Page 56 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

Cranmer in Clifton, New Jersey. He had a Dumont television in his apartment, and in
the evening we walked by the storefronts in town where people gathered to watch
wrestling matches. I later learned that my uncle married Eleanor Klazen, who had
worked for Dumont around that time. On August 29, 1952, I graduated in second place
from the top of my class of ninety students. I learned that I was assigned to the 7th
Weather Group under the Alaskan Air Command at Elmendorf Air Force Base in
Anchorage, Alaska.

CHAPTER 15 - Briefly Home, then Westward Ho!
My brother, Richard, was home on leave in Jacksonville, so I decided to spend a few
days there with him before checking out at Stillwater. I hitchhiked to Tinker Field in
Oklahoma City to catch a “hop” on a MATS, Military Air Transport Command) plane.
Tinker Field had become recognized for the work of two forecasters, Lt. Col Ernest J.
Fawbush and Colonel Robert C. Miller, who were pioneers in the technique of tornado
forecasting. I finally caught a flight to Smyrna Air Force Base, outside of Nashville,
Tennessee. I spent a chilly night in the wooden, unheated Operations Building wearing
nothing but my summer khakis. All I could do was cover myself with newspapers and
shiver, waiting for the sun to come up.

Finally, as the warm orange sunlight illuminated the base, I walked through the gates to
US Highway 41, hoisted my right thumb and hitchhiked to Chattanooga and Atlanta,
and after a visit to a gas station for a Coke and a package of Lance Peanut Butter
Crackers resumed hitchhiking to Waycross and Jacksonville. Richard and I went
downtown to visit my former workplace, the St. Johns Theater. We talked with the
manager on duty and a few employees that we had known. I also contacted a former
usher with me who had joined the Marines. His name was Woo Fang Yee, and he told
me that he had spent a year in Korea. He said he was in North Korea when the Red
Chinese soldiers swarmed across the Yalu River, catching the U.S. troops by surprise.
He managed to find places to hide and make his way back to the remainder of his unit
that had retreated into South Korea.

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