Page 5 - Aerotech News and Review, Feb. 17 2017

SNAKES, from 4
Cuddeback via Highway 395 got to be pretty lonely after a while as nobody wanted to ride with the crazy snake guy with the constant buzzing box in the back of the truck!
This went on for a while and of course higher ups were unaware of the ‘airman snake wrangler’ working in the Civil Engineering compound. Thanks to the long drive back to the base when I would return, the transfer from my shop truck to civilian truck of my rattling pay day went unnoticed — but then came the day when that all came to a very quick ending!
Our squadron commander a lieutenant colonel had a phobia about things that slithered on the ground and, much like Indiana Jones, he just down right hated snakes.
The day came when a short day at Cuddeback had me back at George around three o’clock with an hour to kill before I could head home. My rattler batch was in the back of my truck and within a half hour all hell broke out when wild kingdom took over the shop com-
pound. My commander was walking past the back of the parked trucks when a strange sound caught his at- tention. Curiosity killed the cat but in this case curios- ity almost killed my Air Force career!
With a box flap opened and a yelling man, we all came flying out of the shop to see the colonel in the dirt field pointing and hollering and with a quick look at the truck and an open box on its side I knew the gig was up! The snakes were loose! It took about an hour, but we rounded up the critters. But the biggest danger was still loose and sporting silver leafs on his collar!
Those of you that served know what it’s like to stand in front of that desk at attention and defend yourself before the gates of hell are opened and your heaved in. To this day I can’t even remember what I said in my defense but whatever it was I said driving com- pound taxi for two weeks was a pretty light sentence! I won’t lie and not say losing that extra 100 bucks a week didn’t really hurt but I was happy to still have
those stripes on my sleeves! This story does have a funny ending. In 1979 when my days at George came to an end, the squadron gave me a going away party and the gift they gave me always re- minded me of the glory days of Bob the Airmen snake wrangler. The shop foreman and squadron commander presented me a wrapped box with, you guessed it, 10 life
size rubber snakes!
Until next time, rattle rattle
and Bob out!
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February 17, 2017
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