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In Memory

Fred Sjoquist - Class Of 1961

Fred Sjoquist

 
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01/02/22 01:20 PM #1    

Jack Davis (1961)

Fred was a good friend in HS and we decided to join the Air Force together, we took the bus to Indianapolis on January 7th, 1963 for our physicals and swearing in. We then spent the night in a hotel and flew out for basic training the next morning. Our first flight, in an old DC-6 prop airliner, went to Shreveport, LA where we changed planes to a Boeing 707 jet for the trip to San Antonio, TX and Lackland AFB. We took an Air Force bus to the base where we were “greeted” by our TIs (Training Instructors), it was not the most gracious welcome I’d ever seen…

We did quite a bit of marching as members of what they called a “Flight”, which consisted of four squads and a barracks chief. I was designated as the leader of Squad 4 and Fred was in my squad. Somehow, he managed to break one of his feet marching within the first couple of weeks and after medical treatment, the Air Force doctors deemed him unfit for military duty and he was relocated to another area for discharge processing, I never saw him again…ever. I was quite surprised by his “marching injury” as he’d been a member of the Adams Marching Band in HS. Go figure…? We did hookup on Facebook many years later as he was moving to NM and then AZ.

Joining the Air Force was the best decision I ever made, it really set up the rest of my life and I'm sorry that Fred wasn't able to complete his tour.


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