Memoir: Hot War - Cold War

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MEMOIR: HOT WAR - COLD WAR, Back-of-the-Lines Logistics by
Meyer Moldeven ([email protected])
JuLY 2006
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: We Learn From Each Other
Memoir: Parachute Rigger: World War Two: Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. 1941-1946
Memoir: Fixing Mistakes in the Workplace, Santa Barbara, California 1979
Memoir: First-Line Supervisor Inspects the Work Unit, McClellan Air Force Base, California 1968
Memoir: Parachute Acquisition: Procuring Parachutes to Meet U. S. Air Force Urgent Needs for the Korean War. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. 1950
Memoir: Logistics Planning, North Africa: Nouasseur Air Base, Morocco. Contingency Planning for a Third World War. 1953-1956
Memoir: Outer Space Logistics
Memoir: Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention; McClellan AFB, California, 1969 and afterwards
Memoir: Tips on Talking to the Hard-of Hearing;?? (Also Ref: Noise and Military Service: Implications For Hearing Loss and Tinnitus - 2005)
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INTRODUCTION: WE LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
Lore adapts to altered circumstances and lifestyles, and to cultures and environments other than the times and places where the 'lore' had its roots.?? The familiar may be comfortable, but we also read and listen for other perspectives that disclose events and experiences grown dim over the decades, and in time, of generations past.??
In memoirs and storytelling, a culture's traditions and values offer opportunities to inject a sense of history, and visions of a future. In doing so, they provide context to interactions among the family's constituents and continuity to its culture and community.?? Excessively repeated, they might appear as frayed platitudes. Yet, throughout all civilizations a culture's traditions and values retain their relevancy and often, their majesty.
Tradition passes history to a new generation on what happened to family and community across time, and, to the extent possible, the reasons.?? Elders' stories and lore convey facts and interpretations about customs, events and personalities and how they became part of the whole.?? Tradition supports the family's and the society's sense of continuity.
Social and cultural awareness offers sanctuary to education, law enforcement, science, sports, health care, religion, and more. Together, they are primary forces that drive a civilization's evolution in concepts, principles and methodologies that a society needs to make life livable and enjoyable. Awareness includes what is wrong with the way things are, as well as what is right.
Values are what it's all about: the bottom line.?? Values, however, are a mixed bag, and passing them along through stories, lore and memoirs is a matter of memory, selection, circumstances and emphasis.?? Values might include stimulating self-esteem in others; taking into account another's sensitivities; respecting life; repairing Planet Earth; knowing the differences between pity, sympathy, compassion, and empathy; striving to be honest and fair; and having respect for institutions and laws but being willing to act within the law to change those no longer suitable for the common good.?? Advocates sometimes prefer to stress personal proclivities and biases in passing along family and community values.?? Values provide substance to awareness and tradition.
MEMOIR: PARACHUTE RIGGER: WORLD WAR TWO: HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, HAWAII 1941-1948
Several years ago I was one of several addressees on an email from students at a middle school in a northeastern state.?? They wrote that they were working on a class project about American involvement in World War II and invited memoirs from older Americans who had lived through those times.?? They wanted to learn directly from those who had served in the nation's wartime Armed Forces and Merchant Marine, as well as from civilians on the home front who had produced, serviced, and transported weapons and supplies from where they were made to where they were used. The students wanted to hear from people who cared for the wounded and helped in other ways.
The teacher added a note that memoirs received had generated questions among the students. The result was a Q&A exchange conducted in follow-up email communications. At the project's conclusion, the students' teacher reported to the electronic community that the project had been a great success: the students learned history from those who had lived it. The storytellers, many of whom were long retired, had an audience for reminiscences that might not otherwise have surfaced. Together with the students, they built a bridge from the 1940s to the 1990s and, in doing so, had contributed to the historical records of an important era in American history.?? The experience enhanced communications and respect across the generations.
I wrote to the students about my work as a parachute rigger in the war. To set the stage, I described the parachute's purpose: to