Those Red Tag Bastards
Their Dreams, Their Lives, Their Memories
by
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Introduction For the most part we were fuzzy-faced kids just out of high school, wide-eyed, unknowing, full of dreams and expectations, clueless. We were children who grew up in the 1940s and 50s. Our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were children of the Depression. They fought World War II and won it. We were to fight too, but we didn't yet know it. Eisenhower was President and he said we needed an academy of the air just like ones we had for the Army and Navy - seemed logical and we signed up, not knowing what was to come. We saw the pictures - it was to be an architectural marvel, glass and metal and terrazzo stone and athletic fields and a chapel sweeping to the sky all set on ramparts overlooking the eastern plains. We were excited. We were the "chosen ones, America's finest, making history,” we were told. But it all started in a much less elegant manner, at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colorado, June 27, 1958 in a set of WW II barracks. Our class was different from preceding classes. We were, “irreverent, unconventional, non-conforming, raffish, offbeat, quirky, unorthodox, unappreciative, unmilitary, occasionally even bohemian and slovenly in dress and attitude,” we were told. Our class color was RED: RED nametags, RED bathrobes, RED blankets and we were…well…we were just bastards…those Red Tag Bastards. We are now in our 70s, the age when people automatically call us “sir,” open doors for us and the cashier asks if we want help to the car with our groceries. It’s not a bad time of life. These are our memories of the early Academy and later life. The class of 1962, the original Red Tag Bastards (RTBs) – the fourth graduating class of the United States Air Force Academy
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About the Book
A collection of stories written by the members of the Class of 1962, the fourth class to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy - the original “Red Tag Bastards” - on the occasion of their 50th class reunion.
About the Author
Editor, Major General Don Shepperd, USAF (ret.) was a member of the class of 1962, the fourth class to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He was one of the original “Red Tag Bastards.”