29th ADS/MMS - 1959/1960 - HOMESTEAD AFB,
FLORIDA
by Doug Mullins, U.S. Air Force, Retired
Partial Group Photograph, 29th ADS/MMS (SAC)
The following is a brief summary of my assignment to the 29th:
I was assigned to the 29th ADS (later MMS) immediately after graduating from
331XOA (Nuclear Weapons) school in May, 1959, and was assigned to the Tech Repair
shop. I was also on a weapons maintenance team, and I was also responsible
for the Nuke Lab (Q-Igloo) for a brief time. Major Roy Skeene was the
MMS Commander and M/Sgt., later CMSGT, Richard Vetter was the First Sergeant.
Major Welch was the Munitions Branch Chief and Captain Cowart (later rifted
back to A1C during a reduction in force.) was the OIC of the weapons maintenance
branch; SMSGT R.V. Anderson was the Quality Control honcho and S/Sgt Dexter
L. Davis was his assistant. We maintained five different nuke weapons
during that period in support of two Strategic Bomber Wings, 379th and 19th.
They flew the B-47. Some of the folks who were there during my assignment
(May 1958 - Jun 1960) were:
T/Sgt Long NCOIC). T/Sgt McIntyre (Ass't NCOIC), T/Sgt Lloyd Frohn (deceased)
T/Sgt William Stanley (deceased), T/Sgt Leo Wertz (deceased), S/Sgt Ed Dorminey,
S/Sgt Ralph Guarino. Guarino and I were in Nuc School together and assigned
to the 29th at the same time. We were both S/Sgts at the time and "retrainees."
I came from the personnel career field and I am not sure what career field Guarino
came from.
I enjoyed my assignment in the 29th. Working Tech Repair straight out
of Nuke School was a great assignment. Back then we did all of our equipment
calibrations and modifications. My assignment was not without its pitfalls.
The assignment had been vacant for a long time and the EMRs (Equipment Maintenance
Records) were outdated and several calibrations were overdue along with some
modifications.
Since I was still "wet behind the ears" as a Nuke Weapons Specialist,
I had no idea where to begin. So, I figured my best bet was to get Q.C.
to give me a "thorough" inspections and the best way to get that done
was to "brag" about the good shape Tech Repair was in. So, I went
to Sergeant Anderson and told him that he could inspect me any time he wanted....
that I had gotten every thing in great shape. Major Welch frowned on my
bragging and told Sergeant Anderson to rip me a new one! And, that he
did. Pages of discrepancies! Major Welch chewed me out because I
had bragged about having everything straightened out. When I explained
why I did that, he cooled down. I now had a beautiful "checklist"
to go by and within a few weeks I had fixed all the discrepancies. Good
thing, too. Less than a month later, 8th Air Force I.G. hit with an inspection
and we came out smelling like a rose.
We lived in Homestead. I was married and our fourth child was born at
Homestead. We now had two boys and two girls. The house that we rented
in Homestead was a few blocks off Krome Avenue and was an old family homestead,
surrounded by citrus trees, avocados and palm trees. Beautiful surroundings.
We loved the town of Homestead and like many of the 29th guys, I spent some
time fishing from the bridges on the keys. The standard routine was pack
the bags on Friday after work for an overnight stay, pack some food, fill the
cooler with beer, and, oh yeah, bring the fishing gear!
We were a close bunch in the 29th. Even the storage area Air Police belonged
to the storage area "family." We were extremely proud of our
Loading Crews who won two consecutive SAC Loading Competitions.
There is one "incident" that still stands out in my mind, involved
Sgt. Vetter (our first sergeant) and myself. I was on the "morale"
committee and Major Skeene wanted to improve the day room in the barracks.
New day-room furniture was his idea of improvements, so he gave Sergeant Vetter
and me the task of finding furniture. The Air Force was going through one
of its budget squeezes so we did not have the money to buy furniture.
Major Skeene suggested we visit furniture stores in the area. We went all the
way to south Miami visiting stores. They hardly gave us the time of day, much
less furniture. In fact, the owner in one store in South Miami, practically
threw us out of his store, complaining about the taxes he paid and now the government
wanted him to donate furniture! He was really ticked off. Our assignment
was unsuccessful!!
All in all, I enjoyed my assignment to the 29th. We had great people and
high morale. In December, 1959, I was selected as one of 10 nuke guys
in SAC for a new "special" assignment. We were being assigned
as the first nuke guys in the Titan I missile program and spent nearly six months
TDY in Massachusetts and Connecticut, learning all about the Mark IV Re-entry
Vehicle, with subsequent assignment t to Vandenberg AFB, California.
I was officially reassigned from the 29th MMS to the 51st MMS on June 1, 1960.
My tour of duty at Homestead was over.
Doug Mullins
Hutto, Texas
October, 2010