Gilbert L. (Gil) Whiteman Lt Colonel, USAF (Retired) (Deceased)

USAF OCS Class 57C, OC Lt, 1st Squadron Adjutant

“Heinous!” That’s the word that evokes most of my memories of March through September 1957! Not that the experience was “heinous,” but just that the word was constantly used by every first class person, as each looked at us and asked if we had shaved with a broken coke bottle that morning!

For me, anyway, that six months was probably the most demanding, yet the most rewarding, of my entire life! Obstacles overcome, challenges faced, successes achieved, however one may define such things. A real confidence builder!

The Air Force was good to me! A native of Guilford, Connecticut (born December 17, 1931), I was a ninth grade dropout, and enlisted in the Connecticut Air National Guard at age sixteen, and then enlisted in the regular Air Force just after my seventeenth birthday. A product of a large family (eight children - no father at home), I had to get into the working world early in life, to help my mom with her financial needs. Jobs were scarce, due to the influx of veterans having returned from World War II. So, I went to the US Navy recruiting office in New Haven, and was told I’d have to wait ninety days because I had recently undergone hernia surgery. I went across the street to the Air Force recruiting office, and since they had a few openings for non-high school graduates, they signed me up on the spot.

On the train to Lackland AFB, Texas on March 15, 1949, my Air Force career began. Up through the enlisted ranks for almost nine years, my assignments were:

Basic Training, Lackland AFB, Texas (March - June, 1949); Clerk Typist School, Fort Warren, Wyoming (July - December 1949); Orderly Room Clerk, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois (January 1949-May 1950); Career Guidance Personnel School, Lowry AFB, Colorado (June 1950 - October 1950); Chief Clerk, Scott AFB, Illinois (October 1950-May 1951); Group Personnel Sergeant Major, Parks AFB, California (May 1951-September 1952); Chief, Officer Records Branch, Ladd AFB, Alaska (September 1952-September 1954); Instructor, USAF Personnel School, Scott AFB, Illinois (September 1954-May 1955); Chief, Officer Records Branch, Parks AFB, California (May 1955 -August 1955); Personnel Sergeant Major and Instructor, AFROTC, UCLA, California (August 1955-March 1957).

My enlisted years consisted of a host of really short tours, and several repeat base assignments, but all in somewhat of a “growth” mode. Up through the enlisted ranks to tech sergeant (E-6) at age twenty-one, and then stuck there for four years. Having completed high school through night study on-base(s), and then earning the two-year college degree (Associate of Arts) through night sessions at Los Angeles Valley College, I - along with you - was selected for Officer Candidate School, starting in March 1957. It was my fourth annual attempt. Each year, I would get a letter stating that I had successfully passed all of the requirements, and that I would be considered for two consecutive classes. And, each year I would then receive notice that although I had passed everything, I didn’t stand high enough on the composite ratings to be selected. Try again next year. A bell finally went off: “Hey, you’ve never taken a course in math. That AFOQT examination has a bunch of math questions.” So, I took a couple of math and algebra courses at UCLA and, Voila! Selection to Class 57C, OCS! (Time to wake up, Gil!)

My memories of OCS were no doubt similar to yours. I need not go into any great detail here. The first day was a rude awakening for me! I had just come from an AFROTC staff tour at UCLA as a tech sergeant, and I was referring to the officer candidates as “cadets,” a point that Joe Strauss would not let me forget! “I’m not a ‘gadget’!” he would scream (and I mean SCREAM) - and then made me call the room to attention no less than a hundred times that first night, until the light bulb not only “pinged,” but actually burst (or, so it seemed). My first OCS roommate, Stan Lowry, no doubt still remembers that, too! What a day that first day was!

My fondest memories of OCS were the friendships that evolved and the true spirit of “brotherhood” which existed among us. Studying together and helping each other to survive, academically, was important. Being unaccompanied during OCS, several of my classmates had me to their homes for Sunday dinners – very thoughtful of them! The obstacle course with the high tower, etc., was challenging and fun. I understood and appreciated the stern, fair but firm, stance taken in the class system training by some of the first class people. A few of them were really jerks (not to mention names), but most of them were justifiably rigid.

After OCS graduation, I - along with about eight others from 57C - was retained at Lackland in the role of training officer in the basic training system. This was a fifteen-month assignment, and it was good being with Neil Sanders, J.J. Miller, Clarence Smith, Bill Moser, Bob Keene, Bill Weimer, and others in this capacity. Our class started that OCS retention at Lackland “opportunity,” and I was fortunate to have Dave Porter and Jim Orasky assigned to me from 57D.

While at Lackland, I was selected to go to pilot training, and was placed on orders for Moore Air Base in Mission, Texas. The flight gear was issued and I went for my final flight physical, only to find that I had a deviated septum that interfered with my breathing while the gear was on. So, surgery was in order. By the time it healed, I was beyond the maximum age limit for pilot training. The AF then offered me navigator school (which had a higher age limit), but I decided that if I couldn’t fly the bird, I really didn’t want the “wings,” and I’d continue in a support role. That was probably not a bad decision, since the career went OK, anyway.

From Lackland, I was assigned to an AACS (Airways and Air Communications Service) - sometimes referred to Acres and Acres of Chicken Stuff - unit at Loring Air Force Base, Maine, as squadron adjutant. Somehow, I got into the role of being a lay counsel for board hearings and special courts martial. I was assigned a total of twenty-two cases and successfully defended each one. I thought then about getting out of the Air Force, and becoming a lawyer. But, that idea soon bit the dust.

During that Loring AFB tour, I applied and was accepted for Operation Bootstrap at the University of Omaha (now the University of Nebraska at Omaha), as so many of you also did, and earned the BGE in 1960, majoring in speech education. That was followed by a tour at the Northeast AACS Region as training officer, at Mitchel AFB, New York. From there, in 1961, to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for three years, as a member of an inspection team in the areas of training and safety. That was a good assignment. I was on the road for two weeks, then back at Ramstein for two weeks, for the entire three years. Many of our remote facilities had no runways, so that meant traveling by private auto for our inspection visits. I was more than pleased to be assigned to ten Italy trips (from Aviano in the north to Sicily in the south), twelve trips to the DOB’s in France (including Paris, Evereux, Chambley, Chamont, Etain, Metz, Chatereaux, Lyon) -- plus England, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, and all over Germany, for two weeks on each trip. That was nice duty, to say the least.

Returning to the States in 1964, I was fortunate to be selected for the AFIT program for my M.A. in Journalism, at The University of Oklahoma. From there to the Pentagon, 1965-1969, as Chief, Worldwide Air Force Speakers Branch in the Office of Public Affairs/ Information, Office of the AF Secretary. I wrote speeches, and acted as “advance man” for the public appearances of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff, working with the press, the hotel, and security for their appearances. I usually flew back to Andrews AFB with them, on the Jet Star. I can tell you that General J. P. McConnell was one heck of a gin rummy player! That was an enjoyable four years, and I made major on time during that tour.

It was then off to Michigan State University for the AFIT Ph.D. program in communication research, with a strong cognate area in psychology/organizational behavior. I went through the three year program in two years (dissertation included), and left for Vietnam on New Years Day, 1972.

In Vietnam, I served first in the Air Force Advisory Group as advisor to the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) Director of Psychological Warfare. I worked myself out of a job in that function, and then transferred to MACV as the Senior US Spokesman, briefing some 500 members of the free world press corps each day, at the National Press Center in downtown Saigon. You knew of that role as the “Four O’Clock Follies.” I co-briefed with an army major (we took turns daily, one day briefing and the next day preparing the briefing).

I knew I was missing something in my Air Force career by not having flight experience. So, I received permission from my boss (Major General Jimmy Jumper), to fly night missions with VNAF on AC-119 gunships, as a non-rated crew member on flight status. I went through the E&E training in Saigon, and then flew night illumination missions of four-hour duration, over friendly encampments, kicking flares out the back end, to light up the ground so the friendlies could see the enemy approaching at night. Anyone could have done it, and they weren’t looking for “volunteers,” but I felt I had to do something more than public speaking to round out an otherwise mundane career. I got a lot of “right seat” time in on the AC-119G. So, Vietnam for me was Information Officer/Public Affairs Spokesman in the daytime, and then with VNAF in the Flying Boxcar at night. A busy year.

I had many confrontations with the press during my briefings, and to this day I cannot understand the ultra-liberal stance taken by The Fourth Estate during our involvement in Vietnam. And, I told them so. In one instance, a reporter was asking me about my source for a certain report, and I responded, “Through the military intelligence chain.” He answered, “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” I replied, “Not quite the level of oxymoron as ‘journalistic integrity’ is.”

An example: During my final briefing to the press in January 1973, I told the gathered news reporters that I was glad that during my tour, I was able to give them the information they needed to file their stories. I added that I regretted those few times when I couldn’t give them all they needed to know, due to ongoing operations and security reasons. I then said “Good-bye” to them. The next day, on the front page of a major newspaper, appeared the headlines, “US Spokesman in Vietnam Admits Lying to the Press for the Last Year.”

I never got in trouble with the higher-ups in Washington, and I held firm while on the stage in front of the reporters. As a result, some not-too-complimentary stories about me appeared in Esquire magazine, The Rolling Stone magazine, The New York Times, and other newspapers, magazines, and TV episodes (e.g., The History of Air Power with Walter Cronkite) of the time. Later on, MASH made one episode in its series based on my activities, and even used my full name and rank as the general’s advance man. So be it. I still give an occasional Rotary Club (and similar entities) speech, entitled “America’s Wayward Press.” I’ll someday learn to accept that the press must, for economy sake, practice “editorial interpretation.” It just still bugs me that the press doesn’t report the news - the press creates the news! Live with it, Gil!

While in Vietnam, the plight of our POW’s hit me real hard. Maybe it was my having to report to the press, the downing of one of my friends, when his F-4 was hit over Hanoi, and he was captured. Maybe it was the SAM2 that brought down the C-123 carrying a young lieutenant friend, for whom my wife and I used to baby-sit when I was a TSgt. (Until very recently, he was still listed as MIA and he may still be held in Laos or North Vietnam.) I didn’t check the rolls, and didn’t know at that time that our classmate, Art Burer, was among those unfortunate souls suffering such a horrendous life at the hands of such ruthless captors.

For the past thirty years, as a public speaker internationally, I never stopped bringing the POW/MIA situation to the attention of my audiences. It is a cause that we must continue to espouse, especially now that the younger generation has virtually no knowledge of that era. Those guys were the stalwart warriors -- the TRUE heroes of all wars - ever!

After Vietnam, and having been promoted to Lt Colonel, I was assigned back to the Pentagon for a second tour, this time as Executive Producer for the USAF Internal Information film/video series, Air Force Now. I turned down a chance for further career growth (becoming the Director of Information at Air University, and being assured of promotion to O-6), and opted for retirement at age forty-two with twenty-six years service.

Get this quote by the then Director of Information/Public Affairs, a two-star general: “Gil, if I were you, I’d hang in here. There’s no doubt in my mind at all that someday, you’ll be sitting in my chair. You have all outstanding OER’s, four college degrees, the only person in the Information field with a Ph.D., two Pentagon tours, and meaningful service in Vietnam. You’re destined to be the Director of Information/Public Affairs in time.” But, he was at a loss for words when I responded, “That’s nice of you to say, General. But, I’ve not seen any secondary zone promotions thus far in my career, so I really don’t think that I’m earmarked for stars. And, I don’t seem to have a sponsor.” I also sensed that without Air Command and Staff School, Air War College, ICAF, etc., stars were not really in my future. I had put all of my eggs in the college degrees basket, but none in the USAF professional education basket. So, I opted to retire. I had a job waiting for me.

I think it was Thomas Wolfe who said, “You can’t go home again.” Anyway, I returned to my childhood home, and went to work the day after I retired from the Air Force, at the University of New Haven in Connecticut on September 1, 1974. I served first as Chairman of the Communication Department, then as Associate Dean of the Graduate School/Director of the Executive MBA Program. There, I spent long enough (seven years) to achieve tenure and be promoted to full professor, and retired from that position at the end of 1981.

In December 1981, I started up my own international management development training (seminars) business, and it went well for almost twenty years. We had seven part-time seminar leaders nationally, working for our company whenever we had a need for their services in areas where I personally felt less than adept. I conducted some two thousand seminars for about two hundred companies in forty states and seven foreign countries, in the areas of coaching, counseling, conflict resolution, managing time and stress, leadership, management communication, and motivation. My audio cassette tapes, videos, and books all sold well, as did the seminars. We folded-up the seminar business in 1999, when my health took a temporary nose dive.

My family life would include . . . married in Alaska in 1952, and that was a good marriage for many years, but it went sour when we saw that our individual growth patterns were not “commensurate.” (Wow! THERE’S a word from OCS, eh?) So, we called it a day in 1973. Three children. Remarried in 1975 to Jeannie, a nurse in Connecticut, and inherited three stepsons. Lost my youngest son, Jeff, in 1994 at age thirty-one, due to a drug overdose. Not an easy thing to accept. Probably wouldn’t have been any easier even if he had not been a Little League all-star pitcher, a Boy Scout, highest SAT’s ever recorded in his school system, good college grades, all to go to marijuana, then cocaine, then heroin. I loved him tremendously, but could not accept his lifestyle. It’s only been five years (1994), and with prayer, I’ll accept the Lord’s will for Jeff. But, even putting this at the foot of the Cross, it is still very difficult. All of the other children are doing just fine, and I am proud of all of them! Jeannie and I are enjoying a truly happy life, and very much involved in church activities.

After two heart attacks, five angioplasties at different times, an aorta-iliac arterial dacron graft, and a stent in my heart, I thought I had just about overcome health problems. But, in the fall of 1998, I faced the Grim Reaper, and I didn’t like what I saw! I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. After lots of radiation, chemotherapy, several extensive surgeries, and spending three and a half months (105 days) in the same hospital bed, we were told that on several occasions, the physicians didn’t expect me to pull through. The doctors gave me little chance to make it for six months beyond the first surgery. They first said 25%, but after the first surgery, reduced it to 1% (esophageal cancer is almost always fatal). But, with the help of The Great Physician, I’m now (1999) one year past the surgery and in great shape. Praise the Lord! And, thanks to Jeannie who drove through snowstorms to be with me during every one of those 105 days! What a blessing to have my wife as my private duty nurse in the hospital, assisting the physicians and nurses in my recovery! Home care afterward was long and tiring, but today (1999), I feel SUPER!

So, that brings us up-to-date for just about where I’ve been and what I’ve done in life. I’ve been in contact with many OCS friends over the years, and it seems that we have much in common.

Keep living the life according to Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31! You surely did for six months in 1957 and I am personally grateful for that! Life isn’t heinous after all – in fact, life is GREAT!

Gil Whiteman

Ed. Note: Gil died of cancer on 25 July 2003 after a brief illness.