From Oct '57 to Mar '60, when I left to attend Officer Candidate
School
(OCS), I was a B-47E maintenance crew chief at Lincoln AFB, NE, and wore
the two-stripe chevrons of that "lofty" rank of A/2C (airman second
class,
or E-3).
Soon after arriving at Lincoln, I began looking for ways to continue
my pursuit of an engineering degree, and began to attend night and
Saturday classes at The University of Nebraska in Lincoln and The
University of Omaha about 55 miles away. The classes in Lincoln were
usually one or two nights a week, and those in Omaha were on Friday
nights
and Saturday mornings. I usually stayed overnight at the YMCA in
downtown
Omaha. Because of my very unpredictable work schedule, it was nearly
impossible to get to all of the class meetings, but I did manage to
accumulate a few credits, anyway.
Sometime early in 1958, the squadron's first sergeant, who was very
supportive of my efforts to improve my education and knew that I also
have
a strong sense of integrity, called me to his office and asked me to
escort
off base an airman who, for some non-criminal infraction, had just been
reduced in rank to airman basic (E-1) and given a less-than-honorable,
administrative discharge.
I drove the airman to his barracks room to pack his belongings, which
he did as I watched, and then drove him to a point just outside the base
front gate where he got into a car with a young woman and departed.
The next day, the first sergeant told me that the former airman had
stolen
his roommate's field jacket during his departure. I told the sergeant,
"He
was wearing the same field jacket when I dropped him off outside the gate
that he was wearing when I first met him here in your office, and I had
watched him pack his bags. Meanwhile, I did not see another field jacket
.
If he took the roommate's jacket, during that time, I don't know how he
could have done it."
I never heard another word about the incident, but I did worry a bit
that the roommate and the first sergeant might somehow, at least
partially,
hold me responsible for the "supposed" theft.
Wilton Strickland, LtCol, USAF (Ret)
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