Military training

Military training was a hard time, especially for somebody as frail and with little athletic qualities as me. The long marching and survival training in the standard military boots with a heavy backpack were pure agony for my feet and back. Orthopedic soles helped a little but I was glad when the basic training was over and we moved on to flight training. During the first year we slept with 30 students on one dormitory and thus had minimal comfort and nil privacy. My small posture proved an advantage in this sleek but tiny SF260 Marchetti and I did pretty well, finishing first of my class at the end of the elementary training year. 

Lots of studying left little time for anything else but I liked flying. At the end of that year I got selected to continue my pilot training with the US Air Force. Before leaving I had my first taste of jet flying in the CM170 Fouga Magister. At that base we had rooms of 8 offering a little more privacy and permission to leave the base each evening. While my friends were out drinking I liked to window shop in the adjacent town and also bought my first pair of flat knee high sand colored suede boots with white fluffy lining which I wore under my civilian pants, even in the presence of my friends.

One year in Oklahoma USA

Just after New Year we arrived with 2 Belgians at Vance AFB Enid Oklahoma to complete our pilot training. In order to speed up our integration we each shared a double apartment (BOQ) with a native US student of the same class. This was pure luxury with each his own room. I enjoyed this privacy very much and soon had acquired a pair of black leather knee high boots with full length inside zipper on a 2-inch block heel and a pair of very fluffy purple flat house slippers. After again being the best on T41 and T37 training it was summer and the 2 Belgians were allowed to share a brand-new BOQ. I acquired a variety of flat summer boots and sandals, light slacks and tops but all from the ladies racks and often got compliments from the girls at the parties. They must have thought some of the Belgians have weird tastes but this one year from home between strangers was the perfect way to discover the relax feelings by freedom of dressing. There is a big difference between wearing something furtively out of fear to be discovered by family or friends, or wearing things relaxed a weekend long during normal life. The excitement gets replaced by a feeling of happiness and joy. Platform shoes were easy to conceal under wide long trousers in 1972, everybody wore them (but mine had more elevation off course). The flying got even better on the sleek supersonic T38 Talon.

After getting my USAF pilot wings as a distinguished graduate at the end of the year I donated lots of my stuff to charity because we were limited in luggage for our return back home. The intensity of the pilot training kept us pretty busy so I hardly missed my family but was glad to see them back after a year.

The single years

I got assigned to an F104 Starfighter fighter-bomber unit at Kleine Brogel Airbase in Belgium and it would take another 18 months of training before becoming combat ready. I had my own room in the officer’s mess so I started collecting shoes again, which I kept in my old closets. One day after flying I returned to my room only to discover all my shoes neatly lined up along my bed and my clothes on top. The carpenters and mess personnel had integrated new furniture in the walls that day. I got a red face when I saw all my feminine shoes lined up but never had anybody making any allusion to it. I was lucky because this could have caused the withdrawal of my security clearance because of the increased risk of bribing. This incident and the monotonous drinking each evening at the Officer’s club made me decide to rent a house somewhere away from the base to get more privacy. I also started to go out during the weekends but was more interested in looking at how the girls were dressed and listening to the music as in dancing or trying to get a girl. Some of my friends tried to set me up with girls they knew but I was still very shy and inexperienced with them. During my 21^st birthday party I organized at my single house I invited lots of friend (boys and girls) and most of them preferred to sleep over instead of driving the long distance back home in the early morning. Everybody was sleeping everywhere and I offered to share my double bed with a girl I had danced with a lot that evening. She accepted and later I heard she had been terribly disappointed because I even didn’t touch her. During an Air Force ball I met a girl I had admired at my school a few years earlier. I always envied her looks and innocence and liked the way she dressed very classical. We got along well and stayed together for about a year. She developed breast cancer and my parents recommended me to stop seeing her because they thought she would remain sick and cost a lot of money. To this day I still regret dumping her for that reason. She was a fine girl and I later heard she never married. Because I was not a good dancer I made my own disco bar and became the popular disc jockey “Lucky Luke and his supersonic firesound”. To keep me occupied during my free time after alert duties I bought a small Moth Europe sailing boat that I towed behind my Opel GT. 

First love?

One day a colleague of my dad that lived close to the base invited me for diner. I got very much interested in his 17 year old daughter and we soon formed a couple. Her young age prevented some activities but overall we had fun, even just enjoying staying in each other’s arms looking at television at her home. We also did lot of shopping trips, sometimes with other girlfriends of hers. I enjoyed those times very much and had no reservations participating in their gossips and browsing through all the stores all day long. We both had the same shoe size and often swapped sandals, shoes and boots. I also often selected new skirts and dresses for her. Everybody always complimented me on my good choices and tastes, not something you would expect from a fighter pilot. One day at my place she got me so far as to get me in bed and make love for the first time in my life. While she was very excited I was a bit disappointed and did not understand what my peers found so special in that game. I had delayed this experience till I found my true love and had high expectations. Maybe it is the lack of sexual education at school and from my parents that did not prepare me adequately or my technique was at an infant stage, but this first time did not register as a good or pleasant time in my mind. Around that time I also bought a few skirts but found no pleasure in wearing them. I liked long nightgowns very much and continued wearing them for the rest of my life. While I attended a 3-month during course at Sacramento California she betrayed me with a common friend. I learned that shortly after my return and went crying in the arms of her best girl friend. That was a young married girl that lived a few blocks away. She confirmed what I heard and while talking a lot that evening she confessed she was not happy in her life either because she found out her husband was gay. I totally broke with my ex-girlfriend and felt compassion for her unhappy girl friend. After about two months she decided to leave her husband and move in with me.