Family Life 1964 -1969
Copperas Cove/Fort Hood, Texas
We left Germany in June 1964, flying home via Greenland. After a brief visit with families, we headed for Texas. Again, family quarters were not available, so we rented a house in Copperas Cove, adjacent to Fort Hood. For the first time, we had to furnish our home so we went to a local furniture store where the furniture was jammed together so tightly you could barely walk between items. Fortunately, we got good installment payment terms and were able to get everything we needed.
Copperas Cove provided our first experience with cockroaches, huge spiders, and scorpions. We actually got used to them except the scorpions. They loved to hide in the mop drying on the porch. We didn’t have to wait too long before we got government quarters across the highway from the main post.
Killeen was a small town just west of Fort Hood which offered more extensive shopping than available on post. A drawback was that every spring, Killeen was inundated with crickets. They were everywhere, in stores, blanked sidewalks and streets. It was impossible to avoid squishing them when walking around town.
I received orders for Vietnam via a school in North Carolina in November 1965. Marilee and the girls lived in government quarters on Fort Lewis, Washington while I was away.
I returned from Vietnam, landing at McChord AFB on the first such flight to land at that location. This was a surprise, so I wasn’t able to notify anyone in advance. The result was my walking in on the family unannounced. Wonderful surprise! After a short leave we departed to my next duty assignment at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
San Antonio/Fort Sam Houston, Texas
We rented a nice house in San Antonio as no family quarters were available on post. That was fine with us. San Antonio turned out to be a wonderful city with many really nice places for family activity, such as the Alamo, the famous River Walk and Brackenridge Park.
An opportunity was presented to me for an assignment in Panama. After getting Marilee’s blessing, we took the assignment.
We drove to Charlston, South Carolina to ship our car to Panama, and was able to work in a tour of Fort Sumpter before flying the rest of the way.
Quarry Heights, Panama Canal Zone 1968 – 1969
We were met at the airport by an Army E7 sponsor who transported us to our awaiting quarters, with groceries already in the cupboard, along with scads of big cockroaches (we later got a cat who was an excellent roacher.) Being a master sergeant apparently warranted VIP treatment. The quarters were a nice masonry standalone house with no heating as none was needed. The windows were louvered, opened by a small hand crank. We overlooked the Miniflores Locks and had a good view of ships going back and forth. Most of our neighbors had maids or cleaning ladies. One of the native women soliciting a job as our maid when, Marilee declined, asked “who will take care of your children?” Marilee took that as an affront to the quality of her mothering skills.
Besides the usual exploring the sights, the whole family became quite active in the Girl Scouts, including hiking, camping, etc.
When I was appointed a warrant officer I changed the nameplate on our house to reflect my new rank. Most of our neighbors seemed to take exception to an officer living in their neighborhood. I saw no reason to move as with the promotion came orders to Germany without concurrent travel for my family so they temporarily had to stay with her mother for a while.
Frankfurt, Germany 1969-1971
My family joined me in January 1970. They crammed into my officer bachelor quarters (BOQ) for a few days until we were assigned family quarters. Marilee was surprised to see I did have some domestic qualities, as I had a couple of designer candles on my coffee tablecloth.
It snowed not long after they’d arrived. The kids and I took the opportunity to play in the snow. Click on the pictures below to enlarge.
We had a Pontiac Bonneville which was totaled when a guy turned right into Marilee’s path. He said he was blinded by the sun. His insurance accepted responsibility, but it left us without a car. We bought a red Volkswagen Hatchback, which was a new model at the time. A nice feature was it had a gasoline heater that warmed the car immediately when turned on. We had to leave it in Germany when we returned to the U.S. because it didn’t meet American emission standards.
In April 1971, I received orders for my second Vietnam tour. Marilee and kids again were ensconced with her mother in Washington state.