Phil Wright

708th AC & W Oct. '77 - Oct. '78

Here are some of my fondest memories of my tour of duty at Indian Mountain
AFS:

~~~~~~~~

    I remember only one USO show and that was on the day I flew out to
beautiful Utopia Creek.  I was originally supposed to go to Galena but was
diverted to Indian Mtn.  Memories include a hike to Gold Camp, spending the
night at Norton's Cabin lying on the roof watching a dazzling display of the
Northern Lights.



    Names and all that have faded over the years, but I know I'd immediately
remember so many of them if I saw either names or faces.  Gosh, so many
memories though.

    One of my fondest, however, was the day we had new transfers coming in.
A bunch of us had journeyed to bottom camp for a change of scenery and we
found out a II Lieutenant, and Buck Sergeant had just arrived.  A friend of
mine had me paged and let me know that they had some "surprises" arranged
for the newbies and to just "play along".  Surprises were an understatement!
We rode up in the back (in the bed with a bunch of supplies) of a crew cab
pick up wondering just what we were going to find when we got there.  We
pulled up in front of the barracks to find guys sitting in the snow, reading
newspapers (it was like 25 degrees) in Hawaiian shirts, others playing
Frisbee and overall a beachlike setting.  We went inside and they were then
showing the newbies body bags of a couple of guys who had "gone hiking and
run into a Kodiak bear."  Then it was on to Admin where the First Sergeant
sat with his feet up on the desk, shirt half unbuttoned, and a beer on his
desk.  (absolutely out of character for him)  Next, it was on to OPS where a
(mock) airspace intrusion had been announced.  Weapons controller and tech
were in hot scramble and we had plotters behind the board and after the
intruder had been turned back the DO started chewing out one of the plotters
for being slow and inaccurate and the plotter turned around and mooned him,
which prompted an arrest and escorted off to his quarters!  I mean this was
getting good!  Things let up for a little bit, but Ed Bertschy and I hatched
a plot of our own, unbeknownst to most of the rest of the guys.  We were
throwing darts and we started arguing about whose turn it was, and accusing
each other of throwing from in front of the line.  We then started pushing
and shoving each other.  Now the new guys were sitting at the bar watching
us.  He "hit" me... *whack* Now we had positioned ourselves so that it would
look like we were really hitting each other from their angle, but in fact we
would time it so that we would hit our own chest flat handed to simulate a
hit.  We threw about three hits each, then he wound up and hit be with a big
roundhouse and I reeled from the hit and landed on the linoleum and slid in
to the adjacent room where it was better lit and there were guys sitting
around playing Spades and Hearts and watching the fight.  However, I had
landed so realistically that some of them stood up or leaded over and asked
me if I was all right!  I looked up and winked at them and right at that
moment someone hollered *DEAD BUG!!!*  And everyone dropped to the floor,
stuck their feet and hands up in the air and shook them like they were dying
bugs.  Well, everyone but the newbies who sat there in shock as they
realized they had just been had!!  Funny thing is that the CO had known
about this all along but felt he couldn't participate. He said he wouldn't
interfere so long as it didn't get out of hand.  I had so many guys come up
to me afterwards and tell me that even though they knew it was a fake fight,
that last blow was so well done they weren't so sure it was fake.  That may
be my favorite memory from Indian Mountain.  I have more memories and
stories, but I'll save them for future correspondence.



    I live in Lewiston, Idaho, which is in North Central Idaho about 2 hours
South of Spokane, WA.



Phil Wright

708th AC & W Oct. '77 - Oct. '78

philocutus@gmail.com