Navigator Training

Image by Sean Munson via Flickr

I graduated from OTS on 29-Sep-69. Before that though, on the 13th of the month my father died. I had called him "Daddy" all my life but his name was Henry Napoleon McKinney. He didn't care much for the Napoleon thing but he lived with it. He sometimes related the story of his First Sergeant asking him what the "N" was for. My Dad had replied, "Samson" and the Shirt wasn't amused.

Daddy had been in a Coma for over a year when he passed away. It was on a Saturday and my roommates and I were at the Club having supper when the FTO came to tell me. They put me on a plane that night and gave me three days leave. It was all a blur to me. By that time I had been in sleep deprivation for almost three months and was pretty stupid and docile. We buried my Dad and I came back to San Antonio in time for more of the same.

On graduation day my roommate, Alfred "Panda" Peacock and I left Texas and drove home. I arrived in time to go to bed and stay there for a while. Pat was seven months pregnant with Travis and was really glad to see me. I took 20 days leave and then drove to Sacramento California, home of Mather Air Force Base. Mather was really located in an outlying town by the name of Rancho Cordova. Pat stayed behind while I got my feet onthe ground and found us a place to stay.

I started Undergraduate Navigator Training right away and was flying in no time at all. The next seven months were interesting to say the least but flying turned out to not be my cup of tea at all. After completing 75% of the training I was "FAC Boarded" and told to turn in my flying gear. It appeared that though my motives were pure, my eyesight was not sufficient to allow me to sit in the back seat of an F-4 Phantom and drop napalm on the little yellow people. Bummer - I had really wanted to do that!

While we were still at Mather, a wonderful thing happened to us. Our son, Michael Travis McKinney was born on Christmas Day, 1969.