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1973-1976 Continued - Part 3 This starts at: 04/01/09 21:22:29 GMT, continues to the next entry and is in 3 parts. One of my fondest memories was of Danny Peterson (Pete), our 3rd Baseman. Pete had one of the best arms of any man I have ever met. He could stand with his back on the Centerfield Fence take a couple of steps and throw the ball over the backstop, 260 feet away. He would wear farmer-type coveralls to practice to prove he was "country", and then un-do one of the straps to take infield! Once, early in the '76 season, when he wore cover-alls, I got him to put a plug of tobacco in his jaw. He ended up swallowing enough to make him throw-up over the chain-link fence right by 3rd base. We did dedicate the sight to him, and called it "his own special area". It seems like it stayed there for weeks! When all the Black guys were doing "hand-slaps" and other hand dap-trash whatever, Pete came up with "Country-Dap", a red-neck version of male-bonding that involved some of the black-guys stuff but, ended with a lumberjack tree-sawing impression that always got everyone laughing! We even did it a couple of times at homeplate after scoring instead of the traditional high-fives! He and I were known for chasing everyone out of the dugout (or to the other end of the bus when we traveled) with our John Wayne impressions! He would purposely get at one end of the bench and I at the other and we would keep doing "John Wayne" until everyone started leaving the dugout! We kept in contact after England and Brenda (his wife) called in 78 or 79 and told us that he had passed away. As I remember, he had gone hunting and he and his buddy got back to the camper and lit a space heater before ventilating, and both went to sleep. I think of him quite often. He was a great spirit and always fun on the bus, particularly when we went to Scotland for July 4th, 1976 to play the Navy at Edsel. Brenda was pregnant at that time of his death with their 3rd Daughter. We haven't spoken to her in several years but, I believe she was remarrying around that time. Here's to you Pete, you were the man! To be continued.......

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1973-1976 Continued... Like Jack and Kathy Holum and Jack Dempsey, I worked at the Club and was on-duty when the door was blasted down by 2 drunk locals (also got to go the the Old Bailey in London and testify). If you were there during this time period and can still remember, the Club was a free-for-all, with a nice local mixture on Friday and Saturday Nights (particularly if we had a live band or DJ!). Remember The Detroit Emeralds, Jackie Wilson, Rufus Thomas and others that appeared at the Club? We had our share of tragedy too during that time period. We had one guy (I don't remember his name but, he was well-liked by everyone on base) died of a heart-attack after a Base Basketball Team Practice in the Gym. The infant daughter of Skip (Harvey? - from the Chow Hall) choked to death while her Mother was feeding her. Another young guy, that we nicked-named "Mad Dog" because of his like for a certain beverage, died after losing control in his "English Rust-Bomb" and crossing into the path of a "Lorrie" (18 Wheeler). Yet another man, Thomas, who had to be Bi-Polar as I think back on it because of his mood swings (He too worked at the Club), went home on leave and even called back to extend it a week, and then blew the back of his skull off with a pistol, rather than return. Because of the small-size and "family-type atmosphere" at the base, everyone it seemed knew each one of these people personally. The locals were such good people and one of my fondest memories was getting to know them, along with the Paper Guy, the Milk Man, and the weekly Open-Air Veggie Truck! Yanks and Blokes alike, we were cousins and seemed to enjoy each others company! As George Bernard Shaw said' "England and America are two countries separated by a common language". Living there for almost 3 years, we had a little "proper English language" (Queen's English) to learn with phases that meant something "totally different" in the "Colonies" like: "Hi, I'm Randy" (probably needed to go by "Randolph" for your tour of duty), or "knock me up in the morning" or using "holiday" instead of vacation or, finally realizing that the humorous Britishism that you picked up "Gol-Blimee" actually meant "God, blind me". To be continued....

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Brenda and I were stationed at Wethersfield in the Comm Squadron from 1973-76. We had a daughter, April, born at Lakenheath (1974). Our son, Chuck Jr. was born a couple of months after I left the AF in '76. We are beginning our 37th year of marriage in May. I played on the Base Softball Team with the likes of: Jack Holum, Denny Malsom, Bob Register, Danny "Pete" Peterson, Scott Duff, Bobby Pickett, Dave Dei Rosi, Chester ? (He could and did clear out the dugout with one blast many times!), Andrew Ringgold, Bubba (sorry, all I can remember: he was rotund, slow, white and a Security Cop), Rick Friday and a host of others (forgive me if I left your name off). In '76 we were coached by Jack Dempsey (not the one you are thinking about!). And even though he was large and was our Coach, we all felt we were self-coached! We typically played without flashing signs or even looking to the coaches box and had 2 rules: Hit it if you can and run, and if it looks like it's going to hit you, get out of the way! Once during a practice early in the season, Jack Dempsey said he was going to fine us a dollar when we missed a sign and I remember Jack Holum and I giving him $10 each and then saying, "I'm OK with that, just let me know when this runs out!" So much for rules! We had a lot of fun..... (to be continued, stay tuned)