Sunday, November 28, 2010

Carl

by C.R. Layton
 
Some of you knew and remember Carl L. Lord. Carl was born in Tucson, Arizona on Dec 22, 1934 and died Nov 25, 2001 in Overgaard, AZ where Carl was President of the local VFW. His good wife Mary was the VFW Chaplain.
I first met Carl at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. Carl had just gotten off a train from Tucson and I from Tulsa, OK. What attracted Carl to me was the pair of cowboy boots I was wearing. They were a very special pair of boots, custom made at a saddle & boot shop at our local stockyards. My first and only pair of hand made boots. I had on new Levi’s with a hand tooled belt and a Silver Buckle Set that my step dad "Pop" as I called him had just made for me as a leaving home present.. Carl and I really hit it off from that very moment. When we were assigned bunks together I choose the lower and Carl got the upper. We had guys ask us if we were brothers, one ask if we were twins. I was about a year older than Carl and I think he really trusted my judgment on a lot of things and looked up to as an older brother. We became best friends.
Here are some excerpts from a story I wrote a few years ago "Events That Happened In Basic Training" that involved my friend Carl.
I remember the day we were taking mass drill training. We were all setting on a grassy little terrace with a big Master Sergeant explaining what to do when a Flight of WAFS came marching by. My good Friend Carl L. Lord was looking them over pretty good when the Sergeant noticed he wasn’t hearing a word he was saying. He walked over to Carl and said "Airman, you like those WAFS pretty good don’t you". Carl said, "Yes Sir I do". The Master Sergeant yelled out to the T. I. that was over the WAFS and ask if Carl could march around the block with them. The T. I. agreed, and Carl was told to fall in with them and march around the block. When he returned he never took his eyes off that big Master Sergeant again.
Carl Lord and I were the first two guys out of the mess hall one very hot day and the ice cream man was just pulling up in front. Carl said, "let’s get us a fudge sickle." I said, "if Roberts caught us it may not be any fun." Carl said, " Aw h---, we’ll have it eaten before he comes out." We ordered two fudge sickles and had just removed the paper from them when we heard Roberts yell, "what do you guys think you are doing, who told you to get "that ice cream?" "Put it in your pocket till we get back to the barracks." After all our guys had come out he marched us all around the base the long way back to our barrack. When he halted us and dismissed us he yelled out "OK Layton, Lord, you can eat your ice-cream now." Every guy in Flight 394 was upset, (P O’ed to say the least) about having to march the long way around, and they let us know it. All I had left in my pocket was the stick; I had chocolate running down to my sock.
One day our flight was on detail  picking up rocks out on a newly cleared  area getting it ready for a new tent area. Carl Lord and I were working along together, when Carl said, "Look over there." There was one of our guys stooped over playing with a snake. It was Harry Hubbard, from Baltimore, MD. It was a rattler about 16 inches long, Harry would reach for it and when it struck he would yank his hand back. Carl said, "do you know that’s a rattle snake." Harry jumped back from it saying, "you mean it is poison." Carl killed it with a big rock. Harry said, " we have snakes in the Paawk back home". Carl turned and walked away mumbling something about Yankees.
Carl and I along with several others from Flight 394 were assigned to A&P School at Shepard AFB, Texas. I can recall Carl and I, Deane "Mike" Lawless, Jarel Florence, Sid Billingsley, Arthur Hard III, and Marvin Mills.and maybe a few others that I can't remember.  Carl introduced us to Mexican food while we were at Shepard. There was a Restaurant down town called the "Casa Manana that Carl "Mike", Sid and I ate at about every time we went to town. Until that time the only South of the Border food I had ever eaten was Hot Tamales.
One hot summer day Carl and I were walking back to the Barrack from the PX. We were just about the middle of the Forty-Acre Parade Field when softball size hale hit. We ran licitly split for the barrack with our hands over our heads; Carl had been hit on one of his shoulders that had almost driven him to the ground. When we reached our Barrack which was across the street from the Parade Field, two of our guys were holding the door open and holding our field jackets and helmet liners and pointing back to the Parade Field. There was a guy down just about the middle of the field. Carl and I donned the jackets and helmet liners. And headed right back into the hale storm. When we got to the guy he was really beat up and totally unconscious. We managed to get the guy up and onto our shoulders and proceeded back to our barrack. One of our guys had run over to the Orderly room and told them what was happening. When it was all over, a Captain told Carl and I that we were heroes and would be commended for the act. They took the poor guy that was about dead to the Hospital and we never heard anymore about that incident.
When we were through with Tech School and everyone was getting their orders for their next assignments, about four or five of us were on the same orders going to gunnery school at Lowery AFB, Colorado. We were elated that we were getting to remain together. We cleared the Base turned in our bunks, etc, and was waiting for finance to pay us and transportation to the Bus Station in Wichita Falls when they came out and cancelled Carl and my orders. It was Noon the next day before we were assigned to the 55th SWRS at McClellan AFB, Sacramento, CA. We spent the entire evening and night without knowing what was in store for us and without a place to lay our heads.
There were way too many episodes while in the 55th to try and pen but here is one I’ll never forget. Carl and I were in downtown Sacramento one evening. We wondered into a place called the "Lion’s Den". Bad name right! We should have known better. I found a poker game and decided to try my luck for a hand or two. Carl started playing the little bowling games where you could win money according to what score you could post. I was hot that evening and couldn’t lose. We had been there a couple of hours when I noticed that I was about $485 ahead. I told the guy over the game to cash me out that I had to get back to the Base. I noticed the guy straight across from me give him the "no sign", He said that policy was that the big winner could not just walk out on the game. He said I could leave without my money. I said sure, you can see me doing that. I saw Carl in a few minutes very nonchalantly stroll out of the building. My first thought was Carl you can’t just leave me here alone with these cutthroats. Then I realized that he had heard our conversation and was going for help. Fifteen or twenty minutes later Carl came back in with about six guys from the base and one of them was a guy we called Big Tex. Tex wore a size 57 jacket and was from New York City. He came directly over to me, picked the chair up with me in it and set me down about four feet from the table and bellowed out, Cash out Layton we got a bus to catch. The guy in charge didn’t even look at the guy across from me but began to gather up my chips and cashed me out with about $525. We left that place without further incident. We had another fun incident in Grass Valley, Ca. with Ray Lowe and a couple of others but I wrote about that in another story.
While in the 55th Carl and I  volunteered for duty in Korea, but were assigned to the 58th in Fairbanks, Alaska. One incident that I recall from Fairbanks, one night Carl and I and a few others were in Fairbanks at the Buffalo Saloon. Carl came over to me and asks if I had ever tried Marijuana. I told him no way and he had better not try it either. He said a guy he met in there had some and wanted him to give it a try.
A little while later another guy came over to me and told me that my friend was outside and was really sick. I went out and sure enough Carl was down on hands and knees puking his guts up. He looked up at me and asks me if he was going to die. I told him yes, but probably not tonight. I got him up and went back inside and got a clean wet towel and cleaned him up a little and made our way to the bus station and went back to the base. Carl told me to never let him try anything like that again. I told him you dimwit! I tried to warn you. It turned out that a bunch of the 55th went to Alaska. There was Jim Buffalo, Ray Lowe, Darrel Hinton, Ken Waldron, Joe Komornic, Carl and I that I can think of. This same group minus Ken Waldron and plus Ed Keenan all came back down the Alcan Highway together in Nov. 1955. Two car loads, That trip is a story in itself. We stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to let Carl off for a bus trip home to Tucson, AZ., and Joe to Pueblo, CO. We all took photos and said our good buys, Carl came over to me gave me a big hug and gave me his address in Tucson, when we parted Carl had tears in his eyes. Friends forever I remember him saying. We all later were discharged from the AF and went our separate ways.
Carl and I continued to exchange letters. In 1957 Carl came to Tulsa and stayed for a week with us learning why we called Northeastern Oklahoma  "Green Country".. Carl had gone into the construction business with his father Cal Lord in Tucson. He married a beautiful girl named Mary. In 1961 Beverly and I took our children Melody and Tommy to Arizona to see Carl and Mary. Carl told me that He and Mary were unable to have children and had decided not to adopt.
When I decided to try and find the guys from my Basic Training unit Flt 394 for a 50th Reunion, Carl was the first one I found. He and Mary were living in Overgaard, AZ. He suggested we try to find some of our 58th guys and all get together as soon as possible. We had a Mini Reunion in 2001 with nineteen scheduled to attend. Carl and Mary failed to show although they had sent their check. Several of us tried to phone Carl with no success, we were afraid they had had an accident somewhere along the way. After we returned home from the reunion, I tried calling Carl every day. Finally after a three or four days Carl answered, really sounding haggard, I actually thought he had been drinking. Carl said, "Connie, it looks like we will have to cancel out on the reunion. Mary is in the hospital and may not make it". I told Carl that the Reunion was last week. He said, " really, well I have been living at the hospital day and night". Mary died June 6th 2001. Carl told me that he had lost the love of his life, when he got everything back in order he would come and see us. I ask him if I could fly out there and spend some time with him. Carl told me not right now that he needed time alone to sort things out and figure out what he was going to do. Carl called me later from his brother’s home in Honey Grove, TX. telling me that he had been there about a week and was getting ready to head back for Overgaard. I ask Carl to come up here a few days before he went home, but he assured me he had things at home that needed his attention. Carl’s brother Stan called me right after Thanksgiving to inform me that Carl had passed away. Stan told me that after Mary died Carl quit taking all his medicines and that was what done him in. Stan sent me some of Carl’s belongings, including his Basic Training photo. This aided me in finding some more of our Flt 394 guys. Carl had a few that signed his photo that had not signed mine. I really miss Carl. "Friends for ever".

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