Many people don’t know that before my career in elementary teaching, I had a career as a civil engineering officer in the USAF (1976-1996). I wrote and performed these now vintage songs about all the various places I was stationed. Here are a few.
Click Here for “It’s a MAC World” (1984) as I was often stationed on the old Military Airlift Command (MAC) bases, (Kirtland/Azores/Hickam ALD/Scott). Then “MAC” got transitioned into the Air Mobility Command. This song was recorded back in 1984.
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Click Here for “Jingle Run” (1989) . I did not get to fly on this mission, but I wrote a song for the annual “Jungle Run” that the 834th Airlift Division, based on Hickam AFB Hawaii, did every Christmas season. They would drop toys, fishing gear, books, food, and other supplies on the Micronesian Islands.
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Here are a few songs off my “Only in the Azores.” (1983) cassette album. It was originally titled “Island Bomb Song,” which continued to sell in the Lajes Azores Base Exchange for several years after my departure in 1984. Many called this “short tour” base one of the best kept secrets in the USAF. It’s where I met my wife Lisa, as she was a civilian teacher on the DODDS school there. Lajes is on Terceira Island about 900 miles off the coast of Portugal. You can still get a CD digital version of this album on Amazon. Click Here.
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“Island bombs” are rusty old cars that GIs in the Azores would buy off one another – just something to get around the island – mostly held together with “Bondo”! Mine was an old beat-up little 1973 Datsun Coupe, but it served its purpose, then some lucky GI took it off my hands upon my PCS from Lajes.
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Ever taken a military hop on a MAC (AMC) plane? If so, then you will be able to relate with this one!
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A “service call” is a call into CE (or Civil Engineering Squadron) to report problems with facilities, homes, runways, roof leaks, clogged toilets, water breaks, brown outs – you name it – CE fixed it. This song was filmed into a commercial for Armed Forces Radio and Television Squadron (AFRTS) or “A-Farts” as we called back in the early 80’s. I would love to find a copy of that old commercial someday – its hilarious!
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When I was stationed at March AFB CA (1988-1992), I recorded this cassette and it sold in the Base History Museum. I can’t find any digitized versions of these songs yet. Still looking. One of the songs, “Tanker Town USA” is about when the 15thAF commander, General Light, decided to nickname the base to “Tanker Town USA,” (since we were a KC 135 SAC tanker base) so to sort of compete with Miramar Naval Air Station down the road, who had recently nicknamed their base to “Fighter Town USA” during the filming of the movie “Top Gun” at their base. We civil engineers put up our new nickname with huge letters on the air traffic control tower and General Light made a big deal of it. Sorry I don’t have a recording of it, unless you still gotta cassette player!