Skip "Strawberry" Hill

MMS, 461, May, 1972 - May 1976

Lackland, Lowry, England AFB , Korat Thailand, Kunsan AFB and finished up at Holloman AFB

 

 

I arrived at Korat on July 5th with 400 or so TDY from England AFB. 23rd MMS. We traveled on four C141's that were set up with the most uncomfortable seats ever. I hung out with guys like Sam Varner, Randy Cartwright, Dennis Caplinger, Juan Aleman, David Lueking, Carl Armor and many more who, as we spent time there together, I felt were brothers. When first got there and we rode the bus from the flight line to our barracks I saw a guy walking down the street that I had gone through Basic and 461 school with and he came to our Barracks to greet me. I think the TDY guys all stayed in the big two story open bay barracks while the permanent ones stayed in the Hooches. Anyway we had been told to stay on the base until we had been briefed on the locals but he insisted that we go with him.  He showed us the ropes that night that I could never have believed or explained to anyone that wasn't there.

 

They worked us real hard for the first month and a half since the bombing was still going. I recently found a letter that I had written home that told of our trip to get there when upon leaving Yakota, Japan our C141 had to return for some sort of malfunction and I was mad because one of the others that hat left after us had passed us. In the letter I said we had been there for a month and they were making us work 12 hours a day 7 days a week.  I remember, just as I read on John Ellis's site, that we would drag ourselves out of bed in the morning swearing that after our shift we would come back to the barracks and sleep. As the day went on we would start talking about the fun we were going to have that night and before you knew it we were back in town! When I did stay on base it was at the Photo hobby area where someone, who I can't remember for the life of me, taught me how to  develop and print and print B&W film and I'm so glad because those photos and negatives are still excellent where the color pictures got real faded and the negatives are in bad shape. I just got through scanning them and a lot of them had to be converted to b&w because the negs were in such bad shape. Which ever buddy that was taught me that, THANK YOU!

 

We headed back to the "World" December 23rd. I saw Christmas in Yakota and then got home on Christmas Eve, Dateline you know. I still have my orders and Travel Vouchers and many more papers to help me remember a lot of this.  My TDY orders have 93 names and SS numbers on them.  We really through that number out there back then.  Hopefully others will recognize me and help me fill in the large blanks!

 

 

A short story on my name.  When I got to my first assignment at England AFB a SGT. looked at my red hair and     saw my name tag and said Strawberry Hill and for some reason it stuck. Most called me that but to others it was   just "Hill". I went on to Korea from England AFB and my brother Don had joined the Air Force and trained as a 461 and he showed up at England AFB soon after I left.  My friends that were still there tagged him with "Rasberry", in my honor I guess.