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| Dennis Palumbo - Kenai Peninsula |
From my senior year in high school (I was one year ahead of Brad Cool. We both came out of the very small school in Granite Falls, Washington.) to my Turkey assignments (Trabzon & Sinop) in 1969-70, I had four stellar offers for officer service: an appointment to West Point in 1960; an opportunity by USAF for OCS in 1965; an immediate transfer to ASA as a warrant officer in 1966; and a civilian offer by Mr. Neff, then Asst. Director of NSA, as a GS-14 in 1969 or '70. I turned each of them down because I was either content (dumb!) with what I was doing or didn't fully appreciate the great future such challenges could provide. Today, trying to live on E-7 retirement pay, I'm sorry I didn't take advantage of those generous opportunities.
Regrets aside, I'm pleased to tell you that I was fortunate enough to serve with -- and for -- some of the finest officers in the USAF! Gen. Doyle Larson (DEL) personally shepherded my wish for airborne service, as he often did with others, through the hoops. (I had been medically disqualified by a 1961 medical exam that reported I had a hernia. That ended up being totally false, but it takes power to elicit reviews!) Closer to my 6985th airborne home, I particularly remember -- in alphabetical order -- Richard Dermody, Wally Goss, Howard Lantz, Dennis Palumbo, William Sabean, Carlos Washburn, and Hank Whitney, all great leaders and motivators. Like all of you, I had my favorites -- varying from day to day, depending upon who I was in the most trouble with (chuckle).
As you can see from the list of those I worked for, our unit was well served by Mustang officers (those with prior enlisted history) and LDOs (Limited Duty Officers, selected for primarily AMS duties). I suspect this was the beneficial result of DEL's desire that all of our AMSs be officers, as was pretty much universally the case in our sister services, the Naval Security Group, NSG, and Army Security Agency, ASA. Personally, I'm glad we NCOs were allowed to continue receiving AMS qualification; my own appointment and service was the highlight of my now-long life!
As previously mentioned, we all had our favorites. From other stories on this forum, you know I was particularly fond of the leadership of Carlos Washburn; and I had a long personal history with Dennis Palumbo. I'm not certain how he was officially categorized. Dennis had prior enlisted service, I was with him for much of it, and he told me he was recruited for LDO to be an AMS. All of this, finally, brings me to the meat of this story.
Dennis and I were at Indiana University for Basic Russian at the same time, and we were both at Wakkanai together. It was in Wakkanai that Dennis' love of martial arts coalesced and, after the military, he made it his life's work. Perhaps you didn't know it, but Dennis had two different sized feet; consequently, he always had to buy two pairs of shoes to get a correct fit for both left and right. You may also appreciate him more by learning that when he returned to Japan for his arduous martial arts master's training, he became one of America's very first masters in his discipline. In the early 60s, I fancied myself good at jujitsu (I had earned brown and green belts) but Dennis always "put me in my place" when we worked out. (How can a guy with one tiny foot be so damn agile!!).
On duty, we had to abide by the military traditions and decorum of the day (the mickey mouse some would say). The best off-duty time Dennis and I had together was a Dall sheep (Orvis dali dali) hunt above Tustumena Glacier on the Kenai Peninsula. We chartered a Beaver float 'plane to Green Lake, lived in a two-man tent, and hiked our fool heads off in high mountain peaks for 10 days. We lived on reduced rations for the last several days; then, at last, I found a small ram on an adjacent slope separated from me by a deep, narrow cut. I made a good shot on that 3/4 curl ram from an estimated 350 yards, and it tumbled off his ledge into the narrow canyon.
Dennis Photographic Fog at Shemya
It took us awhile to get down to that little ram. We finished field dressing him in short order but we elected not to bring out the hide and bones. The terrain was too steep to put up with their extra weight. We were required, however, to bring out the head for federal inspection. After boning out the meat, I carried the 89 pounds of it to our camp at the base of the mountain. All along the very challenging descent, Dennis would ask, "Do you want me to help you?" Each time I declined his offer, not realizing that I was excluding him from participation in some of the joys of the hunt. I always regretted my ignorance afterwards, but he did get to experience some of those "joys" when we got to base camp.
We had to wait for two days for the Federal Fish and Wildlife inspector to examine our kill and sign off that ours was a full 3/4 curl. It was a small, tight curl with one short side, and we worried greatly that it might not muster up, but it did. The real difficulty those two days was keeping the hoards of blowflies off of the meat. That was a constant misery, and we were not always successful. Also, a wolverine (Gulo gulo) had gotten wind of our kill and wanted it for himself. He kept circling the camp in the slinky walk they have, voicing his hunger the whole time. We assumed he had already consumed the ofal we left up the canyon. It took day and night watch to protect our bagged prize. Wolverines just won't give up. I swear to you, you can not imagine the fear generated by the growls and screeches a hungry wolverine makes; they were terrifying.
After the meat had cooled, we scraped out a hole and emersed our prized sacks in a nearby creek that ran down onto the glacier from the mountains we had been climbing. Putting meat under water is not the best idea, but we had little choice and that action didn't seem to hurt it much. Shortly thereafter, we were picked up by our chartered beaver and eventually made it home. That was how a mustang and a sheep were brought together in the wilds of Alaska.
I don't know about Dennis' half of the meat, but mine was the best meat I have ever eaten, far surpassing moose, caribou, and deer. RIP Dennis. Thanks for the joy you shared with me all those decades ago.