People
I believe its time for another sea story. This one will be about Paul Habel - Lieutenant Commander Habel when I knew him. He was our Ops boss, That made him the number three guy in the squadron (RVAH-7) behind the CO and XO, people named Tom Meyers and Ken Storms. Habel had been in the Navy long enough to have considered one of life's perplexing little questions - can a RA5c Vigilante outrun an SA-2 Guideline? Answer: most of the time, yes. In the mornings in the fleet hanger at NAS Key West. The officers would habitually gather in the second floor hall lean on the wall and stare out the window. This always stuck me as odd because those windows simply looked out over the interior of the hanger where all you could see were the Jet Mechs sprinkling ground clay over the JP-5 leaks from overnight. Beyond that was visible only a narrow rectangular view of the tarmac outside. Usually on first sighting me for the day, Habel would address me in variations of the following : 'Good morning Seaman Bushmiller. Citizen Bushmiller, or is it...Comrade Bushmiller!'
At some point Habel got into some curious game with our Ensign, Richard Gent. 'Our' refering to the photo interp shop: IS1 Mark Ramsey, IS3 Mark Edmunds, LTjg Quentin Herring, Ensign Gent and myself. This game involved things like LCDR Habel's stopping by the BOQ before Ensign Gent left for work and filling his hubcaps with pebbles. Ensign Gent was already feeling a little beleaguered having been put in charge of Navy Relief fund raising for the unit. The way that worked - there was a unit goal, whatever you didn't raise toward that goal came out of your pocket. Eventually he decided to fight back. One day after lunch Gent spotted Habel's volkswagen parked by the mess hall. Officers never walked the half mile from the hanger to lunch, they drove (Officer's also had their own little section of the mess hall to themselves - the wardroom). Turning to us Ensign Gent said 'alright let's hide it', intending to let the parking brake out and roll it off someplace. Unfortunately Habel had locked the door. A truck full of Marines who were watching us, and seeing our difficulty, stepped in picked up the volkswagen and carried it around the corner. They glad to help, particularly after we explained the situation to them, being gentlemen they hadn't asked. They figured we had a good reason. I salute the U.S. Marine Corp.
The other thing I remember about LCDR Habel is from some months later. It was following one of the cross countries (we were attached to the flight wing of the USS Ranger, which lived in San Diego in this period) One morning, I think it was a Saturday or a Sunday actually and we showed up at the office on special invitation, LCDR Habel showed us some home movies (super 8) he had shot on the last flight. Now considering that this man might still have a pilots license and be flying for the Navy or some airline. I feel I shouldn't say too much except; I would not have thought it was possible to fly a plane that large through the Grand Canyon at 400 knots.
10:08:59 AM  ;;
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