www.patrickgroleau.com

          In 1972, at Lowry AFB next to Denver, the brand-new Nuclear Weapons Tech School opened its doors. The older building been found to be extremely susceptible to laser beam eavesdropping, thus the lack of windows in this facility. The explosives component of our training took place far out on the prairie, most likely because of the loud noises involved!

          This picture was taken on a clear day, often the pollution produced by the city of Denver would completely obscure the view of the Rocky Mountains.  Lowry Air Base was closed many years ago, and the area is now so heavily developed that on a recent visit I couldn't find the steet where the building had been located located.

- Special Weapons School -

          Six hours a day for seventeen weeks, yet it was so long ago that I'm sad to say I cannot recall a great deal about my classmates. We were friendly, comrades of a sort, but the intensity and pace of our technical training, and the fact that I was responsible as the class leader, left us little time during our school days to get to know one another.  After work, as you can see from my red rope, I was kept busy as the AIC (that's "Airman-In-Charge") of my section of the huge 1000-man dormitory in which I was billeted.

         After tech school each of us was assigned to different units, and after that only once or twice did any of us cross paths, usually the result of TDY assignments. All-in-all, however, my recollections are that these were all really great guys, and, if reading this you're either former Airman Smalley, Bitter, Jochum, or Elsner, please, drop me a note, I'd love to hear from you!

HOME • PHOTOGRAPHY • WORDS • 46350