Memoirs of a child of the past century - 6. Chapter 6 : part time officer

I come back to my 'military' memories, already quickly mentioned in a former chapter.

Incorporated in the signal corps of the Swiss Air Force, I entered on July 1952 (till the end of November) the recruit’s training camp on a military airfield. I had to interrupt my studies but I thought I would be able to go back to school not too late for the first semester of 1952/53.As I said before, I had kept contact with the commander of the military school.

In the Swiss army, the future officers must, in order to rise in rank, undertake successive training periods, then spend time serving with their new rank at the next recruit school.

At Christmas 1952, just after the birth of our son, I received a phone call from my friend the commander, to tell me that I had to report in early January at the NCO School and stop again my studies.He also told me that I should then follow the entire chain (as NCOs in the next recruit school, then the school of future officer and then perform the function of an officer in the next recruit school).

He needed me to become the first officer of a new section of the army, the group of remote radar surveillance, equipped with new long range radars to monitor airspace around the Swiss at a distance of more of 300 km.

This was the beginning of a long military career. From 1952 to 1984, for 32 years, my business was regularly interrupted by periods of military service in the Air Force, first Signal Corps and later Intelligence (Humint and Elint). If I count all my days of service, I spent nearly 4 years in uniform, almost 15% of my professional work time.

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:5866]

Some memories of military refresher courses :

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:5895]

I recall an episode relating to the Frohnalpstock, a mountain in the Alps on which was built before the war a military transmitter. It, broadcasting on medium wave, was designed to warn people in case of air strikes or ground attacks, instead of civilian broadcasting stations, which may have been destroyed.

This system had not been used since the war and I had been asked to test it. The first step was to distribute throughout the Swiss territory fifteen teams with radio receivers, similar those that every Swiss family had in their house, in order to test the quality of the reception. I had installed in a bunker of the Centre of Command of the Army a real broadcasting studio and we had to broadcast during certain hours of the night our own program on the same frequencies as civilian broadcast stations.

At around midnight, these stations stopped their evening program and the rest of the night was mine.To prevent teams from falling asleep (they had to listen every night from midnight until 6 am) I asked the studio staff to produce an attractive program, with lively music and humorous dialogues taken from variety shows. We even had a signature tune, a folk song of the 50s, later taken up in 1966 by 'The Troubadour Singers' , called' Hey Mr. Banjo '. Maybe some of you remember it?

It was an interesting experience, especially for me! I learned it was possible to transform work into play, an important motivation to work harder and better. Giving pleasure, it always works and is the key to all human relationships.

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:5896]

Another memory :The Swiss Air Force has a number of airfields located in the valleys of the Alps. They are difficult to access, except for fighter jets, and easily defensible.We were in the middle of the ‘Oil Crisis’ in October 1973. The members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) had proclaimed an oil embargo. Fuel and gasoline for Army cars and trucks was strictly rationed.

I was serving in the Rhone valley, where there were two airfields near one another, separated by only about 15 km. While I was in the telephone central of one of the airfields in the process of monitoring traffic conversations, I overheard a conversation between two pilots, located one at each airfield.

One of them said : "I landed in Raron (the name of one of two airfields) and their cars have exhausted their Quota of gasoline and can no longer roll. I want to go home to Turtmann ((the name of the other airfield). Please send me an aircraft tol bring me back ".

Kerosene for aircraft was not rationed. A reconnaissance aircraft (two seats) took off from Turtmann, ran a loop of 50 km above the Alps, landed at Raron, boarded the other pilot and made the same loop a second time to return to Turtman.

I was the only one to wonder at that waste.

In the early 60’s, I took command of a unit responsible for providing phone and radio communications between the various military airfields of the French part of Switzerland. I had under my command more than 350 men with 35 vehicles (jeeps, trucks and mobile radio stations), divided among six detachments at various places. Every year, I had to organize a refresher course of three weeks that occupied me for over a month.

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:5861]

Apart from these courses, I had many administrative tasks : to decide who would be exempted from the next refresher course, to control the lists of soldiers and to update their addresses. In case of emergency or partial mobilization of the Air Force, it was my responsibility to call my soldiers under arms. Each of these tasks needed each at least one or two work days a fortnight.

Then came Yvette’s ultimatum !

Between my business trips (I will discuss them later) and these military periods, I no longer had enough time for my family and especially for my children. I remember a remark of my youngest son, on a Sunday during breakfast : "Mom, who is this gentleman at our table this morning? ".

My wife made me understand, threatening divorce, I had to choose between family and military life. That is what I did, by giving up my command at the end of the year.

A few years later, I was assigned to the intelligence of the Air Force, a special branch of the intelligence service of the army. We were responsible for monitoring the movements of the air force planes of Eastern European countries. We had for this on our screens images of our own surveillance radars and images of the NATO radars in Germany. Although Switzerland was neutral, our intelligence services cooperated with those of the Allies !

In addition to our monitoring activity, we had to prepare for the government’s regular reports on the military events worldwide. It was interesting work. We had at our disposal regular reports of the Swiss military attachés in different countries, as well as confidential documents provided by our 'friends', the French intelligence services and especially those of West Germany.

In early spring 1982, I was responsible for analyzing the Falklands war (between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands) and had to make an estimate as to the future course of this war . It started on Friday, 2 April 1982, with the Argentine invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands. Britain had to launch a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Argentine Air Force, and to retake the islands by amphibious assault.

Knowing the maritime geography of the islands region, the forces involved on both sides and the weather forecast for this time of year, I could do an accurate prognosis, predicting the different phases of the British invasion, the weak resistance of Argentine forces and the ultimate success of the British.

As the war unfolded, I was proud to see the accuracy of my predictions. Our group consisted of intelligence professionals and a small number of militia officers like me doing their refresher course. These were considered by the professionals as 'amateurs'. I could well demonstrate that we were at least as good as these, for whom it was their main job.

During my last refresher course, I took part; as attached to the command center of the Air Force; in important manoeuvres of the whole Swiss army. We were located in a bunker with hundreds of officers and soldiers, about 1500 meters below ground (the bunker was built at the same time as the last tunnel under the Alps and was on the same level as the tunnel).

The engagement of all aircraft ground interventions was planned, ordered and supervised from that center. The Swiss Air Force had been modernized in recent years and I admired the complexity and the reaction speed of the electronic equipment of the center.

I remembered the rudimentary means available to us at the time when I performed my first days of service, long time ago. Meanwhile, the commander of my recruit school had become the commander of the Army and one of the instructors, a lieutenant, had become the commander of the Swiss Air Force.Today, the work I did with my little group of 350 soldiers is now run by a large brigade of several thousand men ! But the spirit remains the same.

At the end of 1984, I reached the age of retirement (the officers leave the army at age 55). I put down my equipment, keeping as souvenirs my officer dagger and my personal weapon, a 9mm SIG pistol.

I spent much time in the army. Why?

First, as a newly naturalized Swiss, I had a debt of gratitude for the country who had welcomed my parents. Then I guess I must have in me genes of a warrior, from my ancestors Kazari or from the Hebrews of the heroic age of the conquest of Palestine by the Jewish tribes leaving Egypt (?).Anyway I found a lot of fun to military life, with the simplicity of its rules, with the call for the honor of serving , with its sense of duty. I never had to use my weapon other than the shooting range or in combat exercises, but at least I learned to use it.a recruits school. He had already explained what I had to expect.