In the summer of 1980 after we
had moved the year before to Ft. Riley , Kansas , we had to take Scott back to St. Petersburg , Florida
After Scott’s surgery and release
from the hospital, follow-up visits were required, but I had not built up
enough days of military leave to include that, so I had to return to duty. Winona and the children would drive back to Kansas after Scott was
released from the surgeon.
In order to save money I decided
to try flying military standby, so I called the Naval Air Station in Orlando to check on
military flights. I was told that no
flights stopped at their facility and that I should try McDill Air Force base
in Tampa . The McDill personnel told me that there was a
Medivac flight leaving there at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday going to the Naval Air
Station in Jacksonville
and that I might be able to get on that flight.
I showed up at the airfield in my Class A dress uniform and suitcase for
the flight and successfully boarded the aircraft crammed with people--some on
stretchers.
From my previous telephone calls
I had discovered that I could get to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station and
then catch a C-130 flight the next morning to the Memphis Air Station. Beyond Memphis
I had no guarantees of getting any farther west. However, in my telephone conversations with
the personnel in Orlando and in Tampa a few details were
left out!
After leaving McDill I noticed
that we continued to fly south, so I asked the stewardess (nurse) why we were
flying south when I thought the destination was Jacksonville .
She simply said, “We have to make a stop in Key West .”
I was trying to get to Kansas
and I was headed to the southernmost point in the U.S!
After stopping at the Naval Air
Station in Key West
to pick up a patient the plane was only in the air a short while when I noticed
it was descending, so I asked again where we were going. The nurse simply said, “We have to make a
stop at Homestead Air Force Base.” I was
expecting to be in Jacksonville
by this time!
After picking up a patient or two
in Homestead the plane again was airborne (for Jacksonville I assumed),
but it wasn’t long until we were descending again. And once again I asked the stewardess/nurse
where we were landing, and her simple response was “the Naval Air Station in Orlando .” I explained to her that I had been told there
were no flights out of Orlando , and that I could
have saved half-a-day of traveling by catching the flight in Orlando
instead of Tampa . She just shrugged her shoulders and moved on.
Two patients got off the plane in
Orlando and we
took flight for the fourth time. Again,
within a few minutes the plane was descending, and I again asked where we were
going to which the nurse simply said, “Patrick Air Force Base.” (Patrick is near Melbourne .)
Finally we left Patrick and
headed to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
By this time it was late afternoon, I had flown all day and was only two
hundred miles from where I had started that morning from Auburndale. I checked on the flights for the next day to
discover that a C-130 cargo plane was leaving for the Memphis Air Station at
7:00 a.m. the next morning. I spent a
restless night in the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters (B.O.Q) and made it by taxi
to the airfield for the early morning cargo plane (prop engines) for the long
flight to Memphis .
To make a long story shorter,
here is what my schedule ended up being:
Six airports on Thursday:
McDill Air Force Base, Tampa
Naval Air Station, Key West
Naval Air Station, Orlando
Patrick Air Force Base, Melbourne
Naval Air Station, Jacksonville
Five airports on Friday:
Naval Air Station, Memphis , TN (No military flights west out of Memphis )
Civilian Airport, Kansas City , KS
In order to make the flight to Manhattan I had to be in Kansas City
by 6:00 p.m. on Friday, so the Memphis agent
recommended that I fly to St. Louis first and
catch a flight from there to Kansas
City . However,
the flight from St. Louis was delayed and I
still missed my connection for Manhattan
on Capital Airlines which we jokingly referred to as “Tree Top” airlines. In
frustration, I asked the agent what my options were and she replied, “Well,
stick around. If we get enough people
wanting to go to Manhattan
we’ll put on another flight.” A couple
hours later we had three people wanting fly to Manhattan
so they put on another small plane to Manhattan .
I signed into my unit at 11:30
p.m. just a half-hour before my leave ended at midnight. I
managed to convince one of the soldiers to take me to our home off post
arriving just after midnight. It had
been a long two days! I had learned the
hard way why the process is called “catching military hops!” I had “hopped” into eleven airports and spent
forty hours getting home!
POST SCRIPT: When I finally made it home, I arrived
without my luggage, for “Tree Top” airlines couldn’t accommodate the weight of
five persons plus luggage. It arrived
the next day.
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