3/15/68- departed Amarillo AFB, newly minted Airman. Sometime that evening arrived at Keesler AFB. Assigned a bunk at the transient barracks, no direction, no restrictions. Changed into civilian clothes and went directly to the Airman’s club. Drank a lot of 3.2 beer (I was only 18), repeated this scenario over the weekend. On Monday I was directed to the 3478th School Squadron. My home for the next 3 1/2 months. Spent three weeks in Personnel Awating Training (PATs). This really sucked, mainly formations three times a day, with all sorts of crummy details to keep us busy. Spent one week on KP (up at 4:00 AM, work all day, bed at 9:00 PM). Then school started. Learning Morse code and basic typing. Fortunately for me I knew how to touch type so I progressed faster than most. At the end of 3 months I was selected for X2 school. On July 3rd I departed for Goodfellow AFB, TX. That is another story.
Highpoints of Keesler AFB:
1. Getting uniforms tailored
2. Sunburns at the beach
3. Visits home on two weekends
4. Thats about it, I didn’t like Keesler at all, very hot, humid, open-bay barracks with no air-conditioning. yech!!

Hi Ron,

I believe we may have met at Keesler, I was there from May 1968 to Dec. 1968, ended as an x1 sent to Iraklion Crete and went on to be part-time flight analyst(tdy to IG Farben in Frankfurt for schooling as analyst, NSA headquarters in Europe.

Best wishes…..Joe

My fondest memory of Basic Intercept Operator School at Keesler AFB was Mr. Macy. Remember Mr. Macy? He was a semi disabled Vet and the instructor of both the typing and basic morse classes. He sat atop one of the linoleum covered government tables and pounded out cadence “FRF…JUJ” with his walking cane.

Tony A1C

Looks like I’m the geezer of the respondents…

From Lackland to Keesler, Oct ’61.

Keesler to Clark [6925th], late spring or early summer, ’62.

Early DEROS due to medical.

Goodfellow, San Angelo early ’63.

Early out to return to college.

Arrived at Keesler (the Triangle) in Novermber of 1961. Started ditty bopper school in Dec. and graduated the following June. First assignment: Okinawa–Onna Point, 6927th. 2T assignment: Crete–Iraklion 6931st.

I remember Mr. Macy as well. I was there between Sept. of 63 and Jan of 04. Mr. Macy would challenge me saying if I got past a code test with no errors he would by the coffee. If not, I bought. I would go all the way to the last 5-10 characters and he would send something I had never heard before. Needless to say I bought a lot of coffee for him. I think I beat him only once….when he allowed me to have a couple of errors.

From KAFB I was sent to HQ Pacific Security Region (Wheeler AFB) detached to Det 2 Pacific Security Region at Hickam AFB. Went tdy to Vietnam early after the Gulf of Tonkin incident to help set up a Tansec operation at Tan Son Nhut. Finished my enlistment back at Hickam.

I was at the morse intercept school at Keesler from November 65 through march of 66…..waves of memory are coming back at me…..
passed AIO and “25″ on the same day with a week until it was all over.. i think to qualify you had to pass “21″(wpm)
Biloxi was mostly an unfriendly town to have access to…..I still remember the ‘white only’ sign above the water fountain in the bus station , that had been recently (1964 civil rights act, I assume) painted over but was still discernible ……
I was assigned to Iraklion Crete in april 66 as an X1
….and was there 1.5 yrs……towards the end I was copying 35-40 wpm on easy flight…..THAT was cool, fun work!
then they sent me to Shu Lin Kou airstation in Taipai Taiwan for one year ending dec 68—Taipai was just incredible…..I was STATIONED where vietnam combat troops took R&R….god, they envied us!…. it was just an 8 hr day in the ‘pound and the rest of time to ourselves….some of us shared apartments downtown….god, the drinking , the partying, the sex!!!
for some, war was hell, but not for us dittybops!
I am probably forgetting all the bad stuff, but that’s human nature…for the most part, although not compatible to anything in civilian life, a morse intercept operator ‘s job was pretty good duty during the vietnam war!

I was at 6984 RSM on shemya from Sep 60 to sep 61 and from sep 61 to oct 63, i was with 6981 RGM on Elmendorf.
When I finished school at Keesler, my orders were already cut to deploy to the Phillipines when some bright-eyed clerk discovered I was from Alaska sooo…they decided to send me to shemya afs, alaska on the aleautian islands.

Reading above comments brings back memories. I was at Keelser from August, 1963 to March, 1964. Mr. Macy and “no balls at all” is vivid in my mind. Went to RAF Chicksands for 3 years but was selected for 2-T and ended up at Northeast Cape Air Station, Alaska, which was on St. Lawrence Island. Great memories all.

Arrived at Kessler AFB in October, 1966 and left in March, 1967. It is amazing that after 42 years I still remember morse code! Also, I will never forget my exit interview in July, 1970 concerning what my training can do for me in civilian life. Nothing, nada, zero, thanks for attending! Met best friend, Steve McConnell, and we still get together whenever and laugh alot. Steve was the class lead. Larry Robertson, Steve, and I got to phase ahead one week in training because we had completed the first phase early. We got our first picks on the dream sheets and we heard that our former class got the not so desireable assignments, Shima, Peshawar, Turkey, etc. Oh, well, the time flew by…..went to Darmstadt, Germany and Peshawar, Pakistan, finished up at Medina. Damn that was a loooooooooonnnnnnngggggg time ago. Thanks for setting up this web site. Dixie Beer rocks!

JOined USAF in march 66, basic at amarillo, then to keesler in june or so, up at 4:15am to learn how to type and copy code. done by noon and off to the beach. wax the floor with johnsons and black shoe polish; off to Darmstadt in fall of 66 for two years, then to medina…can’t forget morse if i try; it was a fun three years, 9 months,a long time ago

Its good to hear stories of the past. It makes me appreciate us ditybops more and more. I graduated bootcamp in 1976 and was sent to Keesler. Learning the code was simple enough for some, but my buddy Vince Cranford was born for it. He graduated Morse school typing out over 40 wpm (crazy), and he could do this while carrying on a conversation. He was good! I managed to squeak by with 22 wpm. You know, I can never get that code out of my head. I still practice from time to time. It comes in handy when I need to talk smack to the wife. Misawa AB was where I was sent to. 18 months of dity-dity-dah. Aaahhhh, the good old days.

Got to KAFB in late 1979…much later than many of you did. All I can say was I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Ditty bop class was only six hours of the day (any more would have driven us crazy)and spent the rest of the time partying. I came back as in instructor after a tour in Crete and Kelly, and boy had things changed. Those guys had it a lot worse than I ever had. In fact, it was OUR good times that may have caused them to lose theirs! Being a ditty bop was the best job I ever had. One odd memory I do have is that at some point in my training I began hearing morse code whenever a door squeeked, a pinball machine rang, or just about any other high-pitch noise happened. I was so grateful when that phase passed because there was no way I would have been able to go through that for the rest of my life.

Lackland to Keesler in ’60 then to Clark, 6925th RSM. Anyone who has photos from that time, especially of bldg 850 or barracks, appreciate a shout. We were there and did stuff we really didn’t understand the importance of. One thing we DID understand, the meaning of secrecy.

My father was Frederick (Fred) Ellison, TSG USAF. He was stationed at KAFB during 1966 as an instructor. Does anyone here remember him? I have no idea what he taught.

I was at Keesler from October 1966 to April 1967. My training was a bit longer than most due to the fact my clearance got hung up somewhere so I experienced a delay of several weeks before starting the second half of school. Wikipedia and other sources said we were the creme de la creme of the Air Force. I laugh at that and shake my head. The concept is a little surreal. However, I do know I worked with a lot of special and talented people who were/are honored to have served our country in this unique way. I don’t know about most of the others, but I always have felt more connected with people associated with communication intelligence from the other branches (Army, Navy) than with the regular Air Force. My favorite assignment was Misawa, Japan. Tech School was something you had to tolerate before experiencing the real Air Force. But, I never did experience the real Air Force because we were always separated from main base.

Hey, anybody out there from KAFB during the period of 12/67 to 6/68. After I phased ahead copying 40 wpm, the class I left went to Germany,the class I phased into went to the Phillipines and I went to Karamursel AFB in Turkey. Those were the best days of my life. I was a spy in the house of love when I went to Istanbul. Ned Bandy from Springfield, Ill., Charley Garner from Giles County, Tenn and myself were noted as being notorious Bull-Runners. Hey Jim Birge from Jasper,Indiana, are you still around. You did Steve Martin before there was a Steve Martin. I’m still living in the Baltimore area, if anyone cares.

I was at Keesler for Morse Intercept Operator training from 2-64 to 8-64. I had a lady instructor for code named Mrs. Hallowry (sp). After training I was sent to Det 2 PacSctyRgn at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. I didn’t need code there because it was a Transec unit. Transferred to the 6924th Security Squadron at DaNang, Vietnam in late 1966 and got to use that code again. Discharged at Norton AFB 11-67.

Reading you guys remarks sure brings back old memories!!! I was at Keesler from Nov 52 until July 53. Remember the hot barracks with no screens on window and LOTS OF BIG MOSQUITOS. Of course we had a few pigeons bombing us in the class rooms!!

Braunschweiger, I remember you in Karamursel. You may remember me by Ed or Eddie. I was on A Flight and you were also. I was there from 4/68 to 8/69/ I was at Keesler from 9/67 to 4/68. I am from Mississippi but have lived in San Antonio, Tx for 41 years now.

Went to Keesler in July, 1966. I had it made, because I was already proficient at morse code, having been a ham radio op in high school. From there went to beautiful Peshawar, and later to Shu Lin Kou.

If any of you has a class graduation picture from MIO school, please contact me or email a copy to me. I am collecting these pictures to donate to the Keesler Heritage Museum.