Guy had been ordered to Vietnam not long after the first men walked on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. We watched the historic happening, at least Walter Cronkite, on black and white TV at his family farm near Glidden, Iowa. Guy’s father lost a leg in a corn picker accident that fall.
I taught school at Van Meter during that year, earning enough to pay off my college loan. I lived with Mom and Dad on the farm near Dexter, so I got in on several family activities, plus I drove up to Glidden to see Guy’s family. His dad demonstrated how he could drive a stick shift car with one leg.
And Guy and I wrote letters back and forth. He also sent tapes to listen to. He was based at Nha Trang, along the South China Sea, as an air traffic controller.
Guy’s mother called April 19 that his dad, Lowell Kidney, age 48, died of a heart attack and that the Red Cross that was to notify Guy. Guy was given emergency leave to come home for the funeral. He arrived in Seattle in uniform early the morning of April 21.
Continental Airlines refused to accept a personal check for a $57 ticket to fly home in time. An Army captain saw it happen and offered to cash a check so Guy could fly home. (I don’t think we even owned a credit card at that point.)
Vietnam veterans were disdained and not welcomed home. Guy was still in uniform. Was that why the airline refused his check? Or just company policy?
Guy had a layover in Denver so spent the night in the terminal, at the old Denver airport. I managed to wash our VW bug at the farm, but I don’t remember how. A bucket and a rag in the gravel driveway?
The next morning I picked him up at the Des Moines airport and we drove to the farm. He cleaned up and changed clothes at the farm before we started out for Glidden an hour away in a strong wind. We had a flat tire on the way, so Guy, wearing his suit, changed it along the road. We made it just on time for the funeral.
That Army Captain
God bless that Army captain who cashed a young airman’s check so he could get home for his father’s funeral. Guy thought that maybe he didn’t even cash the check but, even though he’s saved all our canceled checks all these decades, he can’t prove it. The two checks he carried aren’t among them, so perhaps the captain didn’t even cash the check.
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In February of 1970, cousin Bob Scar, a Marine pilot, was ordered to Vietnam. (He, Gloria, and I are the only grandchildren of Leora Wilson still living.)
I finished out the school year and Guy was discharged from the Air Force in May. He drove back and forth to his widowed mother’s farm. His sister was in college and brother, age nearly 12, at home with their mother.
Guy applied for a job with the FAA, with a recommendation from Howard Firebaugh. A job offer took nearly a year, so he helped out on both family farms that summer and fall. The job offer was for Denver tower, the old one.
Air Traffic Control became Guy’s career in 1971. Even though he was not a soldier in the jungle, he evidently was exposed to Agent Orange and has been living with Parkinson’s for half a dozen years.