For those interested in little known history...

[birdguy 3,994]

I don't know exactly when it happened but the weather school was moved from Chanute AFB to Keesler AFB.  But it is a shame there is no mention of the weather school they had at Chanute.  It was three branch of the service weather school for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.  

When I went to Observer School our instructor was a Marine and there were three or four sailors in the class.  Since I had been a Marine and because I was semi-old (51) at the time I kinda got special treatment in the class.  I had so many ribbons on my blouse I became sort of a celebrity for the 18 and 19 year old pipeline students.

Later, after I became a Senior Master Sergeant, I went to Chanute for tropical weather.  The Marine who had been our instructor in observer school was one of the students in the class.  He was now a warrant officer.  Since the Air Force doesn't have warrant officers the pipeline students didn't recognize him as an officer.  So he and I would cruise the BX area at lunch time and when an unknowning airmen passed us without rendering him a salute I would stop him, ream him out and explain that a warrant officer  deserves a salute just like a commissioned officer.  The poor airman would ender a suklte and the warrant officer would return the salute, smile, and say, "Have a nice day airman."

At our graduation ceremony the weather school commander said, "I trust that a certain sergeant and warrant officer won't be ambushing airmen around the BX complex anymore."

A little bit of history here as to why the Air Force and Navy went to weather school but no Army students.

When the Air Force broke off from the Army and became a separate service in 1948 an agreement was reached that the Air Force would provide weather services for the the Army and the Army would not fly armed aircraft.  Later the Army claimed a loophole when it began flying armed helicopters.

There are two types of support the Air Force weather troops provide for the Army.  They operate traditional weather stations at Army air bases.  But they also provide weather services for Army field units.  My weather flight supported an armored cavalry regiment.  Our weather station was an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier.  We also, along with the Washington Air National Guard Weather Flight, supported the 6th US Army Headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco.  That was always a cushy trip for me.  Since they didn't have quarters for visiting senior NCOs I was provided a rental car and put up at a motel at Fisherman's Wharf.  Just one more sacrifice I made for my country. 

Noel 

[Mike A 357]

15 hours ago, birdguy said:

Was that a Burger King or Hardees on base that had a terrific view of the bay and the bridge?  Your building musta have been pretty close to it.

It was a Burger King.  In 1989, it was relatively new, as it replaced the Post Cafeteria that was at that location. Right across Lincoln Blvd. from us.

[birdguy 3,994]

You were lucky to have a posting like the Presidio of San Francisco Mike.  It was a picturesque base with those tall forests of Eucalyptus trees.  My commanding officer once took me to lunch as a guest at the officers club.  And in a hallway is a window through which you can see the original adobe wall of the building.

The Presidio was one of the playgrounds for my brother and I right after World War II when it was again opened to the public.  We roamed all over the place.  I recall watching liaison aircraft taking off from Crissy Field.  On the other side of Fort Point, the ocean side under the Golden Gate Bridge. were the huge concrete gun emplacements where huge coastal artillery pieces were installed during the war.  The guns were gone but they were great places for young boys to climb about and explore.  The main base is just a small part of the Presidio.  When 5th Army was disbanded and the base was about to be closed developers were willing to pay any price for it.  But it went to the National Park Service instead.  Given todays housing prices in San Francisco can you imagine what a house on the Burger King lot would cost today?

The following is one of my boyhood stories just for you Mike.  I think I posted it a while back.

The Fort Point Vandal

In 1853, three years after California attained statehood, the United States Army began the construction of Fort Point, a large three story red-orange fort that today sits directly under and blends in well with the Golden Gate Bridge.

Lee and I passed by it many times in our forays around the Presidio.  One of our favorite places were the huge concrete coastal gun emplacements that faced the Pacific Ocean and at one time were the bases for huge guns that would have fired against enemy ships had they tried to approach the Golden Gate.  Today they were empty, but the tiered platforms were fun to play around and spurred our imaginations of what they once held.

We had walked around Fort Point many times but it was closed up and we always wondered what was inside.

On this particular day we found an open window.

We climbed through and found ourselves in a rather small room.  It opened the open court yard the building surrounded.  There was a walkway with a steel railing that went around all three floors.

Lee and I began exploring room by room.  They were all empty on the first floor.

On the second and third floors we did find some boxes staked against the walls.  Also on the third floor we found stacked sacks of dry, powdered camouflage paint.  They probably weight twenty pounds apiece.

It took us over an hour to explore the fort room by room and we became a bit bored.  So we climbed back out the window and sat at the edge of the parking lot next to the bay and watched the waves crash against the rocks.  The tide was going out and as the water receded after each wave we could see orange starfish clinging to rocks under the water.  A couple of small ships came in under the bridge and some sailboats were sailing to and fro between the bridge and Alcatraz Island.

When we got up to leave I got an idea.  Where it came from I don’t know.  But mischief has a way of popping into a young boy’s mind from time to time and this one was going to be fun.

We climbed back into the fort through that open window and climber the stairs to the third floor and to the room where all the camouflage paint was.

Twenty pounds is quite heavy from a young boy to lift, but I struggled and shoved the first sack over the side between the deck and the bottom railing of the rail.

Down it went and hit the courtyard with a loud pop and burst open spraying brown powder over the concrete.  It was beautiful.

I dragged the next sack over to the launching point and pushed it over the side.  Whoomp!  And another spray of brown powder.

This was fun!

All in all I must have pushed a dozen sacks over the side.  Some red.  Some brown.  Some green.  Some yellow.

Lee and went down the stairs to examine my handiwork.  A nice multicolored mountain of paint powder spreading out at the base like the slope of a mountain.  Broken paper sacks stuck out of the pile.

Lee and I climbed back out of that window and walked home.  I was filthy.  My clothes were filthy.  Paint residue and dirt and dust from dragging those sacks was on my clothes and my face.  Mom was furious.  How could I get so dirty?  She made me take a bath and change my clothes.  Small price to pay for such an adventure.

Noel

Edited October 12, 2021 by birdguy