CHAPTER CHATTER Page 3
The Official Newsletter of the
Shenandoah Valley Chapter #313
Korean War Veterans Association
Volume 13, Issue 10
Paul E. Bombardier, Editor
October, 2020
Member Bio - Douglas R. (Doug) Hall
Doug Hall was born in Atlantic city, NJ. in 1955 where his family owned two restaurants and a small hotel in the beach block, so Doug grew up with the beach and boardwalk as his back yard. In fact, he remembers going to the beach and the famed Steel Pier on the boardwalk almost every week during the summer, seeing all of the big name acts of the 60's, from Ricky Nelson to the Supremes, Four Seasons and the Beatles.
I Doug Hall '
When he was younger, his mother would tell his older sisters to take him with them to the Pier while she had to work. She would pack a lunch for them and they would eat out on the picnic deck. As he grew up, he got to know many of the people who worked on the Pier and Boardwalk. That led him to have quite a few fun jobs, like running amusement rides, driving the Boardwalk trams, and even being Mr. Peanut one summer. The Boardwalk was like one big Carney family, as you got to know everyone on the Boards. To this day, the smell of cotton candy and popcorn take him back to those days.
Doug's father was a decorated B-17- B24/25 pilot in WW2, flying 22 missions over Europe and North Africa, so Doug was always interested in flying and the thoughts of joining the Air Force. His dream was to become a commercial airline pilot, but life had different plans for him. After a year of college, he got married and became a father. Finding himself with a lot of responsibility and no decent opportunities, he again turned his thoughts to the military and the training possibilities it could provide. One day, he decided it was time to do something, so he walked in to the recruiter's office and signed up to got to electronics and communications school.. Then he went home and told his wife. In hindsight, he probably should have done that in reverse order ! In any case, it was the best decision of his life.
Doug took Basic Training at Lackland AFB in Texas in January, 1976. He found the responsibility for his family drove him to excel and he graduated with honors from BMT as well as electronic and communication schools at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS. His first duty station was with the 3rd Combat and Communication group at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. Although that was his station, he spent much time over the next two years on TDYs all over the country. On one of thee TDYs, he met a couple of civilian contractors with Atlantic research Corp. They took a liking to him and his interest in their work and they told him to contact them if he thought of getting out of the service.
Since Doug's specialty was long haul communications, troposcatter and microwave systems, most of his duty stations in the world happened to be remote tours. His next set of orders were for a remote tour to Turkey. Fortunately, they were soon cancelled
and he thought he would serve the rest of his tour out at Tinker AFB. However, rarely does the military let you off that easy, so he soon received orders for another remote tour to Osan AFB, Korea.