Do you have your LAST photograph in Uniform? Retirement or End of Service?

my last picture before retirement

I never took many pictures of me in uniform, but the one I'm proudest of I use with my name, on this page. At that time it was 1979/80 my wife and I were both Senior Airmen in the USAF, stationed at Torrejon, AB, Spain, and we were expecting our first son.

My dad in 1945!

Before leaving the house the last day in the bag.

The one time no one had a camera we tipped a stryker over the picture is horrible but it was my last trip to YTC

I'm the one that doesn't look scared LOL

Three generations of Waterbury veterans. Archie: WWI Navy, Sub chaser in Adriatic Sea, Radio Man. Cal: WWII on Guadalcanal, Navy Medic assigned to the Marines. Rick (me): Vietnam-Era Military Police. My homecoming party and family pictures in July 1976. Last time I wore my uniform.

Last Picture in uniform ? That's a tough one. I pretty much went straight from basic at Ft Ord , CA. , from there I was sent to Fort Rucker, AL. Aviation training and due to my high scores I had the option to volunteer for air traffic control rather than door gunner / crew chief . I joined to be a Warrant officer helicopter pilot for which I qualified on the pre entry barrage of tests , so A T C seemed to be the logical choice while waiting for my security clearances to go thru at the end of ATC (tower) half my class were shipped off to Vietnam the instructors asked for "volunteers" for radar training GCA (ground control approach) an additional 9 weeks of transition and hands on training & 50 runs of qualification. NeI didn't have much time for pictures other than fatigues / BDU's. During the interim of my training my new orders were cut for flight school at Ft. Wolters , TX. During WOC flight training , due to the war winding down the Senate had to cut all spending on military training "replacement pilots . talk about getting kicked off your horse in mid-stream. From there it was an automatic ticket across the "duck pond (Vietnam) of course the 30 day leave to say good bye to my family and friends ...possibly for the last time . Once in Nam, I was stationed at Thai MERC base called Bearcat where I performed my duties as a tower ATC When I wasn't working in the tower ...off duty . Knowing a lot of pilots either from flight school , or work I would jump in the co-pilot seat whether it be a Huey, Chinook, or Cobra "snake " gunship .Kept me busy and out of trouble....most of the time. At some point in my deployment I was working radar either during my 2nd tour I served as a radar controller until they closed the whole base . Again they asked for volunteers to remain behind in order to train the VNAF controllers that were supposed to be there , that never showed up . Apparently, they had never left Saigon. When their General showed up expecting to review his VN troops only to find they skipped out and were partying in Saigon the whole time they were supposed to be there .... His reaction...."PRICELESS" Talk about a total melt down and break in the chain of command ! While at Quang Tri they offered me to cross over into OV-1 Mohawk using SLAR (Side Looking Airborne Radar / surveillance ). I figured if I am not flying (officer) ...forget it At that point I already felt betrayed by the army. So I extended to my end of hitch till my last day (3 yrs) So I volunteered (again) to remain behind in order to train them ...and see some action , which "Chalie" did not disappoint us , by one night at 3 AM a sapper snuck into our ammo dump with one well placed grenade ... just 2 blocks away . The initial blast . Which turned out to be an interesting lesson in physics for me . Usually, we tend to think of a concussion associated with a blast....quite the opposite . I was sound asleep and on that particular night I decided to sleep in my new cargo net hammock I had just hung above my bed (not a folding army cot ) which sat about 20 inches unfortunately which was just above the sand bagged hooch's exterior . the only sound that woke me up was the sound of window and doors being sucked off the building ..inward toward the blast . Then a split second later came the concussion . By then I was in the process of waking up and diving out of my hammock 6 feet downward towards the floor ...happy landings . As I landed with a heavy thud I low crawled over to my hootch mate's bunk who was passed out due to his addiction (not me ) Literally grabbed his drugged addled carcass out of his bunk and too the floor dragging him to the door and shoved him out of where the door "was" and yelled at him to get his ass to the bunker . Knowing the golden opportunity to photo document this event. I grabbed my camera bag and hauled bananas thru the compound towards our 65 foot ATC tower up I scrambled to check on in the event that our brother controller might be down. Fortunately , he was already vacated to shelter (bunker) then for the next hour I filmed (8mm) of the most intense fireworks display ever , as my CC yelled up at me from the bunker to get my xxx to the bunker. to which I replied "Yes Sir , I'll be right down ...only have 50 feet of film left " what I din't include the fact I had 3 plus rolls of 35 mm "still" film left . When I used up almost all 3 rolls , with the sound of shrapnel whizzing everywhere I joined my company (321st AVN detachment ) already in the bunker The ammo dump "cooked" non stop for the next 3 days . As for the pictures none of me lunging around in class A's . if I can find one my most liked is the one of me with my dad on the CA coast near Ft Ord after basic as I have none of me because I was in a bases hospital while my company A33 were graduating , so they gave me a day pass when I recovered ( URI, bronchitis & bronchial pneumonia 3 to 4 times during basic) another story in itself .