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Welcome
to the
7373rd Aircraft Repair
Squadron Page of the
Châteauroux Air Station
Website!

DROSITIS, Tom -

@ CHAS 51-55
Alquippa, ??
10-14-07 Entry from Chris Sabo: He was in the 7373rd and lived in tent
city until the barracks were ready in March 1952. He attended the reunion in
1997 but did not get the info for the one that just passed. When is another
one planned? He
met and married my mother in Chateauroux on 9/28/1955. He remembers Billy J.
Sellers of West Virginia and later of California and also buying a car from a
Captain Dahl from the Seattle area. While stationed there my dad and some
other guys were in a car wreck together, fortunately not too serious. His
bosses were Warrant Officer Burl W. Quimby and Capt. William H. Morton in the
aircraft maintainence section. My dad's rank was SSG.
Thanks for any help,
Chris Sabo
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JONES, Bobby Don

December 55 - December 58
7373rd Aircraft Repair Squadron
10-15-04 - Daughter Karen was
Born at Chas.
The Joneses attended the San Antonio, TX 2004 Dinner
Get-together.
One of these ladies is Margaret, Bobby Don's wife and the bowling team. |
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KERKMAN, Gene

@ Chas: 1951-52 - 1954-55
7373rd Aircraft Repair (Maintenance)
AZ
5-25-04 Entry by
daughter, Theresa: I was
Born at Chad AFB November, 1953. My father, Gene Kerkman, served from 1951 or 1952 - 1954/55. He was in 7373rd /Aircraft
Maintenance. Now resides in Arizona.
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SASSERMAN, Warren
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36th Field Maintenance (?)

[jpnote: Warren says he was with 36th - could that be 7322nd?]
@ Chas: Nov 57-Nov 60
Coburn ,PA
8-3-05: Would like to correspond with anyone that remembers me!
Searching for Donald Pecore.
9-21-07 Worked on the C-47s In the Hanger where Land Air worked.
Lived downtown 14 Rue of The United States
Searching for: Lynwood Weeks, Daryl Zylka, Steve Kreft |
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WHITE, Robbins E.
 @ Chas: 1952-1954
7373rd A/C Repair at Déols I
think
Atmore, AL
Comments:
6-25-03 I arrived at Châteauroux in
August of 1952, what a shock, just mostly tents and one old Mess Hall, which
was feeding about 7000 troops, outdoor latrines, warm showers maybe once or
twice a week. Certain spots in the mess halls roof was gone, rain, snow or
sunshine came in. I went to work at Déols in the Property Office along with
S/Sgt Moulton, M/Sgt Webber S/Sgt Tilkins amd Sgt Owens, I've located
Moulton and Owens but I have never had any info on Tilkins, Owens told me
that Tilkins married an English woman after I left, if anyone has any info
on S/Sgt Donald Tilkins please let me know. I hated it while I was there but
as I look back, it was probably 2 of the happiest years of my life. I almost
married a French girl from Loche but backed out at the last moment She went
to work in the PX Clothing Dept later, I hope she found a husband and has a
good life. (I came home and married a girl I met, we will be married 50
years in 1954). I have really enjoyed this Web site.
I remembered that there was a few barracks there
when I arrived, but they were full and we were in tents for all that winter of
1953 before some of us moved into barracks. Another thing that I just
remembered was we had scrambled eggs for breakfast for days and days in a row,
we used to laugh and say that we shouldn't complain because they were a
different color each day yellow, greenish, or kind of a mixture of those along
with some blue in them. I shall never forget the chow lines we stood in. I
can be conservative and say that they were at least two hundred yards long. I can remember walking thru the hanger at Déols
and finding a hammer and sickle (Russian emblem) type pen that you could attach
to your clothing, I carried it to Major Thomas
De Sipin and asked him about it.
He told me that NATO was required to hire a certain percentage of French
Nationals from the Communist Party since it was the largest political party in
France at that time, that all the smaller parties banned together to keep them
from power at election times, I found that strange since I had a brother in
the Army fighting in Korea at that time.
Many of my friends were married but they had to
rent houses from local French since there was no base housing for dependents. I spent a lot of time in Loches (probably about 35
miles from Chas), you had to drive thru VilleDieu, Buzancais, and Chattion to
get there (again excuse my spelling) but had a great time there on the
weekends at their Saturday and Sunday night dances, many of the girls didn't
even know how to say yes in English but I mastered enough broken French to
talk to them shortly. There were two bars in Châteauroux that I remember,
one was Le Lido, and the other was Le Tivoli, I saw on your website the old
train station in Chad and it looked the same as when I was there. It seems like the tent area's lights were powered
by a generator, and if my memory serves me right it was not uncommon for the
lights to go out at night. I know this is a jumbled up mess I am writing so
just use it and put it together anyway you see fit or else throw it in file
13 I believe we used to call that the waste basket. I had
some very good Frenchmen and girls that I was good friends with, I wish I
could see them today.
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WILKES, Norman L.
@ Chas: 1953-55
7373rd Aircraft Repair Squadron
Instrument Repair Dept.
Winston-Salem, NC
7-21-04 I'm son, Kim
Wilkes, responding for
my dad. My dad, Norman Wilkes, served at the air force base and I was born at
the Châteauroux base hospital in 1954. Born
at Chas
We came home in '55. After 50
years we recently returned to Châteauroux. I could see the memories flood
through my dad as we stood at the old airfield while he showed me where he
worked. We then drove to Badecon and actually found the little house where we
lived. Upon showing a 50 year old picture of a Frenchman holding me to the owner
of a bar next door, it was an awesome moment to discover this was the grandson
of the man in the picture! Dad's still married to mom, Barbara, retired, and in
great shape. I know he would love to receive e-mails from any of his old buddies
who read this. |
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Copyright © 1997-2008 Jenelle Peterson
Dallas, TX
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