Air Force vet lands in Blytheville after seeing the world

By DAVID PIERCE

NEA Town Courier

To describe United States Air Force veteran Harold Alt as “sharp as a tack” is a huge understatement.

Harold Alt proudly displays his Plymouth. He purchased the automobile on a recent visit to his native West Virginia.

The 87-year-old native West Virginian can recite the license plate number from the 1950 Chevrolet he owned while stationed in North Africa.

“L-T-1-7-6-5-0,” rolls off Alt’s tongue with ease as if his eyes are fixed on the plate attached to the bumper of the car.

Oh, it doesn’t end there either.

Newlyweds Harold and Shirley Alt in 1955.

Dates, times, places, car makes and models; it’s endless what is tucked away in his memory. And if you have some time, Alt will sit with you at his kitchen table, or if you prefer in his swing outside, and share his story.

It includes his humble beginnings in the hills of West Va. to what brought him and his family of five to Blytheville. Stashed in between are tales of his military travels across the states, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Yep, no doubt there is plenty to tell and he hasn’t forgotten one detail.

Harold Alt (back, right) is joined by seven of his eight brothers and sisters at one of the family reunions in West Virginia. Pictured are (front, from left) Elva, Joy, Ethel, Corretta, Florence; and (back, from left) Gilbert, Gene and Harold. Absent from the photo is Delmar. 

As he begins to share, it’s obvious that Alt is missing something, err someone. You see, it’s difficult to tell the story when one of the main characters is no longer at his side.

Her absence doesn’t make the story any less interesting, but undoubtedly, Alt would prefer his late wife Shirley or ‘Red’, as he affectionately called her, be sitting here with him. He’d count on her to add some detail, dot the I’s and cross the T’s, while helping him chronicle their lives.

Alt is quick to credit her with service to the country as well, although she never raised her hand to salute or answered reveille.

“As far as the military family,” he said pausing as if to hold back some emotion, instead tapping his fingers on the table trying to gather himself, “wives are not given enough credit.

“(Shirley) drug 3 kids, suitcases and followed me all over the world,” he continued as tears welled up in his eyes. “Never one complaint. I would give her a medal. She was the backbone.”

Timmbber

How’d the two meet?

In order to cross paths with his beloved Shirley, Alt first needed to say goodbye to Brushy Run, West Va. and he did so at the age of 17. And the military served as the vehicle to unite the two.

Born the 10th of 11 children to Glenn and Artie Alt in Sept. 1935, Alt realized his options were limited if he chose to stay “in the hills.”

“Biggest thing there was timber,” he explained, “and I had no interest in doing that for the rest of my life.”

And like two of his brothers, Alt enlisted in the military.

He hasn’t cut ties with the area completely. Alt still ventures back for the annual family reunion where he’ll visit with his only living sibling, Corretta. Heck, he even purchased an older model Plymouth automobile on a recent visit.

Aim High

So off to the Air Force he went, completed basic training in early 1953 at Sampson AFB in New York, before being stationed at Sheppard AFB for additional education and training. 

As 1955 approached, Alt found himself stationed at Hill Air Force Base, just south of Ogden, Utah.

Sitting in his barracks one evening, a couple of airmen, new to the unit, asked if Alt would be interested in going to Salt Lake. There were just two of them but they had plans to meet three girls. So Alt obliged and evened the numbers.

This cycle continued for “two to three months” and it was during this time he became acquainted with Shirley.

“Met in February,” he remembered excitedly.

When did you marry?

A big, sheepish grin comes over his face as he exclaims, “June!”

His popping the question wasn’t the standard “Will you marry me?” though. Alt had learned his unit, the 461st Motor Vehicle Squadron, was transferring right here to Eaker Air Force Base.

“I told her I had orders to go to Blytheville,” he said recalling his proposal. “I asked, ‘do you wanna go?’”

He knew she wouldn’t join him without the two being married so plans were made for a small ceremony.

So at 7 p.m., June 18, 1955, at Shirley’s parents’ home, the address he still recalls as if it is his wedding day 67 years ago.

Honeymoon?

“Went trout fishing,” Alt replied. “Ate trout that evening.”

Blessed with a new wife and in laws he referred to as the “best in the world”, Alt prepared for a new chapter – one which would see him and Shirley crisscross the world, including a stop in Tripoli, Libya.

First though was Blytheville. It’s a town the Alts became quite fond of and even the trip here was an adventure in its own.

Traveling with fellow airman Thomas Morgan, his wife and two children, the couples navigated their way from Ogden to Blytheville in a 1950 Mercury pulling a trailer full of their belongings.

As the car climbed to higher elevations when they reached Wyoming, the Mercury began to overheat. This resulted in frequent stops – one long enough to remove the hood of the car and place it on the trailer.

Their trip was delayed as they repeatedly waited for the engine to cool. They did happen upon a service station where their military service led the attendant to offer them some water – “a hot commodity in Wyoming” – for the radiator.

“We pulled into Blytheville at night,” said Alt who remembers there being no vacancies at the local motels. “We even drove to Osceola and given the hour, we couldn’t raise anyone at the Judge Motel.”

Left with little choice, Morgan pulled the Mercury behind an Osceola service station, and the six of them slept in the car overnight.

As there was little or no vacancy at the local motels, housing itself proved scarce in the Northeast Arkansas town.

Yet, Alt said the town grew on him and his wife.

“People were very nice,” he described of the 50s Blytheville atmosphere. “The town wasn’t quite prepared for (military) coming in but we couldn’t get over the hospitality that was shown us.”

Eaker, even though it closed in 1992, is what he calls his favorite Permanent Change of Station (PCS) – one of his 15 such moves while in the service.

“I was disappointed when all bases began to close especially Eaker,” he said offering his opinion. “It never should have closed. It was efficiently run, no harsh weather, and darn good facilities.”

Shores of Tripoli

Alt took a brief hiatus from the Air Force but re-enlisted after he determined he “didn’t like the brick or concrete and wanted to see some grass.”

However, the green grass wasn’t in his immediate future as he drew an assignment in the sands of Tripoli, Libya.

And Alt doesn’t hesitate to say Wheelus AFB in British-occupied Libya was his least favorite PCS.

“Just the culture change,” he explained. “It was unlike anything that Shirley and I were accustomed to.”

Yes, Shirley and young son Russ boarded a plane and joined Alt after a 26-hour flight.

Though he was likely ready to leave no sooner than he arrived, Alt’s story wouldn’t be complete without filling in the blanks from this three-year stay in North Africa.

“Did I enjoy it,” he asked repeating the question posed to him. “I wished I could tell you yes but I wouldn’t be telling the truth.”

He had his reasons but simply it was, “we just never quite settled in.”

All bad? Well, no. The couple welcomed their second child Sherry while there.

“Yep, we brought a blue-eyed baby girl back from Libya,” Alt says proudly.

Not everything in Tripoli was welcomed though, including a guest Russ encountered on his first night in country.

He emerged from playing in his room to announce to his mother, “Look mom. I killed a bug.”

However, bug wasn’t an accurate description, as Alt revealed; his toddler had killed a scorpion. Russ was fearless as Alt recalls.

“That little ornery cuss would monkey around in the yard out near the well,” Alt said shaking his head. “He’d bring a pocket full of frogs into the house.”

Frogs weren’t too bad, but Alt could have done without scorpions. He was bitten by one while lifting a swimming pool canvas from the ground.

“They always told us if you were bitten, to find (scorpion) and kill it and get immediate medical attention,” he described, “and bring the scorpion with you. That’s what I did.”

Alt recalled his finger throbbing severely but the medical team administered some codeine and he didn’t have any lasting effects from the bite.

Yet, scorpions don’t taint his family’s time in North Africa. Although not the states, it was a country wrought with history and the family did venture into the countryside to explore the area.

Of course, there were rules to follow.

“Always travel in pairs, two vehicles,” he said. “Take plenty of fuel and water and be weary of the desert heat.”

It wasn’t uncommon to happen onto civil unrest, protests and such.

“They always warned us to turn around and return home or the base,” said Alt.

And no matter the base, Alt says they all had one thing in common whether it be Tripoli, Okinawa, Nuremburg, Germany or right here in the states.

“They worked the hell out of us,” he said emphatically. At Wheelus, his group serviced the European Rotational Wing and Alt’s job was scheduling transportation. Among the aircraft were F-105 Thunder chiefs, along with the main aircraft the F-86 and F-100 Sabres.

Alt’s never been a stranger to hard work. In the USAF, he excelled. Often recognized for exceeding his duties, he earned numerous commendations and promotions. He was entrusted to supervise his own team and near the end of military service developed a training program for material handling of all aircraft equipment.

He produced a manual accompanied with photos – his idea – that he and his team used to train airmen from all over. 

Yet, Alt doesn’t need orders from a superior to task himself to do anything.

Even in civilian life, he’s always been a worker. From auto bodywork, manufacturing or just tinkering with auto or lawnmower repair, Alt keeps himself busy. Not just for himself though, he reaches out to help neighbors, friends.

“It’s not unusual to see Grandpa down the street mowing a yard, trimming a tree or fixing someone’s lawnmower,” said neighbor Linda Hoskins who affectionately refers to Alt as Grandpa. “If someone needs something, they holler at Grandpa.”

“Yeah, (Linda) keeps me busy,” he agreed pointing to Hoskins across the table. “I refer to my shop building back there as Harold’s Fix-It Shop.”

Hoskins and husband Danny, neighbors since the Alts moved to the neighborhood in 2006, keep a close eye on him considering he now lives alone.

She checks on him to ensure he has everything he needs and in her absence, Danny does the same.

And Alt, a little hard of hearing, sometimes doesn’t answer the phone and Hoskins is quick to cross the street and knock on the door. She and her husband installed a lighting system which activates when the doorbell is rung. Given his hearing, it serves as an aid to let him know someone’s at the door.

“We take care of each other,” she said, “just like family.”

Home is where

the heart is

It’d be a few more years and PCSs before Alt realized it was time to close the book on military life.

Stops in Nebraska, Arkansas, California and Okinawa preceded his retirement, along with a 12-month tour of duty in war-torn Vietnam.

Assigned to Bien Hoa Air Base in south central Vietnam, Alt reached the country March 28, 1969.

Coincidentally, it was the same day former President Dwight D. Eisenhower died.

He learned of it while in a bunker in the midst of a rocket attack by the North Vietnamese.

“Yeah, that was pretty common,” Alt answered of the frequency of attacks on the base. “Sometimes twice a night, we’d be alerted and have to race to the bunkers.

“If (Vietnamese) had ever got their coordinates right,” he continued, “we would have been in a world of hurt.”

Obviously, his family of four stayed behind, conveniently renting a house right next to Shirley’s parents in Utah.

It was Shirley’s mother who bought the couple two tape recorders to keep the line of communication open between the airman and his family. Recorded messages were always the highlight when mail was delivered.

Letters were plentiful, too, and scribbles from his youngest daughter are still a treasure Alt has today.

There was only one phone call during his tour and it was quite the task to pull it off.

He was about six months in when he and a buddy scheduled a phone call back home.

First was the trek to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. And they had to be there before noon as phone service wasn’t the best past that time.

“Five minutes,” he remembered of the phone call length. “Worth every bit of it though. Always good to hear a voice back home.”

His family understood as an airman, Alt had to do as he was told but that didn’t make his absence from home any easier.

Alt admits that Russ had a difficult time with him being away and to some extent even his young daughters, Sherry and Lorraine.

But as he mentioned, it was wife Shirley who deserved the medal for keeping the home fires burning.

“She was a treasure,” he said fondly of his wife.

Once he completed his tour, the next stop was McChord AFB in Tacoma, Wash. It was there, Alt came to realization he needed to retire and spend more time with his family. He considered a possible second tour of Vietnam, but instead chose to put in his retirement papers in 1973.

The USAF assisted in providing training for the transition to civilian life. That’s where Alt mastered auto bodywork and went to work for his brother in law in Oklahoma. Three years passed before Alt realized there wasn’t much of a future for him there and that’s when he and Shirley decided to return to Blytheville.

Alt found work immediately but the couple did have difficulty still locating housing.

He started work in the manufacturing field at Southwire Specialty Products but left when they tried to cut his pay.

That afternoon Alt found employment elsewhere at Columbia Ribbon and when the company was purchased by NER Data Products, he was one of the few holdovers.

It was there he retired in 1997.

Since, he has watched his family grow to include 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren but sadly, Shirley passed in 2020 – on his birthday.

An aneurism resulted in her death and it still pains Alt to this day but he manages pretty well.

Oh, he and Hoskins planted a rose bud tree in Shirley’s memory the yard with a little plaque at the base. Her favorite sunflowers are planted there as well.

As Alt sits at the table he is quick to point out some of Shirley’s treasures, roosters adorn the kitchen as well as a puzzle she put together and framed. And some of those trinkets are displayed on a cabinet she restored.

“Just can’t say enough about her,” he admits. “Miss her a lot.”

Yeah, Alt’s story isn’t quite complete and he’s never been shy about sharing.

He’s not just a talker though. He has a curiosity about him. He wants to know your story as well.

“Children?” he asks. “Got a picture?”

“Yes,” Hoskins agrees, “we sit in the swing out there and trade stories. But I must admit, his are lot more interesting than mine.”

Alt likely disagrees as he has an air of humility – just as interested in you as you are in him.

“I’d do it all over again,” he said in closing. “Not too bad for a boy from Cave Mountain, West Va., huh? Honored to serve my country and see the world.”

Of course, Alt with his ever-present sense of humor, said “can’t say I’d want to see some parts of the world.”