One of the men working with me was nicknamed Zero. He had a lot of education but no common sense.
Once, he and another man were trying to remove a large cable from a cable trench. One man was outside the building and Zero was inside. The cable seemed to hang up, so they decided to cut it. Each pulled alternately on their end and “knew” they had the same cable.
Zero used large cutters to cut the cable — sparks flew and the cable cutter was welded to the cable. The cable Zero had pulled was not the same cable. It was looped on the other cable, so when each pulled, they thought they had the same cable.
When we left the control center to go to the mess hall for lunch, Zero would jump on a bicycle and ride. He would then be at the front of the line. By the time we went through the line and joined him, he would be nearly through eating.
One time, he looked at a piece of pie I had picked up and asked if it was any good. I told him I did not know. Zero wanted me to taste the pie immediately so he would know whether to walk back to the line and get a piece. I told him I would taste it when I finished my main course. He got very upset that I would not taste it immediately.
Several people had airplanes on GBI. Some of the stories about these characters and their airplanes are stories that were told to me. Others I knew firsthand.
One character was nicknamed Lindbergh. He turned in a request to bring an airplane to San Salvador where he was stationed and was turned down. He went to Florida and learned to fly and bought a J3 Piper Cub. The Cub did not carry enough fuel to fly to San Salvador, but he put cans of gasoline in the cockpit and a hand pump to pump into the fuel tank.
He island hopped to San Salvador and landed on the base runway. After he landed, they told him that he could not land there. He said he did not have enough fuel to fly anywhere else. Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to GBI.
Apparently, Lindbergh and another person went out for some pleasure flying and exploring the outlying islands. They landed on a beach on one of the small islands and visited a village. When they were ready to takeoff, there was not enough power to start rolling in the wet sand. They asked some villagers to push. They began rolling and lifted off in the J3 Cub, which had a very short takeoff roll. As they began flying, a breaker hit the reef in front of them and sprayed all over them, bending the propeller.
The people pushing had bent the rudder mechanism and now he had to hold full rudder one direction to nearly fly straight. They finally landed at GBI on the dirt runway. He took the bent propeller into the shop and hammered it back to its approximate shape. He fixed the bent rudder mechanism and flew the plane to the states and bought another airplane.
My manager, Dave, and Stan, a PAA employee, owned an airplane. I flew with Dave when I went home to get my wife and kids. Once, Stan had flown to Westend and was flying out commercial. Lindbergh happened to be there and offered to ferry the plane back to the dirt runway. Stan agreed, although none of us knew it at that time.
That night during the movie, Dave and Stan’s airplane buzzed the base. All of us recognized the airplane by the lighting configuration. The Fire Chief thought it was either Dave or Stan coming in late and needed lights on the base runway for a safe landing. He headed to the base runway, which was not usually authorized for private airplanes.
Then we saw that the airplane turned and landed in the dark on the dirt runway. Several vehicles headed to the dirt runway. There was Lindbergh tying down the airplane. He said he buzzed the base to get someone to come to the dirt runway to pick him up. He did not want to walk the mile to the base.
Lex worked in central control when I arrived at GBI. Normally, Lex was the radar controller, sitting at the ADDAC console. I was cross-trained to take over as radar controller, so Lex could move to the instrumentation console a instrumentation controller. Lex and I worked very close together.
A few days after coming on board, after a long mission, a couple of us headed for the restroom. As I walked in the door, something looked strange at one of the stalls. Someone was sitting in the stall, but one leg was in a distinctly wrong position – leaning against the door facing backwards.
I did a double-take. Another man who entered the restroom at the same time, said, “Lex, you just confused Blackerby by taking off your leg.”
Lex had lost a leg in a motorcycle accident as a teenager and wore an artificial leg. I knew he walked with a slight limp, but I had not thought about one leg being a prosthetic.
A few years later, I was downrange on a trip. A new TPQ-18 radar had been installed at GBI and Lex was the supervisor. When I finished my business in central control, a friend asked if I wanted to ride out to see the new TPQ-18. We drank coffee with Lex and visited. The friend who gave me a ride, needed to leave and offered to give me a ride back to the base. Lex offered to let me ride double on his new motor scooter. I said fine and stayed, visiting with Lex and a couple of other friends.
After a couple more hours, we left for the base. Lex said it was easier for him to get on and off a motor scooter than a motorcycle. He asked if I had ever ridden double before and I had. We rode back to the base and the club.
I found out later that Lex had been thrilled that I accepted a ride with him. Apparently, most people would not consider riding double with the one-legged guy. That thought never crossed my mind. I just got on and rode with him. I don’t know what ever happened to Lex. I totally lost track.
Copyright © Jerry Blackerby 2009