{"id":717,"date":"2016-08-29T14:38:35","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T14:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=717"},"modified":"2016-09-03T19:59:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T19:59:29","slug":"ftv-on-the-lam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=717","title":{"rendered":"FTV: On the Lam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Kids, don\u2019t try this at home. \u00a0I am pretty sure that the tale I am about to relate would be considered an act of terrorism today but in the early 1970s, it could still be dismissed as \u2018youthful hijinks\u2019. \u00a0It was still dumb, but by today\u2019s standards, \u2018dumb\u2019 would not be a good enough excuse and \u2018youthful hijinks\u2019 would probably not generate a favorable plea bargain. \u00a0Things were viewed differently back then.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a kid, we often attended the air shows that were presented at K.I.Sawyer Air Force Base located on the Sands Plains between Marquette and Gwinn. \u00a0My best friend and fellow high school band drummer Jim was responsible for getting me on base a few other times when his father was still a civilian employee at the base. \u00a0On one such trip, we were following him through the SAGE building when he stopped in a exchanged pleasantries with a guy behind a big desk. \u00a0When I enquired, \u201cWho was that?\u201d Jim replied, \u201cOh, that is the base commander.\u201d \u00a0Jim\u2019s dad was old enough to have flown in World War I, fly as a barnstormer between the the wars and act as a flight instructor in WWII. \u00a0With credentials like that, he was pretty well known all over K.I.Sawyer. \u00a0I also recall us facing a host of fire trucks and emergency vehicles bearing down on us as we traveled a one lane road near the hangers. \u00a0Jim\u2019s dad cussed a bit as he hopped his car over the curb onto the grass median just before they thundered by. \u00a0He mentioned something about a \u2018Broken Arrow alert\u2019. \u00a0It turned out we were in the middle of the drill they ran when they needed to practice emergency procedures for a B-52 or tanker crash on the runway. \u00a0There were very few dull moments I can recall from my visits to K.I. Sawyer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The one constant in all my visits to Sawyer was the main gate. \u00a0One had to stop at the main gate and state your reason for visiting the base. \u00a0Jim and I accompanied his short, very blonde sister Patty on a trip to bring their dad something he forgot one day. \u00a0I am not being sexist here, I am just pointing out the fact that Patty\u2019s appearance just did not say \u2018Air Force\u2019, yet when we got to the main gate, everybody snapped to attention and waved us through. \u00a0Jim\u2019s dad was such a fixture at the base that they issued him an Officer\u2019s Pass bumper sticker for his cars so he wouldn\u2019t have to stop at the gate every time he came to work. \u00a0It cracked us up, but at the same time, I was impressed with Jim\u2019s dad\u2019s status.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Playing in Knockdown, \u00a0the gate check became part of the routine for gigs on base: \u00a0tell them where we are playing and get passed through. \u00a0One cold and snowy night, the guard asked me for my military ID. \u00a0I repeated my reason for being on the base and he said, \u201cI’m sorry, but you are wearing a military issue jacket with an insignia on it so I can\u2019t let you in without a military ID.\u201d \u00a0My brother was in the Army at the time and had gotten me some GI boots and a nice winter coat for Christmas and sure enough, it did have the US Army patch on it. \u00a0Our keyboard player Rich was riding with me and he had his Air Force ID but the guy at the gate wouldn\u2019t budge. \u00a0I finally said, \u201cOkay buddy, would you call the officer\u2019s club and ask for Major so-and-so\u2019s wife and tell her the band she hired for the Officer\u2019s Club Christmas Party won\u2019t be there?\u201d and I put the truck in reverse. \u00a0Suddenly the gate keeper changed his tune. \u00a0Sensing impending victory, I assured him that he was just doing his job and I was sure the Major\u2019s wife would understand. \u00a0\u00a0I won\u2019t say that he begged us to go through the gate, but it was darn close. \u00a0He did make me promise that I would remove the offending US Army patch which I wasn\u2019t going to do (my mother did after hearing my story just to keep her boy out of the brig).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the way to the Officer\u2019s Club, Rich said, \u201cYou don\u2019t know any Major so-and-so\u2019s wife\u201d and he was absolutely right. \u00a0Major so-and-so was a tanker pilot who happened to live next door to my folks and as far as I knew, he was single. \u00a0\u00a0I was betting the lowly gatekeeper didn\u2019t know that. \u00a0In many ways, the two years I spent playing music at Sawyer was just as much fun as an episode of M.A.S.H. when I think back to the many interesting people and adventures I had on base. \u00a0The exception would probably be the night we went on the lam from the military police.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We were playing our normal three night monthly gig at the NCO club so we didn\u2019t have to haul our equipment in and out each night. \u00a0Ray the guitar player decided we needed to rehearse a couple of our new numbers so we planned to meet at the club at 5 pm on Friday, practice for an hour and then go to Rosie\u2019s Pizza in Gwinn for dinner. \u00a0I did not need the truck for equipment hauling that night, so I drove my folks whale car (350 cubic inch Chevrolet Caprice), got my visitor pass at the gate and met the guys at the club. \u00a0I offered to drive to Rosie\u2019s so we piled in and when I got to the gate, I was supposed to pull over and surrender my visitor pass. \u00a0Ray said, \u201cAh, keep going, we will need it when we come back anyway\u201d and I listened. \u00a0Ray was in the Air Force so I figured he knew what he was talking about. \u00a0On the way back from Rosie\u2019s he suggested that I wave the visitor pass at the guard on the way into the base. \u00a0Again, I took Ray at his word and was fine with it until he looked out the back window and said, \u201cOh crap!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What Ray had seen was the guard pick up the phone in the gatehouse which meant he was calling the MPs. \u00a0Before I had time to panic, Ray directed me to take a left turn on a side road and when we were a half mile or so from the main road, we saw the MPs racing to the gatehouse with their roof lights flashing. \u00a0According to Ray (and by now I am wondering why I still listening to him) the MPs would need to get a report from the guard and by the time they came looking for us, we would be parked at the NCO club. \u00a0\u00a0I started quizzing him about what comes next: \u00a0\u201cRay, won\u2019t they be looking for my car? \u00a0I will also have to drive back out of that gate on the way home tonight, what then?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Ray had it all figured out: \u00a0\u201cYou can park behind the club where we normally unload, take the visitor pass out of the window and by the time you leave tonight, there will be another guard at the gate.\u201d \u00a0I played the entire gig watching the door, convinced the MPs would storm in and drag me away. \u00a0I held my breath when I drove up to the gate and meekly handed over my visitor pass. \u00a0Instead of slapping the cuffs on me, the night guard simply said, \u201cYa\u2019ll have a good night and drive careful now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t until much later that I found out that not only had we eluded the MPs, we had done it by taking a bunch of back roads that wound past hangers of B-52s and the road that lead to the storage bunkers where the nuclear weapons were stored. \u00a0I had never noticed it before, but when I parked the car behind the club, it was more visible from the road than it would have been if I had just parked in the lot out front. \u00a0Just to be safe, I didn\u2019t drive the whale car to the base again for a long, long time and I was always Mr. Polite to all the guards at the gate. \u00a0I also found out that they did random sobriety checks at the gate from time to time. \u00a0A few weeks later, I was pulled over with a half a dozen other cars for one of these safety checks. \u00a0I wonder if I would have gotten a little freaked out had this randomly occurred on the night we were on the lam?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I said previously, things were a little different back then and I would strongly advise anyone who asks that it would not be a good plan to drive through a military checkpoint without surrendering your visitor pass. \u00a0My most vivid memory of the old main gate was the last sign you saw when exiting the base. \u00a0It said, \u201cThank you for visiting K.I.Sawyer AFB. \u00a0Be careful. \u00a0You are now entering one of the most dangerous places on Earth: \u00a0The U.S. Public Highway!\u201d \u00a0Pretty good advice for a place that kept nuclear weapons on site! <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you drive to the Marquette County Airport that now occupies the old Air Force Base site, you enter from the north along a new road named after aviation pioneer Kelly Johnson who hailed from Ishpeming. \u00a0If you pass by the turn off to the airport terminal, you will end up on M94 which loops back to County Road 553 after passing the old NCO and Officer\u2019s clubs. \u00a0Just before M94 intersects with \u00a0County Road 553, the road passes over a set of railroad tracks. \u00a0Looking to the right, one can still see the old main gatehouse keeping vigil among the pines. \u00a0It is kind of quiet now, but there was a time when that little guard building was abuzz with activity, 24\/7\/365. \u00a0I wonder if I could stop in and find a visitor pass laying around that I could pick up as \u00a0a souvenir of my life of crime?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Top Piece Video – okay – bootleg whiskey and evading MPs aren’t necessarily related – but I needed a cool outlaw anthem to illustrate my life o’ crime. \u00a0None better than the vibe of Steve Earl’s <\/span>Copperhead Road<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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