Welcome to our member spotlight

Bob Taylor, Past1st Vice Commander

My military time was a variety of experiences. In 1960 I was an alternate on the TCU Army ROTC rifle team, first sergeant of the drill team, a year and a half short of a 2nd Lt. commission and out of money for the next semester. I’d been working one to three jobs at a time paying my way through school. Tired from that I joined the 5th Recon Squadron, 49th Armored Division in Ft. Worth, TX. Shortly after that I moved to Austin, TX closer to my future fiancé/wife and transferred to the 149th Military Police Company before being sent to basic at Ft. Ord, CA where I was a trainee platoon sergeant. From there it was off to Ft. Gordon, GA for MP school. Then it was back to Ft. Worth selling office machines before a summer camp of post patrol at Ft. Hood, TX and being called to active duty at Ft. Polk, LA for the Berlin Crisis. At Fort Polk I served both with the MP company on post patrol and town patrol in Leesville, LA. Additionally I was assigned to the 399th Military Police Detachment (CID) as a criminal investigator. Interesting situations there but the most major was the paperwork on a recon plane crash with two fatalities and a soldier who died on bivouac while fishing with an antipersonnel mine. Ironically, the 49th was deemed more battle ready than the active 2nd Armored Division; so, we were earmarked to ship to Germany (or wherever). But that faded as Russia pulled its tanks away from the Berlin wall. We were released after about ten months, and I returned to Fort Worth having gotten married a couple of months before. I returned to TCU to finish my journalism degree and completed my three-year hitch with the 49th. A few months later the Cuban Missile Crisis came up and everyone was wondering if we would be recalled. But that also got sorted out by President John F. Kennedy. Congress later declared our Ft. Polk duty gave us Veteran status, which later helped me buy a house. In 1963 I re-signed with an Air Police unit in the 9414 Air Force Reserve Recovery Squadron (8508 AFRRG) at Greater Southwest International Airport, Fort Worth, where our duties included airport and aircraft security for planes returning from bombing missions. During the summers we would work gate and flightline security at Carswell AFB. About a year or two later the brass decided that we weren’t needed (missiles were the future I suppose) and we were anointed as the 20th Medical Service Squadron Reserve, Carswell Air Force Base. That was the berries! Air conditioning and good food in the hospital cafeteria. I worked for a Major typing his stuff, worked the information desk, did news releases for the unit and prepared a recruitment presentation for a local TV station. (By that time both my wife Carol and I were both reporters for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.) Just as my three-year hitch with the Air Force Reserve ended, I was offered a communications job with Alcoa in one of its aluminum plants in Texas. In 1996 I retired from Alcoa after jobs as Communications Coordinator, Public Relations Manager and Regional Public Affairs Manager at seven plants in five states: Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Arkansas and Washington. During that time, Carol and I had five children and now 11 grandchildren and four great grandchildren in three states. After retiring in Wenatchee, I joined Post #10 and did their newsletter for approximately six years. When we declared ourselves “OLD” in 2018, we moved over to Clarkston adjacent to our youngest daughter and her family for our golden years. (Golden Years are really when the doctors make their gold, you know.) I transferred into Post 246 and did it’s newsletter for almost four years. My spare time now is used on my 60-year hobby of collecting and smoking tobacco pipes from around the world, reading, computers, and some TV.