Coal Fire, Alabama…facebook page..
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 05-08-2011
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Hey, I joined the Coal Fire Alabama facebook page as a former resident of that er, city, er, town, er, community…community is a good name for a good place that rasied some good people….I was in the military, stationed at Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, NM around 1955 or 1956. I took a seat in the ready room awaiting work orders to go back out on the flight line and took a seat next to a nice looking black fellow who was also awaiting work instructions. He says to me, “Where you from?” And I said, “I’m from Alabama.” He said, “I’m from Alabama too. What part you from?” Well, since I was sure he would not know Reform or Coal Fire I said “a little town not to far from Tuscaloosa.” He said, “I live near Tuscaloosa also.” Well, I said, “I live near Reform.” He said, “Really, I live near Reform”. Now we are looking each other over pretty closely. So I said, “Well, I really live in Coal Fire.”… “I live near Coal Fire, myself, I’m from over in Sanderstown.” Expletives deleted. He was Doc Sanders grandson and I can no longer remember his name. But we had lots of good visits after that. Sometimes this old world just ain’t as large as we think it is…..
What luck? To be so far, far from home and to meet people from home. During my first two years at Kirtland, I never met anyone from Alabama at all as much as I would have liked too. After my favorite Uncle (Renzo) pulled up stakes in Thoreau, New Mexico and left the state only two weeks after I arrived, I really became lonely. Of course, I did have Pete and his family way down in Carlsbad (200 miles is a long way for a poor guy whose only means of transportation was hoofing it); but, then, he pulled up stakes an left the state to get rich in Texas. I can’t say how much I really enjoyed that Christmas of ’66 with Pete and his family in Carlsbad and seeing the Carlsbad Caverns for the first time. It was neat; but, when he pulled out for Texas a few months later, I was so sad. I thought that I had been abandoned in the “Land of Enchantment” by all Alabamians. In retrospect, I guess the experience was good for me because it forced me to develop other interest, meet other people, and make other friends. It forced me to concentrate on my work and to master the skills that I have used to make a liver ever since. Home contacts and a remembrance of the past are all great, but the development of future skills and the preparation for one’s future life are greater.
Back there in August of 1965, it really hurt when my own brother and cousin Scott, who had drove an old school bus all the way from Alabama to Thoreau, New Mexico in order to move Uncle Renzo back to Alabama, did not even so much as stop to give me a call as they passed through Albuquerque. I only had a pay phone in my barracks, but I sat by that phone for hours hoping it would ring. It never did. I walked down to Route 66 (Central Avenue) and watched ever car as it went by, particularly every school bus, hoping to recognize my brother and Scott. Of course, I never did. It was a very sad occasion in my life, but it was for the best. It forced me to cut family ties and prepare for the future. It was time. I was 24 and out of college with a fresh new degree in my pocket, and ready to give my life for my country in Viet Nam (or some such place). Thank God that never happened. I only killed sheep, but killing sheep was better than killing Viet Cong and being killed. Killing sheep was better than the thousands that had to die in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it was worth it if it could prevent another such occasion. It was worth it because it gave me the skills for a lifetime of fruitful and enjoyable work with memories that are almost as important as the ones that I have at an earlier stage of my life in Coal Fire, Reform, and west Alabama.
Thats the first I have heard about the sheep killing. I guess they don’t talk about that very much ’round here…
You will hear even less around Albuquerque (and KAFB) about the killing of beagle dogs, as purebred beagle dogs were used in the research before the sheep. The AF received such an adverse reaction from the public over the dog killing that sheep were substituted; in part because of the adverse reaction, but mostly because sheep are more like humans in physiology, size, mass, and, particularly, in the size and mass of the vital organs, making their radiation absorption comparable to that of humans. For this reason, sheep was a more realistic choice. It made the data extrapolation to humans much easier and realistic. I am confident that, if it wasn’t for the data that we obtained on the sheep, the nuclear arms race, the underground testing, and perhaps the atmospheric testing might be going on even today. It wasn’t always known that radiation is as dangerous as it is. Many sheep were sacrificed to let us know just how dangerous it is.