Milford chronicle., 1958-06-20
I'm THE AIR FORCE"
BY EloIns Townsend Dicksrson

light and | waited while the cars
going east and west, rushed their
passengers home to their base
ments.
Just as | drove into our drive
way the man on the radio announ-
ced TAKE COVER. can't re-
member being so nervous / couldn't
turn off the ignition key. We left
our groceries sit in the car and
truly ran for our lives. Two doors
down the street we had always
planned to go in case of a tornado,
but as | drove past the house COM
ing home | could see that there
was no one home. | had in the
house two house keys of neighbors
of ours--one of which has a base
ment. / prayed IL be able to find
that key instantly.
We think our children are the
very best children in the world
as all parents do. But yesterday I
cry command that | gave Dawn
during this emergency was obeyed
without question and it meant so
much at this very critical time.
/ found the key without incident,
told Dawn to grab Sambo .our
Boston Bulb and we ran in the
rain across the street to the empty
home of the McKenneys CA F.
family on leave in California;. An
other neighbor was in the street at
the time and | yelled to Major
Doug Hagey and told him to come
to McKenneys, | had the key and
he and his wife and mother-in-law
could take refuge with us there.
| showed Dawn to the cellar door
and told her to go down and stay
down there until l could join her.
Carrying Sambo down the steps,
she went. She confessed to me
later this was the worst time for
her during our eventfu1 day She
wasn't teo keen on staying in that
basement alone, but she did it. /
ran back to the front door to help
the Hagey family in and to ask
them to please be careful of the
owners carpet in the living room.
BY this time it was raining in tor
rents and / didn't want their rug
dihCO- <aCiOSS tHt olitCL at MY
house | could see Roger and Will
ma Dickeys car pulling into our
driveway. They are family who
were introduced to us via Germany
and Adele Warren Robertson. Cap
tain Dickey rushed home to give
assistance to his family (three
daughters-one of whom just re-
turned home from the base hospi-
tai after a three weeks seige).
With them were two other families
all seeking shelter.
In back of our house is another
group of houses built by another
contractor and all of these homes
(the Dickeys live here), are with
out easements. We later found out
that about 35 people knew Of no
one with a basement and they went
distance of about 200 yards to
the Shunganunga Creek and laid in
wet Kansas mud at the bottom of
the ditch which led to the creek.
Even a mother with month-old
baby was in this ditch. 1t was not
time to worry about getting dir
ty. We had people in this neigh
hood who had guests in their
basement they had never seen he
fore.
BY the time the storm was over
head (and the tunnels were right
above Topeka, but did not touch
the ground) we had 20 people in
McKenneys basement. 1t was for
tunate that there was phone there.
Roger Dickey is head of commun-
ications at the base and lines were
pretty we'll tied up at Forbes, but
through him / was able to get
Hayes on the line and tell him we
were safe and where we were. His
only concern then was how "Lyn-
ME" was making out under the ele-
ments at camp.
1t was mad confusion in that
basement-babies we're so excited
they Immediately decided they had
to go you know where; mothers re-
membered that they had left part
of their dinner cooking on the stove
(the majority of the tornadoes here
in the Midwest all develop around
dinner tine). some of the children
were afraid of Sambo and of course
he could sense the unrest and felt
he wanted to roam, there were
frien6s to be notified where we
were, etc.
| would have been out of my
mind if | had known that as soon
as | talked to Hayes he was sent
airborne. OF course, the danger
was over or SAC wouldn't have
sent him off, but | surely did ex-
pect his mission to be cancelled.
We were in the basement, |
guess, two hours. We stayed put
until Captain Dickey's staff called
and gave us the all clear (no one
had taken time TO grab radio).
No one objected to staying there
that long either. We were all just
real pleased to have a safe place
underground.
Incidentally, Hayes weathered in
at Plattsburg, New York. They
called me from wing at two this
morning. I was pleased to be no.
tilted. but thought the phone call
was from friends telling me to
take cover againi
Until next week.
Always,
rn..fxoru~x