The Warrior

Jim Tuttle, a first year college student, had just turned eighteen and a half. He had, as prescribed by law, registered for the draft. His life was now a dilemma. The Korean conflict, if it could righteously be called that, was in its third year of fighting and thirty-three some odd thousand men had died in action, with more than one hundred thousand wounded. There was no sign that it would end now that the Chinese were involved. Should he wait and hope that his grades held up for deferment and take his chances on the draft or should he enlist right now in the Air Force? It wasn’t that he thought himself a coward, he simply felt the country would best be served by him enlisting in the Air Force. During a previous eighteen month period, while in his final year of High School, he had worked swing shift at Hill AFB. Jim made the decision by enlisting in the Air Force. After basic training and technical school he was assigned to a Strategic Air Command B-47 Medium Bombardment Wing in Florida. Eighteen months later he was transferred to his final assignment; an atomic bomb storage and maintenance Strategic Air Command unit in Morocco. During his time as a cold war warrior, Jim came of age, found a soul mate and married.