Visitor: Catherine Valenza
Reference: Looking for Okinawan weather pages ( hoping a typhoon will come)
Location: Okinawa, Japan
WebSite:
Web Info:
Contact: beachbabe6@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, Jun 10, 1998 at 01:08:06 (EDT)
Comments: I haven't gone through most of your pages yet, but so far your site seems
pretty interesting. I am an Airman stationed on Kadena. This is my first duty
station, and
I am from Alaska. So this is a big change for me. I am hoping for a typhoon soon. I
need a few days off work!*smile* I am also into diving, so I am looking forward to
your diving page.
Hi, Catherine!
Wow! I do envy YOU!! *grin*
I'd love to be back over there!! It's hard for some people to understand how a
person can miss a place so much. I've lived in MANY places around the world and the
US, but Okinawa is far and away my favorite!!
Take advantage of every opportunity!
I'd be fibbin' if I said I'm not interested in seeing your pics! Please... send
along any that you'd like!!
Thanks for coming by the Okinawa site and I hope you'll be back!
By the way, how did you find my pages? If you used a search engine, which did you
use? If it was a link on someone else's page, do you remember whose it was?
"See" ya again!!
Domo arigato gozaimasu!!
Visitor: Donna (Woodall) Kroff
Reference: lots of luck!!
Location: West Jordan, Utah
WebSite:
Web Info:
Contact: milkroff@burgoyne.com
Date: Wed, May 27, 1998 at 11:46:26 (EDT)
Comments: I was born in Okinawa at Camp Kuwae army hospital in 1969 (My dad,
Woody Woodall was in the Air Force). I only stayed 6 mos, but have always been
fascinated by anything about my birthplace. I loved to see the pictures and read
about
Okinawa from someone who obviously loves it!! Thanks!
Hi, Donna!!
Sure took me long enough to get back to you, huh?? *blush* I'm sorry!!
My two sons, ages 25 and 23 were both born also at Camp Kuwae! The Army doesn't
have the hospital anymore though. It's now the US Naval Hospital Okinawa and Camp
Kuwae was changed to Camp Lester. Dang!! Things do change, eh? *grin*
I'm glad you came by to take a look at my pages about Okinawa and sincerely hope
that you enjoyed the "tour!" I also sincerely hope that you'll be back.... and bring
your friends!!!
I didn't get to Okinawa (my first time) until 1972 so I must have missed you and
your dad!! What kind of work did he do? I was at the clinic at Kadena until 1975 when I
and another medic went down to run the small clinic at Naha. There are no longer any
American military at Naha and the old Naha housing area is gone. The Army housing
at Machinato (Makiminato) is also gone - turned back over to the Okinawan farmers who
owned the land. It's sad to see the old "haunts" going away but I'm very happy for
the Okinawans who do get to have their land back. I think we (American military) ought
to get rid of a lot more of our "holdings" there and let them have their lands back!
Again, thanks for coming by, Donna!!
Mick
Visitor: Michael E. Mayer
Reference: Search on Kadena
Location: Fremont CA
WebSite: N/A
Web Info:
Contact: cmmayer1@ix.netcom.com
Date: Wed, May 27, 1998 at 01:02:50 (EDT)
Comments: Just had a chance to review the military page and looks like you have put
quite a bit of time into this. I was on Kadena/Torii Station from 77-81. I was with
the
6990th ESG which supplied the backenders for the RC-135s. Cannot wait to check
out your diving page. That was the best diving ever. I got into serious sea shell
collecting
while I was there. Also earned my degree from UMD and my ninor was Asian Studies
so it will be fun to go through your other pages on Okinawain history and culture.
Hi, Michael!!
Please forgive me for taking so long to reply! I'm happy ya stopped by one of my
websites and hope you'll come back from time to time as I expand and update.
I'm intrigued by your Asian studies and invite... no, I plead with you to get back to me if
you spot any historical or factual errors. And, of course, I'm ALWAYS looking for
additional information - so anyhting you'd like to offer, please do. Be assured, I'll post
credit to you for any information or photos that you might see fit to offer!
Thanks, again, Michael for taking the time to peruse the pages and to drop me a note!!
*hearty handshake*
Mick
Visitor: Mr. David R. Chipps
Reference: Pow-Wow link
Location: Milford, Michigan USA
WebSite:
Web Info:
Contact: k8ux@prodigy.net
Date: Mon, May 25, 1998 at 14:33:18 (EDT)
Comments: Hi Mick, I did a tour of duty on Okinawa in 1964 and 65. I
was in the Army then, and was stationed in Machinato which was
between Naha Airbase and Kadena Airbase, near Sukiran. I was a missile
repairman, but because I was the only licensed amateur radio operator
in my company, I was allowed to run the ham radio station in our
company headquarters and I ran overseas phone-patch traffic for any and
all military personel. I loved the weather there, typhoons and all.
I am retired from the Ford Motor Company where I was an industrial
electrician for 31 years. I retired 7 years ago. I have 2 web sites
up right now, one for my family and one for my local amateur radio
club. I really like your web pages, very entertaining. Drop me a line
and tell me about your Okinawa duty, who knows, we might become
pen-pals....:-) By the way, I am 58 years old and am happily married
to Patricia and I have 3 grown children.
Bye for now, Dave
ps; my
homepage url is
Dave's Home Page
Dave's Radio Page
Hi, Dave!!
Hey, dude!! Thanks loads for writing
and for stopping by the Okinawa website!!
I used to live at Machinato (Makiminato) Army housing back in 1975!
I was in the AirForce then and was stationed at Kadena. I've bookmarked
your page and will check it out soon!
Your first link though....
didn't work!
Write again, Dave.. and stop by the Okinawa Scrapbook -
and send a friend!! *grin*
Mick
Mick
I was stationed on Kadena in 1965-67. Was in SAC (editor:
Strategic Air Command) and was
Maintenance Superintendent with the Electronic Maintenance organization,
Ur pages brought us back. Daughter attended Kadena grade school and
middle schools there, I also was with The 9th AEMS and was maintenance
super in that squadron and we (had)the
Black Birds TDY there.
(editor: The "Black Bird" is the super secret recon/"spy" plane,
SR-71. Actually, on Okinawa, by the 1970's the SR-71 was permanently
assigned and was called the "Habu," named after a deadly viper known to
anyone who's spent any time on island!)
Keep up
the good work. Donald L Robinson CMSGT USAF RETIRED.
Hi there, Chief!! *hearty handshake*
Glad to hear from you and am sorry for the delay getting back to you!
I'll offer no excuses but have a list of reasons!! *chuckle*
I
envy you your experience on Okinawa BEFORE reversion! Indeed things
were a bit more austere in the 50's and 60's but, Lord, how I wish I
could have experienced the Okinawan culture there before US military
was ingrained in their lifestyles.
Our presence on island notwithstanding,
I enjoyed getting to know Okinawa and her people and will certainly
go back! Being retired from the Air Force now but still working full-
time for the department, getting away is almost impossible. Suppose I'
ll have to wait until I'm retired "for real" before catchin' a hop
over there!!
I miss that little island and that's why I'm so happy
creating the Okinawa welcome and Scrapbook and why I enjoy people
such as yourself, Chief, coming by to browse the pages!! *sigh*
Stay in touch, Don!
Mick
----------
From: cdurling[SMTP:cdurling@wolsi.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 1998 8:57 PM
To: mickmc@mcn.net
Subject: Naha Air Base
Hi, Mick:
My name is Carl Durling. I served at the
Nike
Herc Site on Naha AFB
from 4Jan60 thru 27Jul61. I thought you might be interested in an event
that occured during one of my many standby shifts at this Site 8 Herc
facility.
We were running an internal proficiency training test when we
locked on to a target with no ping (UFO). It was traveling at 2500 knots,
and did everything it could to dump us. We had to go to manual
control in order to track it. I even switched my Missle Tracking Radar
to Target Tracking mode so I could lock on to it also, and did. The
target tried new ECM (electronic counter measures) that we had not seen before (we practiced against
KADENA AF as well as NAHA AF planes). This guy was most unusual.
Finally, we tracked it straight into KADENA and wached him land.
The
next day the snoop group came out from HQ and debriefed us. A little
later the pilot of the plane came out for a visit to our site, and we
put on a demo for him. We later learned it was the first SR-71 to land
at KADENA.
See ya
Carl Durling
I responded:
Hello, Carl!!
Wow!!! What a never-to-forget memory that is for you!! I'm wondering
if it scared the beejeebers out of you!!
Yes, it did. But, not to brag, we were so well trained we it was not
hard to focus on the job at hand. The scariest part was when the
"Light" went to yellow (only five times to this level, and two of those
were when we later went to "Red"). Yellow is "Ready to Fire", and the
missles are armed but safties are still in. Red time is "safty off"
(pins pulled).
I can only imagine what kinds of thoughts were racing through your
mind as your skills were put to the test!
I was wishing we had a second Missle tracking Radar I could use, since
we were only keeping the computer on the target because it was getting
info from both the TTR and my MTR. We were also frantically trying to
calculate whether the missle could actuall catch the thing. We quickly
figured that the dumbest thing the target did was come at us since the
scew speed of the radars was reduced to with the TTR's limits, and the
turn rate for the missle was also placed within tolerence. This was
part of the debriefing, and is still highly classified.
And congratulations, by the way!! You locked on and tracked him
successfully!! Man!! Were you guys thinking Kadena was done for??
We at first thought we had another missle, but quickly discounted that
since we never heard of ECM coming from a missle (although not unheard
of today). When we went to Yellow (status changes came from HQ) I
swiched back to MTR and locked my first four missles into my data bank,
electronically tested each one, and set the first one ready to fire.
When you are in this mode, Yor are prepared to fire. It is a
psycological thing trained into you. Our site was one of the most
advanced Nike Herc sites in the world (we called State Side sites "the
old guys"). In these sites the MTR operator was a backup to the IFC
(Intergrated Fire Control) officer, and could fire the missle from my
control pannel. This is the long way around to say that Kadena was
never in any danger because we could have taken out the target well
beyond that days enemy capability of hitting Kadena with anything. This
was also part of the debriefing, and still classified.
Carl, may I have your permission to post your story on the Mail Bag
page??
Yes. Let me know when and were it is done so I can read what you have
written.
And.... if you have more you can tell about that "mission" I'd love
to read it!!
See above. Everything else about the event is still classified TOP
SECRET.
Thanks loads, too, for coming by the Okinawa website! I hope you'll
be back!
I have two other stories if you are interested. First one is "The Red
China Defector", and "The Lebonon Crisis."
*hearty handshake*
Mick McClary
Fire First
Carl Durling
June 26th, 8:51pm
Hello again Carl!!
Thank you SOOOO much for the additional details! It is indeed a story
to make a guy just pause and read!
Hmmm.... you say you have other stories if I'm interested.
Let me say it this way........I'll be horribly disappointed if you do NOT send those stories along!!!
What years were you in the service? What branch were you in? I ask
because in 1972, Naha was host to Air Force, Navy and GOJ Navy
Thanks again, Carl!
Mick
So, Saturday morning, 6-16-98, I checked my email and here's
what I found:
Hi!
I was stationed at Naha AFB from 4 January 1960 thru 27 July 1961. Yes,
the Navy ported at the Naha port, but it was usually subs. Went on a
sub tour once. I was in the Army. The IFC portion of the Nike Hercules
site was on a hill which was surrounded by a golf course on three sides,
and the main circular street on the east across (from) which was the AFB
hangers and further east the air strip. Delta Darts
and C-130s were the
main type of Aircraft. Two Delta Darts were always "hot" as they were
the first interceptors to take off. Beautiful at night with
afterburners. This leads to one of the stories.
Late one day were heard two Darts take off, while at the same time HQ
changed us from Green to Yellow. It took us about 1.5 min to set up and
be ready to fire in a hot situation. Our own Aquisition radar tracked
the two Darts heading for the target, which we already had aquired, and
were tailing with our TTR. I had my missle up and electronically ready
when we suddenly went to Red. This is scary since the pins are pulled
from the missle. Over the command line I heard that the Aquisition
Radar operator report that the two Darts had gone off-scope, and the
target was still coming in slow (like a bomber). The target signature
was very small for a bomber, however. I was ordered to change missles,
which I did, and the pins on the new one were pulled.
Here we are, a missle battery on as hot a status as you can get, ready
for order to fire, and just sitting as this plane came in. After what
seemed forever, Aquisition reported two more targets showing at low
altitude and rising, and neither pinging. Now we had three UFO
targets. I confirmed I had missle two ready, and we continued to be
held. Our IFC officer kept requesting permission to fire, and was
denied. Then we lost radio contact with HQ. Boy, did that put me in a
sweat! The Captain told me on the Command line not to report this
situation to the TTR operators in the van with me since it would break
their concentration.
Land line communications came through, and we were ordered to "Track and
hold." HQ ask for my status, and I was told to hold. For 20 min we
continued in this mode, our vans had been locked down and we were on
filtered air. We tracked the three targets all the way into Kadena and
watched one of them land (TTR guys reported on Tech line). We were
ordered to stand down and place missles on Yellow status, and we went to
Yellow.
What happened you ask? Radar detected the plane leaving China airspace
and tracked it moving toward us. The two Darts intercepted, climbed
above the target (it was dark by then) went into attack mode from above
and behind, passed the target and continued into low altitude and went
off the screens of all radars. The problem was the pilots had forgotten
to turn on their IFF pingers. Radar interpretation was that they had
been shot down by enemy waiting at low altitude. Why communications
with the pilots didn't correct all of this was never explained.
Oh, the original target you ask? It was a Chinese defector with a
Mig
21 who was flying at stall speed with wheels down, the international
signal of a white flag.
When it was all over, and the vans were opened, we all had the shakes for
about ten min.
Carl
Carl sent me this URL too. Check it out!! Alert!!!
And here's a look at a Nike missile site!
This was a response to my survey!
Unfortunately, there's no e-mail return address! Durn.... well, I hope (s)he'll be back here to read my reply:
Are you accessing this survey from : Okinawa
Please let me know what you think - what do you like? What don't you like? : I like everything you have on the pages about Okinawa, My favorite place on earth. I added your link to my small page. Thanks
Will you come back? : yes
Will you recommend my websites to your friends? : yes
How can I make my sites better? Please be specific? : Add traditional Okinawa music. I have not learned that yet
What do you think I should get rid of? : nothing
If you're here from my : I went to Okinawa in 1964 and did not like it there at first, because I had not been off Naha air base. Once I started seeing the island I fell in love with it and the people. Then I met my wife of thirty two years, had four great kidsand we go back to the island about every four or five years.
Do I have your permission to post your story on the : yes
Any additional comments? Thank you very much!! Domo arigato gozaimasu!!!! : Love your site. Keep up the good work, especially on Okinawa. See my humble web page at http://members.aol.com/chasrob1/okinawa.html
If you found me via a websearch, please tell me which search engine you used. Thanks! Do come back! : Japan search
Many domos for coming by my Okinawa websites and even more domos for taking the time to share some thoughts with me.
Indeed, I'd love to find more traditional Okinawan music sites.
I wish I knew how to create those RealAudio files!! I have a number of cassette tapes of Okinawa music and would love to be able to make those available! I guess I'd get into some trouble with copyright laws though... *shrug*
Anyway, I DO have some links to great Okinawa music!! Please take a look again at my "Okinawa Scrapbook, Shishi Lion" page. At the bottom there are links to some music resources:
https://members.tripod.com/~MickMc/shishi.html
There are also some links to some perhaps more contemporary Okinawan music on my "Welcome to Okinawa, Sounds" page:
https://members.tripod.com/~MickMc/sounds.html
I'm always on the prowl, and promise that I'll put some in if I find more!!
Thank you, Tomodachi!!
I'll be visiting your page just as soon as I post this!! *smile and a subtle bow*
Arigato gozaimasu!!!
Mick
Ed: I got AOL's "File not found" when I tried to open that site! *shrug* Darn!!
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