Harvey (continued)
The two squadrons were a group from Naha on Okinawa flying C-130A's and a group from Clark in the Philippines flying C-130B's. During my tour, the flight crews found out that I was a pilot and gave me the opportunity to get in some highly illegal stick-time whenever my schedule allowed it. One such time was a take-off I was making from a small field in Eastern Laos, a place Americans were not really ever at, when a 37mm rocket separated the forward fuselage and wing from the tail cargo section. I recall the event as being described as "Pucker Time" and a combat loss in South Vietnam. While there, in the middle of my one-year tour and on the same day, I was promoted to the permanent grade of TSgt (E-6) on active duty and to the permanent grade of major (O-4) in the inactive reserve. That meant a retirement in the grade of major, since I had more than the required ten years of active duty commissioned service. That was something of a celebration day. The Stars and Stripes that day pronounced me the first and only Tech Sergeant Major in the Air Force.
My return to the United States was as the NCOIC of Flight Scheduling and Operational Training for the Navigator Training Wing at Mather AFB near Sacramento, California. I was working under a major whom I outranked in date of rank. It only lasted until December 1, 1971 when I retired as a major, senior pilot and now civilian deluxe. I was the father of four great kids with boys on each end, and a lovely wife who hadn't aged a day since I married her in 1955. I collected six months of unemployment pay and then became a car salesman for Chevrolets, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Cadillacs, and Opels. In two years, I had enough of that and joined a friend to sell used cars on our own lot. That went belly-up rather quickly and I ended up as a complete line insurance agent for the Cal Farm Insurance Company. Inside and outside sales was not and is not my bag. By 1975, the stresses of it drove me to the Travis AFB hospital with what was called an inferior myocardial infarction. Now, I want you to know that whatever that was, I was sure mine was not INFERIOR! That SOB hurt like the devil. I recovered with very little effect, except that I no longer had my job and knew not what to do, now that my old life had ended.
Wife Jean enters and asks, Why not go to school? You have always had to compete with degree holders as an officer. Why not get you one? There being no good response to that, I got off my then-retarded duff. I applied for veterans GI Bill education, and began at Solano Community College in Suisun City near Travis in 1976. I earned the AA degree in Liberal Arts from there in 1977, I then went to Sacramento State University in Sacramento earning a BA degree in Liberal Studies in 1978, and then to California State Teacher's Credential in 1979, earning a Masters Degree in Elementary Education and Math in 1980. I had forty-two months of GI bill coming, and that is exactly what it took to go all the way. By the way, OCS was evaluated by Sacramento State University as fifteen (a full semester) upper division credits.
I began teaching in the elementary schools of my little town in 1980 and retired as a worn-out kid-mind-messer-upper in 1992. We bought the house in which we now live in 1969. When we got here, I doubled the size of it and did extensive modifications so my parents could move out here from Massachusetts in 1978. They completed their lives living with us. Mom passed in 1982 and Dad in 1985, both from strokes. Then, we had a daughter and two friends rooming here for awhile. After that, two exchange students from Japan who were attending summer classes in the University Of California at Davis nearby were at our home. Then, an American Field Services Exchange student from France was with us for a year. Jean's mother from Pennsylvania came here in 1988 and stayed until her death in 1995. We and our whole family learned a lot about parental elderly care while our parents were here and would not exchange the experience for all the money in Bill Gates' pockets!!
In the meantime, our oldest son, David Jr. is married and lives with his wife Irene in Sacramento, California, and has two children, Bonnie Lee Walsh Hahn, 20 (from his wife's previous marriage) and a son Ryan David, 15. Bonnie has a daughter, Alyssa Lynn Hahn, two years old. Our daughter, Vicki Lynn Harvey Rasul is divorced, living in Yuba City, California and has a daughter, Vanessa Christine Rasul, 13, and a son, Matthew Anthony Rasul, 10. Our other daughter, Donna Lee Harvey Carey, is married and lives with her husband Jon Carey in Spanish Fork, Utah with their daughter, Rachael Brianne Carey, 11, a son named Jacob Nathaniel Carey, 7, and a daughter, Jacqueline McKaela Carey, 4. Our youngest son, Mark Howard Harvey is married and lives with his wife Ana around the corner from us, with their son Stephen Christian Hudson, 11 (from her previous marriage) and their son, Derek Daniel Harvey, 5. That brings the number of directly related Harveys here to sixteen. I have now retired for good.
1998 was a year full of strange happenings...at least for me. In January I was diagnosed with ocular migraine, a problem of sparkling visions in the lower left part of my left eye. My doctor said, Let’s check the carotids with an ultrasound. I asked if he was looking for babies in my neck. Oh well, It was found that both were blocked, the left at more than 90% and the right at more than 75%. On Friday the 13th of February, they performed a left carotid endarterectomy and cleaned out that one, only to find that in doing so they discovered a heart vascular abnormalcy that nearly killed me. On March 24, I had a triple cardio arterial bypass graft performed, and after that, in September, I got the right carotid endarterectomy. This has left me with all new plumbing that is clean and serviceable, with a ten-year limited warranty, great cholesterol readings and wonderfully low blood pressures and with scars that run from both of my earlobes to my right instep.
I am very much alive, very well indeed, and tickled to death that our class is still out there!
As Tiny Tim would say...
God Bless Us, Every One,
Dave
Ed Note: Dave passed away suddenly on 22 October 2004. He will greatly be missed!
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