Spring of 1971 and I was off to my first real USAF assignment. I wasn't too fussy about where the Air Force would send me, but it would have been nice to be sent overseas, maybe somewhere in Europe.
The Air Force decided I was needed in the 62nd APS (Aerial Port Squadron) at McChord Air Force Base in Washington state, about 650 miles from home. I was excited about going there, even though it really wasn't the distant overseas location I was hoping for.
My AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) was 605x0, and that meant I was an Air Passenger Specialist. In other words I'd probably work in a MAC Terminal (military airport).
After arriving on base and processing in I was assigned to the baggage handling section at the MAC Terminal and I would be part of a crew that loaded and unloaded baggage from flights. It wasn't a glamorous job and the baggage compartments on the planes definitely got hot inside.
We had mainly DC8's going to and coming from Korea and Vietnam, with 727's to Alaska and back. Every now and then we'd have a military plane come through that would release passenger seats. I did not care to load baggage on C5A's. At that time we had to carry luggage up a tall aluminum ladder when loading baggage on the C5A's.
The baggage section was more or less a first section to be assigned to in that MAC Terminal. If it turned out another section needed a new person they would take one of the newer people from the baggage section. Why the newer people? The newer people would be more likely have more time before they'd be sent off to a new assignment.
I suppose I'd been stationed at McChord a month or so when an opening became available in Lost and Found Baggage and I was transferred to that section.
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