Word: airman
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...spent his adult life caring for the big plane. A parachute rigger fresh out of the Navy, he signed on with Hughes at 21, in 1946. "We ran the controls every other week, hydraulics one week and electrical the next." Soderberg is a lean, intense fellow who wears an airman's jumpsuit. He saw the plane's only flight, on Nov. 2, 1947, when Hughes lifted it off the water of Long Beach Harbor and flew it at a height of 70 ft. for about a mile. Hughes had announced he would only undertake taxiing tests, but Soderberg...
...Airman James O. Hughes, 31, another hostage released after 16 days, spent most of his captivity tied to a chair blindfolded; guards sometimes placed a blanket over his head. During repeated interrogations, his guards constantly played with their guns. Said Hughes: "I thought they might kill me just for the hell of it." Though he told his captors nothing, he said, the experience so unnerved him that he sought psychiatric help after his release. Explained Hughes: "Sometimes I still dream that I open a door and an Iranian wearing this big face of Khomeini on his chest shoots...
...with an empty look in their eyes. They carried all the belongings they owned, stuffed in plastic bags and pillowcases. Some shied away from the military trucks and soldiers at first; they had been told back home that they would be mistreated in the U.S. But when a smiling airman in an Air Force van tossed out bags each containing a sandwich, a hardboiled egg, a carton of milk and an apple, the newcomers were delighted. Some of the children had never seen an apple before...
...living in West Germany are virtually unanimous in their desire to keep their families together, even though most of them have a lower standard of living than they would enjoy back home. "It's a struggle, and there are lots of frustrations," says Patty Hall, 21, wife of Airman Walter Hall of Norfolk. "We don't have the money to go out at all, and I wash all our clothes by hand because the base launderette is too expensive. But I wouldn't trade this life for anything." A number of wives do find work, often...
...privilege of being together, many families barely get by in the West German economy. Today's dollar buys 1.92 deutsche marks, compared with 4.2 in the 1960s. The Air Force estimates that it costs the average airman whose dependents are not subsidized by the Government $4,600 to ship over and settle a family on his own. Still, more than 10,000 such nonsubsidized servicemen have brought over 25,000 dependents to West Germany at their own expense this past year. Says Airman Maurice Womack, 25, of Providence, who lives with his wife Maria and year-old daughter near...