My Life in ID CardsA Digital Photo Essay by Ed Flaspoehler As we all have, I have been issued a wide variety
of ID cards throughout my lifetime.
I joined the USAF in 1962, right out of HS. I was still 17 when I graduated. After basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX, they sent me to the Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale University in New Haven, CT, for eight months of intensive training in Mandarin Chinese. We studied only Chinese language 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, plus homework. There were 50 people in my class, and I ranked third in the class. I graduated from Chinese Mandarin course in May 1963, and that summer, spent the usual tour at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, TX, learning my new job as a Voice Intercept Processing Analyst, before being assigned to the 6987th Security squadron (USAFSS) in Taiwan. I was quite committed to learning the Chinese Language in those days, and I consider it one of the most rewarding things I have done with my life. Since I was still so young, only 18, and not distracted by a lot of other things, the language has stuck with me over all these years. Edward P. Flaspoehler, Jr
HomeUnless otherwise indicated: |
