SSgt Bruce Forbes
I was six months away from being eligible for the draft for Viet Nam
when the draft ended; my selective service number was 164. I was at the
time a PEACEFUL protestor against the policies of our government at that
time. (I wasn't a 'hippie', but I was a protestor.) A year later I found
myself in Japan as a christian missionary, and I thought I was happy to be
away from a government that was so totally blind and deaf to the voices of
its people. But 18 months later I saw the Stars and Stripes presiding over
the Camp Zama Marine base; the first U.S. flag I'd seen in all that time. I
sat on the curb and cried like a baby for everything the Flag still means to
me even today.
I returned to the U.S. in 1976, and I was trained in architectural
drafting. I worked in that field until the 1979 recession, at which time
the building industry was near collapse on the west coast. I joined the Air
Force in 1980, and since that time have been stationed in England, Hawaii,
Illinois, Germany, and am currently assigned to the Pentagon. I have also
been on temporary assigments in Italy, Turkey, Israel, and... and Boston.
I have been married to my wife and best friend for almost 17 years and
we are the parents of one daughter and six sons.
SSgt Forbes can be reached at forbesb@comm.hq.af.mil
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