Jim Myers arrived at Dreux Air Base, France, we’ll say around the middle of May 1960. My self & another airman had one half of an upper bay to our selves that looked out upon the south goal post of the football field. This upstairs bay was divided by wall lockers with some other airmen living in the other half of this bay. The east upstairs out side hallway doors were looking out toward the rear of the NCO club. We just went into the hallway & used these doors to exit the S-168 barracks heading out to other areas of the base.

Well, Jim Myers was from California & really a funny individual. He had a way about him that said “I’ll do it next week”. As his laundry bag, tied to the foot of his bed, grew larger & larger, we began to try to get him to wash his clothes. It came to the point we finally tossed his laundry bag out the window. When he came in from his work that day and asked where his laundry bag was we took him to the open window for a look see.

As he looked down upon his laundry bag he said he would take his dirty clothes to the laundry & try to keep things put away. Jim I think was a little tired of us telling him to get that laundry bag emptied. In the weeks that followed, true to his word, Jim turned over a new leaf & became a sharper airman. He just needed to know we cared about him.

I had purchased a 45 rpm record player from another airman that would play up to 10 records one after another. I had some 50 records already that I brought with me from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey in Jan 1960 when I came to the base. The record player was placed on top of my footlocker at the head of my bed. I also had a footlocker at the foot of my bed. Records were stacked near to the player & it was easy to select the record you wanted to play. Just place your music on the player & turn it on. It seemed every week or so I would buy more records from the AFEX. Jim Myers liked the music & he played it loud.

Well, we three airmen on that side of the bay liked country music. The folks on the other side liked Jazz music. We on both sides tried to out loud the other side. Finally I secured a truce from the other side & Hank Williams didn’t play when Nat King Cole was on stage & vice versa.

One night around 10:00 PM our side of the bay had lights out. It wasn’t but maybe fifteen minutes until I heard in the upstairs hallway, at the west end outer doors, a noise like someone scooting something along the tile floor. When I looked out my bay door toward that area there was Myers on hands & knees pushing along in front of him, a half full case of Lowenbrau beer. Seems he was very tipsy & standing up for him was a big job. How he got there from the airman’s club we never found out.

As I approached him he looked up & said “Have a beer”. Myers on one side & the beer on the other side we made it to our bay. We kept him calm but we all had to have a beer with him. About that time the rain began to fall & Myers wanted to put the leftover beer outside in the rain gutter. He was in no shape to attempt that so the other airman held on to the window opening & placed the beer over his head into the gutter. I can not recall who retrieved that beer, but it sure wasn’t me.

Just a few stories about Jim Myers, my Dreux airman friend, from California.



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