Yep, another Sondy Tale.
THE RESEARCH PAPER
By Wilton Strickland
In February, 1978, when I left California for my assignment as Director of
Engineering at Sondrestrom Air Base, Greenland, I had just completed the
seminars portion of Air Force Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), an
intermediate level professional military education program of Air
University, but I had not completed the research paper, an "Aerospace Power
Study," required for graduation. Most of the research and the basic writing
were fairly well done, but I needed to finish a final draft with proper
footnotes and a complete and correct bibliography, produce a properly typed
copy and present it to the University. The small library at Sondrestrom was
very inadequate for my needs to complete the paper. Meanwhile, there was a
formal, two-week short course, "Air Force Base Civil Engineer," at
Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, that I had wanted to attend for a couple of years.
If I could wrangle an assignment to the course, I could have complete access
to the outstanding library at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT)
and easily get the research paper completed during my time there. I called
the school and quickly arranged to attend the course in April. I also
called the Base Civil Engineer (BCE) at George AFB, CA, my former duty
station, and got his approval to ask his secretary, Felly Elarmo, a mighty
fine lady and absolutely the best typist I've ever known, to type the
finished document for me in a format meeting the Air University
requirements.
Felly agreed to do the typing for me, and I departed Sondy aboard a New York
Air National Guard C-130 on a Saturday morning in mid-April to attend the
Civil Engineer Course and arrived at the NY Guard's home base at
Schenectady, NY, in early afternoon. (In the taxi between the Schenectady
base and the Albany Airport to catch a flight to Dayton, OH, I had a very
short "strange" or "funny" experience. Back at Sondy, I had been deeply
engrossed in studying Danish for nearly two months, and was already able to
engage in simple conversations in Danish. I suddenly realized, though, that
I was trying to understand the "Danish" on the upstate NY taxi dispatcher
radio.)
At the Wright-Patterson Library, I quickly and easily found the references I
needed and, in my room at night and on the weekend, wrote a final draft of
the paper, including appropriate footnotes, bibliography and much cutting
and pasting/taping. (Remember that this was before the proliferation of
personal computers.)
I also called Felly to coordinate the typing work and told her that I
planned to arrive at her office at George AFB, CA, at 0730 on the following
Friday after finishing the classes at Wright-Patterson. Meanwhile, I
learned that, though the last class for the Civil Engineer Course was on
Thursday afternoon, I was required to attend a graduation ceremony on Friday
morning for "The General's" graduation speech and presentation of
certificates. Immediately after the last class at about mid-afternoon on
Thursday, I talked to the School Commandant, a colonel whose name I don't
remember, about the possibility of getting my completion certificate and
departing for California immediately. I told him that I was stationed in
Greenland, had not seen my wife and children for more than two months and
needed to get that research paper typed on Friday in California and head
back to Greenland on Sunday. I assured him that, having heard many
graduation speeches, I already knew what The General was going to say and
proceeded to cite some of the typical words of inspiration often used in
such speeches. The colonel opened a desk drawer, shuffled through the
sheath of signed certificates and handed mine to me, saying, "Don't tell
anybody else that you're leaving early." I assured him that I would not say
a word about it to anybody, that I'd be gone in well less than an hour and
that nobody else would notice or care that I was "missing."
I arrived at Felly's office the next morning at 0730 as planned. She and
her boss, the BCE, had cleared the day for her to work exclusively on my
paper, which she finished by about mid-afternoon. I have never seen a more
impressive job of perfect typing. Having done the work during her normal
duty day, Felly did not expect any additional payment for her outstanding
work well beyond the call of duty, but I gave her what I thought at the time
was a reasonable bonus or gift of appreciation, but viewed now via 36-year
retrospect, what I gave her was embarrassingly inadequate.
I mailed the completed document on Saturday morning, and, after another day
or so at home with my wife and two of the children, I left California again
for the return trip to Sondy on Sunday afternoon and arrived back there on
Monday via Schenectady and a New York Air National Guard C-130.
A few weeks later, I received an ACSC Certificate of Completion and a letter
commending the research paper, but it obviously was not very memorable - I
don't remember the subject of the paper.
Wilton
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