| Summary: | Mitchell enlisted in the Air Force in 1977 and served until 1993, retiring as a Master Sergeant. She has worked at Lackland AFB in civil service and at UTSA as a lecturer in the History Department. Topics: Air Force experience, basic Training, Operation Desert Storm, entertainment Interview With Dee Mitchell (1 1/22/04) The date and place of the interview is November 22,2004 at the University of Texas at San Antonio. We are interviewing Mrs. Mitchell. Anadil Bham and Carlos Lozan are the interviewers. A: Okay, and what war and branch of service did you serve in? D: Um, Desert Storm, World War I veteran, and, I was in the Air Force A: And your rank, and where you served? D: Um, I retired as a Master Sergeant, and I've served at, started at Altus Air Force Base Oklahoma, then to Yokota Air Force Base Japan, came back to Mountain Home Air Fore Base Idaho, here to San Antonio to Lockland Air Force Base Texas, to Clark Air Base The Republic of Philippians, back to Yokota Air Base Japan for a second tour, and to McClellan Air Force Base California. I took an early retirement at McClellan and then I came back and worked civil service at Lockland Air Force Base here in San Antonio A: [Laughs] C: What was your rank during the Gulf war? D: Master Sergeant C: Master Sergeant A: Were you drafted or did you enlist? D: I enlisted. There was no draft at the time. A: Where were you living at the time? D: I was living in Altus Oklahoma. My ex-husband was stationed at Altus Air Force Base. A: Why did you join? D: Mainly because, urn, I couldn't beat 'em, so I joined 'em, you know. [Laughs] My ex-husband was active duty Air Force, but, and uh; we'd been married for a while. We had two daughters, but I wanted a career myself, and we had several friends who were both military member, active duty military members. . They were military couples, and uh, certainly the money was better, and the opportunities to travel together, and the fact that I MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 1 would always have a job wherever I went appealed to me, so I joined the Air Force as well. A: Why did you pick the service branch that you joined? D: Well, Because my ex-husband was in the Air Force, and I always thought that it was the branch of service that offered the most opportunities for travel, and uh, they also had, I thought, well I thought or perceived at the time uh, to be more uh, job opportunities or career fields open to women than some of the other services. Uh, women marines at the time had no combat duties, still early though. Women did not go or serve on board navy ships, and uh, in the Army, jobs for women were just beginning to open up at that time but the Air Force only had a few career fields that were restricted from women so, I thought the Air Force offered uh, broader opportunities. C: What career or duty were you interested in when you entered? D: I started out at, uh, in administration, uh which today is an entirely different career field. Uh, it is called imprevention management? today, but, actually I guess I was a glorified secretary. Um, but a few years later I cross-trained or changed career fields and ended in Air Force Historian. A: Do you recall your first days in service? D: I do, vividly. [Laughs] Uh, first of all, this marriage, being married to an Air Force member so I sort of had an idea of what to expect from basic training. Uh, one of the things I thought was kinda h y at t he time, I flew from Oklahoma City to San Antonio, of course they lost my luggage, and I was without my bag for a day or so. Uh, I had on high-heel shoes when I arrived in San Antonio and found that I was rather at a disadvantage because I was running around trying to march in these high-heel shoes and finally, one of the other girls on the flight said, here I have a spare set of tennis shoes, and I borrowed her shoes for a couple of days, because my feet were just killing me. It's a wonder I didn't break my neck because it was been talked which shoes were in style at the time, and just surprised I didn't break my neck. But uh, I recall going from getting off the plane from the airport and there was a T.1 or several T.1.s who met us there at the airport, herded us into this one area and started some of the processing, took our names, that sort of thing. Then moved us out into, put us on a bus, and we went to Lockland Air Force Base. Well, it was dark when we got there, so they took us in to a processing center, began some of the paperwork, put us back on the bus, took us to a dinning facility, fed us, and then took us to our dorm and said go to bed, go to sleep. And the next thing I remember going up the stairs to our dormitory and we were on the top floor, the one, two, third story dormitory. So we were on the top floor, and I was back sort of down the stairs, it kinda wound around, and I could hear the T.I. pounding on the door loudly and yelling at the airman on the other side of the door, who was the door guard I would later learn. And I thought well, here we go playing the head games. And they don't really mean anything by this. This is all part of the show. And just really yelling at this poor girl, and I thought, well this is just ridiculous. So, that was my introduction to basic MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 2 training. It was a lot of yelling, a lot of rebuttal, um [pause] did it get my attention? Not really. I tuned it out [laughs] because I thought it was just a bunch of BS. A: Did you say that it was uh, it was, intense kind of? D: It was an attempt to intimidate us. Because some of the time they would be yelling back [laugh~ng]. I never had uh, you know I would just, I would stand up for what I thought was right and have there you yell at me, who do you thing you are, talking that attitude. I was what a lot people call feisty [laughing]. C: I have spoken to a lot of Air Force veterans and I, almost everybody I have spoken to had gone through Lockland Air Force Base. Is that one of the main places where they have basic training? And so how long was your stay here in San Antonio? D: Basic training is thirty training days not counting weekends and holidays. So, it is about, it is exactly what they call thirty training days. Now I was here over, uh, Labor Day weekend so basic training lasts about six weeks, um, about six weeks. Sometimes you come in a little bit early and there aren't enough people to form the flight. Normally fights at that time were approximately fifty people per flight. Sometimes you may have thirty and you're waiting on the other twenty to come in. So you may spend a couple of days in what they call sort of a casual status or waiting on the flight to fill out. So those do not count as training days. Then at the end of training, sometimes there is a period of time from the time you graduate fiom basic training until you move on to your technical training school, and you would also go back into a training or casual status or student waiting training, what we called SATs, Student Awaiting Training. Uh, waiting on your class date to start, uh, I think that seems to be more the case now than it was then. Back then we were pushing more people through. At was at the end of the Vietnam Era, 1977, that was the end Vietnam War, and we pulled out Vietnam in that April 1975. So this was about two years, a little over two years of post-Vietnam. So we still had a lot of basic trainees that went through. They were graduating, two[pause] two graduations a week. I recall we did a graduation parade on a Tuesday and did a graduation parade on Friday. And the way it worked then, we graduated, uh, we went and, Tuesday was sort of our practice run because we would be graduating on Friday. And if you were graduating on Tuesday, you would go the Friday before and do your practice run just to make enough troops. I believe at that time they were running upwards somewhere between 60 to 70, 72,000 people a year through Lockland. Lockland today and in 1977 when I came in was the only basic, Air Force basic military training site in the world. Previously in, oh gosh, earlier years there were other training sites Stanford Air Force Base in New York for a period of time, there was basic training done in Amarillo, Texas, and Wichita Falls at Shepherd, and a few others that I don't recall off the top of my head. But when I came in, and as well as today Lockland is the sole basic military training facility for the Air Force. A: Where did your first military, or urn, what did your first days in service feel like? MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 3 D: Oh, well, I arrived in San Antonio August loth, and it was hot [laughs] and it was humid and we marched everywhere we went, so it was very sweaty. And I don't like being sweaty, so it was rather uncomfortable. I remember the constant bad hair days because the humidity and I had naturally curl hair, humidity, and we wore hats. We wore in the first several weeks of basic training we wore blue baseball caps. Now you could imagine how that was. I had these long curly things sticking up all the way around where the cap fit, and then you could imagine you're perspiring, so your hair was usually wet, and humidity made it worse, so it was just this curly fuzzy frizzy stuff, so I remember it being bad hair days every single day. There was no time for make-up at all. Normally I do wear make-up, or I do when I was younger{mumbling) now I don't worry about it anymore, but then I did. No time to apply make-up. Nobody cared what you looked like. You know, ultimately it tuned up your blue uniform, your real, real Air Force Uniform that, up to that at that time we wore field uniforms which are now B.B.Us. Ours at the time for women were a blue wrap around skirt or blue pants and a light blue blouse with roll up sleeves. And then, of course, we wore the blue baseball caps, and the black ugly shoes that, until you broke them in, rubbed horrendous blisters on your feet. So, you know, I had sore feet, frizzy hair, you know, a sweaty body, your clothes wilted almost as soon as you put them on and stepped outside from the humidity, so you couldn't really tell for certain if you had ironed them or not. But, I just remember it being just this hot, sweaty, crumpled, frizzy-haired mess in basic training C: So how did you feel? Did you feel proud to be enlisted in the service, or did. .? D: Oh sure, sure. Um, you know actually basic training was fun for me, because I was in an unusual flight. I think I was 22,23 years old when I came into the Air Force. The majority of the women in my particular flight were married with children, and most of us were married to service members, so we had some experiences as wives, Air Force wives. So we had a pretty good idea of what to expect fiom Basic Training. But, we were an older group. We were in our 20s and usually there were some women in, which I thought was incredibly old at the time, 30 for goodness sake. What is a 30-year-old doing in basic training? They're too old. Well, I'd love to be 30 again. But we did not have that many 18,lPyear-old airmen straight out of high school. We had a few, but not that many, so it was unusual that we were married with children and a little bit older than your high school graduate. Most of us had a college education or some college, um, so it was an unusual flight in that respect. We had two T.I.s, Training Instructors. One was a male, Tech Sergeant Ray Lopez, I'll never forget him, in fact, I'm still in touch with him today. He lives her in San Antonio. I ran into him when I was stationed in Japan, and we played poker together, he was in this group that got together once every other week and played poker. So I've been in touch with him ever since I was stationed here. He had retired and was working civil service at Kelly Air Force Base, so I ran into him one evening at MCI {mumbling). The interesting thing was though, the other instructor was a staff Sergeant named Joan Crawford, not the actress, but Joan Crawford and during the period that I was in basic training, I think she was there, I think the first week of training and the last week of training and then she took 30 day of leave in between. So, we really did not have much of a relationship with her, uh, because she was not there. So, I'll never forget the first, second day of training I suppose. We're in our dormitory, and MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 4 Sergeant Lopez comes through and he points to 2 people at a time and all-right you 2 are buddies and you 2 are buddies and you 2 are buddies, and he pointed to me and the girl in the bed next to mine and he said you 2 are buddies, and we thought. .okay. What that meant was you kinda back each other up. If one is off doing an additional duty or detail duty, then you take care of your stuff and hers as well. You kinda cover for each other and make certain that both of you are keeping up. So we did that. Her name was Gaye. Gaye and I are neighbors today. We have been best friends forever, 27 years, ever since Sergeant Lopez pointed to the 2 of us and said you 2 are buddies. We literally have been buddies and it's been a true, one of those rare friendships that has lasted well, uh, our adult lives. And when I retired and came back to San Antonio, my husband and I booked our houses as close as we could get to hers, so when we are both old and decrepit and in wheelchairs, we can wheel to each others house so we come visit. If I got nothing else out of basic training or the Air Force, my fiiendship with her has been something that I will truly cherish. She has just always been there. A: Which wars did you serve in? D: I urn, I guess Desert Shield, Desert Storm better simply because anyone who was on active duty at that time is considered a veteran. Not because I deployed to either Saudi Arabia or into the Persian Gulf area, simply because I was on active duty at the time. I was stationed at Yokota and we did deploy a squadron of (2-130s and aircrew support personnel. I had the option to go, but my husband went. He was one of the aircrew members who went. We decided it probably was not a good idea for both of us to go, so, and the fact that I had just, I was still recovering from the surgery I had had, and also was scheduled for a second surgery, so I was really sick and unable to go. He went, was deployed and was gone for about 6 months. 1991 was what we, our family regards to as the year from hell. December, or actually January 1 St, New Year's Day, David deployed to the war. The next day, I went to the airport in Tokyo, Narita and put our oldest daughter, Cathy on a plane back to Texas because she was in college here. The next day I got on a plane myself and I was met batched fiom Japan to Trigler army hospital in Hawaii where I spent 3 weeks, and we left our 14-year-old daughter, in Japan with friends. So, we literally, our family scattered to the four comers of the earth, and the year just got progressively worse from that point on. So it just, it just kept happening, and it was a very challenging, a very trying, very stressful year for our family, because David was gone. It's difficult to say goodbye to your spouse and not know if you will ever see them again, not know if they are going to come back. And I knew he was going to war, but what he did was dangerous. He flew C-130s. Everyday when he went to work and took off in an airplane, I had no guarantee that he was going to come home safely that night. He could crash and burn, so we tried to never leave the house angry at each other, and to always say I love you when we did say goodbye to go off our separate ways to work or whatever, because there was no guarantee that he was gonna come back, nor was there any guarantee that I was gonna come back, because I did a lot of flying myself. So, you know there was that day where, flying is not. .could be a dangerous business. So we always tried to make certain that should anything happen, the other spouse would not be left with any regrets for not saying I love you or saying goodbye or saying fly safely or be carell when they walked out the door, and that's something that I always do. But today, MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 5 now that, even now that we are retired, when he goes out the door in the morning to go to work, I always kiss him goodbye, tell him I love him, and I say be carell, drive safely. And I've caught myself doing that with my own children, with the girls as well. As long as I say that, they will be safe, and if I forget, I know I'll regret if anything happens to them, so I try to make a point to say I love you and be careful. A: How did y'all communicate during this time period? D: When he was in the war? A: Yea, like all of y'all were split up. D: Well, yea, that's an interesting thing. This was in 1991 and guess what, there was no e-mail [laughing]. So, with my daughter in Texas, when I was in Hawaii I just picked up the phone and called her. That was very easy. With my daughter in Japan, if I was on the base I could use what we called Automon or DSN, which were the government lines, and so I would pick up the phone and call either from Hikam Air Force base to Yokota Air base. We lived on base, so I would call my house on base and speak to her. My husband, when he first deployed, he was in Oman and then in January, after they had been in Oman for about 3 weeks, they moved his squadrant fiom Femray Omaha up to King Faud Saudi Arabia. And so, Oman, when he was in Oman I could call him commercial fiom home in Japan. Our phone bill ran over $1 000 a month, because I was just afraid to say goodbye. So we ran up a big phone bill, I was getting hardly any paychecks because they take the phone bill out of your paycheck. Then, urn, we had letters. Now being in Japan, all of the military aircraft were diverted, headed in the other direction, okay, so our mail went fiom Japan to the west coast of the United States, across the continental U.S to the east coast, into Europe, usually Germany, down into the Gulf area, Persian Gulf area, Saudi Arabia. I took about 45 days for my letters to get to him, okay. Now the same thing, when he was there in Saudi, they came back to me in reverse order. It would have been so much shorter for us to have just fly an airplane from Japan, one of our squadron aircrafts from Japan into Saudi and back. And we also had channel missions going, or what we call channel missions, regularly scheduled missions that were going from the Philippians, Okinawa, Singapore, Diego Garcia up into the Gulf area. So, it would have been so much easier just to, you know 374 technical airlift wing mail, put it all in a bag and bring it back that way on military aircraft, but it did not work that way. It was also difficult to call him over military phone lines because all the satellites were aimed at the other direction. So, occasionally they would have, I think they finally had one satellite that was pointed in the other direction. That took quite a bit of negotiating and I don't think that went up until, actually after the war was over. So, communication was incredibly difficult, but what we would do, we had with other wives from the squadrant. We kept in touch with each other. So if one person got a letter, we shared it, whatever was going on, photographs, tapes, letters, whatever. If one of heard, it was kinda like we all heard because we would pass along messages, tell so-and-so's wife he said this, or do this do that. So we kinda had a shared information that way. As far as actual communication aside from the letters, we used tape recorders and what we would do, we would just actually sit down with the tape recorder and talk to the tape as if you MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 6 were talking to the person, and then you would put the tape in an envelope and you mail it. So, that's kinda how we communicated. We did have a couple of people return from the desert early, and when they came back, they would bring cassette tapes from the guys or letters from the guys with their baggage. So we would get those a lot quicker. They were more up to date than stuff that came through the regular mail system. But we also had from time to time, maybe once a month or so, the wing commander or the director of operations or squadrant commanders, we would send an aircraft of wing personnel over to do a moral visit with the troops, and so we were permitted to do a shoebox-size box, and put whatever letters, tapes. . My husband always wanted kool-aid [laughs] or sun block, chap stick, things like that they would ask for we would put into this shoebox-size box. Shoebox-size box was up to your interpretation and my husband had big feet, so his boxes were pretty. . His shoebox was big an it held a lot more than some of the others, but I guess I kinda milked the system a little bit that way. That was our primary means of communication. So, based on what was going on, the access that troops have today is direct. You could have instant message, or e-mail, that sort of thing. Certainly communication is much quicker and better than what we had. Ours was, we used what, I guess what you would call snail mail, and it was literally snail mail, incredibly slow. C: So, what were the phone calls and the gathering with other wives like? Were they emotional? D: No. You know what they really ended up being were bitch sessions, because we were first of all we were unhappy, not unhappy, very worried until we knew when the war was over. It was incredibly stressful, and of course no one said it, but we all thought what if one of them gets killed, what if they crash, what if they're shot down, what if they don't come home. You don't say it, but you are certainly thinking that. So, that in itself was stressful. Then, there were things. .Cars. The cars wanted to break down, you're gonna get a flat tire, the kids would be acting up, y'all have the washing machine break or flood the house or what. . everyhng that can go wrong, all these small things that would normally not have a problem dealing with are just magnified because you are already in a stressll situation. So, well this broke today and I can't get anyone in to fix it and I'm unhappy, so, we did a lot of complaining and venting our frustrations with each other. C: Did you find any relief speaking to other people? D: Oh sure. Sure. Sure. And we had some close friendships that formed. We also had wives who were in the club every night. There were extra-martial affairs that were going on. These things just happen. Did we know about it, yes. Did we talk about it, no. That's their business. But, those things do go on as well. And actually there were some marriages that broke up after the guys came home. A: Tell me about your most memorable experiences. D: Well, probably the best assignment I ever had was when I was in the Philippines. I had to do, I had domestic help, live in domestic help because it was incredibly cheap. I had a house girl and a yard boy. I had a sew girl and I had a masseuse who came to my MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 7 house every Wednesday. So, it was an incredibly decated lifestyle. We lived in large homes, very nice homes, but they were cheap. I think my rent was $350 a month for this big huge house. We lived in compounds with security. They were called Pino security, hired private guards; they shot first and asked questions later, literally. One of our security guards killed a man coming over our wall into our compound. They would literally kill. So, their value of life in the country was different fiom ours. Someone could get killed for $20. It's what we would say they did not value life as much as we did. It's not that they don't value life the same way, it's just different. It's a different culture, and Americans tend to judge other cultures not on their own merits but as compared to our own standards and that's why they are unfair to do so. So, it was different, but I found it incredibly fascinating, we got there in April 1985. The country was ready to go into presidential elections. Ferdinand Marcos and Emil Emelda with all her shoes. He was the President and she was the First Lady. Elections were held, I want to say February 1986, and that's when the people poured into the streets and it was a rather peaceful Revolution. Ferdinand Marcos was ousted and Courso Repido was elected President, she was rightfully elected. But they got rid of Marcos, and so one of the most exciting periods because, looking back I certainly know what happened, but living through it, we didn't know what was going to happen next. So it was exciting, and frightening because, well now it is peaceful but the time we didn't know if rioting or shooting would break out in the streets, how we would be affected by it. So it was rather a tense time because no one knew exactly what was going to happen. But it was a bit stressful, but very exciting because we were watching history occurs right before our eyes. It's just an incredible thing to see. And of course being, at the time I was doing public affairs and I was lead historian for the airlift group, Airlift Wing in the Philippians, so fortunately for me it was helicopters that were a timid airlift unit on the Base that flew into Malkinal Palace and brought Marcos and his immediate family out of the palace. It was my boss, my wing commander who flew them out of the Philippians that night, or very early the next morning. He flew with the Marqueses all the way to Hawaii. And I was right there in the big middle of everything, asking questions and taking photographs and interviewing people about exactly what happened, determined to capture all of the, as much history as I could as well as some of the public affairs aspects of it. At that time, so much of what we did was classified, but probably it was so interesting to be right in the middle of an international affair or a Revolution in another country. And to be there at least on the Air Force side actually recording the history as it happened. So it was incredibly interesting and exciting period for me. That was exciting, then I was there a few years later when Mount Penitubo erupted and we had to literally evacuate the Philippians. I was in Japan at the time that I was in the Philippians over an exercise and had some involvement in the evacuation. But we all cooled out for good. That was another unique experience for me. A: Did you go back after the election? D: No. No. A: Did you see any combat? MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 8 D: Well, I wouldn't call it, it wasn't combat, in the sense of a war, but it was more, gosh, a terrorist attack in the Philippians and in October 1987, we of course we had what they called the N.P.A, the New Peoples Army, and they were active in certain areas near Clark Air Base, off Base. But they were communists, and they did not want Americans there, and they would protest that we were there. Up until that time it was just the end of October, it had been non-violent, essentially non-violent. This one particular afternoon at the end of the duty day as people were leaving the Base and going home, four Americans were shot and killed at the main intersections leaving the Base going into the housing areas, four of them were shot and killed and another was shot at, it hit his wallet and bounced OK So, there was a terrorist attack against Americans. F i t time in my life I ever felt like a target. So that was frightening. I did not leave the Philippians until September 1989 so from October '87 to September '89, we were looking over our shoulders, being totally aware of where you are, and who's around you and what's going on, being aware that there may be a bomb under your car, there may be a bomb at your home. You want to be looking around to see who is around you and whether or not they had guns, and do they look suspicious or not. It was nothing to see people walking in the streets off Base carrying automatic weapons. That was commonplace. So, it made us more vigilant and more aware of our surroundings, but that was also a tense time because you had to constantly be aware of who's there and think about well, gee I could get shot and killed at any moment, or I could be attacked. There were a lot of car-jacking type incidents and kidnappings, where they would take you. So, it was not so much that I was fearfid for myself, but I had two daughters there as well, so I was more concerned about my children's safety than I was my own. So, shortly after that, January, immediately we had lived off Base. I immediately put our names on the housing list, and we moved into Base Housing inside the fence in January '89 and then we left the country in September. So it took from October '87 to January '89 to move up on the housing list. Everyone wanted Base Housing for security. But you were constantly on guard, but I wanted to move my children to the Base because I traveled a lot. I was out of the country a lot, and I wanted them to at least have a phone, we had no telephone on Base. I wanted them to at least be protected somewhat by security forces rather than our Philippino security that we had off Base. A: Um, okay what was the food like and did you have plenty of supplies? D: Food in Basic Training. Let me talk about that a little bit. I will never forget this. The food was good, I thought, and even today on certain occasions I've had the opportunity to eat in the dinning facilities on Base. Their food is still good, but I thought I had died and gone to heaven because I love shrimp and we had shrimp cocktail when I was in Basic Training, not everyday, but occasionally we had shrimp cocktail in the chow hall in the dining facilities, so I thought gee, this is great. This is not bad, and of course, it's wonderful to have someone else does the cooking [laughing] and the cleaning up after you, so you stood in lines cafeteria style and get whatever you want. They had a entrke line, and then they had a grill line where you could get pizza or hot dogs or hamburgers or French fiies, something like that. So, you had a choice of what you wanted. They actually had a salad bar that was pretty good too. So, it was not [tape flip]. So, the food in Basic Training was good. It's not like we were eating M.R.Es, the Meals Ready to MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 9 Eat, like you hear about today. In fact I think some of them are even made here in San Antonio, but we had good food. The more I traveled around, of course we lived in Japan, I love sushi. So the food was good. One of the things and I kinda have still to this day an open mind and an iron stomach, so I will eat anything, 1 will try a n m g once and see if I like it. But the first time, of course I was born and raised in Oklahoma. This was my first time out of the country, when I went to Japan, and I knew that they had plastic food exhibits and if you really could not communicate, that you could sort of point to what you wanted. And one day we were downtown at a festival and I said look at that, that looks good, I want this and I pointed to the food that I wanted and it looked like chocolate on the outside with a cream filling on the inside and perhaps a cherry in the middle. It looked like a piece of candy. So you can imagine my surprise when what I bit into was seaweed, which I thought was chocolate, and what I thought was cream filling was actually rice [laughs], and what I thought might be the pink or cherry in the middle was tuna [laughs]. What I had ordered was sushi [laughing] and here I had bit into this sushi expecting candy. Big surprise, but I did manage to acquire a taste for sushi, and I still enjoy it today. Certainly in the Philippians we had one of my favorite dishes there was chicken adobo, and it's just sort of a steamed or almost boiled chicken with vinegar and garlic and it cooks down and you serve it over rice. My house girl made absolutely the best chicken adobo I've ever had. And I still use her recipe to this day. In Korea, my favorite food was Bagogou, which is a, sort of a strip steak, a round steak, cut it into strips and mixed with ginger and garlic and soy sauce and sesame seeds and honey, and all mixed together and marinated with shredded carrots and onions, and then the next day you stir-fry it. Oh it was delicious and served with rice. But when I was out there, I got to go to so many different countries, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Benowati, some of the other, Guam, all over the Pacific. Iwagiba, Orksawa, even Antarctica. So, I had an opportunity to experience different places, different foods, different people, different customs, and I thought it was just the greatest. I had the best time. It was fun. I loved my job. I had the best of all worlds. I had essentially a house girl or a wife at home, doing everything that I normally did, taking care of the kids, doing the cleaning, the cooking, the washing, the ironing, all of that. I didn't have to do any of that. All I had to do was work, and I was able to travel around the area extensively, and the time I had with my children. There was no do your homework, do this, do that, Binny took care of that, the house girl did that. So, the quality time I actually had with my children was quality. We could go and do things, because I was freed of all household duties. Now, I'm doing both, so my time is more limited. My time became extremely limited when I left the Philippians and started doing the housework again, but it was certainly nice while it lasted. A: Was it hard to keep changing environments? D: No. No, no, and here's the interesting thing. We would come back to the States on leave for 30 days at a time. And the unusual thing is I could be at my mom's house or I could be at my dad's house or visiting friends, but home was where our things were, home was where we were living at the time. And after a while I found myself wanting to go home, but home was in the Philippians, or home was in Japan or whatever State I happen to be in at the time, so the thing is that home is where you make it. It's not really MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 10 a physical place, it's more or less a state of mind where you have your things and you're surrounded by your personal items and actually where you are dwelling at the time. That's home. It's kind of a conventional thing. It's not some important about exactly what location it's in, home can be anywhere. I thought that was rather an important thing to teach my children that home is where they decide to make their home, not necessarily in my home, but now that they are both adults, their home is wherever they decide to make it and whatever they decide to make it. But there's nothing wrong with moving the home to a new location, because you are picking up and carrying the exact same things with you. You have the same furniture, you have the same clothes, you have the same pots and pans and dishes. So the only thing that changes is the actual house. A: Did you ever do anything special for good luck? D: [pause] Not really. No, other than what I told you earlier about telling my husband, see you tonight, love you, be careful, drive safely, fly safely, whatever he was going to do. A: How did people entertain themselves? D: [pause] Well, we had a lot of parties [laughs]. [Pause] it depended on where you were stationed. I played a lot of Golf, scuba diving, I flew an airplane, a pilot private license and flew with the aero-cloud. Each Base has what they call M.W.R, Morale, Welfare, and Recreation, and so we had clubs, we had libraries, we had Universities on Base so I went to school, I ran a lot. We had adventure programs or tour groups. When I was stationed in Idaho, we went skiing in the winter; we went rafting in the summer. Hells Canyon, which was one of the more primitive white-water experiences in the United States, very traumatic, the Hells Canyon river. Went there, been there, done that, got the t-shirt to prove it [laughing]. Just, virtually anything you're interested in doing, ceramics, arts and craft, anything. In the Philippians, we had horses. You could do horseback riding, there were motorcycle clubs, the model airplane clubs, you name it, it's pretty much available, especially overseas, because sometimes, well in Japan, it was incredibly expensive to live there, but I was there, the Yen dollar ratio was about [pause] around 100 Yen to a dollar, it was incredibly expensive to live there. I don't think I ever saw the Yen rate over 200. I think the highest I ever saw was 160 to 170 maybe, but it was incredibly expensive to live on the Japanese economy and to do things also, so of course we had all sorts of activities on Base. The clubs had dinning rooms where you could go and eat at a restaurant style atmosphere. We had snack bars on Base, we had bowling alleys, golf courses, we even had resorts. There was a [pause] Vistana hotel in downtown Tokyo where we could go. It was run by the Navy. Beautiful, brand new hotel, the second time I was there. The first time it was in another building, but the second time I was there, brand new facilities had all the amenities, beautiful rooms, and you could stay there for like $65 a night, where if you were on the local economy you would pay 2,3,4, $500 a night for a flight and hotel rooms, so it was a huge savings to us, so that way we could experience Tokyo without the huge expense having to do so on the local economy. We also had discounts. There were tourists that would go everywhere. We went to Kyoto; we went to, have you seen the big Buddha in Japan? We went there, we went to the MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 11 temples. We went to Mount Fugi. I was a fool, they say if you were in Japan and you do not climb Mount Fugi once, you are a fool, if you do it twice, you're twice the fool [laughs]. So I was twice the fool I climbed Mount Fugi both times I was stationed in Japan. But, you know, there was plenty to do. A: Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual event? D: 0 gosh. Well, you know, we laughed a lot. What happened was, this was when we were in the Philippians, we had just gone through the Revolution and things were beginning to settle down. The Revolution was in February. Things were beginning to settle down and in March, we deployed to Korea for a large exercise called Team Spirit. It was an annual exercise. Everyone went to Team Spirit at one time or another. I referred to it as my annual camping trip. Now we were, we lived in tents and it was cold. Oh was it ever cold. We had kerosene stoves, in the tents and they ran out of oil in the middle of the night. Someone had to get up out of their warm bed and go refill the kerosene jug, come back, refill the stove and keep the fire going in the middle of the night. It was not my idea of a good time [laughs] and we complained the entire time that we were there. But one year I went with a group, we were only, we had this huge tent city. Everything was in tents, the club, the dinning facilities, planning, aircrew planning tents, all of our offices, everything was in tents and we were in Kemplay Korea, Kemplay Air Base, outside of Coo saw which is on the Southeastern edge. It's a huge port in Korea, South Korea. And so, one year the international guard unit from Banise California deployed to Team Spirit. It was always the 374" wing at Clark, our subordinate unit 3 16" airlift group at Yokota and then there was an active duty unit form the States and a reserve guard, a reserve unit from the States. So we would come together and perform what we call the PTAW, the Provisional Tactical Airlift Wing, and we would play war games for about a month in Korea, February to March. So it was colder than blue blazes and so we thought it would be funny if this Banise group comes out of California, they were known as the Hollywood Guard. Well back in that time, the television show M.A.S.H was popular, it was still being aired and so we had, we decided to do the M.A.S.H theme that year at Team Spirit, and there was one tent with about 8 to 10 women. That was all the women, everyone else were men. Only 8 women and there were a lot of people out there. So, we though that it would be funny, we had Hawkeye and the guys next door, and they brought lawn chairs and they would sit out there in their smacking jackets and sip martinis, you know in the afternoon and they played this part of the M.A.S.H characters. Well we decided that it would be funny to put a special clothesline outside our tent. So, we went downtown into Gussan city and we bought some of the flimsiest, skimpiest panties and bras you have ever seen in your life. And we made a clothesline outside of our tent, and we had all these stripy underwear hanging outside. Well, within a couple of days later, the Chaplin came to visit our tent an he told us that it might be a good idea for us to put our clothesline inside our tent rather than outside [laughter] because he thought it was having an adverse sect on the men in the camp. And so we had to take down our skimpy underwear clothesline before we were deployed [laughs]. A: Did you ever keep a personal diary? MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 12 D: Um hum, I did. A: [laughs] Would you like to tell us about it? D: Well. . C: Did you write daily? D: No, not daily. Every time I flew, I documented where I went, who the aircrew was, number of hours. I called it, we used to call it forms that we had, and kept track of that and what may occurs. It was a black, zipper-thin passport, all of your flight information and your orders to be on the mission and all different kinds of stuff. So I had that documentation. Of course I was doing public affairs and history, so I was documenting everythmg because that was my job. So I had notebooks full of, my handwritten notes when I would be out on a mission. Certain things that occurred that I thought were rather unusual, for example the Revolutions; I did keep a diary of that. I did keep a diary of Mount Penitubo's eruption. I did keep a diary of, one time we had a local workers' strike that virtually shut down the gates, shut down the Base. And they were, they were throwing rocks and malt top cocktails and stuff like that over the fence at us. I have photographs and stuff like that. I took a lot of photographs because, a lot of the photographs I used to document the history, or they ended up in the newspaper, Base newspaper as part of public affairs stuff. So certainly, virtually everything that happened. . A: Do you still have it [photographs]? D: It's in boxes, box after box after box and someday I keep telling Jerry and Sean under UTSA archives someday you have to come get this stuff, because it's too much, it's too much. A: Do you recall the day your service ended? D: Yes, I do. Well, [pause] I was in Sacramento and I was there by myself [laughs] again. My oldest daughter was still in school here in Texas, my husband and my youngest daughter had already moved out of the house and were here in San Antonio building the house and she was in school here in San Antonio. They moved over the summer ahead of me. And so my last day the girl who worked for me and my boss who was a colonel, the 3 of us went to lunch, and that was my last day on, at, I guess really active duty. The next day, my fiiend Gaye from Basic Training flew to Sacramento and the 2 of us did a Thelma and Louise type trip from Sacramento to San Antonio for the next 3 days. We had a blast. The thing that amazes me is that after 27 years, the 2 of us have never run out of anything to say. We talk constantly, like 2 old women now, but that was essentially it. I didn't want a retirement ceremony; I didn't want the big whoopah. I always thought I worked better behind the scenes, behind the cameras, rather than front and center with all the attention focused on me. I'll be the one to plan and MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 13 throw a big party for someone else, but don't make me the center of attention, cause I really don't feel comfortable with that. But, we just went to lunch, and he was moving to San Antonio just a month or 2 behind me, and Becky had just left and come fiom Brook, she was at Brook's, so she returned here occasionally, so I see the 2 of them fiom time to time. She was here last summer and the colonel lives across town over by Randolph, he's over on the east side of town. So, it really wasn't an ending, as it was a commencement, if you will. Sort of the end of my Air Force career, but also the beginning of a new career if you will, because I took a year off. It was the first time in my life I was a stay-at-home mom, and it just so happened my youngest daughter was a senior in high school, so it was either stay at home and be a mom that last year that she was home, or I never would be a stay-at-home mom. So, I did enjoy that. I had, it was the first time in my military career that I had the opportunity to unpack my household goods at my leisure. Usually, I had 2 days or 3 days at the most to unpack everything, get it put away, and go back to work. This time I could unpack at my leisure. It was the first time since 1985, or 1993 that virtually everything I owned was under one roof. Everything came out of storage and was delivered to this new house. So it was like Christmas [laughs], oh, look at this, oh I forgot I had that. Every time you open up a box there was something new. So that was, that was a unique experience and then I retired in November, my oldest daughter got married in February, so I was busy with wedding planning, and of course we had been in California prior to that, overseas for so long that that one year gave me plenty of time to do what I wanted to do with my house and spend some quality time with my mom and my dad. So, so, I thoroughly enjoyed that year off being a full-time mom and a housewife, it was really easy to transition into Suzie Homemaker or Martha Stewart, oh I loved Martha Stuart [laughs] and the HGTV, home and garden shows, and my husband would come in at the end of the day from work and I'd say oh honey I have a new idea, how much will this cost me [laughing], I constantly love to do things to the house. And of course we were landscaping, so all the things I never had the opportunity to do leisurely, I took that year and really enjoyed having that time. Then the next year I ended up here at UTSA. A: Did you ever join a veteran's organization? D: No. A: [pause] Did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general? D: I think so. Yea, my experience was, for the most part a good experience for me. It provided me opportunities that I probably never would have had, and so I, it was good for me and actually it was good for my children as well. As far as my view of the military, I would support the troops. I am very impressed with the young people joining the military today. They're dedicated, they have concrete goals, they are working step by step to achieve those goals, they're well educated, they're well informed, goal-oriented, physically fit, very very impressive young people. Now on the other hand, being here at UTSA, I could say a lot about the students who are here. A lot of people talk about the younger generation, the kids today coming up, and society is just to hell in a hand MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 14 basket. .that's not true, that absolutely is not true. The young people today I think are much, much more informed, better informed, better educated, better prepared to go out and, and have a career and live in a world, perhaps that I was at the same age. So, do I support the troops, absolutely. You will find that the last person in the world who ever would want to see a war are the military people, because they understand what's asked of them. They understand what it takes to do their job. They understand what their job is, and they understand the sacrifice that it takes not only from the military member but from spouses and children as well. It's a lot to ask of a young person. But the thing is that you understand that when you join the military X ou understand what your job is. If you don't, then in one single event like September 1 1 can certainly give you a quick lesson in how fast your world can change. How you can be called upon a moment's notice to go and serve and in sometimes even die for your country. No one wants to die, but I do believe that the freedoms that we have in this country, having lived in some 3rd world countries, traveled around the world and seen the way their people live, we have it so good here. We have it too good here. We're spoiled, but for those who stand up and say I'm against the war, I'm against this I'm against that, those kids are dying so you can say that. So, is it worth the sacrifice, absolutely, it is. I'm not 100% behind the war in Iraq. I see where some mistakes have been made. I see where there may have been some poor judgment, or quick judgment. Should we be there, I dunno, but the people in Iraq are certainly worse off than we were under Sadamm Huisane. They're better off today I think. The majority of the people do support what we are trying to accomplish there. Have we made mistakes, of course we have, but we are a nation of human beings. Do I support the young troops over there, of course I do. I think that what they do is, it's still an honorable profession, not matter what some of the disetants may say. Certainly you're gonna find people on each extreme, far right far left. I think I'm more in the middle, but do I support the troops, absolutely. Did I 100% support the war in Iraq, no, no, but generally, yes. A: Is there anything else that you would like to add? D: Well, I guess, thanks for coming and doing this. You know as a veteran, it's, it's nice to have an opportunity to reflect back on your military career, and certainly some of your questions that you asked today elicited some of the memories that, things that I don't think about all that much today. I'm occupied doing other things, but yea, I'm proud of my military service. I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve at my age. I'm glad I'm not there today [laughs], because I think, I don't know that I would have the energy to do that, but we ask the Lord of the young people, and you know, it is truly for young men and women (mumbling!} [Laughing]. So, but yea, it has made me think about how things were when I was younger, and some of the things I went through, some of the things I survived, probably shouldn't have, but I did. So I was happy with the opportunity to serve my country. A: Thank you so much. D: You're welcome. MS 315. Veterans History Project Mitchell - 15
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