The Story Part 2 My Duty Station

My first duty station was Dyess AFB, Texas. For anyone in the Air Force before SAC bases went away, you might understand a little about a SAC base, even if you were never on one. SAC, Strategic Air Command Bases were not the top of the line, but I would prefer a "show base." Where your dress and attire (for SPs) was beyond any other base that I visited or even heard about. Even though I was K-9 and my boots were a favorite chew toy of my MWD, Killer, I was to have them spit shinny by guardmount, with my uniform clean and pressed, pressed with those hard to do creases when you cannot get them permanently sewn in, and washing a uniform and then pressing it before every shift was impossible, unless that it all that I did. So in Guardmount while I stood by other SP's who were in pretty blues, got in and out of cars or were on gates or desks, I was in BDU (which I loved) but had kennel duties every day I took out my dog. That meant going out to the kennel area and cleaning out cages of my dog as well as others. Spraying and scraping poop down the open gutters until it went down the whole kennel and off like the other debris. Water, dirt, my dog, scraping, cleaning, feeding, these things are not something you do in blues, they are dirty work. This does not account for training, catching another dog with your arm as he jumps on you with his paws, running through fields, through filthy hanger buildings, laying on the ground pretending to hide. This is what I did. Since I was the lowest ranking K-9 Handler to come to that flight (there were about 8-9 handlers on our base), (two handlers on my flight), I got the low person on the totem pole jobs. (Before someone says anything about PC, I am totally not and you should get over it, if you do not like that well I also happen to have Choctaw blood running though these veins, you wouldn't notice it being blond hair, blue eyes and can't keep a tan, but don't judge me by my skin color, I am).

So next to guys who did not get out of their cars except for chow and the occasional traffic stop, and my uniform was being compared to theirs. It did not help when the other K-9 Handler moved to another flight and in came an NCO, where now I did all the duties. I also stood, not by my choice, next to elite gate guards with their bough glass coated do not need to polish boots, their pressed blues which they only waved on cars and wrote vehicle passes. It was not that I felt that I was somehow above any of them, but my job was very different. K-9 Handlers are required to do sector checks during their shifts. These are not in some nice warm building during the winter, or cool place during the Texas humid heated summers, no they are way out in the middle of nowhere, and getting to two of them requires going off the pavement and onto dirt roads, just to get there. One sector check, around the Whiskey area. There was a huge fence and then sensors and then just grass and dirt (oh and fire ants, serious mosquitoes, when it rained there was always a marsh, you literally were walking in the woods. So yes, my uniform did not look like the others, but it did look better than the other K-9 Handlers and I thought that would be enough, nope, not for a woman, better is never enough, you must be perfect!

So everybody gets a supervisor, one who is suppose to show you how it's done, right? The one who was assigned to me I never met, he was on medical hold prior to me coming to the base and stayed on it the whole time that he was my supervisor (if he actually knew they assigned someone to him). The three other airman who came in at the same time that I did had supervisors that were there, and they were taken on ride-alongs (when not working gates) to help their training.  Since I was a K-9 Handler I went directly to patrol, not gates, plus nobody wanted to ride with K-9, are dogs were very hairy and it got "into our blues." So there I was without anyone who was helping me know what to do, without a supervisor, out on patrols, given the responsibilities of much higher ranking persons (even when the others went on patrol, they had partners, usually their supervisors). I had been handed these CDCs told to read them, take the quizzes and after I completed them all there would be a test, also to study my job description and the regulations for it. I was K-9, that meant I had K-9 regulations, I had Law Enforcement regulations and I had Security Specialist regulations. The others with me had LE regs and a few for "emergency" when it came to SS. They did not have to know a thing about K-9, at that level.

So I was going along thinking I was doing a pretty good job, every now and then the Flight Chief would comment on my boots, normally not my uniform because that was easy to take care of, but it's hard to rub out fresh teeth marks for the next shift. I was doing good on my CDCs and it seemed that everything was going well. But slowly I began to hear rumors around the dorms (where I lived with the other hundreds of SPs) that I was doing this and that. At first I didn't care because the rumors were total lies, I even "did things on the job" when I was not working, or better yet when I was not even on the base. I let them go thinking nobody with any real brain could believe these, little did I know that the Air Force, as most militarizes does not require a working brain to join. I has some NCO, some guy I had never met before stop me one night while I was walking into the LE squadron, where the LE desk was. He asked how things were going with me. I told him fine that I was working on my CDCs and felt I was doing pretty good with the regs too. I knew he was in the SPs because of his patch. He asked if I wanted to give him a post briefing, I said I did not know what that was. He asked me to call my supervisor to where we were, I told him that my supervisor was on medical and I actually had never met the guy.

Well my flight chief got the end of that conversation. I do not know how it went but my postings changed from being random around the base, to what everyone hated, the outlined flight area, it was dead there and you did not leave your area unless called. I was called in and questioned why I hadn't said anything about my supervisor being on medical. In my mind I wondered why I would have to bring it up, he knew, he knew all the supervisors, he was the Flight Chief. So then I got my first in the flesh supervisor, the Flight Chief. (There are only about 12 or so members on a LE flight at Dyess, so it was not he did not know, he just wanted to blame someone other than himself of his mistake, something I would learn over and over. I started actual "training," well I was handed some more information to memorize (the post briefings and more) then let go again by myself. The Flight Chief had the newest nicest car and there was no way he was going to allow a K-9 dog, or even a K-9 handler into that car when they had been near dogs. So off I went with more to learn by myself, and learn I did. I questioned everyone that I came in contact with at work. I tried not to pester them with too many questions, but I wanted to be the best that I could.

I am out posted on a patrol in the side far area (where nobody goes after like 5pm) and it's about 1am and I see lights, so I try the sneak up to see what you are doing routine, did not work. The other car was 4 wheel drive and it had rained and we were on the back dirt roads, I got stuck. A call to my location came in and I stopped the car to answer it, going into the mud and getting stuck. I called in the description of the vehicle and told them where I was. I tried to get the car, unsuccessfully, out of the mud putting boards under the back tire. In about 10 minutes my flight chief was out there with his overheads on looking for me. The other vehicle, a truck, it headed out and was gone. When the Flight Chief's car could not go any further without getting stuck I told him that I am still a road over, guess I was a better driver than he was, I made it that far without getting stuck. I thought someone else would catch the truck, I did not know there was nobody looking for it.

It takes two other vehicles, one other truck gets stuck where I had made it fine, then I get pulled out and questioned. The only other woman on the flight happens to be riding that night with the Flight Chief, and he actually makes it sound as though I was out there "muddin'." I don't care to be out in the mud, and who does that with a Kcar? Four door, front wheel drive, has no power. Oh and by the way, I did not know that the car was a front wheel drive, or I would not have put the boards behind the back wheels. I did know the piece of junk that I drove would never be an option for me if I wanted to go "play" on the back roads, I would have gone to the SS section and got one of them to take me out there and do that, which I had already been offered and refused. Work was not for goofing off, it was to work and I was very serious (at that point) about my job. I am sure that she gave the Flight Chief an ear full about how I was trying to get over on him. One thing that I hated about LE, it seemed that the women did not stick together. I had come to a base where women were being singled out and kicked out, so in saving themselves the others were pointing fingers first before they were pointed at them. There were only four women in the LE section when I arrived, two months in there were three.

So I completely explain to the Flight Chief what happened, and does he really think that I would be out there playing in the mud? It did not dawn on me that I did not know what anyone thought that I was really doing. I was always by myself on patrol, I put down that I did sector checks and other items, but there was nobody in my sectors. I had never rode with the Flight Chief, I had never rode with anyone on patrol except Killer. Since I usually saw the Flight Chief once during our shifts, at Guardmount, he really did not know me, but then nobody else did either. I had the occasional gate until it closed at 3 or 4 depending on the gate, alone, then off to patrol alone. Since two of the sector checks are in the SS areas, well I knew them, and they knew I did not play around. So my first APR (Annual Performance Report) comes around, I cannot wait. Out of a possible 9 I am rated an 8, above all my peers and even above some of the NCOs. My Flight Chief writes that I have taken on the responsibility normally given to a person with more rank and do well, that I need little supervisor, like I had any, and it is back with the endorser. Totally outstanding!

It's been over a week since the stuck in the mud incident, sure there was a picture posted where the posting for the squadron are put pointing out what I did. I had to not only clean the Kcar but also the other trucks, the one that got stuck and the other one. I did not complain but I did wonder why, hey if the guy could not get to me in a truck without getting stuck that's his fault. I already had my first letter of appreciation in my file and thought life could not be better. One of the B1Bs has blown up and the debris went into some field off base, first it seemed all of SP was out there, then it went down to one guard and K-9s. So I was out at the site and my Flight Chief comes out with this LOR (Letter of Reprimand) over the vehicle getting stuck in the mud. He had just days before given me one of the highest scores for my APR so I just stared at him. I read it over and he asked if I had any questions. I would further learn that questioning at that time did nothing. So I did, I asked why it stated this, a lie (yes, I used the word, I know), why it stated that, another lie, and why was I getting it when it had been just an accident. I was following procedures, I was doing my job. His manner was odd and I could not figure it out. It was as if he was being made to give me what he knew was lies, but I know it did not help when I pointed them out as lies.

I was leaving for a TDY to Panama in a week so I just dropped it. Not that I knew anything about taking it to Social Actions or anything. It was wrong to give me an LOR for the reasons that were listed. Had they been truthful, that I was out doing my job and accidentally got a vehicle stuck in the mud, I would have accepted it, I did get it stuck, what I did not do was play around, it wasn't some game for me to be out there. I was "patrolling" my area, and that was my area. Had I thought the car would get stuck, I would not have gone on that road, it was that simple. It wasn't a mistake, it was an accident. I would have gotten through to the harder road area had I not stopped just at that spot, right when I was radioed, my luck, just in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and doing everything right. I could have been off like the others were into dorms talking with people, talking with guys like they were talking with their girlfriends, or pulled off the road just enough so that you could see when someone was coming and reading a book, like another K-9 Handler often did, or sleeping, like another did, or whatever, no I was actually doing my duty and I was not about to apologize for doing it, or stop doing it (then).

Christmas came and while others were doing the present opening and food thing, I was packing because at 0600 hours on 26 Dec 1988 I was at the kennel section with two other handlers off on a TDY (that I did not want to go to, but was told that I was going), to Howard AFB, Panama.

If you want to read more before I post it, I have put most of it in my first book...Crossing the Blue Code, by Miette Walker (maiden name). The next book is Beyond The Blue Code, the "completion" of the story. I saw most because there is still things I will not put on paper, I am still afraid for my life on certain incidences, and I am not about to let the AF come back and state that what I told was Secret information and I'm off to Leavenworth, believe me, my luck.