Since Emily and I were both going to the same place, she invited me to visit
her and her family in New Jersey before we flew out. I spent some time in
Texas before flying up there. She took me to New York City for a day and I was
amazed at the city.
We flew out of Kennedy airport into London. We changed planes and arrived in
Aberdeen around 1000. Neither of us had heard from our sponsors so we grabbed
a cab and headed to the train station. When we said we wanted to go to Edzell,
the ticket clerk told us to get off in Montrose and ask for the US Navy spy
base. When we finally got to Montrose, we tried calling the base to get a
ride. We only had two problems: one, we didn't know how to use the British
telephone system; and, two, we had no coins. The ticket agent put five pence
in the phone and dialed the base for us. Of course, the base didn't want to
send anyone to pick us up but the Command Duty Officer finally ordered the
transportation duty drive to pick us up. We got to the base after 1600 and
nothing was open. The Quarterdeck told us to go to the barracks and come back
in the morning.
Emily, as it turned out, had to stay in the Panmure Arms Hotel. There was no
female berthing available on the base. I got put in a transient room and was
told that I would get my permanent room the next day. Of course, neither of us
had any idea where we could eat. She eventually got a ride to Edzell and I
found the club.
For the two years I was there, I spent most of the time in the watch section.
I did spend three months working on the Wullenweber antenna crew, climbing
poles and brazing the ground screen. I got to be really good friends with a
Scottish couple, Eddie and Violet Small. They had two children, Eddie Jr. and
their daughter. I never understood a word she ever said and they all had a
great laugh at my expense. I had met Eddie when he was working for RCA and
under contract to maintain the antenna. Unfortunately, Eddie died while
working on the ninety-foot poles on base. Violet gave him a great wake after
the funeral. Since they were close with so many American Sailors, she had
asked us to be the pallbearers for him. We all wore our Dress Blue uniforms
and buried him with honors. Several of his relatives were upset that Americans
were the pallbearers but Violet told them that we were Eddie's best friends.
Emily had married Charlie Austin while they were in Pensacola. Charlie finally
got there in June and they moved to Collardo Farms on the Garvock near
Laurencekirk. After a year, I was promoted to E-5 and received permission to
move out of the barracks, so I moved in with them. The farmhouse rented out at
33 pounds a month with about 40 pounds a month in electric and coal bills. At
that time, the exchange rate was $2.48 per pound.
I developed a liking for the Scottish national drink while here. I had tried
the blended whiskies in the States but didn't like them at all. But once I got
here, I found that the single malts were really good.
Our section workers got together every opportunity that we could. We went to
Aberdeen in 1975 to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Another time, about 40 of us went to supper at Dalhousie Castle, near
Edinburgh. Here, we were given only a dagger to eat our meal with and all of
the serving wenches were in traditional medieval dress.
At first, I would spend my time at the library or at the club when I wasn't at
work. After a few weeks of that, I decided to start some college courses. In
the summer of 1975, I took Political Ideologies and found that I really liked
social science. It was also during this time that I heard about the General
CLEP exams. I visited the testing office and signed up for all of the General
Exams. I thought they were a blast to take and was successful in all of them.
The University of Maryland had a very active schedule and I tried to take at
least one course a semester. My favorite course was Russian History to 1919.
While there, I took every opportunity to travel. I visited London four times,
took a trip to the Octoberfest in Munich, spent a week on the Gold Coast of
Spain near Benidorm, and spent a week in Holland during the Tulip Festivals.
London was always one of my favorite places mainly because of the Indian
restaurants that I found. It was also a very lively town.
The Octoberfest trip started by flying to Munich and having a reserved table at
all of the tents. Then, we came back to Britain on a bus that traveled through
Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. We had to spend the night in a small village
near the German border and stayed in an 18th Century castle. We took a ferry
back across to Dover and then the bus brought us to King's Cross station.
While we were there, a drunk was going over and bothering everyone asking us
for money. I decided to be a smarty and asked a friend how to say, "I don't
speak English" in French. When the drunk came over, I said it in French and he
called me a bloody frog. But he didn't bother us anymore.
I visited Spain from 1 to 10 January 1977 on a special charter trip. We flew
from Edinburgh to Alicante then took a bus to Benidorm. During this time,
there was the three kings day and there was a parade right under my hotel
window. The best part of this trip was the price. It costs me only $98.00 for
the airfare, bus, and hotel for nine nights.
The trip to Holland was great. I got to see Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the
Zeider Zee. We were taken to a cheese factory and saw how the wooden shoes
were made. The best part was visiting the tulip gardens. There were hundreds
of different kinds and colors of tulips, all in bloom and looking great.
I traveled all throughout Scotland while I was there and probably visited 30 or
more castles. Whenever a new person arrived on the base, he or she was sure to
visit Edzell Castle and Dunnotar Castle within days of arriving. I spent
several days exploring Loch Ness and camping along the shores of the lake.
I also bought a 1976 yellow TR-6 from Bob Chuba. I traded him my first car, a
1969 Volkswagen station wagon, and $3000 for it. I really enjoyed driving that
car but I could only carry one passenger with me. Once, during the 1976 Fourth
of July celebrations, I was driving along Loch Ness to Inverness and stopped to
rest. Two American girls who were backpacking through Europe asked if I could
give them a ride. We tried for a while but the girl on the back seat could
only last about five miles.
When I was placed into the watch section, I was the only maintenance person to
take care of the OPU, four FRA-54 and three CWDF High Frequency Direction
Finding Sets, four FLR-11 HF Intercept positions, one FLR-15 Automated
Intercept Set, Parker, Jackwood, Lockman, Threader, two off-line DF positions,
one UK DF position, two CSP manual search positions, four goniometers, and 175
multi-couplers. All of this was valued at about $35 million and I was almost
22 years old at the time.
There were too many intercept missions to keep track of. One test case they
brought to Edzel back then was a test called FleaBag. Some civilian contractor
came into the ops building on a weekend and had two suitcases of equipment with
him. Of course, he was from NSA and was there to test this new system
prototype. The purpose of this system was to intercept Soviet communications
and then change it and re-transmit it. That way, the Soviets would be
receiving false information via their own systems and at the correct time.
Unfortunately, I only got to see the system for one watch and I don't even know
if they actually tested it.
While I was in the section, I was assigned to the Naval Emergency Ground
Defense Force (NEGDEF). Our mission was to ensure that a group of trained,
armed military personnel was available to defend the base in case of attack. I
fully supported the notion that we would have someone with guns out there in
case the Soviets decided to attack. Of course, even if the Soviets did attack,
I realized that Edzel would not be one of their prime targets! We got to shoot
shotguns, pistols, rifles, and the M-60 machine gun. After I made E-5, I was
assigned as a squad leader and was told to carry a .45 pistol and a radio. It
was a status symbol for me since I was the only Sailor assigned as a squad
leader since the Marines thought we were only good as cannon fodder. We were
called out once when the armory was broken into and we had to run across the
field, fully armed, to prevent anyone from stealing the weapons on the main
base. Of course, this turned out to be the wind blowing the door of the armory
causing the alarm to go off.
This was also the place where I first got into trouble with the Navy. Within
weeks of arriving, I was assigned as the Duty Driver for the command. One of
the parts of that job was to assist in raising and lowering the flags. I was
to meet the other Sailor at the Quarterdeck and then march to the flagpole.
Well, I was having a tough day and decided to take a little nap before the flag
was to be lowered at around 1945. Of course, as I napped, I forgot to set my
alarm. I heard the first call to colors (five minutes before they were to be
lowered) and jumped into my uniform and ran to the falg pole. I met the other
Sailor halfway from the Quarterdeck. I fell into place and lowered the flag.
When we got back to the Quarterdeck, the chief on duty was livid that I wasn't
there earlier and placed me on report for being UA (Unauthorized Absence). I
spent the rest of the evening cleaning everything within 50 yards of the
Quarterdeck. The next day, my division chief, Ulric R. Montcalm, III, said
that my department head, LCDR Thompson, was letting me off easy. The chief who
wrote me up, was working in the maintenance office and was mad at me for having
the chit torn up. A couple of weeks later, I overslept again and was halfway
to the operations building when colors sounded. I observed colors and walked
into the spaces about seven minutes late. The same chief wrote me up again.
The same department head tore the chit up again. I have never been late since
then.
I had asked to stay in Scotland another year. My boss, Mike Moore, said that
it probably would be approved but when the request came back, it had been
disapproved. He said that I should put another one in but I was ready to
transfer by then. He was pretty nice about asking me to try again but by this
time I was fed up with all of the crap that the command was doing. So, I got
orders to the Azores while Emily and Charlie had to extend. But when I got my
orders, I had to find an atlas to find out just where in the world the Azores
were located. After I found out where it was at, I wanted to know why we were
there. I wasn't expecting a great tour because of the isolation and made up my
mind that I would be getting out of the Navy after this tour.
