Fort Bliss, Texas is located at the far western tip of Texas, adjacent to El Paso, bordering the Rio Grande river, across from Mexico and New Mexico to the north. Fort Bliss proper, extends into New Mexico for about 150 miles. It includes the White Sands Missile Range ( known as White Sands Proving Grounds, while I was there.), and Trinity Site, where the 1st atomic bomb was exploded in July of 1945.
From Fort Benning, Georgia in July, 1952, Therese and I drove north to CT in preparation for our leaving for the southwest. We dumped the 1942 Chevy and bought a 1950 Ford. We figured that for the long journey would need a more reliable car. We also advertised in the newspaper for some one to help share our driving expenses for the trip west. One woman answered our ad and joined us for the trip to see her daughter in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
For the most part, the trip was uneventful, but the summer heat we endured then makes us now really appreciate air conditioning. We had to travel with the windows open all the way. The road from Pine Bluff to Texarkana was for quite a ways just a dirt road and for that part of the trip, we had to keep the windows closed to keep the road dust out. The temperature was probably in the high 90's; we suffered during that part of the trip. In any case, we did get our passenger to Pine Bluff, where her daughter was living and we then continued on to El Paso. Somewhere in the west Texas desert we came upon an oasis where cold beer was available. Just a small gas stop with some cold refreshments. That was the best beer I've ever had.
Our first need when we got to El Paso was for a place to live. We found an apartment on North Dallas Street for $50.00 a month. It was a one bedroom, basement apartment,
but it was comfortable. Our landlady was Mrs. Myrtle Harned, a very nice and friendly old lady that we got to like very much.
Herman Boldt and his wife Lois arrived there about the same time and found an apartment a few blocks west of us, in the same general neighborhood. Soon, the apartment above us became available for $55.00, so we moved upstairs and the Boldts moved into the basement apartment. The picture on the left shows us in front of 710 N. Dallas St and was taken in 1952, the picture on the right shows the same house in 1992. Click to enlarge the pictures, and maybe you can notice the bars on the windows now. We never had bars on the windows back then.
Soon after arriving in El Paso, I took my car to a garage to have the front end checked and one of the wheels almost fell off. It's a wonder we made it to El Paso.
Herm Boldt and I were enrolled in the same basic electronics class. Although I had flunked physics in high school because I couldn't understand electricity, for some reason, electronics came easy to me. Herm was having trouble with it and many an evening we got together while I tutored him. We did both get through it. It was a six month course, and we then advanced to Guided Missile school.
The first few weeks of GM School were spent studying the German V2 rocket and itssuccessor, the US Corporal missile. The Corporal missile was a short lived version of the V2. Smaller, but more advanced with a guidance system. It was meant for battlefield conditions. Some of the students were to be assigned to the Corporal missile program, while others, like myself and Herm Boldt were assigned to the Ajax missile program; an anti-aircraft defense system missile.Corporal
The technology and sophistication of the Nike Ajax Guided Missile System blew my mind. I really got into it and enjoyed every bit of it. This was the kind of field I could really get into. Classes revolved around the mechanical, hydraulics, electronics, propulsion, and warhead systems. I graduated quite high in my class and as a result, I was selected as part of a small group to go to White Sands Proving Grounds and work with the civilian engineers from Western Electric and Douglas Aircraft to become familiar with the assembly and testing of live missiles.
While there, I was able to observe the test launchings of various missiles, quite a few of which never got too far off the ground. But to me, it was exciting being involved in the start of a new technology.
The ride to White Sands from Fort Bliss took less than an hour, so we got home every day and we car pooled. I think there was but six of us. We'd meet every morning, car pool to White Sands, leave about 3:00 PM and get home early.
While we were at White Sands, the rest of students were getting things ready for our eventual new assignments. Missile Battalion Units were organized as packages. A package included the core personnel for the Battalion. Some of the personnel were being trained as cadre for the missile batteries (smaller company sized parts of a battalion), while the school graduates were to be the technical parts of it. In addition, others were being trained in the radar systems necessary for a missile battery. Most of the rest would be trained on site by those who were now part of the package.
Package #1 was scheduled to got to Fort Meade MD, as part of the defense system for Washington DC. Package #3 was scheduled to go to Fort Hancock, NJ as part of the defense system for the New York City area. I was elated to find out that I was assigned to package #3. That meant that we would be close to home.
It was now 1953. Soon we would receive our new assignment. But, before we could leave for New Jersey, package #3 had to complete a successful missile launch.Unfortunately, there wasn't an existing site for launching Ajax Missiles in the nearby areas. The solution was for all the packages existing at the time to build a launching site. This task was undertaken at a site in New Mexico, about 165 miles north, near Carrizozo, an intersection of two highways, US
380, and US 54. It was populated with a gas station and a cafe. The site was given the name of Red Canyon Range Camp. (Photos on the left - taken much later than 1953) It was located just over the mountain from Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated.
When we first arrived at Red Canyon, it was nothing but desert. After a few weeks, tents had been put up, electricity was made available as well as water which was trucked in daily from Carrizozo. (I'm sure my brother Fred remembers Red Canyon, he spent some time there as a member of a Nike Battery in the Detroit area.) We did get to go home on some weekends. Otherwise, we spent all of our time there. Launching sites were built and platforms were erected for the radars. Eventually, we did successfully assemble a missile and shot down an RCAT. Soon it would be be time to leave for our new home on the Jersey shore..
Life in El Paso was not terribly bad. The climate was very agreeable, the only real problem was the sandstorms. They really did a job on automobile paint jobs and windshields. I had my car repainted and had the windshield replaced, at least once.
For entertainment, we went to the Fiesta Drive-In quite often, with a huge bag of pop corn and our cat, who also loved pop corn. Although Mexico was just across the Rio Grande river, we didn't go there very often. We did go to a dinner club there once when Therese's folks came down to visit us. Her father really loved to drive. I'm sure they visited us at least once everywhere we lived.
In the almost three years since we were married, Therese had become pregnant three or four times, each pregnancy resulting in a mis-carriage. She was now pregnant and under the care of an El Paso doctor, Dr Celso C. Stapp. He diagnosed her as having a thyroid problem and took very good care of her. Our scheduled departure from El Paso was late December, 1953. Dr Stapp was concerned about the long trip ahead of us and suggested that she drive only as far as Memphis, TN.
We left El Paso on December 20. On December 23, we pulled into the Memphis airport where Therese got on board a plane bound for New York, where her parents would pick her up. Everything worked out well, I continued on alone. On Christmas Eve, I was in Baltimore MD when my brakes failed. Somehow, I found a service station open. They put brakes on the car without making any adjustments. The adjustments would have to wait until I got home, which I did at 3:00 AM Christmas morning.
I spent the Christmas holidays at home and a few days later, in a driving blizzard, I left for Fort Hancock, NJ. I guess I could have waited another day, 'cause when I got there, no one was waiting for me. I had left the land of sun and sand and was back in the land of cold and snow.
