FUNNY HOW A PHOTO OF A "ROACH COACH" - i.e., a lunch truck
can elicit deja moments. ~ Today on the "Osan Air Base, South Korea
(unofficial)" Facebook group page, a gentleman, Robert Dobell, posted a
photo of a Roach Coach asking, "Who remembers the roach coach? I was
introduced to this back in 1980 when delivering supplies. A hot dog
made for a good breakfast."
And that brought a vivid memory. In early 1963 I worked for Ramo
Wooldridge in Canoga Park, California, helping set up and work
in the Test Department for the first MilSpec (military grade)
minicomputer, the AN/UYK-1, which was developed under
government contract by Ramo Wooldridge.
Friday, November 22, 1963, was just another day at work. We
began at 8:00 AM and everything was right on schedule. At 10:30
AM, I went for coffee break at the lunch truck in the parking
lot, got my two burritos, a cup of coffee. and brought them back
to my work area to relax for a few minutes.
The Test
Department lab was a large room about 100 X 75 feet, with test
stations around the room. My test station was in the middle of
the north side of the room, against the wall. The AN/UYK-1
computer was in a cast iron military gray cabinet about 5 foot
tall and about 2 foot by 2 foot square.
At about 10:45 AM, a coworker came running up to my work
station, excitedly telling me that President Kennedy had been
shot. Since we often joked around, I assumed he was joking and
said to him, "Really? Has anything exciting happened this
morning?"
Then he told me, "Bill, really, he was shot this morning in
Dallas." With that everyone became stunned and silent.
From somewhere, someone produced a radio and we set it on top
of my computer to listen to the news. We listened as President
Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and we
listened as the news reporters were doing their best to tell us
about this event which had taken everyone by surprise.
Later I left for lunch and drove to Our Lady Of The Valley
church in Canoga Park to pray. Funny, even though I had been in
and out of churches for many years, and had enjoyed attending
services at Our Lady Of The Valley Roman Catholic church because
all the priests were from Ireland and I loved their accents - I
was not yet a Christian. But that day I felt the need to pray
for President Kennedy. While I was there, about 20 to 30 people
came to the church on their lunch hour to pray.
When I left the church, I stopped at a Frosty Freeze just down
the street and had a hamburger for lunch. As I was driving back
to work news commentator, Walter Cronkite, came on the radio to
announce that President Kennedy was dead. All of this is still
so vivid in my memory. Yet, I do not recall anything that
happened from the time I returned to work, until the time I left
work.
After work, I drove straight to my girl friend's home. From
Friday evening until late Sunday night, we sat transfixed to the
television watching and wondering, like all Americans, "How
could this happen in America?"
Today we do not have the Camelot of those days, our naiveté has
eroded, and has been replaced by a more cynical world view. But
when I sit and think about it, I have been touched by history -
as John Kennedy and I walked a different, but parallel path
through life in mid-20th century America.
The second photo is earlier in 1963 when President Kennedy speaking with
Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa aboard the USNS Kingsport
docked in Lagos Harbor, the first live two-way phone call between heads
of government via satellite. On the left of that photo composite is the
Ramo
Wooldridge AN/UYK-1 computer which I installed on board the Kingsport to control satellite antennae communications.
Thank you for taking this walk with me. Our memories are a
large part of who we are today. We cannot live in the past -
but we can use our memories of such events to make us a better
person, showing us the paths we want to avoid; and allowing that
to make us better and stronger members of our society, our
world, and our Christian communities today.
This is the Walter Cronkite broadcast I heard driving back to work on that confusing day:
Cronkite Breaks News Of President Kennedy's Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZzunhQnlzk
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Click on the images to enlarge
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