Radarman “A” School

I flew out of sunny San Diego in January 1970 for 16 weeks of radar school at the Naval Training Center north of Chicago.  The plane flew into O’hare Airport late at night and boy was I surprised at the climate change!  The wind was howling and snow was piled up along the roads about 6 feet deep.  I arrived at the base sometime around midnight and was led to a barracks.  I was directed to a bunk in a room that in the darkness seemed way crappier than boot camp.  The following morning I was sent a couple of blocks away to a much nicer barracks space.  In fact, it’s hard to even refer to it as a barracks since it was more like a modern college dorm.  Two guys to a room and you each had a huge locker and storage area as well as your own desk.  The bunks had nice thick mattresses and plenty of blankets.  Good thing too, since one day that winter the temperature was 55 below zero with the wind chill.  The wind here mostly blew right off of Lake Michigan and across the base.  Most all travel for me on base was by foot, going to the mess hall, PX, school, sick bay and the club, which was sometimes challenging with the snow, ice cold and wind.  Speaking of weather, springtime brought me my first experience with midwest thunderstorms.  We get an occasional thunderstorm here in the northwest, but nothing like those back there!