contributed by Edward L. Fritts

Chronicles of USAF 738th AC&W Radar Squadron Olathe NAS Kansas 1959- 1962:

You`ve heard of "Catch 22", a novel by Joseph Heller? It`s a situation sorta like "You can`t get there from here.". Well, here`s my personal experience with one of the USAF`s Catch 22s... I`m on day shift duty at 738th remote transmitter site. The door buzzer goes off. I go peer thru the small one way glass in the steel door and there`s my Sarge back from chow and who knows where else. I let him in. He says "Here Fritts." and hands me some papers. I say "What`s this?". "Orders, you`re getting shipped out." OK... I open em up, and sure nuff special orders from NORAD headquarters Ent AFB Colorado sending A2C Edward L. Fritts to France! I didn`t have to think about this too long. I mean, here I am stuck in the Kansas boonies and had become resigned to the fact that I would probably finish my tour in the sticks without seeing THE WORLD. I`m a young healthy single male in uniform going to France! "Sarge, I gotta go see the Exec!" "OK, take off." I had a car in running condition with gas in it at the time so I didn`t have to call Ernie at motor pool to come get me. I made a lot of dust heading toward the main gate entrance. The Marine guard had seen me coming and suggested I drive a little slower inside the wire. I walk into the Exec`s office, salute, and the Colonel says "What`s on your mind this time Fritts?" I hand him the orders and say "Sir, I can pack my stuff in an hour! When do I leave?" "I`ll have to check, go back to work." Later that afternoon back at the transmitter site Sarge gets a phone call then says "You ain`t goin`." "What!" "It`s a two year tour and you only got thirteen months left." "No problem Sarge, I`ll extend." Back to the Exec`s office I go, the gate guard putting the guard shack between me and him this time as I skidded up. Shortly to Exec: "Sir I`d like to extend for a year!" "You can`t extend Fritts." "Why not?" "You`ve got thirteen months left on you tour and the regulations state you can`t extend unless you have less than a year to go." The next day I went to see the CO. No luck. I drove over to Richards Gebaur AFB to the IG`s office. No Luck. I called Ent AFB. No luck. Couldn`t get the regulations bent. Didn`t go to France. Had to forget about all those French girls...

Edward L. Fritts
sojourner@military.com