My stories are based on personal experiences and are as close to accurate to what actually happened as I can remember, and I have a pretty good memory (even many years later).
Nobody in this story (that had sex) was underage.
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Chapter 1 — The Early Years
Pete was born in 1949 to a father who was an Air Force pilot and a stay-at-home mother. His dad piloted mostly multi-engine planes, and because of that, spent his career in either bombers or cargo aircraft. It was a good career, and his father was one of the best pilots around (according to those who had known Pete’s father professionally). There were a lot of times when crew members would tell Pete that they trusted his father more than any other pilot they had ever flown with.
What his father’s career meant to Pete and his siblings as they were growing up was that they were never in one place for very long. He went to ten different schools growing up. Because most of his friends were also Air Force brats, either his father or their father would get orders, and Pete would never see them again. The result was that Pete became very skilled at making new friends, but had no idea how to maintain long-term relationships. This shaped a lot of what Pete did throughout his life.
Pete got into the Boy Scouts when he was 10 1/2 years old. He loved it immediately. The first Boy Scout troop he joined was sponsored by his father’s bomb wing, which meant it had good adult leadership and lots of boys. It was known as a “no match” troop. In other words, boys had to start their fires using methods that did NOT require matches or lighters. Pete became very proficient starting fires with flint and steel, friction and magnifying glasses.
The troop also emphasized survival skills, since the scoutmaster ran the survival shop on base and pushed these skills. Pete learned orienteering with maps and compass and traveling in various weather conditions, both day and night. He became quite good at hiking at night because he had excellent night vision. He went on and later led dozens of night hikes with the Boy Scouts. He also learned about what could or could not be eaten, how to make water safe to drink, and how to avoid venomous critters. He had no idea that this training would save his life later many times when he was assigned to ferret out NVA strongholds along the Ho Chi Minh Trail … all while avoiding becoming a casualty. However, that was far in the future.
Pete enjoyed Scouting, and he did well. During his time in Scouting (in three different troops due to transfers), he held every leadership position in a troop that was possible for a boy, and he was elected a vigil honor member of the Order of the Arrow (Scouting’s service organization). Pete took three important traits from the Boy Scouts: outdoor skills, leadership, and service to others.
It wasn’t until Pete got to his final high school that he finally got into sports. His parents had started him in school early, so he was always younger and smaller than the other boys in his grade level. Therefore, he was usually always chosen last when it came time to pick teams.
He transferred into his final school midway through his junior year, and he was finally starting to catch up with his peers in strength and coordination. He got into football and wrestling and did well, even though he was a novice at both.
He also became an object of desire to the girls in his new school (isn’t it always that way with new boys and girls at a school?), and he suddenly found himself being paired up with cute girls in his new school. There seemed to be a lot of gossip, and he often overheard girls talking about this girl or that girl’s attraction to him.
Unfortunately, Pete really had no experience in how to handle the opposite sex, and he muffed it pretty bad. He was intimidated by girls, and he didn’t want to do anything that might reflect badly on his father (who by that time was a colonel). Therefore, he was hesitant to push a girl into doing anything they might object to. Since this was in the 1960’s, that covered a lot of territory.
Pete had dates for proms and dances, but he never became intimate with any girls he dated. He never even kissed any of them. I have to rack that up to naivety and inexperience. Once he found out what he had been missing, he made up for it in spades (see the Filipinas series).
After Pete graduated from high school, he got a job as a backpacking guide in the Sierras. His summer after graduation was spent leading people around the wilderness areas of the Sierra Mountains to the west and south of Lake Tahoe. It was a happy time. Pete hadn’t done all that well in high school, and he was pretty sure that he would fail if he went directly to a university. He had done well enough in high school to get into a university, but not well enough to sustain him through to a degree. Therefore, he decided to start out his adult life by going into the military like his father had.
Pete’s father had joined the Army Air Corps during World War 2 as an enlisted man, but then went through Air Cadet training to become a pilot. He served as a B-24 pilot during the war, and then went on to fly 28 different planes during his Air Force career. This was the world that Pete was born into. Pete didn’t turn 18 until the fall after he graduated, so he waited until his birthday to visit the Air Force recruiter’s office.
While at the recruiter’s office, Pete took the aptitude tests and also a bypass test to become an engineering draftsman, which he passed. He did well enough on the aptitude tests that he was deemed qualified to go into any field the Air Force offered. Passing the bypass test gave him an automatic 3-level in that specialty code, an ensured promotion soon after basic training, and a guaranteed assignment in engineering drafting.
Reality hit when Pete reached his first assignment after basic training. His orders sent him to the personnel section on the base instead of directly to the Civil Engineering Squadron, which should have been a red flag for what was to come. However, Pete still believed that the system would treat him right, so he accepted being assigned to the Base Supply Squadron “until there was an opening” for a draftsman at Base Civil Engineering.
Pete kept himself busy and learned his job and everything he could about logistics while he was in supply. He quickly earned a 3-level in inventory management and then turned around and completed the course to earn a 5-level. That meant that his pathway for promotion was clear for the foreseeable future, since he had already learned that promotion qualifications allowed that promotions could be given regardless of where the required skill level had been achieved. He also got a secret security clearance because of his job in Base Supply.
It was during this time, that Pete was introduced to a cute Mormon girl who lived in the nearby city by a friend of his mother (who was also a Mormon and the wife of another colonel who had flown with Pete’s dad). Jill was a beautiful girl with long, dark brown hair and dark eyes that were captivating. Amazingly, Jill’s Mormon parents liked Pete even though he was a Catholic. They trusted the mutual friend enough to believe that Pete would be a gentleman with their daughter. However, they set strict rules on what he and Jill could and couldn’t do while on dates. For one thing, Jill was not allowed to ride on the back of the motorcycle that Pete had just purchased. Another rule was a strict curfew. It just meant that Pete and Jill had to walk or take a bus and plan their dates out a little better.