Matt was assigned to the 42nd OMS at Loring AFB, Maine. Loring AFB is about 2 miles from the Canadian boarder and gets around a million feet of snow each winter! This is supposed to be a sportsmans paradise, but since Matt wasn't a sportsman, he spent most of his time freezing his ass of!
His first assignment was to the Bomber Branch as a member of a Basic Postflight Team. (BPO). This involved recovering aging B-52 bombers and many times trying to turn them around for another mission only a few hours after it landed. Not an easy task with these very old and very broken aircraft. You can see the pride that Matt showed in his job by the fact that he is wearing a BPO3 hat while playing with a stuffed Penguin.
The truth be told, Matt is laying on Margaret Zelinski's bed in her dorm room.(you remember her? She's the one holding the flag in the photo with Matt at Chanute AFB, IL. Funny how she got orders to Loring AFB also) Matt gave her the penguin as a present and a token of his affection. The penguin was given the name "Oscar". Matt can't remember why! While assigned to the B-52 BPO team, Matt would work maybe 25 hours a week. There would be aircraft recoveries maybe 2 days of the week and the other days he would show up for work with the rest of his crew and they would sweep the hanger from one end to the other. After this challenging task was done, they would all depart for the NCO club to drink coffee. Seriously.... he only really worked 2-3 days a week while assigned to the bomber branch and doing bomber recoveries.
Matt got tired of working so hard on bombers and managed to work a transfer from the bomber branch to the tanker branch. The tanker maintenance guys actually got to fly on their aircraft and go places with them. The easy days of only working 2-3 days a week were gone, but he was happy to finally be working on what he considered a much better aircraft. Another benefit of being in tanker branch was that Matt and Margaret Zelinski had gotten married, and Margaret worked in the tanker branch also!
While in tanker branch, Matt made some new friends and found some new talents. He was actually very good as the pitcher on the squadron Slow Pitch softball team. The picture below shows Matt with one of his co-workers and players, Pat Burke. Pat Burke and Mike Cliff were inseperable friends that took Matt and Peggy (aka Margaret) under their wings and tried to make their life as new tanker crew chiefs bearable.
The picture isn't fuzzy... Pat and Matt are! Matt is wearing the Susquehana University Shirt that his brother Mark had given him while he was attending that fine institution of higher education. This is perhaps the only day at Loring AFB that there wasn't snow on the ground. This was summer... 1 day... then it was time for Fall again.
While stationed at Loring, Matt had the good fortune of having some great people help him along. CMSgt Carrol Plumlee, CMSgt Jack Broadaway, Mike Cliff, Pat Burke, Jud "Dusty" Carnahan, and Lt Col Robert Ellenthorp (sp?), his commander.
Still looking for the 42nd OMS patch!
Matt and Peggy got tired of the winters and decided to see part of the world. They volunteered for an extended overseas long tour to Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan. And like they always say... be careful what you wish for..
