Grover Wayne Harless, 1958

In October, 1957, my senior year at Marsh Fork High School, I made a big mistake that I would forever regret, I quit school and joined the Air Force. In February of, 1958, I was ordered to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic training. I spent 4 weeks there and was then selected to go to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi Mississippi to complete my basic training and to attend radar school.

After graduating radar school, i was assigned to St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada. My duties were in the command and control section of the 64th Air Division. The division boundaries were the east coast of Canada from New Brunswick north to Thule Greenland and east to Iceland. I tested for my GED in Newfoundland and had my certificate in hand by November, 1958. (I didn't graduate, but I finished.)

Next, I ended up in the Los Angeles Air Defense Sector. We were a group of manual radar operators waiting for a brand new block house to open for an automated system to take over.

My next assignment was, Mt. Lemmon, Arizona. Again, were a group of manual radar operators operating the sight manually until the block house at Luke Air Force Base to open and become Phoenix Air Defense Sector. ( This was the same mt. Lemmon that had the severe forest fires a few years ago.)

I took a short break and flew to W. Va. to marry Phyllis Aleshire of Prenter W.Va. in November, 1961. She is my present wife.

My next assignment was Mcclellan Air Force Base at Sacramento, California. My duties here were flying in a radar picket plane off the west coast from Canada to Mexico. This was very boring duty but it provided for a little variety. The Aircraft Commander would let anyone that wanted to "fly right seat" and when the navigator called to tell the A/C to turn left 180degrees, he would let us turn the aircraft to the new heading.

1963 found me at a radar sight 135 miles north of Goose Bay at Hopedale, Labrador, Canada. Duties there included surveilance of our assigned air space and control of fighter/interceptors on training missions and controlling them on identification missions against unknown aircraft. Aircraft were declared unknown when we had no flight plan or when we had one and they were off course or early or late.

1964, I was transferred to Guthrie Air Force Station. The sight was located 9 miles north of Charleston, W. Va. (It was nice to be Home and do a little fishing in the rivers of W. Va.) Duties there were boring. All we had to do was measure the altitude of aircraft when the block house at Detroit Michigan sent a height request.

In December, 1966, I volunteered for Viet Nam. I was sent to Dong Ha Combat Base in the north of south Viet Nam. we were 10 miles from the north Viet Nam border. We monitored bomber type aircraft through out area of responsibility on their way to their targets. We also facilitated the bombers to a tanker aircraft for inflight refueling. Dong Ha was a very hostile environment. we spent a lot of time in the bunkers unless we were "on scope". We had to stay "on scope" for the aircraft that were flying through our area of responsibility.

In September, 1967, I was sent south to Pleiku Air Base in the central highlands. Pleiku was serene when I arrived. It stayed that way until the end of January. That was when the ,1968, Tet offensive occured. Pleiku became a hostile environment from that moment on. I left there in July, 1968.

I went to Hancock Field at Syracuse, New York. I had been a radar operator in the maual system up until now. This was automated and I had to learn every thing from scratch. I was the training N.C.O. most of my tour.

In January, 1970, I was selected for a special assignment to Key West, Florida. I was assigned to the Joint Air Reconaissance Center. We watched over the reconnaisance planes that were watching Cuba. We also had fighter/interceptors at our command to protect the missions. We had all manner of aircraft in the area at any given time. The most interesting were the U2 and the SR71. I left this assignment in July, 1974.

My next assignment was to Keflavik, Iceland. Duties here were surveillance and command and control. We frequently intercepted russian bombers whose job was to harass us. Lots of snow. My final assignment was to Fort Lee, Virginia. I arrived there in Aug, 1974. I was assigned to the 20th NORAD Region (formerly, the Washington Air Defense Sector) I spent my final days here in the command and control section.

I (we) retired March 1, 1978. After retirement I worked as a toll collector on the Richmond Petersburg Turnpike for 23 years and retired from there July 1, 2001. We now live Near Petersburg in Dinwiddie county.

I was very happy to rejoin my classmates at the school-wide reunions and become reacquainted with them. I was as if we had never parted.

Grover Wayne Harless