Back To Portland, Again

My father was able to calm down after moving the family back to Portland, Oregon.  From here on out he would often be gone for extended temporary duty assignments (TDY).  But, when he was home he was occasionally the man I wanted to remember but mostly the man I do not.  He absences were so pronounced that in our little town that father was believed to have abandoned the family!  And when he was around it was not pleasant on my backside, punishments were meted out whether earned or not.  Something was really wrong with him internally, I was to realize as an adult.

Every summer, I would be able to go stay with my great uncle, whom I still admire and have to give him the nod for being the major contributor in forming my inner values.  He was my real father, the man whom visited our family I no longer knew.

Of course, my great uncle was ancient and only lived until I was 10 but those were important years for me.

If from father I learned to appreciate opera and Wagner, hiking and nature, the stars and space.  Then from Leonard I learned fishing, boat building, self subsistence, dairy herd management and everything there is to know about chickens.  But, he also taught me about wealth, generosity, helping the poor and honoring the dead.

Yeah, between the two of them I was shaped to understand technology and dream, as well as, to have my boots ground in the cow-pies and how to milk a cow.  Combined, this created a bit of a challenge for my future teachers......

Back Home

This part has now been rewritten several times.  It is hard to write this part and not say what I have promised myself not to say.....  So, long post has been mostly parred down:

What was to follow for father was now to spend the next several years in some special classes to catch him up to date with the state of the art in mass destruction.  To do that he was sent down to Sandia Labs, as well as, Lawrence Livermore Labs.  And though I was but a small boy, I remember those labs well - which would be much to the shock to everyone whom just wrote me off as "that curious toddler".

Yeah, I can remember those years very well, the odd characters whom floated in and out of that creative scientific community.  But the names are long gone.

My strongest memory was of one of the scientists whom always carried a spare zipper in his pocket.  When some particularly interesting problem was poised, he would dig out that zip and just zip and un-zip it!  "Kris, notice this zipper, how the teeth fall together with such ease.  How could someone have conceived of something so simple and yet so strong in holding our pants together ..."

And there was another scientist I remember whom loved reptiles and always had one in one of his pockets to play with while he thought.

Yeah, they were an odd bunch, but they loved having me around and all of those meetings were stored in my memory, which would bite me later in life.  But, although I might remember them, I could in no way understand until I was much older.

:^)

Spies Like Us

55,000 in this Protest

Now in the world of politics, Hungary was to stage a rebellion against its Soviet occupiers.  The previous year Austria had gained it freedom, from the Soviet Union, and Hungary, a country long associated with Austria, wanted its freedom as well.  The Soviets thought otherwise.

Much of the blame for the two uprising in Hungary and later in Czechoslovakia can be blamed directly on Radio Free Europe - they openly encouraged citizens of those two countries to rise up in revolt, even promising US aid - which was never to come.  It was just a political ploy to give the Soviets a headache - and those games killed a great many innocent people whom trusted the radio voices.

No Russian Sense of Humor

Now, if Hungary was in revolt, the US Military Intelligence community really wanted a chance to get their hands on some of the Eastern Bloc Scientists and find out where the Soviet Union had gone with its nuclear capabilities.  But, in order to do so, one would have to find someone whom had a first hand knowledge of the subject and spoke the languages.  Getting an idea where this one is going?

Back in Iceland, father had been blinded in an explosion.  No real idea what he could have been doing that time!  He was blinded for a while but when as his sight returned he had to wear glasses to correct for the permanent damage.  He really hated those glasses but seeing is a nice activity.  He was issued a pair of normal everyday PINK military framed glasses.  I never could understand why the US military would only issue pink frames - like it was most men's favorite color?  Gees!  They were horrid.

Father in Budapest.

A few years ago I was researching a completely separate subject and I stumbled upon the first photograph in this post - 55,000 Hungarians in peaceful demonstration.  But, something puzzled me concerning the photo and I could not put my finger on it.  So I blew up the photo.  There, flanked by two of his lifelong friends and almost as long co-workers, was father in his US Military issued glasses!  I actually kept the camel hair full length coat from his estate, he never left home without it - unless he was wearing its grey twin.

So, although officially in Iceland for several more months, he was also on the world stage playing spy.  And if you think of it, what are the odds you are going to be where you are not supposed to be - and end up getting photographed in the wrong place, at the wrong time, by a photo-journalist?  Makes you wonder. 

It also was the first hint that maybe there was a great deal I did not know about father.....

Reunion

Road To Keflavik

How was the US Military to deal with the issue of father's past, much less that for all of the post-war Germans in the US Military employment?  They transferred him from sunny, balmy, California to the frozen wastelands of Iceland.  He was made a part of the Iceland Defense Force.  Based out of an old WWII Naval Air Station, near Keflavik, Iceland - the IDF was composed of Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force personnel as well as local Icelandic civilians.  In addition, there were a few Army and Coast Guard personnel attached to this command.

Actually, the base was loaded with ex-Germans at this time.  The official reason?  To do paperwork searches on each of them to confirm their role(s) in WWII.  Oh ouch!  For father this was going to be trouble now.

Iceland had had a moderate sized Nazi presence before and during the war.  This did not go well with the Jewish population of the island nation.  Though I can find no writing concerning open warfare between the two groups, before the end of the war in any event.  There were two rabbis on the island, so twin congregations - which I expect father was faithful to - if for no other reason than he was very motivated keep the US Intelligence Officers in the dark.  Just one little problem - guess whom else was in Iceland!  Yeah, his three buddies he had been captured with by the British patrol back in 1945!

No Shorts in Summer?

So, the military had suspected, the military had brought them back together, the military was looking for mistakes.  Eventually, they did cough up part of their past - but only  in respect to having worked with Heisenberg.  Heisenberg was dead as far as they knew, the atom bomb was now passe and they thought they were 'safe'.  No one could blame them for hiding the fact they had worked on the research to build a bomb.  As for the concept of the multistage rocket they had designed - well let that one lay, after-all, no one had one of those - yet.

But, as you will shortly find out: they were to be risking their lives in ways they never would have thought possible.....