documents?

Okay then, here’s a quarter, can you go get a cup of coffee?” He said smiling his usual smooth most charming smile.

 While she went to get a cup of coffee, Miller sat down at the typewriter and typed “U.K.” on our orders.  We went back to the MATS terminal, showed them our modified orders and got on the flight to England.

Another push by the hand of fate toward my Destiny

It was pretty cold and bleak when we arrived in England.  Mildenhall is very close to Ramsgate on the south coast of England, it is your typical seaside town, but the place looked deserted.

 

At the Terminal at Mildenhall there was a Travel Agency and we looked at all the brochures for different parts of Britain.  We had quite a discussion about where we would go.  I had no ideas for I knew very little about England, and neither did my buddy. There were huge colourful posters of the various scenic places around Britain.

Several airmen were there all reading the brochures, and all were talking about where they wanted to go and about where they had been already.

 Someone suggested that we take the train up to Scotland.  They said Glasgow was the party city of Scotland with lots of activities for young people, like night clubs.  Hotels were said to be cheaper than hotels in London and we could tour the countryside from Glasgow.  The brochures we read showed that the culture would be quite different (men wearing kilts), but English speaking.  The posters and pictures made it look like it was very scenic with Castles, fast flowing rivers, waterfalls, mountains and glens.  Maybe a bit like Germany, so I thought I would like that.

The Travel agent issued us Rail Passes for USA Military with train tickets round trip from London to Glasgow. There was a shuttle bus to take us from Mildenhall right into London to the correct railway station – there are five major railway stations in London.

We stayed that night at the base, then, next morning took the shuttle to London, which only took a couple of hours.

The train journey from Kingscross railway station in London to Glasgow would be about 7 hours so we would see some of the countryside from the train.

The houses looked quite different from the houses we were used to seeing in France and Germany.

 Because we had finally stopped changing planes, buses and trains, and it was quite a long journey, I nodded off, but I did get to see a lot of rolling countryside with a lot of sheep everywhere.

The trains were quite different from trains I had been on in the USA when I went from Russellville to Texas and from Texas to New Jersey when I left to go to Europe. 

We had to wear our uniforms in order to travel on USAAF passes on the trains.

 A lady from the Salvation Army gave us coffee and doughnuts and started chatting with us.

 We told her about our plan to see some of Europe while we were stationed in France.

 She noticed our accents and asked if we were from the south. The American southern accent is the most recognizable American accent, and we were definitely from the South.

 

“Are you two off to join your squadron in Scotland then? She asked.

“No, we are on leave and thought we would spend some time in Glasgow”

“Glasgow? She said doubtfully.  “Ach away, ye dinna want to go to Glasgow, Edinburgh is whaur ye want to go.

  Aye, Edinburgh is a grand place with the Castle, the Gardens, Princes Street, The Royal Mile, The Palace and all the historic architecture.  It’s a lovely city where it is easy to get around and see everything.

 Aye, ye’ll have a much better holiday in Edinburgh. 

Glasgow is a big industrial toon, Edinburgh is whaur a’ the tourists go”

Yet another nudge in the direction for my Destiny.

Arriving in Glasgow we discovered, yet again, we had to travel across town to get to another railway station to get to Edinburgh.  We found the times and platforms from information and took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh using our passes. It was not going to be a long journey, only 50 minutes.

  It was quite late when we arrived in Edinburgh and stayed at the Caledonian hotel at the west end of Princes Street.

Page No. 5

The Royal Mile is the road that leads from The Castle down through the medieval part of Edinburgh ending at Holyrood Palace, which is H.M. the Queen’s residence when she is in Edinburgh. 

There is so much to see on this old, old thoroughfare at any time, but this weekend it was full of students all dressed up in weird and wonderful outfits, acting out little eye-catching performances to get passersby to donate to the Students Charities.

 On Princes Street, with the lovely gardens on one side, and all the expensive shops lining the other side, the students were pestering pedestrians to get them to give them money.  We enjoyed watching their antics and listening to them recite Shakespeare and sing Scottish songs.

 These rather wild festivities involving University Students never got out of control, the students were having fun and managed to get many of the tourists to join in.  I hoped they collected a lot of money.

The hotel we stayed in was quite small and nondescript.  We made friends with a couple of the maids there and they showed us around Edinburgh and took us  up to the Castle, to the shops and restaurants on Princes Street and into the Gardens, where there were flower beds full of all kinds of flowers everywhere. 

A day later Miller and I were alone at lunch in a little café on Princes Street called The Manhattan.  The place appealed to us because it claimed to have real American hamburgers and there was a snazzy pink Studebaker parked out front right on Princes Street.

 The café was very small and was set up like a train car with booths on either side of a central aisle.  There were mirrors on all the walls to make the place appear larger than it was.  As a result, while sitting in a booth you were looking at the people in the next booth like they were sitting next to you.

 

 A cute young girl stopped at our booth and said to me.  “Did you get your accommodations all right then sir”?

 I was dumbfounded and it took a minute before I could figure out where the girl had come from, who she was and exactly what she had said.  She was with another young woman and a baby in a carriage.

 Miller said, “Why don’t you join us, sit down, have a Coke, doll”.  I then remembered that she was the young girl from that old hotel.

 I heard her say “Oh, no thank you” and they walked out of the café.

 Miller said to me, “I think she likes you”.  “She is the girl from that old fashioned hotel.”  “You should go back there and ask her out.”

“Ah, no way, she would never go out with me”

 My buddy said “I bet she will, what the heck Kelley, you should try – she liked you, I saw the way she looked at you at the hotel, she didn’t pay me any mind at all.

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Page No. 2

A New Adventure

Back in base at Toule in France, day to day working and living was dull and routine except for outings organized by the Airman’s Club like a trip to the site of the Battle of the Bulge, the World’s Fair in Brussels, Heidelberg, and Luxembourg.

In Libya we were taken to the Roman Archaeological site of Leptis Magna which is the best-preserved Roman site in the Mediterranean.  The place was huge and we were there for hours and did not see all of it.  What the Romans accomplished with their architecture, amphitheaters, mosaics and carvings was amazing.

 

One day my buddy said to me “Hey, Kelley, what do you say to a trip somewhere when we get back from this hell hole?”

“Nah, I don’t know,  I have only got a few more months before I go home, and I really want that Renault.   I have been saving all my money to get that car”

 “Have you seen it?  It so plush and some of the features are unusual, more plush than any American car I’ve seen before…….and I can get it here real cheap and have it shipped stateside”.

“Gee Kelley, let’s see some of the countries over here, it won’t cost that much if we get a MATS flight”.

“Where do you want go Miller?”

“Well, I want to go to Paris, the girls …..  shee; we could have a real good time”.

“We could just take the base shuttle there”.

“Nah, it’ll be better if we take the train to Frankfurt and catch a MATS flight from there.

 They have more flights from Frankfurt than they do from France, and they go everywhere, we’ll take a chance and just get the first flight to wherever it happens to be going”.

“How long will we be gone?”

“I don’t know, let’s say about a month – do you have leave?”

“I haven’t taken leave since we went to Belgium and Luxembourg, not since we have been at Toule Air Base. 

You know what it’s been like here – Nancy is off limits because of the communists – so I haven’t seen very much of France at all”.

Kelley, you have got to get out, get out and see the bright lights and have some fun while you are in Europe. 

Look at the other guys, most of them have a great time – you need to get out – meet some girls, see Paris.

You had a pretty good time in Heidelberg didn’t you”? 

“Oh yeah, Heidelberg was great”.

 I started thinking about what I did in Heidelberg.  I had wandered around on my own and saw the old castle and ate some great German food.   I didn’t feel like I had to show-off and try to impress anyone.

When I went to Brussels and Luxembourg with other guys from base they were always whistling at the girls and cat calling and I always felt awkward – we didn’t do that at home.

 

My buddy started outlining all we’d have to do.

“We’ll have to get passes of some kind and we’ll need money”.

“I’ll have to take some money out of savings”.

“Break out Kelley, live it up while you have a chance. 

Your problem is you have never had a chance to make any money working for your dad on the farm.  Did you ever have any fun”?

“Not much, my brother and I were up at 4:00 am milking the cows then we worked in the fields all day, cultivating tobacco, bringing in the hay for the cows, weeding, hoeing, there was something all the time. Daddy felt if we were not working, we were wasting time”.

“It was pretty much the same for me, my daddy was very strict too, that’s why I joined the Air Force.

Back home there was not much time for anything else except church and maybe a basketball game”. 

“Pretty much the same for me except in Arkansas cotton is king and that’s all we did too, work in the fields, go to school and go to Church.

 The best thing we ever did was join the Air Force - it’s like being on vacation – heck, we get to sleep all the way until 5:30 am”.

“ I aim to see as much of the rest of Europe as I can while I can.

Aw, c’mon, we’ll get traveler’s checks and what you don’t spend you can put back in the bank.

 We’ll have a great time.  Let’s see if we can leave in a couple of weeks”.

What was in store for me on this new adventure?

My Destiny?

Page No. 4 

When we got up the next morning we found out that this was a very grand hotel in the centre of Edinburgh with commanding views of the Castle up above the city.  Our rooms were only available for one night, so we had to find another place to stay by the next morning. 

My first impression of Edinburgh was seeing the Castle from the hotel windows and then looking down Princes Street with the gardens (a big park) full of flowers.

We started to look around the city, walking through the gardens (very large parks)and trying to figure out how to get up to the Castle.  Everyone we asked was helpful and we were getting used to the Scottish accented English.

The sights and sounds of this old city are so impressive.  I had never seen anything like it.

 From the Caledonian Hotel we passed two huge old Churches before we came to the gates of the Gardens.

 We walked past a beautiful fountain and watched the gardeners working on the many flower beds.  There is a pretty fancy stage sitting in the middle of this park with the Castle staring down at it.  We did not go in to either of the two Art Museums at the end of the park, but continued on in to another ‘garden’.  Here we saw a huge very intricately structured tower surrounded by flower beds and park benches.  We could have gone inside the tower and walked the 287 steps to the top for a fantastic view of the city, but we needed to find another hotel.

While we were wandering around taking in all the sights we came across The Roxburghe Hotel across the street from what looked like another beautiful park and an even grander Church and so we went in to check their availability.  The Caledonian Hotel was very grand and formal, but the Roxburghe had the impression that it was a man’s club, quite stuffy, not much like hotels that we knew, and all the guests and the staff were very old.

Not a very likely place for two young tourists, but fate was still guiding my Destiny

Miller approached the receptionist, leaned over and using all his charm and his best smile asked

“Hey Sweetie, do you all have any rooms for a few days?”

The receptionist was very, polite, sounded quite formal and said.

“I am terribly sorry sir, we are fully occupied, but I will be happy to check with some of the hotels in the area and see if there is any availability.”

 I thought the way she rolled her “Rrrs” “Terrrrribly sorrrry sirrr” was kind of cute and she was much younger than anyone we had seen in this very old fashioned hotel.

While we were waiting, we had a gander at the hotel.  It was very quiet, full of old furniture and paintings and the elevator looked like it had come out of a museum.  After getting a look at the bar- tender, the other guests, the bell men and the waitresses all plodding along sedately with their duties, Miller said “This place is going to be dead, there won’t be much action around here”

After a few phone calls the young receptionist told us; “I have checked our overflow hotels, gentlemen, and it seems all the hotels in our area are full right now.  It is because it is the University Charities Week.

 Of course, we did not know what that was.

“Let me give you directions to The Scottish Tourist Board and they will have access to all the hotels in Edinburgh and will be able to get a hotel for you quite quickly”.

She gave us a map and took quite a time to show us how to get there.

The Scottish Tourist Board was not far from The Caledonian Hotel, where we had left our bags. 

We found the Tourist Board quite easily and they found a small hotel for us not far from the Roxburghe Hotel. so we were still close to the centre of town, Princes Street and all the tourist attractions.

Page No. 6

Miller and I were still going around town with the two maids from the hotel where we were staying, but I knew they were not as nice as the girl from the Roxburghe and what Miller had said to me played on my mind.

 It took me a while to get up the courage, but I went back to that stuffy old hotel where an older lady was now at the reception desk.  She looked a bit stern and not too friendly, but I coughed a little and I heard myself say “Can I speak to the young girl who works here at the desk?” 

She kinda looked down her nose at me and said “The young lady I think you are referring to is at lunch, is there anything I can do for you?”

 “I just wanted to thank her for taking so much time to help us find a hotel when all the hotels were full and I thought I would take her to dinner”.  This woman softened and asked me a few questions about what I was doing in Edinburgh, and I told her that I was stationed in France and was touring Europe.

I waited while she called the dining room.

 Pretty soon here comes the young girl and she did not look too happy. 

She came up to me and said “What do you want”?

 I didn’t realize that I might have got her in trouble with her boss.

 I said to her “I just wanted to thank you for being so kind to me the other day and wondered if you would like to go out with me?” 

She actually said yes!  I was flabbergasted!  We arranged to meet me that night outside the hotel at 6:00 pm. I think I was walking on air as I walked through all the grand reception rooms on my way out of the hotel.

The route from our hotel to the Roxburghe was complicated and I took a couple of wrong turns so I got there late.  As I ran up to the hotel I thought I saw someone that looked like the young girl walking past me with a guy.

 I thought to myself; I had only seen this gal a couple of times, maybe that is just someone who looks like her.  I waited in front of the hotel, kicking myself for being late, but all the time hoping that was not the same girl, but then, she was gone.

 After a few minutes that same girl came back and said quickly “Let’s get away from here”. 

She grabbed my arm, and we took off down a side street like she didn’t want to be seen with me.

As I recall we went to a play that night.  It was in English, about a popular English policeman and even though it was all in English I didn’t understand anything, but everyone was laughing a lot.

What I enjoyed more than anything was listening to her talk.  She talked about getting to a place "earrrly" and "verry good serrrvice".

 

 When I took her back to the hotel I told her that my buddy and I had really enjoyed Edinburgh. When it was time to say good-night, I told her it was probably goodbye because we were leaving the next day to get back to London and on to Paris. 

She thanked me for a lovely evening and said  "Cheerrrio" - I thought that meant "hello".

 I really do think she had a good time.  She seemed to know quite a few people that we bumped into at the Manhattan Café where we ate and at the theatre.

The next day Miller decided he wanted to stay in Edinburgh another day as he was really enjoying going out with the maids at the hotel where we were staying.

 It took me a while, but I finally got up the nerve to call the Roxburghe and ask to speak to the young receptionist, she agreed to go out with me, but she wouldn’t be able to go too far as she only had the afternoon off.

That afternoon she showed me more of the beautiful architecture and gardens in Edinburgh.  We went to museums and art galleries and my feet were sore by the end of the afternoon.

I asked her to tell me her name when we parted that afternoon and she said

 “You’re just a ship that’s passing in the night, you'll be leaving to go back to France tomorrow and we’ll probably never see each other again, so – what's the point?” “Let’s just enjoy the time we have”. 

We said goodbye – again.

Again, Miller said he wanted to stay another day in Edinburgh and I encouraged him as I wanted to stay longer too. 

I really wanted to spend as much time as I could with this pretty, dark haired, very fair, petite little lady with the cute accent. 

She did meet me again and when I asked her to tell me her name she said – you can call me "Small Child" that's what they call me at the hotel. I think I laughed at this.

We went on long walks through the Gardens and up through some narrow cobble-stone streets and winding steps to Edinburgh Castle.  This took us through the medieal part of the town with all it's history.

 I could never get her to take a taxi or go for a meal.  She kept telling me no, she was not hungry and how much cheaper it was to take the bus or to walk.  I never walked so much in my life. 

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