One quick Yakima story before I get to the National Guard. One Saturday afternoon Gary Sullivan and I are walking through the lobby of the hotel. I noticed a large group of soldiers there. I looked over and Gary was talking to one of them. He said “ you know this guy?” Sure I do I said. None other than Hughes County’s own Earl Ingram. He was stationed at Ft Lewis Washington but was in Yakima to go to the firing range. Earl later married Sandra Hull and they are still married today. Always good to see someone from home.
Some time in January of 1964 I received a letter from The Oklahoma National Guard. They kindly reminded me that I still had an obligation. They were very nice about it. They said because of the fact I was traveling and out of state all the time I could miss the weekly and monthly drills but I MUST come back for IG inspection and summer camp. We were on an indefinite contract with the club so either side could break the contract. We contacted our booking agent with the news and arranged to be off for two weeks so I could make it home. Of course Gary and Jimmy didn’t mind they were kinda homesick anyway. The agent later advised us we would not be coming back to Yakima he had us booked into Somewhere in Arizona. Well that changed things we would have to bring the equipment trailer with all the instruments. I’m not sure of the dates but it doesn’t matter for this story. Sometime in February we left Washington for Oklahoma. Dead of winter in the same ‘57 Chevy pulling a trailer. It turned out to be the trip from hell both going and coming back. I believe it snowed on us every step of the way. I’m not sure about the route we took but I remember coming across NewMexico. Somewhere along the way someone didn’t close the trunk lid good. Those old cars didn’t have like a trunk “well” the floor of the trunk was level with the opening. In other words something could fall out. And fall out it did. Gary and I had combined our dirty clothes in one plastic bag. After all we were coming home, laundry could be done there. I’m talking underwear,Levi’s, shirts, everything gone. Now if you will recall we lost a lot of clothes to theft in Idaho. When we discovered it we were in the middle of a snow storm. We weren’t about to go back. Man we were about out of clothes. Later on we had a flat in Ammirillo it was still snowing and the wind was blowing about 100mph. We changed the tire by taking turns in and out of the car. Man that’s the coldest I have ever been. We finally made it to Holdenville. We dropped Jimmy off in Wewoka, Gary dropped me off and then went home where the strangest thing happened. He killed the car went in and went to bed. He went out the next morning and started the car. When he started the car it made a horrible racket started smoking and died. The engine was blown. It never ran again. Can you imagine. It held together to get us home then just laid down.
Next: Our time at home and if you thought the trip home was bad you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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