With the EIP and software package the ELINT reporting became very easy. By that time Tom Brown was firmly established in England, even to a point of getting remarried to an English lady. On one occasion when Tom desired to take a vacation, my wife, Jan, and I stayed Tom’s home during my tour there as Tom’s replacement. His home was just outside of Bury St Edmunds and very modern and cozy. Jan and I spent time touring the north east part of England. Every Friday evening the fish monger would drive around the neighborhood selling fresh fish which is how we became familiar with monk fish. Twice a week a milkman made deliveries to the neighborhood.
As I became more familiar with the formats of the data, more analytical tools were developed in the field. The calibration of the system became a much easier task, using verified ground truth to adjust the calibration tables. There were occasions when we were able to take a few cuts from different missions and produce a valid identification and location for a report. Processing of the data became routine while the ‘in depth’ analysis occupied more of my time.
Sometime during the early 1980s it became necessary to replace one of the AIL reps on Okinawa because of medical reasons. I was on Okinawa performing software upgrades when that occurred. The program office requested that I stay for a few months until a replacement could be found. I said yes, provided Jan was able to accompany me. The kids were out of high school and could pretty much fare for themselves for 2 months or so. I came back to the States for about a week and returned to Okinawa with Jan and began she had her first experience of living on Okinawa, even though it was only for two months.
Jerry Rensink, the SEL computer tech rep, rented us a room in his house overlooking the Pacific and that is where we made our home for two months. In between work we did a lot of touring and shopping. On one occasion Jan and I rode in the pickup that preceded the SR71 taxiing to the end of the runway to get ready for takeoff. This was a normal ‘FOD check’ that was part of every launch.
When the SR71 had finished the final engine check on the ground, the pickup would drive down the main runway to the point of ‘lift off’ again checking for FOD. Once there, the pickup pulled off the runway and we got out of the pickup and with sound suppressors over our ears stood just off the runway as the SR71 took off. With afterburners blazing and at max thrust the experience is awesome. Jan enjoyed the trip and thought if the opportunity came for a longer tour she would be agreeable. At the end of the two months John Speth came over to replace me.
Once we returned home to Marysville, I asked Jan which was better to visit, England or Okinawa. She said that if I ever had the chance and the choice, Okinawa was where she would rather spend time.
I came back to Beale and an AIL engineer from the B1B program at Edwards had come to Beale to be trained on the ELINT processing to fill the vacancy on Okinawa. John Speth had spent about a month training him prior to my return. I spent an additional two months training him and when asked by the Program Office (PO) in Deer Park whether he was ready to be sent out on his own, I said he wasn’t ready, and that he needed more training. His main concern during the training was when he would be able to go to Okinawa. He was sent to Okinawa in spite of my objections. I had volunteered to be the Okinawa replacement, but the PO said no, claiming I was to ‘valuable’ doing what I was doing. I warned them that if he didn’t really get better in a short time that the Air Force would want him replaced.
About 2 years later a report came from the 9th AF INTEL on Okinawa that they were not happy with the replacement. I knew most all the AF individuals running the operation, including the Detachment Commander and they were requesting that I replace the replacement. Again, the PO said no. This was sometime in late spring of 1985.
In June 1985 there was a SR71 Blackbird reunion in Reno, Nevada. They occurred every two years and I had attended them all. At the reunion some of the PO people attended as did several of the Okinawa AF INTEL people and the Okinawa Detachment Commander, Col Tom Alison, and the SR71 project director from Norton AFB, Col Don Emmons. I was pleading my case to go to Okinawa to the PO crowd and was getting nowhere. As I went back to the open bar with my tail between my legs, Tom and Don asked how it was going and why wasn’t I going to Okinawa. I told them that the PO had shot it down. Don whispered to me, “Who we got to kill to get you over there?”. I said that I would pass his message on to the PO and see if I got a more positive response.
I believe that Dom Fabio was the Program Manager (PM) at AIL, however it may have been Jack Migliaccio. All the AIL attendees went to dinner at some Italian restaurant in Reno, recommended by Tom Alocca. Sitting around the dinner table I pleaded my case for going to Okinawa on a permanent basis and finally was given a tentative OK. Sometime in late December 1985 Jan and I were on our way to Okinawa.
Packing to go PCS to Japan was interesting. We could only take 1500 pounds of ‘stuff’ and after clothing and a few personal items there wasn’t much else. A few small furniture items and the weight limit was reached. Not like moving across country.
We had planned to fly out of Sacramento to Seattle, spend some time with Jan’s folks in Everett, and then Seattle to Okinawa right after Christmas. That plan didn’t get off the ground. Arriving at Sacramento Airport it was completely fogged in and nothing was flying in or out. In fact, that condition ended up lasting a week. I went to a ticket agent and was able to schedule a flight about 3 hours later from San Francisco to Seattle and rented a car and drove to SF. We finally arrived in Seattle and stayed with my cousins, Ken and Darlene Lane, for 2 nights before going to Everett to stay with Jan’s parents.
In the time we spent in Everett, Jan and I took drivers tests and got Washington State drivers licenses. Then we opened a bank account at SeaFirst in Everett and also registered to vote in Washington. The reason for doing this was that California was very aggressive at taxing residents that left for a while still being a resident of California. This had happened to several Lockheed tech reps that had gone to England. Prior to leaving California, we closed out accounts and canceled our homestead exemption and rented out our house, albeit to our kids. We never had any problem with Ca. taxes.
The west coast was mostly in fog for the time we spent in Washington. When we got to SeaTac to fly to Japan they were not taking off but had to bus us to Boeing field to board a plane. The catch was that Boeing field was too short to take on all the fuel necessary to fly to Tokyo, so we flew to Portland with the plane half full of passengers to fuel up for the flight. At Portland the flight filled up with people that had been delayed the previous day because of fog.
We arrived at Tokyo Narita airport too late to make the connection to Okinawa. So, we had to ‘bag drag’ to board a bus that took us to a hotel near Haneda airport to stay for the night. Jan and I were in a room with double beds that was so small that one of the beds was used to hold baggage because there was not enough room on the floor. The room may have had Feng Shui but no space. We flew out the next day from Haneda, Japan to Naha, Okinawa, Japan to begin our 4 plus years of adventure in the Far East.