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I was a member of the NY Air National Guard for a brief time (1969-1970) after my 4-1/2 year active duty stint in the AF. We were nationalized by Nixon for a week in March, 1970 as a result of a nationwide postal strike the nexus of which was in New York City. My recollection is that our entire Tactical Fighter Unit stayed in place at Floyd Bennett Field for the duration of the short-lived strike without firing any rubber bullets at postal workers or dropping any faux bombs on the main post office adjacent to Penn Station.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Mike, one of my friends in Nashville, a gal who I just had Dinner with last evening - and with her husband to chaperone!!! - is now a retired Marine (she made E-7). She was awarded the SWAM Medal for her "Gulf War Service" - essentially for taking an airplane ride. Her unit got orders to go, but by the time she got off the airplane in Kuwait, it was over.
While I served and returned from "the Nam" unscathed, I nevertheless did my "365 and a wakeup".
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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Well, I didn't get a medal for the callup, but it extended my last day of active duty a couple of years, which extension came in handy for VA educational benefits when I went back to college in the late 70's to get some accounting credits.
George Harris Member # 2077
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Got my draft notice in mid 1969 after working just short o one year for the L&N. In the last couple weeks of AIT we did riot control drills. March shoulder to shoulder with M14's with bayonets IN SCABBARD fixed and held at about 45 degree angle. Lots of drill sergeant yelling about what to do and not do. Don't remember message contents. Never had to do it for real. Don't know if that was ever really done nor where if it ever was.
Went from there straight to OCS at Ft. Belvoir VA, getting the butter bar April 2, 1970. Thus became OBV2. (That meant Obligated Volunteer, 2 year commitment.) Went to that wonderful Southeast Asian vacationland early 1971. Thanks to getting over supplied with junior officers got a 4 month drop in obligation, so I spent more like 320 days in Nam instead of 365. Kicked myself for not doing the last 2 years of ROTC, which would have saved me a lot o sweat, running and push-ups and given me the bar in about July 1968, and end of OBV2 active duty commitment in July 1970. Changed my mind when I learned that the one guy that did that and graduated with me in my Civil Engineering major, thereby going to Nam in mid 1969 came home in a body bag. That near 2 year delay may well have saved my life.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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BUTTER BAR!!!!
That one never got to the Air Force!!!! (or at least to me).
"Second Louie" did.
SIR
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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At OTS Class 64-H , Medina Annex, 4/64-6/64, our goal as 90-day wonders was always those"peanut butter bars." Miraculously, I got them on July 1st thanks mostly to my assigned roommate being a general's son from Dothan, AL who got me through.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Darned, I got "awarded" six medals while "in". Only one do I think I "did something" to get.
NDSM: Got that for "raising my right" and saying "I do".
VSM: Got for getting off a plane @ VVTS
VCM: For "doing six months" in "The Nam"
AFOU: Because I was assigned to 7th AF
AFGCM: Because I never got an Article 15.
AFCM: The only one I worked for. Showed up on time for duty, knew how to say "yes sir" and I like to think I did my part to make the 1876 Comm Squadron accomplish its mission.
No "Rambo stuff"; just did what I was told to do.
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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My awards (from my DD-214, the only "award" really worth anything):
SAEMR - For doing what I was told with a .45 pistol on the range when I had perfect vision ("squeeze the trigger, don't pull it").
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