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Weird Wally could be none other than our 67/68 Weird Wally Covert. Wally and Lonnie Adkins were two Viet Nam A292 returnees that the A.F. thought could be of service in the "other" airborne program. After all, they had the letter "A" in front of their AFSC. It was probably already 207, not 292, but that is another story.
Wally lived in the next building from me in Gateway Gardens. I cannot remember his wife's name because we always called her "Weird Wally's Weird Wife Wilma."
He really was a legend in his own time. I can see him now with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, the smoke drifting up into his eyes, causing a perpetual squint, and his head turning as he blew the ashes of the burning cigarette. The thing never left his lips from the time he lit it, until he replaced it with a new one, often lit from the preceding cigarette.
Wally swore all the time, and it never seemed to matter who was around. Wally met a young lady in Athens and she decided that she should write to him and send him some pictures of them on the beach. Being a crafty devil, Wally gave her Lonnie's P.O. Box number. Well, write she did, but the Postal clerk was ever watchful and put the mail in the correct mailbox -- Wally's. His wife picked up the mail and opened the letter, complete with photograph, from the sweet young thing from Athens.
We were gathered in the NCO club when Wally was paged to the telephone. It was "Wilma" on the phone and she wanted Wally to come home immediately. Not long afterward, Wally returned to the club with spaghetti all over him. His wife had asked him about the pictures and letter and Wally told her she was his pen pal. He was in deep trouble. Half drunk, late for supper, and there was a letter and picture from his "pen pal." Wilma gave him his supper, a bowl of spaghetti right over his head. Wally just headed back for the club, spaghetti all over him, and greeted us with the comment, "The bitch just does not understand pen pals. What a guy!
I will give Wally credit though. He was a hell of a Morse radio operator.
Thanks for the memories.