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I saw this on a midnight shift when I was in the Air Force

posted 3 years ago by ebhaynz (3724)
11 replies | jump to latest

I was an 18 year old 1 striper working the base switchboard at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. We used to work 3 on 3 off 12 hour shifts where we worked either the base switchboard or down the hall in the communications center(send/receive messages on via paper, magnetic tape, punched cards, paper tape)

Anyway, this particular nightshift(7-7) was sometime in May, 1984. Either I or someone on my shift rented Scarface on VHS, the movie was so long it was recorded on two separate VHS tapes..I think this caused the rental to be a higher price.

A lot of times the shift supervisor would stick me and another young airman on the switchboard and basically forget about us. This was one of those old style switchboards where we could literally plug into any of the several thousand Base official work phone lines..and we could call any other private number on base, and around the local area to include the metropolis of Knob Noster, right outside the gate. We had special lines if we needed to place a call to other local cities like Warrensburg, Sedalia, LaMont, Windsor and even 50 miles away to Kansas City. A few naughty airmen/NCO's that I worked with figured out a way to use those special lines to call long distance calls to their friends/family in other states..man that caused a shit storm I tell you!

Anyway, this particular May mid-shift whenever it was after 10PM there were a lot less calls..soo we would open the door right behind us, which was the breakroom. We had a little end table to setup a small 13 inch TV and put the VCR on top.

Those were long, long nights I remember putting the first tape of Scarface in the Quasar VCR around 2 or 3 AM..I even remember the end of the first tape when Tony saw a sign that said "The World Is YOURS" or some other similar slogan. While watching I'd have to hit pause on occasion to take the sporadic incoming calls..also every morning we'd have to do what was called "Police Calls" where we would call several police agencies to see if they had any of our Airman/NCO's/Officers in jail. I remember finally getting to the end where Tony gets shot and falls into the fountain. While rewinding the tapes I cleaned up my switchboard in prep for shift change. There were many crazy times on that switchboard and comm center, probably 5-10 shocking stories maybe for another time. Watching Scarface in the wee mornings is something I fondly remember as an 18 year old Airman many moons ago.

[–] HelpMeRhonda (1158) 3 years ago

Right on man. Nothing like watching a big movie on a small screen and still loving it. I was delivering pizzas at 18, and after work I’d go by the video store. I do believe Scarface was one I watched on my small TV that had belonged to my granny.

[–] ebhaynz (3724) 3 years ago

Yes you're absolutely right about watching on the small screen, I glad you had a very similar experience!

[–] cyguration (3951) 3 years ago

There were many crazy times on that switchboard and comm center, probably 5-10 shocking stories maybe for another time.

Like, how shocking from a 1 to 10?

[–] ebhaynz (3724) 3 years ago

At least one story is a 10 in my book, we had a handsome psychopath in our midst who eventually committed a heinous crime and almost got away with it. Other stories still rank pretty high for an office type environment. Smashing equipment, sex escapades with dependents, tales of revenge, desperate financial crimes, our mean spirited Wing Commander who we tried to outfox. A few "fun" stories are about my friend "McCaulley" I was on shift with him and we got into all sorts of trouble. His drunken escapades are legendary thank god I couldn't hold my alcohol.

[–] cyguration (3951) 3 years ago

Whoa... that first story sounds like some Ted Bundy kind of crazy.

Man, it sounds like you had a pretty crazy time working there.

Regarding Mr. Handsome Bundy, how did he get caught?

[–] ebhaynz (3724) 3 years ago

Ok, sorry if this rambles on too long but here goes. I got to Whiteman Air Force Base exactly 2 months after basic training, for some reason they didn't send me to tech school so I was going to learn the job via books and on the job training. I get there and I'm barely 18 and before they started working me to death they made me feel pretty welcome. A week or two after I arrived up shows Airman Eddie Martin, he's a slim, handsome hispanic guy from San Antonio. Everybody falls over him and I'm immediately forgotten. He was married to a nice looking white girl so he could live off base while I had to live in the shitty 1950ish barracks. She worked at the Base Exchange so they had 2 paychecks he even had the smoky and the bandit 1979 trans am man he had everything! My roommate worked with him on shift and Eddie told him to go to the Base Exchange customer service desk and his wife would give him an expensive VCR they could sell and split the money. He even got one for his mom. I eventually worked with Eddie and he told me about a year before he joined the Air Force he and his buddy went around San Antonio slashing car tires. It even made the front page of the newspapers he never got caught. Because Eddie had it all they even gave him a 3rd stripe without making him earn it AND they took him off shift and gave him a regular day job. I got there in Oct and in early Spring we had an exercise that started on a Monday. Well, I had just worked all weekend but since it was an exercise they made me continue working on my days off. Exercise ended on Friday and guess what? I had to work the weekend. Then, a few weeks later we had an Wing inspection, started on a MOnday and the same thing happened again. I worked something like 22 out of 25 days almost everybody else got their weekends off working so many 12 hour shifts really crushed my spirits. Still, my supervisor let me do everything without yelling at me so there was that. Cont...

[–] ebhaynz (3724) 3 years ago

cont...Later on that year(late 1984) I would start to rebel and get into trouble. Okay, back to Eddie. A couple other things before his big crime against humanity. I was a couple of shop parties and at least once Eddie and his wife would wrestle it would be playful at first but then it got out of control and was practically fists flying. Her name was Beth her dad was an Army officer and was stationed nearby at Ft. Leonard Wood and he loved Eddie to death, they were huge buddies. Eddie also liked to hunt and the middle of nowheresville Missouri is a perfect place to hunt deer and fish. Eddie bragged about how he shot a squirrel but it wasn't dead yet so he followed it around while it was in agony. another bad sign. Anyway, I got into my trouble and was on a 6 month probation and once that ended I got an assignment out of there to a base in Turkey. That really should be the end of the story but nope. EIGHT YEARS LATER I'm stationed in Panama and my co-worker Frank told me he got to Whiteman right after I left. Eddie and his wife had a bad divorce and Eddie, being the handsome guy he was started screwing the local high school girls. He got one pregnant and ended up marrying her. Frank then said Eddie was home with the baby and threw him or her against the wall killing the baby immediately. Frank was on the base honor guard and was at the funeral he said he'll never get over the young wife screaming in agony over her lost baby. The base took over the investigation from the local police and Eddie was still big buddies with his ex-wifes Army officer father, who helped him get an expensive lawyer. Eddie, like the typical psychopath initally looked the investigators in the eye and swore he did nothing(prequel to Jon Benet Ramsey?). The invesigation went on for a very long time. Eddie lawyered up and fought tooth and nail. Ultimately, they couldn't nail him hard enough to give him a life sentence it ended up being a plea bargain and he got something like 6-10 years.

[–] cyguration (3951) 3 years ago

Wow.... just wow.

That is a crazy story. That guy sounds like a serious psychopath.

He's probably out and about by now, eh?

Man, I wonder if he went back to doing crazy stuff? Who knows what else he may have done? What if he was hunting and killing people out on his trips to the "middle of nowhere"? That's the stuff movies are based on, heh.

Anyway, sounds like you've got stories for days.

Did you ever write a book about all this stuff?

[–] ebhaynz (3724) 3 years ago

I'm sure he's out there doing some bad ju ju.

It's funny I've wondered a lot about what to do with my collection of stories. I traveled around to about 35-50 military bases. It was not a life to get married and start a family(low success rate) so it really became a life of being a fly on the wall, being an observer to so many outrageous characters and events. At some bases every month really was like a year of wild and crazy stories. In the last couple of years I wondered should I die with approximately 250-500 stories. I briefly thought about writing a book but nobody reads anymore. I'll probably make a YouTube channel and narrate at least 10 or 20 stories to see if anyone is interested. I won't do it for money I just want to share the experiences and I think it would be fun to read all the comments people make lol.

[–] cyguration (3951) 3 years ago

I won't do it for money I just want to share the experiences and I think it would be fun to read all the comments people make lol.

Stuff like this seems necessary in a way, at least for posterity's sake.

I think it helps give people an idea of what goes on at the ground level of society... the stuff you typically don't hear about during the height of a civilization's reign.

Most past civilizations have their history recounted from scholars, historians, royalty and politicians, but it's rare we get accounts told from the layman's perspective about some of the nitty gritty stuff that just happened in their everyday life.

[–] ebhaynz (3724) 3 years ago

Thanks for your input. I agree we don't get many stories from an average citizen going about their everyday life. There is one infamous bodybuilder that had his stories produced..I had already read the same stories in his earlier book and he had talked about most of them on his namesake channel. Overall he probably had 20 really good stories, many were drug/crime related.

There also was another guy who told his insider stories as a prison guard at a maximum security prison. He ended up deleting all of them because both ex prisoners and his ex co-workers loudly complained he was getting death threats he finally called it quits saying he didn't have any friends left.

This is a great reminder to choose my stories carefully or maybe post them anonymously.