Wounded and Evacuated
Arrival at Lackland AFB, TX.
Flew to Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX on C-141. Upon landing and taxi to parking area, a Col came on board. The first words out of his mouth were “Is there a Mr Martin on this flight?” I raised my hand. He said “Come with me”, crap, I couldn’t be in trouble already, we just landed.
When I got to him, he said “Your wife is outside, not sure how she got out on the tarmac, but go out and see her, then get on the bus to go to Ft Sam”
I bounded out of the plane and sure enough, there was my wife, a cousin-in-law in the AF, an AF truck and driver. After giving her a hug and a big sloppy kiss, I told her to follow the bus to Ft Sam, I was sure they were going to release me immediately and we could be off together.
Once my wife found out I was going to Brooke in San Antonio, she called her cousin who was married to an AF guy stationed at Lackland. She didn’t know when I would arrive, but was coming down to wait and would stay with her cousin. Her husband, then called a couple of his friends in operations to see if they could check manifests to see exactly when I was arriving. Then with that info, he called a couple of line buddies to try and get her a ride out to the aircraft when it landed. All worked to perfection and she met me at the plane.
I got on the bus and she switched to her car and followed to the hospital. Upon arrival we lined up in the bus passageway and there was a Dr at the door. He would do a quick review and either assign a ward to say “30 days convalesance leave and return here”. Mind you, this was the bus of ambulatory patients. The 3-4 guys in front got sent on leave, I was just waiting my turn and trying to decide where to spend the leave. But mostly I was anxiously waiting to get off that bus and to a motel with my wife. When he got to me, he said “go to 43H”. I said wait a minute my wife is waiting for me outside right now. He said go to 43H and talk to them, they can release you.
So off me and the wife go to 43H, talked to a CPT nurse who said I needed to talk to the Dr, who was in the cast room. Got directions and off I went. In the cast room, talked to the Doc, told him I had been released at Zama and toured Japan, and that my wife was waiting for me and REALLY would like to come back to hospital later tomorrow. His reply “we’re not running a day care center here” go back to the ward and go to bed.
I exited the cast room, then the hospital, then Ft Sam. Went to a motel and returned to the hospital 3 days later, fully expecting to be punished for my AWOL.
That began what would become a downward spiral in the relationship between me and the Doc. More to come in the next installment.
