Jan I did have the opportunity to take several short trips off Okinawa, two to Taipei and one to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong trip was with a tour which we immediately abandoned on day one and struck out on our own. We took the ‘Star Ferry’ to the island and caught a double decker bus and sat on the top tier and took pictures of scenes as we passed by. We had no idea where the bus was going but felt that when we got to the end of the line there surely would be a return bus to the original starting point at the Star Ferry terminal. The ride took several hours and when we finally got back to our hotel there was a tour guide that had been looking for us for several hours because our hotel had been changed. Hong Kong was interesting, but we enjoyed Taipei much more.
Both Hong Kong and Taipei were interesting for me because of my interest in computers. It seemed that computer parts were available and being sold on the street especially during ‘night market’. You would see a video or sound card laid out next to duck heads. At the time Apple was being vigorously cloned and ‘pears, oranges’ and assorted fruit named computers were available.
Sometime in the early 1980s, Bob Williams was coming back to the states to Beale for some training. In his briefcase he was carrying some ‘chips’ from the preprocessor that had to be upgraded. Customs in Seattle went through his luggage and tried to confiscate the items, thinking they were cloned parts of Apple computers. He would not give them up citing they were classified and it took several hours, contact was made with the AF Intel at Beale and he and the parts were released. After that those of us that did some traveling were given a letter signed by the someone important that stated that we were attached to this ‘secret project’ and we could refuse to have parts of our luggage searched. I never had to use mine as most of the time I would travel on AF aircraft when I took software overseas.
Sometime in 1989 it was being strongly rumored that the SR71 was going to be shut down. I had some vacation accrued and feeling the shutdown would interfere with our plans, Jan and I took a vacation back to the states. We thought that when we returned to Okinawa it would be to pack up and leave for good. So, prior to our vacation trip we sold the 2 vehicles we had purchased on arrival and felt that it would be less to do on our return to pack up.
Much to our surprise some support in Congress was evident to keep the program going so when Jan and I returned we had to repurchase a couple vehicles. We settled in for at least another year on Okinawa and did more diving, photo taking, developing and framing pictures in our spare time. The mission load was severely reduced, so we had lots of time on our hands. Jan and I dove as much as we could and took several weekend trips to nearby islands for diving. Okinawa was an enjoyable assignment. The local food was great, and the people were very kind to us.
On one of our diving trips Jan and I caught an octopus, which was a very prized delicacy for the native people and quite expensive. I gave it to the family in the house next door to our apartment and made a friend for life. Jan and I were prepared to spend several more years on Okinawa, but it was not to be.
After the contract for the year was signed the Air Force decided that the program would be shut down and we were to leave at the end of January 1990. We were told that the same weight restrictions that we came over would apply for our return. 1500 pounds of stuff would be the limit. I remember George Adamo having to sell all his household goods. He had some beautiful furniture, a whole house full, I think most of it was rosewood. He set out to sell it because the cost of shipping it back to the states was too expensive. I, on the other hand had only the stuff that fit into a 576 square foot apartment to worry about. Jan wanted to take it all back and she got her wish. I thought since we would not have another opportunity to travel to Asia we would pay, whatever the price, to have it shipped back.
I don’t remember what moving company packed us up for shipping back to the states. I only remember being awed by the care they took in packing up our belongings. We had mailed quite a lot of small items and had not finished, and the movers took over. They took a full day and carefully packed everything, and I mean everything. They probably would have packed up our fingerprints if they could have found them. We sold one of the vehicles and gave the other one, a van we had outfitted for diving, to a dive friend. It had served us well.
Prior to leaving Okinawa I contacted a former SR71 tech rep, Alan Anderson, still working for CDC, that had been moved to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. I had spent several months on Kwaj during 1961. I was in the antenna group at AIL and was asked to go to Kwaj to do some antenna pattern/power measurements on the Nike Zeus system. I had encouraged Alan to try to get an assignment to Kwaj when the CDC computers were replaced on the SR71 program. He had done several other CDC assignments to be able to get the Kwaj job and was enjoying his time on Kwaj.
I was able to contact him and get the proper paperwork for Jan and I to spend 5 days on Kwaj on our way back to the states. Our trip took us on a Continental Air Lines tour of the Pacific Area. We did stop for 3 days on Pohnpei and toured the island and then flew to Kwaj. On the evening we arrived, Alan met us at the terminal, drove us to our lodging (a mobile home) and told us he would call us later to give us time to walk (about 100 yards) to the beach to see a MIRV being shot from Vandenburg AFB for an anti-missile test. This test had been held up for several years and this was to be the night! He called, and we went to the beach with quite a few other people and were told in which direction to look. It was a moonless night with no clouds and we watched the re-entry of at least 3 dummy warheads. The warheads landed in the lagoon, one of the world’s largest. When it was over, it was over in about 20 seconds, no instant replay or TV analysis, nothing, just fold up the lawn chair and go back to the lodging.
Alan had set Jan and I up with a Dive Master/pilot that also flew crews at rather low level to other islands surrounding the lagoon in the morning and evening. He was more than happy to have someone to dive with during the day and we spent time diving the leeward side of the atoll. Lots of sharks, fish and live coral, great diving. Unfortunately, we had to leave, and island hopped on a direct flight to Hawaii. You can’t believe how small some of the airports and runways are on some of the islands.
A brief stop on Majuro turned out to be several hours due to a boarding passenger; a high ranking, very heavy, about 5 ft tall 350+ lbs, Majuro official being assisted up the rear stairway of the 727, dropped dead of a heart attack in the middle of the narrow aisle. He was going to go to Hawaii to see a heart specialist. It took 4 men a lot of time to remove him from the aisle and down the stairway. Needless to say, we were late arriving in Hawaii and missed our connection to the states. We couldn’t get a taxi at 2am to go to a hotel in town, so we spent a night with our baggage, dive equipment and all, in the terminal to await an early morning flight to the states.
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My SR-71 ELINT Travel and Engineering Trips