Sampson Veteran’s Tale – What huge lake are you talking about?

I'm like the many others who joined the Air Force, I didn't want to get drafted into the Army and be a "Ground Pounder!" In the 1950s the draft was very much in use and I had been classed as 1-A. That meant I would be one of the first of my age group to be called up. In August of 1955 I was 18 - soon to be 19 the following month. Of course the Army was out. As for the Navy, I couldn't swim, still can't, so the Navy was out. I had heard some real horror stories about the Marines, so that was out. The only military unit left was the Air Force and since my oldest brother was in the Air Force it was the logical choice.

I had always had a love affair with aircraft and at one time thought I would like to fly one. Well as it turned out I only got to fly in them - never at the controls.

Into the Air Force and off to basic training I went.

I started my four years with the United States Air Force on August 16^th 1955 at Cleveland, Ohio when I raised my right hand and swore my allegiance to the United States.

I entered basic training a day or two later at Sampson Air Force Base, a base that was once an old Naval Training Station from the Second World War. The base was located in New York State on Seneca Lake. It has since become a large and beautiful State Park.

There were three groups of men in my training Flight, some from Ohio, some from Pennsylvania and some from New York. The next three months were, to say the least, rough. As many men and women who were in any branch of the military will tell you, basic training is no picnic. Each group of men who arrived at Sampson was assigned to different Flights. Mine was 4576. We were in the "H" area of the base. I don’t remember our barracks number.

The day after we arrived at Sampson we received our uniforms. The supply guy would look at you and yell out what size you were to get. I don't recall ever being measured.

My fatigues were extra large, and for a 130-pound, skinny-as-a-rail kid like me, the legs had to be hemmed up to the knees. There were no more fatigue caps so we had to wear our "C*** caps", those caps also go by the names, Garrison cap, Campaign cap, Flight cap, Fore and Aft cap, Pisscutter cap, Overseas cap, Forage Cap.

The field jacket I was issued didn't have a liner.  In my four years in the Air Force, I never got an official field jacket liner.. While at Dyess AFB I found an old B-15 flight jacket, tore the sheepskin liner out of it and wore it under my field jacket like a vest, I stayed warmer than did those who had only a regular field jacket liner.

There were fire drills at 2 and 3 A.M., all night chow hall cleanup duty, called "Kitchen Police" (K.P.), then marching all the following day, stand-by barracks inspections, latrine scrubbing, physical training (P.T. with lots of push-ups), and of course, scrubbing the barracks floors with strong soap and bleach until they were white as snow.

Then came bivouac. The day we started bivouac was bright and sunny. Then came day two when the rain poured down on us. It turned the bivouac area into a several inch deep mud pit. We were using what appeared to be equipment from Korean War surplus - fatigues, tents, and ponchos -  you name it. Because of all the rain and mud we didn’t get to go through the gas chamber, a usual requirement in basic training.

During meals while on bivouac "lake seagulls" would circle overhead, and as they circled, they also defecated, so the only way to eat was to bend over your meal to protect it from "seagull" stuff and the continuous rain.

There are many more things we were taught in basic training such as the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and what it said indicated that there is indeed double jeopardy for military folks.

We were told by our instructor, that, should we commit a crime while off base and were caught, be tried in a civilian court, and jailed, that our jailtime would be considered by the Air Force as our being absent without official leave (AWOL). Upon release from jail you would be brought back to your base and tried in a military court, not only for your crime, but for being AWOL. Perhaps we were told that just to scare us or perhaps it's true, but I know of none in my flight that got into trouble.

Prior to my joining the Air Force I had used many different weapons and, not bragging, I was very good at shooting and weaponry. Among those weapons were a single-shot 22 bolt action, 30-30 Winchester lever action, 12 and 16 gauge shotguns, and a 7.35mm Italian military rifle. I was no stranger to weapons.

That said, I was one happy camper when I got to go to the firing range after completing the instruction course on breaking down (disassembling) and putting the M-1 carbine back together. The training also provided lots of safety instructions. Then came my time to fire the weapon I had been issued. That old M-1 carbine was so worn out that my bullets hit the target of the guy next to me. I ended up using good old "Kentucky windage." I did manage to qualify but could have done better had the weapon been less used or abused in the past.

I, too, am one of those basic trainees who never saw the lake, It was only 38 miles long, two to five miles wide, and more than 500 feet deep in places, and we were housed and trained right near its shores. How could we have not seen the thing? If you want the answer to that question, join the military and partake of basic training!

I surely did not miss all those gulls – except on Sundays when the mess halls served "chicken." I always wondered about that! There are many things that one forgets after so many years, the static display aircraft all over the base, names of people you knew etc.

Sampson Air Force Base no longer exists. It is now a state park. Most all the buildings are gone except for several old warehouses and the stockade (jail) that has been refurbished and is now serving as a museum for the Navy and Air Force, both of which once used the place for basic training of recruits just like me.

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