Oral History Program Gene Mohr Interviewed by Stacy Heik 07 April 2008 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Gene Mohr Interviewed by Stacy Heik 07 April 2008 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Mohr, Gene, an oral history by Stacy Heik, 07 April 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Gene Mohr. It is being conducted on April 7, 2008 at Layton, Utah and concerns Mr. Mohr's experiences at Hill Air Force Base. The interviewer is Stacy Heik. SH: Ok today is Monday April 7, 2008. My name is Stacy Heik and I am interviewing Gene Mohr. So Gene, when and where were you born? GM: I was born in Canova, South Dakota, March 22, 1934. SH: Do you have any brothers or sisters? GM: I have one brother and three sisters. SH: Would you like to tell me about them? GM: Oh, my sister, that I call my twin sister, we were twins for three days, she is in South Dakota...living in South Dakota. And then I have my brother is deceased...he died from smoke cancer, smoking or cancer or something I guess. We didn't get along cause he didn't accept my wife. And then I have another sister in South Dakota, Kay my second sister and my youngest sister is in Michigan. SH: So. GM: There were five of us. SH: Five. GM: Um hm (noise of agreement). SH: Five. 1 GM: And my mother is in Mitchell, South Dakota in the Brady home, which is a Catholic nursing home, still alive. SH: And when was she born? GM: 1910 I think, (laughter). SH: Do you have any stories that you want to tell us about, your brothers and sisters or your Mom? GM: We lived on a farm; I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. I had always wanted to be an Air Force Brat since the Air Force...right after World War II and during World War II a very good friend of ours, a neighbor, his son used to fly P-51 Mustangs for the South Dakota Air National Guard and he would come buzzing the house, his grandparents and buzzing our place, our farm, every Sunday afternoon, just about. SH: Wow (laughter). GM: And we loved that. SH: That's Awesome! GM: Oh yea, one day...one night his grandfather wanted to kill him. SH: (Laughter). GM: He come in with that Mustang and brought the back end and his grandfather was out in the barn farming...out in the barn milking cows. He brought that Mustang in a power dive and pulled it straight up and all the prop wash and all that sound went back and scared the heck out of the cows and the cows kicked the pants off of the old man. (Laughter). 2 SH: (Laughter) oh no! Was he injured? I heard that you could really get injured from that. GM: Oh you could but he wasn't injured (Laughter). SH: (Laughter) Oh man! GM: He wanted to kill his grandson though. SH: Oh, I would want to too. GM: And then, years went by when the South Dakota Air National Guard was converting from P-51s to I think F-84s but I was overseas then. And they were converting something and he was killed in a plane crash some place in Wisconsin or something on a training mission, so. SH: Umm, oh man! GM: But anyway. SH: Well, do you want to tell us about Sue and when you got married and... GM: I got...my wife Sumiko was from Tokyo, Japan and she worked at Tachikawa air base in supply and I happened to be in supply at Yokota air base which was only about 10, 15, 20 miles apart and I would have to go over there to the depot to pick up parts And I kept trying to convince her to go out for lunch and her comments were she wouldn't have nothing to do with no damn G.I.. SH: (Laughter) That's pretty smart of her! GM: But then she made the mistake...she always said that it was a mistake and then laughed like the dickens. She said I made a mistake of wanting to go to a movie and the 3 only movie I wanted to see was at Yokota. So we went to Yokota and I told her that it broke the ice. (Laughter). SH: (Laughter). GM: And we were married, 43% years before she passed away. SH: Wow! GM: And we was married February the 19th, 1958. SH: Wow! GM: So we went together for about three...two and a half, from 55-58, so about three years. SH: So was it easy to convince her to marry you? GM: Umm...well yea, in a sense...in a sense (laughter). SH: (Laughter) That's good! GM: I said that I couldn't promise I'd make her happy, but I'd try my darndest. SH: I'm sure you did. GM: And I did, I tried. Sometimes as normal I lost out, but (laughter). But I miss her so dearly! And she is still here bugging me, turning lights on and stuff like this. In fact if that light turns on over there then you know that she is here. SH: (Laughter) I would love to have her here for our interview. GM: And she had six brothers and sisters. SH: Wow six huh? GM: Three brothers and three sisters, there were seven in the family. 4 SH: Wow! GM: And her father worked for the Tachikawa air base for the U.S. Air Force Base at Tachikawa air base as a sheet metal mechanic and her oldest sister worked for...as a Japanese national for the U.S. Air Force as a draftsman. SH: Wow! They are all involved with the military, huh? GM: Oh Yea! Well, two out of the family, three. SH: Well, do you want to explain once you left there what bases you went to and what you did and... GM: I left Japan 1959 and went to Albuquerque, New Mexico to Kurtland. Was there till December of '62 and in November of '62 Sue got her citizenship. And then went back to Itazuki Air Base in Southern Japan. SH: Oh they let you go back, huh? GM: Itazuki Air Base, was there for four years, left Itazuki. SH: Where is? GM: Southern Japan, Kyushu, Fukuoka. SH: I will never be able to spell these on this tape (Laughter). GM: Well you will have to get me to spell them for you later on. SH: You will! GM: Fukuoka and then I was there for four years, we left Fukuoka or Itazuki Air Base and went to Holloman. Was at Holloman for about eighteen, nineteen months and went to Eglin. Was at Eglin, Florida for thirteen months and went to Hawaii for four years. 5 SH: NICE!! GM: And while I was in Hawaii I went TDY to the island of Kumejimi, that's Kumi Island, Kumejimi Japan or Okinawa. And from Hawaii I went to Edwards and from Edwards up here. And I was at Edwards for one weekend. SH: For one weekend? GM: One weekend! SH: It was a PCS and they... GM: It was a PCS to Edwards. SH: For one weekend? GM: For one weekend. Edwards says, what are you doing here? Oh by the way here are the orders we forgot to change, here are your change of orders we forgot to send you. (Laughter). SH: (Laughter). GM: That's how I ended up at Hill. (Laughter). SH: (Laughter) So...That's crazy...did you have all your stuff shipped there? GM: Ahhh ha, everything was shipped from Hawaii to there. SH: Why didn't they just keep you there? That's stupid! GM: Who knows? That was back in '65... 14 test squadron which was being transferred up here. SH: Oh my goodness! 6 GM: Testing drones and unmanned aircraft (laughter). SH: So what day did you end up at Hill? GM: It was around the fifteenth of June of '73. And the night I got to Hill, in the middle of June, we had for inches of snow at Hill Air Force Base. (Laughter). SH: In June? Welcome Huh? GM: And after leaving Hawaii and three years in a row we had snow in June. SH: Oh my goodness! When we first arrived we had snow for Easter and we thought that was strange, it was like April or something and we were getting in; but June? GM: June! SH: Jeff’s really hoping to get snow in June, he gets back at the end of May. So...you got here in '73 and you worked in test. So, I think the bulk of interview they will want us to talk about Hill and how you've seen Hill change and that sort of thing. So you got here in '73, was housing in the same place that it is now? GM: They have built a lot of new housing since then. SH: But it was still in the same spot? GM: What we always called Payton Place. SH: Payton Place? GM: Area C...Area C housing. SH: Ah ha. GM: You remember the old movie Payton Place? 7 SH: Vaguely...I have heard of it. GM: Where everything was falling down and crash and all messed up (laughter). SH: (Laughter). GM: Well it was World War II housing over where by the bum plant is in that general area, for the golf course. SH: Ok, by the golf course...I thought it was by the golf course. GM: Yea, before you got to the golf course; we always called it Payton Place. SH: (Laughter) That's funny! GM: They wanted to put me in that housing and I said, no way. SH: Was it just really...nasty? GM: Oh man, yea, duplexes and fourplexes and just upstairs and downstairs. Sue had medical problems and I got a doctor to sign me a statement that said that they will put me in single level housing and the only single level housing were three bedroom housing. So I got a three bedroom home when I wasn't authorized it, I was only authorized a two bedroom. SH: What rank were you at the time? GM: Tech Sergeant. SH: Tech Sergeant and you weren't authorized a three? GM: Nope. SH: So did you have kids yet at that time? 8 GM: Yea, I had my one daughter, my daughter Helen. SH: Oh yea. GM: She was born in '59...the thirteenth of June, 1959. SH: Thirteenth of June '59, wow! Do you want to tell us about Helen? GM: Her husband is a full Colonel in the Air Force; been in for...he is an ex-Army guy. Joined the Air Force through ROTC; he has been in the Air Force, now thirty, over thirty years and is a full Colonel. Stationed at Langley and he is the top LG officer, Logistics officer for the Air Force, for Air Combat Command; plus he has been given a new duty of setting up a new command which is going to be involved with fuels...I think... and vehicles or something. They are setting up a new command and he has been given that. He has been sitting in a one star slot for two or three years since he has been there. SH: Wow! GM: Now weather he gets it or not that's all politics. SH: Oh yea! Does he seem happy to be doing what he is doing? GM: Yes, oh yea. Like I said, he found out not too long ago that he can stay in at least thirty three years or longer and he is planning on staying. He is going to stay in as long as he wants. SH: Does Helen like that? GM: Yea. SH: She's pretty happy? 9 GM: Oh yea she wants to go back to Germany again. SH: Ah we all want to go back to Germany again! GM: She wants to go overseas, she wants to go back oversees again. SH: Oh me too! GM: Germany, Japan, Hawaii, they have been to Korea, England. SH: Did they go accompanied to Korea? GM: Oh yea. SH: Ah nice. GM: He was a support group...he was a transportation squadron commander that is where he got his transportation commander position at Osan. SH: That's when it is good to be an officer, huh? (Laughter). GM: (Laughter) Well if you are in a command position, yea. They had a lot of Senior COs that was over there in support duty, so. SH: Oh that is good. GM: Sue was to...they was in a three bedroom condo, upstairs and downstairs and had three rooms on three floors. But Sue was in such bad condition, oh by the way she died of the after effects of the atomic bomb. SH: Yea. GM: So she was in such bad condition there was no way that she could have made the trip. SH: Wow. 10 GM: In fact, when her parents passed away, her family came in to Japan for a weekend. Flew in from Japan for a weekend to sign a bunch of paperwork because she couldn't have made it back to Japan to help transfer the...clear up the estate. SH: Well do you want to tell us, on a happier note, about your grandkids? GM: I have three grandkids, three grandsons, the oldest one, I think he is twenty seven, something like that. SH: That's not Brent is it? GM: No, that is Ben. SH: Ben. GM: He is... he has an award winning hard rock band in Washington D C. SH: And the name is? GM: Fierce Allegiance. SH: Fierce Allegiance? GM: Fierce Allegiance, you can pick it up on the website. SH: I am going to have to write that down. GM: He is involved...his major job is border patrol...homeland security. SH: Wow! GM: In the head office. SH: Wow (Laughter). 11 GM: The belt says border patrol, my pen says border patrol, I got a hat with a border patrol badge on it. (Laughter) But anyhow he is involved in border patrol in the head office, working up there and he goes TDY here and there to go to all the other outlying areas; he has been all over the United States with them. Then Andy, my middle grandson, he is. Well Ben graduated from George Mason University; for year degree. Andy graduated from Shenandoah Conservatory University in Winchester, Virginia; in performing arts...music, entertainment, dancing, singing. He's been the top entertainer for Bush Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia, the European division for European theme shows for four years now. SH: Wow! GM: And they hired him back again this year and they fought like the dickens...he had a conference call with at least five or six bosses, big bosses, trying to convince him to come back there. SH: Wow! GM: He's been on Norwegian Cruise Line, headlining on Norwegian Cruise Line out of Shreveport, Louisiana...not Shreveport, Charleston, South Carolina. SH: Wow! GM: For six months and been on numerous shows. In fact he just played a part of the teletype operator or something like that on Titanic the show. SH: Oh really? GM: In a new theater in Virginia Beach. SH: Wow! 12 GM: Their first shows that they put on...he went in to audition and normally they bring everybody down from Washington D.C., no from New York, Broadway and stuff like this. And he has never been on Broadway so he doesn't have any of those entertainer points or whatever they call them up there, but they hired him right on the spot. SH: Wow! GM: He's been...he has the possibility of two or three different shows...two different jobs down at Disney World, but they weren't what he wanted so he didn't go down there. SH: Hum! For as far as acting or...? GM: And singing and dancing...well they had them doing different things, it wasn't exactly what he wanted to do and he wants to specialize in singing, dancing, acting and he wants to specialize more and do something, I don't know what it is, but anyhow. SH: (Laughter) (inaudible). GM: Everyone wants him to go on American Idol and he said no, because I want to do what I want to do. SH: How old is he though? Isn't there an age gap...or age cap? GM: I think he's probably twenty-four. SH: Oh he is pretty close, I think it is like twenty-five. GM: I don't know what it is. SH: I don't know...I don't watch it either. GM: He doesn't want to go out there, he said, because when I go on there I am tied with that until then and if they kick me off then what am I going to do? You know. 13 SH: That's true. GM: But he said, I don't want to be strictly a singer. SH: Ah, That does kind of pigeon-hole you. GM: And that's what American Idol is...it's strictly singing. SH: It is. GM: But he wants to be...he said I went to school for singing and dancing and... SH: That's awesome! GM: The job in Bush Gardens he has to know every show that Bush Gardens...I think they have six or seven different shows at least that they put on and he has to know every one of them, because if Joe Blow over here, don't show up today then he's got to fill in. SH: Wow! GM: And he is the top paid entertainer there. SH: That's awesome Gene! Not that you’re bragging... GM: No. SH: (Laughter) Ok do you want to tell us about Brent then? GM: And Brenton was out here, he's going to school back in Virginia plus he's working and he is going to college. SH: For what? Do you know? GM: Computer Graphics, Computer Design he's taken photography and getting all that stuff and he was going to Weber State for a year...but he wasn't happy down here. 14 SH: Yea. GM: It seems like according to the way (inaudible) he wasn't a teacher's pet and all his pictures wouldn't get in here even though his teacher would say that God you've got some of the best pictures around. Whoever set up...the Curator... or whoever set up the show put their friends in. SH: Oh I see! GM: So...and then he ran into some problems because they messed up with his...they weren't going to give him his grades and let him complete school because they messed up and lost his payment. Even though he was still going to school and stuff like this and he paid them with a credit card. SH: Oh that's terrible! GM: They messed up on that and he finally got that straightened out and he said I'm going...the kids convinced him to go back to Virginia. SH: Wow! GM: I said beautiful. SH: (Sad chuckle). GM: Beautiful, I'm sitting here by myself again. SH: Yea. GM: I like it though, (laughter). SH: You do? GM: Yea, I love it. 15 SH: You didn't like it with him here? GM: Oh yea, but you know a teenager, a young kid and he just turned twenty, twenty- two or something like that and you know you worry about these kids going out at night and going here and there and you here about all those bad things and... SH: Oh yea! GM: One of the places that he went with some of his friends...he went to play pool with over here in Clearfield was shot up one night but he didn't happen to be there. SH: Oh my Gosh! GM: So. SH: That's terrible! GM: That pool hall over there by Fowlers. SH: I have no idea where that is. GM: Oh just down the street from K-Mart and the Star restaurant down there on the right hand side. SH: Yea I know where that is. GM: (Laughter). SH: Oh my goodness! GM: Oh yea it was shot up one night. SH: Oh! 16 GM: Because somebody got kicked out for arguing or fighting with somebody in there and he went and got his friends and he came back and shot the place up. SH: Makes me feel safe! Ok well we better get back on to...I think what we are mostly supposed to be talking about is how the area has changed, maybe your neighborhood or how the base has grown up or when you first got here was the chapel in the same spot or was it the old chapel that is over by the... GM: When I first got here the chapel was new. SH: Ok. GM: The old chapel was still there. SH: Where was the chapel, though, the old chapel that is over by Hill in relation to... GM: The old chapel was over by the Officer's Club. SH: Ok. GM: In the area where I think the FTD building is or something...not FTD...it's across the street from where the BX is anyhow. SH: The new BX? GM: The new BX. SH: Ok so it is in the area where the new BX is. GM: (Agreement) Across the street from where if you’re going down the main road and you take a left in to the BX you would be right in the chapel, back in there. SH: Oh really? 17 GM: Yea. SH: Did they still hold services in there? GM: Yea, some. SH: At both then? GM: In fact Easter Sunday when we got here...the first Easter Sunday that was here, in that would have been '74; both chapels were packed. SH: Really? Were there multiple priests or just one priest? GM: They had a priests in each one so there were services in both of them. SH: Wow. GM: They filled up the one and then moved over to the other. At one time we had two priests here. SH: Really? GM: (Agreement) SH: They need two priests now. GM: (Agreement) SH: Oh my goodness. So...well I think...was...ok...I know where the BX used to be but maybe we should tell them. GM: The Commissary...the BX...Ok...the BX was new by the time I got here to. They had a new BX. SH: And it's the one...that they just moved out of? 18 GM: The one over by the Commissary that they are redoing into something else...what they're making it out of I don't know...I see that they are working in there. SH: And the Commissary has always been where it is now? GM: No, the Commissary is where the Thrift Shop is. SH: Oh really? GM: That was the Commissary. SH: That little building was the Commissary. GM: That was the Commissary. SH: That tiny building? GM: That was the Commissary, where the Thrift Shop is. That whole building was the Commissary. SH: That sucker is tiny! I guess we are just too spoiled now-a-days. GM: And we had three wings in here at the time. SH: Really? GM: Three wings. SH: Oh my goodness! What kind of planes did they have when you first got here? GM: The 508th Reserves had F-105s, the 6514th and we had C-130...DC-130s and... SH: What's a DC-130? GM: It's a drone carrier, it's a modified C-130. SH: Oh. 19 GM: That would carry drones out on the end of the wings and then we had CH-3 helicopters and HH-53 helicopters that would recover the drones, cause when they fired...when the drones would run...when the drones would shut off, they would have parachutes that would drop out and the helicopters would sweep in with grapple hooks and catch the parachute...to catch that drone in flight, when it was (inaudible) down. SH: Well what was the mission of the drone? GM: Unmanned aircraft. SH: Were they observation or were they...like launching munitions? GM: They could launch munitions, they could fire a laser, they could do anything. SH: Really? Wow! GM: And then we had those...in fact I helped work on the first...what they call, I think unmanned aircraft, I think they call the Predator. SH: (Agreement) GM: Well when we were first making some of those, when we were first working on some of those, they were made out of PVC pipe and go cart engines, with pusher props on them. SH: No way? GM: Yes, with pusher props on them... we had Leer Zeigler, Teledyne, and there were three or four...Lockheed...there were three or four commercial...of these companies, in here we were all working together designing and flying them and flying them from remote control. 20 SH: That's Awesome! That's really cool! GM: And I used to like to watch...they had F-4 chase aircraft that would come in from Edwards, with Aerial photographers in it. And they would take pictures of the drones flying and stuff like this and I have seen some of the stuff that they would fire, they would come down just like a regular airplane. SH: Wow! GM: And they would fly them from the DC-130s cause by scope, by radar, and they were sitting there with the controller and were sitting there in the back of the 130s flying them. SH: Wow, just like Aphrodite. GM: Then we had the 388th come in and they were flying F-4s. They got the first F-16s in the Air Force. Then we had air rescue here to. SH: Oh really? GM: Yea. SH: Were they helicopters or...? GM: Helicopters, 130s...C-130s and helicopters and they were training the PJs (Para jumpers). SH: Wow. GM: Though we had...and then when they came in...The 388th was coming in shortly after the 388th got here then the reserve...the rescue outfit went to Kirtland. Which I believe that they are still down there. SH: Wow! 21 GM: So I have seen quite a change of aircraft and stuff like this. SH: Definitely! GM: Seen a lot of the old supply buildings torn down and new ones built. SH: The supply buildings...are they the ones that are over near where the car lot is? GM: (Agreement). SH: That's where the... GM: (Agreement). SH: Really? GM: Oh yes. SH: That's sad, they are all getting torn down. GM: Back in '80...I want to say '83 when we had...I think it was '83 we had a real hard snow, a heavy snow and stuff like this, there was snow and rain and ice had formed down here. They were putting big 4x4s in it because those big blocks in here and the steel beams in here cause the buildings because the flat roofs were collapsing. SH: Oh my goodness. GM: In fact they had so much snow in here that I got a phone call, I was in Dayton Ohio and I was in Ohio, I had the neighbors call me and wanted to know if they wanted to go up on the roof with my snow blower, if they could borrow my snow blower if they could go on the roof and blow the snow off of their roofs because a lot of the houses and buildings were collapsing around here. 22 SH: Oh my Gosh! Speaking of weather, what was the worst winter that you can recall... as far as snow? GM: Probably that! SH: What year was that again? GM: '83. SH: '83. GM: And then in the spring of '83 it stayed cool like it is right now and all the sudden it got hot and all that water came down at one time and where they are building all of these houses between Kaysville... between Farmington and Kaysville and up in that area. That whole area was under water and they're building homes in there. In fact there was a Volkswagen sitting on one of the side roads between Centerville and Farmington on the Outset road all you could see of that Volkswagen...he had a big CB antenna on here with a balloon...not balloons but...tennis balls on it and all you could see is the tennis ball sticking out on the top of that thing cause it was totally under water and now they're building homes in there. SH: Oh my gosh! GM: And the snow pack that we will get this year if it waits likes it is this year, oh we put new drains thing in here, yea those drainage things that they put in here work when you don't have a lot of rain. SH: Oh my gosh! GM: The Great Salt Lake came up when they closed up closed up the road to Antelope Island was under water. 23 SH: Really? GM: Oh yea they built it ten feet up, Interstate 80 going to Wendover, going in to Nevada, Interstate 80 and they probably raised it up a good twenty feet, cause it was underwater and to keep it from being underwater and they had brick piled up on the side. SH: Oh my gosh! GM: The railroads going...they keep going and they were dumping rocks and dumping stuff in there and bring the railroad up higher so they could keep it from being underwater. SH: Oh my gosh! That was all in '83? GM: '83/'84 SH: Oh my gosh! That is what I keep hearing about, their building all of these houses where they are at the edge of the lake. GM: Oh ya, they have been going out here towards Syracuse which is called Bluff Road going out there, it was all swamp land. SH: Really? GM: And they wouldn't allow them to build out there, now before, there was no way that you couldn't build on the other side of it and now they are building out there. SH: Oh my gosh! You're going to have to say one big "I told you so" when they all flood, aren't you. GM: Hill is building a bunch of new houses. They built a bunch of new houses. SH: Yea they did, nice two story houses. GM: Yea. 24 SH: So is there anything that was on base that's not there now that was kind of cool to talk about? Or did they just pretty much replace all the buildings? GM: They replaced it and built new ones, primarily. SH: So there was... GM: The museum wasn't there. It was all munitions out in that area. Where the transit alert...not transit alert...were all the cargo things in here, that's all new. SH: The cargo things? GM: Where they switch...by...I don't know...with the pallets where they get all those...I don't remember. SH: I think I know what you're talking about, yea. GM: You know what I mean and it’s all there across the street from 849. SH: OK. GM: At the 388th area where the reserve had taken that over. SH: I know where you are talking about. So that was all cargo. GM: Yea, that was all the palletizing area and stuff and when they was flying out to Vietnam and setting all up, I help set up a lot of that Vietnam situation...not Vietnam, Iraqi Freedom in the 80s in 1980 I was still working. I was actually in a sense holding down two jobs. I was a civilian but yet I was still in a military slot. SH: Really? GM: I was a civilian from being a retiree and I was filling a military slot. 25 SH: Wow! GM: When they had the big riff in '93, I might be a disabled veteran with a 50% disability. I was not considered a veteran when it came to riff status, so. (Laughter). SH: Really? Wow! GM: But anyhow, the Officer's club is a part of the NCO club now, the NCO club is new. SH: Those pools, how long have those pools been...were those pools there when you showed up? GM: The pools? SH: (Agreement). GM: One of them was, I think. I never went in the swimming pools, so. SH: Me either. GM: The old Officer's Club was there. Where the, in behind, no the officer's club wasn't there either, the old officer's club was were the old hospital used to be. Cause the old hospital used to be there. SH: Ok, wait, so the club, co allocated club that is by the chapel was that always an NCO club or was it...? GM: That's new, that was built...I'm pretty sure that was built after I got there. SH: Ok, and so the...where like family support is now where used to be the old officer's club, used to be the hospital? 26 GM: Yea, the hospital was in that area. It was the old World War II hospitals where you had tunnels...I don't want to say tunnels, cause it is all branched out in a whole bunch of different areas. You have probably seen pictures of some of those old ones. SH: I have. GM: But that is where the hospital used to be in that general area. SH: Wow. GM: When we first got there. SH: Now they have that big facility. GM: Yea, which they don't use. SH: Yea, exactly. GM: As a hospital anymore. SH: It's crazy. GM: Dispensary and administration, so. SH: Pretty much, so the gym, I realize that there is a really brand new part to the gym. But the other part was that there when you showed up? GM: I believe it was, yes. SH: Did you go in there? GM: Not that much, I used to run behind it. SH: Did you? GM: When I had (Laughter). 27 SH: What about that bubble, that's there, when did that show up? GM: I don't remember when...it showed up after I got here, but I don't remember when that showed up. SH: Really? It's kind of weird looking! GM: Well they wanted something inside and now they have the new part, I don't think that they use the bubble anymore, do they? SH: I think that they do, I think they use it for aerobics or something...I don't know. GM: Now that they got the new gym...so. SH: (Agreement) What about... GM: There is a lot of new barracks, they tore a lot of barracks down and put new barracks in. SH: Yea I saw some photos that were more towards Hill...no more towards the museum weren't they? I actually some photos... GM: No they were in where you drive in the main gate and they were to the left. SH: Oh that's right, that's right. GM: You would drive in the main gate and they were to the left. SH: That's right where they were. I just recently saw some photos from the museum, that you would go in that Hill Field gate (the south gate) and then right to the left was some barracks. GM: Yea that is where the barracks were. SH: Really? 28 GM: (Agreement) SH: Wow! GM: Yep, that's where the barracks were and they had... SH: In the 70s they were there? GM: Yea, still there. SH: Really? GM: Most of the barracks that they've got now were built since I have been there. They tore the old ones down and moved the smaller ones over to the museum. SH: They moved one over there didn't they? GM: One or two. SH: Oh yea I think I know what you're talking about. GM: One or two I think that they moved over there. It has been quite a while since I have been out there, I've been planning on going out there and volunteering but I ain't made it out there yet. SH: Oh you should, it's great out there. GM: Oh my ankle has been bothering me so... SH: Oh! Yea... GM: Go ahead... SH: No you go ahead...It's your interview. GM: There has been a lot of changes. 29 SH: So, do you think that the changes are for good or not? GM: Oh I would say that they are for the good, some of them I don't know. I can't see of any bad changes, really. They tore down one of the old hangers and out where when you are going to Wendover you see that by Kennecott that thing, that big resort thing. SH: (Agreement). GM: That's one of the old hangers from Hill, one or two of the old hangers that they tore down and moved out there and built that resort, which in '83 was totally under water. (Laugher). SH: (Laughter) Oh my goodness. Let’s see...so do you have any more stories that you want to tell about the base or your family? Or...anything? GM: I don't know...I have been ushering off and on, especially when Sue was sick, I'd have to quit. But... SH: The chapel right? GM: I've been ushering at the Catholic Chapel up there since 1973. SH: Really? That long? GM: That long? SH: No way Gene! GM: Yes I have! SH: Wow you need a special pin. GM: I've been ushering for the Air Force now for 54 years. 30 SH: Wow! GM: I started ushering at McCord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington. SH: Wow! GM: 1954. SH: You must like it then? (Laughter). GM: (Laughter) They found a sucker. SH: No. GM: They found a fool. But anyway, yea I have been ushering, I was ushering there and I went to Japan, I was ushering in Japan. At Itazuki and at Etami Air Base in Osaka Japan then went to Yakota. That is three bases I went... SH: So how has the military chaplain, their functions changed since you've been going? Because I know that there is a lot of controversy about what services they'll let retires do now and...? GM: That's what I do not understand, the Air Force sends out letters and I get all kinds of things, we are a member no matter what of the Air Force. We are a lifetime member of the Air Force, but yet the Catholic Chapel wants to say hey, we don't want ya. There is just one problem...I get to go because I have never been discharged. SH: You've never been discharged? GM: I have never been discharged! SH: What? GM: My orders says transferred. 31 SH: What...I mean I get what you are saying but... GM: I was transferred from active duty to the retired reserve and I have not been discharged. SH: Really? GM: That's right, and I can show it to you in black and white. (Laughter). SH: (Laughter) Oh man, so how do you draw retirement if you’re in that status? GM: I don't know, but... SH: But you do though? GM: I don't draw Air Force retirement pay no more. SH: You don't? Why not? GM: I draw civil service. SH: Oh one took over for the other or something? GM: (Agreement). SH: Oh you can't double dip? Is that what it is? GM: Well, my disability was coming and the Air Force was subtracting my disability and under the old civil service retirement system, I could, I paid 7% of my base pay from 1957, and went under social security, through 1975 when I medically retired. I paid 7% of my base pay so I could retire civil service and I draw civil service retirement pay plus I get my full disability. Now-a-days they've turned it around after...well I have been retired now since '75 so. SH: Wow! 32 GM: I've been transferred to the retired reserves since 1975. SH: They might have to call you up! GM: They did! SH: Did they? Did they really? When? GM: During Iraqi Freedom. (Laughter). SH: (Laughter). GM: I said yea, sure I will come back on active duty I just need two things. One I will need a full new set of uniforms because mine won't fit me no more and the second thing is, I want my Master Sergeant rank back permanently. SH: They took it away from you? GM: Yea, because I didn't have two years in grade...at that time, my ID card says Tech Sergeant. In fact I still have my Master Sergeant pins in the stuff in there...so. SH: Did they realize how old were? (Laughter). GM: (Laugher) But anyhow. SH: No. GM: I never heard back from them (laughter). SH: (Laughter), Oh my goodness. Well I think we might have everything that we need. If there is any final thoughts you want to say? GM: No. SH: Ok. 33 GM: As long as you've got everything you need. SH: I think so. This is Stacy Heik's Interview with Gene Mohr and today is, once again is the 7th of April 2008. 34