Bis Später

Bis Später means "see you later" in German. It was an appropriate way for me to say goodbye to the Eifel Mountains of Deutschland. I knew I'd be back.

In early December 1969, after three and a half years in the Air Force, I packed my belongings, sold my 1950 VW, and left Germany. Three days later I was back in Richmond, just in time to get ready for Christmas.

In 1966, being drafted by the Army and then joining the Air Force had filled me with trepidation. But I enjoyed almost every day of the experience. Sure, there were some tough days in basic training. The duty as first a medic and then a broadcaster wasn't all moonlight and roses. However, both specialties taught me things that would be handy in my life, probably just as much as I learned from simply living in Europe. The Air Force and Europe taught me more about growing into an adult than anything I ever learned in a college classroom.

On the flight back to the States, I was excited about the prospect of being at home again with friends and family. But I was sad, too -- about the good friends and good times I was leaving behind.

The Internet has reconnected some of us who served at AFTV-22. Sadly, Tom "Bubba" Quinn and Gary "Yogi" Eodice died too young. But John David Wild, Chuck Minx, Sid Fryer, Peter Neumann and I have stayed in touch off and on. John David and I trade e-mail messages almost daily. I'm on Chuck's e-mail list for his succinct, wry jokes and pithy observations about our world in 2010. I also subscribe to the American Forces Network e-mail list, which began as a way for old AFN radio hands who served in Germany to re-connect but is now a virtual bulletin board for all of us who served in military broadcasting worldwide.

There are many others from the AFTV-22 Class of 1969 whom I long ago lost track of. Their absence leaves a hole in my memories and my heart.

It was on the AFN list that I caught up again with Tom Scanlan, he who decided to put together the secret moon-landing network for AFTV Germany without telling his bosses. He's a frequent contributor to the AFN list and we correspond off-list, as well. He's still offering welcome advice and expert explanations about AFTV Germany and the technical and business side of broadcasting.

I got back to the land of bourbon and dogwoods just as a new decade was dawning, and many of us remember all too well what the 1970s were like. The United States I returned to in late 1969 was so different from the country I had left in mid-1966.

And so was I.

Bis Später, y'all.