The Man Behind The Mic
John Scalise - AB6QC
I was born in 1927 and raised mostly in Des Moines, Iowa. I was drafted at the end of WWII and sent to basic training at Shepherd Field AFB in Witchita Falls, Texas.
After basic training I was sent to Army Air Corps Radio School at Scott Field AFB in Illinois. After nine months of school I was transfered to a Troop Carrier Squadron on Guam and served as a radio operator onboard C-46s, C-47s, and C-54s. All in all, I spent nineteen months island hopping around the Pacific.
I was discharged in 1948 but called back to active duty in 1950 (courtesy of President Truman) because I had a critical MOS.
At that time I got married and was sent to an Air-Refueling Squadron at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, La. After a little "re-training" I was assigned to a KB-29 boom tanker crew as a radio operator. Soon thereafter we received orders to fly our aircraft to England via Greenland and Iceland. In England we flew out of Sculthorpe RAF base on long training missions, mostly over Europe, air-refueling B-45s.
I was discharged as Staff Sergeant in 1951 and went to work as an Electronics Mechanic at Electronics shop 67 Navsta 32nd St., San Diego, working on shipboard electronic equpment and systems. I soon advanced to engineering as an Electronics Technician developing plans, logistics, etc. for shipboard and shore station electronic equipment and systems installations. I spent my last ten working years in a contract administration field office at NASSCO shipbuilding company monitoring the contractor's efforts in Navy shipboard electronics installations and logistics. I retired in 1983.
My wife and I raised two lovely daughters. One lives in Canada and the other in Oregon. We have two grandsons 8 & 13 years old. My wife passed away in the year 2000 so I live by myself now.
I am a Volunteer Examiner for the Chula Vista, California VE team which I enjoy very much. We give Ham Radio exams on laptop computers using our own DOS program and more recently a Windows XP program developed by our programmer.
I enjoy very much being a Net Control and talking and joking with a great bunch of guys and gals.
73 from John - AB6QC