Hello, my name is Robert Craft and I orginally hailed from Louisiana. Welcome to my website I hope you enjoy it. I am building this site in hope of locating some of my old friends. I was stationed at Fort Bliss in 1967 and I worked at Biggs Field in the fixed and rotor wings hanger. It was located down the airstrip to the east from the old Airforce hanger where the air traffic control tower was located.
1967 was a great time to be in El Paso, there was a lot for military people to do there and I was lucky enough to be one of them. The weather there was very good except July and August when it is very hot. The only air conditioning they had was swamp coolers. For people who haven't experienced the thrill of having one...it a square box that has an electric motor mounted to the bottom which runs a large fan. The sides have insulation panels that are kept wet by a water hose that is connected to the top of the box. That enables the water to drain onto the panels and keep them wet. Once the air flows through the insulation panels, an air duct carries the cool air into the home.
I remember when I first got to Fort Bliss it was so hot that day I decided to go to the pool. I really wasn't worried about getting burnt as I remember the sky was overcast. The next morning I had an unpleasant surprise, I did get burnt and I had blisters all over my back. To make matters worse I had to pull guard duty that night, walking with an M-14 on my shoulders 6:00pm til 12:00am. I really believed I was going to die. Boy, it sure did hurt! But as they say, you learn from your mistakes. I never did go back to the pool again the whole time I was there.
Every Saturday morning we all had to go to the parade field and march for the brass. I remember riding on those stinky diesel buses. They also made us go to the rifle range (Donner Range) and I always hated to go out there because there was no water, no food, just a bathroom. The range was in the middle of the desert and man was it hot.
I had a lot of friends there during those days and I do miss them. I remember some of the names and others time has eroded from my memory. One of our hot spots was at the Oasis drive-in located on Dyer street at Sunrise. Its seems that we always ended up at the Oasis before midnight.
We also had other hot spots such as the Red Rooster drive in, the Del-Norte drive in,The Green Frog, Club 451 and others that I can't remember the names of. There was this guy (whose name, sadly, I do not recall) that was stationed at White Sands and you could always find him in the parking lot behind the Oasis drive in at Sunrise Shopping Center. He had a loud air horn under the hood of his car he would blow at all the girls as they went by. He and Tom Speights had the same car a green Chevrolet Malibu.
In the list below are some of the guys that I do remember, some I remember only their first names. The states in parenthesis are where I last heard they were.
I really would like to see these guys again. If there is someone that I missed that was part of our group or anyone that was in building 1012 in 1967 please email me.
The officer club is located on Fort Bliss . I use to walk guard duty behind this building. The food in here was very good. Fort Bliss would bring a lot of Cadets in from other parts of the country. They always had big parties on the weekend and holidays.
The N.C.O. club is located on Biggs Army Airfield. It wasn't built til much later in the 90's I believe. But I returned back to El Paso in the late 90's and my friends and I would go there for lunch.
Add me to your address book Sign My Guestbook
View My Guestbook
