HOWARD E. HELMS Major USAF (Retired) (Deceased)

OCS CLASS 57C, OC TSGT, 4th Squadron

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT HOWARD
“I could never tell a lie---with a straight face”

Starting from the beginning, I was born in 1933 in the mountains of Northeast Alabama, and grew up there as part of the working poor. (I’ve picked cotton, plowed a mule, pulled corn, and cut firewood with a crosscut saw.) Since just about everyone I knew was in the same situation, I didn’t realize how poor we were and was fairly happy.

Immediately after graduation from a country high school in May of 1951, I enlisted in the Air Force. (The Korean conflict was in full bloom and the draft was too.) After basic training, clerk typist, and personnel schools, I was off to Germany for three years. I came back to the States in January 1955 with four months to go on my enlistment, and was assigned to a remote radar station near ape Charles, Virginia. Norfolk was about thirty miles away, accessible then only by ferry across the Chesapeake Bay.

During this short tour I met and married my wife Shirley and re-enlisted for Maxwell AFB, AL. Promotions in soft-core fields were scarce in those years. Since promotion to technical sergeant looked to be years down the road, I applied for OCS and was finally accepted for Class 57C. (My troops used to kid me about that- I couldn’t make Tech so I became an Officer.)

In March 1957, I took my six-month pregnant wife back to Virginia to stay with her family, and for the next three months I had some serious doubts that I would ever see her again. I made it through second class and went home during the break. On June 27th, I took her to the hospital in labor. Explaining to her that I had to get back to 57C or risk washing back to 57D and repeating second class, I caught the ferry to Norfolk and a flight heading back to Lackland. My #1 son was born while I was in flight, and it was three months later that my wife introduced me to “Fifty Seven Charlie.” I think she misunderstood my desire to get back to 57C. (this is the truth, except for the “Fifty-Seven” name.)

We (Shirley, Charles, and I) proceeded to Harlingen AFB, Texas, for Navigation School, along with several 57C classmates, and from there to Keesler AFB, MS for Electronic Warfare School. I was not the honor graduate from either of these schools; maybe that was why I was sentenced to serve at Blytheville, AFB, Arkansas (from June 1959 to March 1967). It wasn’t all bad though. Two more children, Susan and Douglas, joined us there. During the tour, I picked up more weeks and months of ground alert time, about six months of spot-major time, made Regular AF, and got off to the University of Omaha, Nebraska, to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in March 1966.

In August 1966, I started getting hoarse and was found to have cancer of the larynx. Of course, this grounded me, but after undergoing radiation treatment, I got a medical waiver to stay on active duty. I then started looking for a job and ended up in the Communications-Electronics Staff Officer Course at Keesler AFB, MS. From there, I got a two-year accompanied tour at Karamursel AB, Turkey as Chief of Maintenance in a Security Service unit. I did not try to extend that tour, and in January of 1970 came back to the States to the 20th Air Division (NORAD) at Fort Lee AFS, VA. I decided to retire at the end of May 1971, but discovered during the medical processing that the cancer had returned. My voice box was surgically removed in March 1971, leaving me speechless. (Can you believe that?) I did learn to speak again to some extent, but was retired on disability in July 1971.

We decided to come back to the Eastern Shore of Virginia to live (now connected to Norfolk by a 17 ½ mile bridge-tunnel with a ten-dollar one-way toll) and I became a house-husband, after finding my wife a job. (Actually, she said, “One of has to get out of this house” and went out and found her own job.)

In 1988, we moved to Melbourne, Florida and really enjoyed it, but illness in my wife’s family brought us back to Ole Virginny in 1992. Here we are. Our children are living in Norfolk, VA, Saint Petersburg, FL, and San Diego, CA; no grandchildren to date but we’re thinking about adopting a couple if we don’t get too old and shaky first.

This is the end of Chapter One, but not the end of the story!

Howard

(Editor’s Note:)
Howie died in his sleep, of an apparent heart attack on April 15, 2001, Easter Sunday, following a Serious fight with Cancer.