11HeSaidSheSaid

Those Lancers Say

The Darnedest Things

Sometimes all I can do is think of our moments together. How much you really cared for me and how little I understood your feelings. I am now an adult because of you. I am strong because of you. I can love because of you. Where ever you go, where ever you may be, I will never forget you.

From a 1968 Yearbook

I don't know how she found me after all these years. I can't imagine her even really looking for me. She said it was a spark from a long ago fire that drove her. Me, I always wondered how she was getting along, being married to that Army guy she met during college. I went about my life, first married then not. Completed my career and looked forward to a trip out west. I had never been there, always wanted to go. It was raining that Sunday afternoon, when the telephone announced that my nap was over. I answered only to hear silence, "Hello," I said again. Then I heard a most lovely voice ask if I still liked singing harmony to Beatle songs.

My God I missed her. We talked all afternoon. I finally hung up the phone, weeping and drained.

The last words she spoke to me were, "I never forgot you, I never really gave up being in love with you. You will always be in a special place in my heart, always."

That was five years ago. Maybe someday she will call again. Maybe someday. Maybe.

From an Email received, Feb 99

I miss "She's Not There" and "Cherish" playing on the Dayroom jukebox.

To this day if I hear those songs I travel back to Lakenheath.

This website is fantastic. I have never been to an LHS reunion-I had no idea there ever was one. Neither have I had any communication with anyone from Lakenheath until the last week. The memories are flooding my mind. Lack of contact and an inability to easily go back and walk the grounds have left a huge void in my psyche. This may be the beginning of something significant for me personally. I dearly hope I can make a reunion and reconnect with friends from high school.

LONG LIVE THE LAYMEN!

In three weeks we graduate and our last two years together will soon only be memories. I wish I could stop time and we would be together forever. I wish I could go with you when you leave. I wish I could hold you for all eternity.

You were the first one to really hold my heart in your hands. You gave my life direction and taught me all that I needed to be a person. How will we ever continue when we have to go our seperate ways. God, I dread Graduation and what it will bring.

Always remember our first moments together, I will.

From a 1965 Year Book

Three kids, and now almost six grandchildren later, I am starting to feel my age! I just wish my children could of been able to experience what I did during my years in England. I know that they would be better people for it.

Email from Laurie Orzen 06-30-05

Remember the first time you asked me to go to a movie with you? I wasn’t even sure if I liked you, but went anyway. I wouldn’t even let you hold my hand. Now I wish the movie would never end. I wish I did not have to let go of your hand and what we share.

From a 1968 Yearbook

The Dreaded Letter So

Many Of Us Really Did Not

Want To Receive. But Time & Distance Were Against Our Best Ambitions....

Dear ( Fill In The Blank )

A.This is the hardest letter I have ever had to write....

B.I don't know how to tell you this but.....

C.Last weekend, your best friend came over to visit and...

D.See ya !

Youthful days are now past

And I must dwell in my present

I see things now I missed as a child

Though I do long for childish visions

A child’s eye is filled with the new

Mine is now suspect

A child can see forever

I see only what is in front of me

Will I always be this way?

I can if I want to, but I don’t

I will see again through a child’s eyes

And all will be well.

David Robinson 1999

OK Stu, laugh as you may. I know we were scheduled to fly out of COS 2 hours before you, but after standing in line for nearly 3 hrs, they couldn't get any of us on another flight. So, around 6pm Sunday night, they put all 4 of us up at the Days Inn, no restaurant. They put us on a 6am flight out (since the Sunday flight was out of commission due to hydraulic problems) on Monday morning. Do you realize we had to get up at 4am to get the shuttle to the airport?

Well, the Days Inn shuttle did take us to the Texas T-bone restaurant, best meal I had the whole weekend. Now I have to write a letter on behalf of Brian, Anne and Rene to get our meal paid for by America west. You can imagine how mad Rene was.

Brian had to call work and take his last day of vacation for this year. Anne had to call work and tell them she'd be into work today as soon as she could get there. I took a day of vacation and of course Rene just had to clean her pool.

So, this morning we're up at am, off to the airport (which doesn't even open till 5:15am). We were 3rd in line for boarding passes, I still got a middle seat. We boarded, FULL plane, no empty seats. Would you believe, after 40 minutes of waiting to taxi, this plane had a fluid leak. I think that means we went through 3 planes already trying to get out of COS.

So, we all had to disembark the plane. An hour later, they moved our luggage unto a back up plane (which was for a later flight) and we finally took off. So, it was a terrible way to end the reunion weekend. I can guarantee you that none of us will be using America West, unless there is no alternative.

So laugh now, and we were worried about how you were going to spend two hours before your flight left., Brian said he'd even take a dirty Reno Air, just to get back to Phoenix.

It was a great reunion though. Tom, Penny and the rest did a terrific job and next time there should be an award given to all of them for the hard work and planning they all did. Give my best to Jeri and the kids, talk to you soon.

Eddie

You were my first real kiss, my first real love, and soon with graduation, you will be my first heartbreak. I will never forget who you were. I’ll never forget why you have meant so much to me.

Yearbook Entry 1966

... I stood in the corner and closed my eyes as I listened to the voices of those I knew 30 years ago. I could hear the sounds of the Day Room. I was back there again. This was just too real. I felt like I was home again....

-----------------------

Email 11-22-99

It's a hard life, not easy, I know.

For I have heard those who've been to say,

"I wish I was a kid again."

Coming tomorrow ? Graduation Day.

Cliff Williams

When I have a few moments to fade back in my memory, I seem to end up on the steps by the Day Room.

Someday, I will go back. I know the school buildings have changed. I know familiar faces will not greet me, but the steps will still be there! The steps will always be there, stone hard, cold to the touch, and well worn. But I know those steps hold my precious memories and those of a thousand others.

David Robinson Email 12-24-2000

From a 1968 Yearbook

..... we will really miss the carefree days, and the gypsy in our souls will be restless for a long time to follow....

Peg Williams

My mother never liked you. My dad didn't trust you either. The thought of you leaving in June, for God knows where, frightens me.

From a 1969 Year Book

....all my memories of Lakenheath are so very close to my heart. My first love was my best love and he still is today. Not many of us can mutually share the Lancer experience, I feel blessed that we can. Don and I have had a great 35 years together and many wonderfull moments in between, but we often find ourselves retracing those steps to and from the Day Room.

Email Rcvd 11-15-1999

I learned early in life

Not to make plans too far in advance

My mother was a military wife

We had just moved to France

A new Language to learn

A place so distant from home

I just learned French for,

" Where is the next turn."

Now we have orders for Rome

Packing up the stuff, marking the boxes

The Coliseum was a lot of fun

Dad said something about Hounds and Foxes

I can hardly wait to see the

Tower Of London

The change of seasons

The change of address

For military reasons

Yet another move, May God Bless

England, Spain, Cuba, Morocco

Germany, Denmark, Korea, Iran

Asia, Africa any where my family would go

You could find me in America or Japan...

Educated everywhere and

world smart for sure

We are travelers, vagabonds, with no regret

A life of memories that will endure

I Stay Excited, I will Never Forget

Many Moves by Frank Kelley

I had the GREAT pleasure of being a Lakenheath student and graduate (1975).

My first Lakenheath experience began in 1966 as a 4th grade student in a quonset hut but so was 5th grade, and 6th! Oh boy, Feltwell Junior High for 7th grade...that long bus ride, the gym was a hangar (cold in winter and summer!). My father rotated back to the United States in 1971 and I was terrified. I was a stranger in a strange land.

I was unique. My experiences of being an Air Force Brat colored my whole outlook about stateside living. We moved to a small, upstate New York town where I went to a civilian public school for the first time in my life! Although I was much better prepared academically I was so protected and naive of the great big world around me.

My father then volunteered for Vietnam. My world changed dramatically.

I thanked God and my dad the day we received our orders to return to Lakenheath in 1973. I was going home...to friends, to family, to the landscape that I knew! Hardly a stellar student, but felt so much a part of the fabric of Lakenheath which had changed from 1966 to 1973 as much as I had changed. But Lakenheath was still home to me.

Now, 26 years later, I am the 'unofficial' president of our ever-growing 1970's era Alumni Association. (Don't get me started on how difficult it has been to find people) We have had 4 terrific "GRAND" reunions (1970-1979 classes and a few '80's and '60's) and each time is better than the time before.

Is there anything else you'd like to know? I'd be happy to tell you!

Wendy Bailey class of 1975

Submitted for publication in JET48, an RAF Lakenheath publicaion. 03-08-2002

"Oh boy, a hot shower!" It's so relaxing -- if you happen to have a vault door on the shower doorway. Expect anything from cold water to cameras! And what ever you do, DON'T leave your underwear in one spot! By the time you find them, you won't have time to get them thawed out before school.

Terry Pulliam Lancer Log June 1964 Vol 4

On June 5, 1964 I will close the door to room 21 for the last time. I'll see three bare beds, 12 empty drawers, a coat hanger or two on the floor, and a room full of memories that will never be forgotten.........

Bill Henebray

The tethered bonds of memories past, I cherish them all!

If we were to meet again, would you remember when we kissed for the first time?

David Robinson

From a 1968 Yearbook

..... four months ago I came across a name that took my breath away. In the months that followed we have talked, e-mailed, chatted and met twice. We found out that our love is just as strong today as it was then and we have decided to get married next year.

Our advise to anyone out there that wonders about that lost love, that special person call them, see them. It can change your life. Wish you two the best!

From An Email Received September 2000

We met in the beginning of my senior year at Lakenheath H.S. and fell in love. We had planned to be married. He was a young airman and so handsome. I returned with my family to the States and began college. Relationship circumstances changed and we both went on with our lives.

While he married someone else, I never married. Came close, but it was never right. No matter who I was dating throughout my life, I always had his pictures right where I could look at them and pine for the days that were. He was not only my very first love, but my one and only love.

After 35 years, with the help of mutual friends from Lakenheath days and the internet, we were reconnected. We were both available and knew without discussion, we would marry, and we did, June 11, 2005. God had answered both our prayers.

Lancers have never been short on expressing their sentiments, views, thoughts, opinions, or memories to those who share the Lancer bonds.

Do you remember when my mom ordered the letter jackets behind Coach Nelson's back...my mom and I were sewing patches on for hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He hated me, but I still have my jacket and it may show up in Texas…

Carol de Runtz

The Way We Were

Wendy Bailey

‎ Okay a little piece of history from my time in England. We lived in one half of an English manor that was previously a lord's house. It was over 300 years old. At some point it was split into two separate living quarters.

We learned from one of the descendants that for each year of the home that a ten penny nail was placed in the mortar between the bricks.

We used to have fresh milk delivered to our back door weekly. We could choose the fat content we wanted. Sometimes we would have fresh eggs delivered too. Pretty cool.

Then we didn't have central heat like we have here in the US so we had to stoke a coal stove that heated a few radiators throughout the house. The main bathroom was heated by a kerosene lantern.

I am appreciative of the luxuries we have now but cherish all the memories while in England.

Karen Meredith Hanna

Me Thinks The Soul Cleanses Well By Confession

I must have been either a sophomore or a junior when this tragedy occurred at Cambridge University. Our English class had been bussed to see Shakespeare's Macbeth performed by the University's Thespians. Anyway, these marvelous collegiate actors and actresses were performing, at one point in the play, Act V, when Lady Macbeth, wracked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband had committed, enters the stage in a trance with a candle in her hand, bemoaning the murders of Duncan, Lady Macduff, and Banquo... You get the gist.

Meanwhile, out in the audience sat our distracting English class, with gentle Miss Nichols, our teacher. The thespians invited several audience members to participate on stage... Passively. But, that did not happen as desired.

The next few days passed, then Miss Nichols came in holding a college newsletter, if I remember correctly, in which opined Cambridge's disappointment regarding the questionable performances of certain American guests on stage, as well as out in the audience...

I think the word "boisterous" comes to mind...

The British are so low- keyed. Miss Nichols, who was usually of a calm, quiet, professional demeanor, did, frankly, let our class have it good! She was very disappointed by how we had behaved, not only on stage, but on the bus enroute to Cambridge, and of course, in regards to how poorly we had represented LHS and ourselves overall. What can you say about this today? Anyway, we saw other plays.

Sorry, Miss Nichols ... we were wrong regarding our misbehavior at Cambridge, but I can tell you now that we were all just a bunch of hormonally and emotionally and teen angst infected America youth, missing back then, our beloved McDonald's hamburgers, fries and shakes, and American television shows. I didn't even know that I was missing out on some cool show back in the States called Star Trek. But I do remember how generous you were regarding sharing your etchings and tombstone rubbings with our class... One of your hobbies.

I'm sorry about my misdeeds at Cambridge, if any, but my mind is now much older and fuzzier. 1966 through 1969 for me at LHS.

Mike Steuck

This makes me smile. I saw McBeth performed in stage at the Old Vic in London in '61. It was crowded and hard to see the stage but it came alive for me. It was a packed house. I still have the program.

It didn't seem like such a big deal to be there but looking back through my foggy memories it seems like a fabulous dream. 2 years in England and one in Germany made me so 'aware'......

I am so grateful for all the experiences and the fabulous people I met. (I married one of them 52 years ago in June.)

Nancy Cherota Sonnier

Nancy, thank you for your kind comments, and I'm glad I made you smile. I had earlier this morning been browsing through my old 69 yearbook Legends, when I remembered, somehow, that English class field trip to Cambridge to see Shakespeare's Macbeth. And, of course, Miss Dianne Nichols, our very patient and wise teacher. Mr Wilson was our band director during those years, and he chaperoned us to a couple of musicals, & I recall excitedly being in the audience while watching the musical Cabaret, in London. Judi Dench, the then very young actress and singer and overall performer, had the lead part in that live performance. This was probably 1968. Can you imagine now trying to realize, back then, that Miss Dench... Sorry, now, Dame Dench, for she was knighted by the Queen, would have had such an illustrious career in her future path? There were other great performers back then as well, Lila Kedrova, I believe of Russian background, also was a very famous and accomplished actress and performer in Cabaret. Like you said, there were so many opportunities from way back then. Thank you. Lancers forever.

Mike Steuck

‎

‎Stephen Childs‎

Lakenheath American High School Alumni

Here's my story,

I was born at RAF Alconbury in 1958, my dad Charles Childs was an AP

RAF Mildenhall in 1963-1967

RAF Feltwell in 1968- 1974

Went to RAF Lakenheath elementary school

Went to RAF Feltwell elementary school

Went to RAF Feltwell jr. high school

Went to RAF Lakenheath high school

I got my very first kiss from Karla Fahlbusch Hilbourn when I was 13 at Feltwell (it literally knocked me to the ground)

I met my first girlfriend Kathy Stacy (she had the softest lips)at Feltwell

I knew my first true love Donna Hart (she broke my heart) at Feltwell

My frst best friend David Blalock (we stole prams and made the best go carts from there wheels) at Feltwell

My dad and my brothers helped build both the Baseball diamonds next to hangers 3 and 4

Our Little league team the Cardinals won the league beating the Mildenhall Pirates 6 to 1

It was the best time of my life as a kid.. I will never forget the great friends and great memories

It was 58 years ago when I first walked up those steps for the very first day for me and for Lakenheath American High School ( first school year was Sept 1960- May 1961). And from the pictures I see the whole school changed, example the main building was lots of glass windows, no name on the building and the big tree was not that big . Many changes but that is progress. I will always remember Lakenheath. Graduated in 1962

Joseph Garcia

Dee Christensen II

I went up those stairs as a freshman in 1969. My dad? An Army signal corps officer flying the nuclear command post out of Mildenhall. Our next door neighbor? The meanest white man on two legs....his last name was Marvin, first name Bill or William... Luana Marvin, John Marvin.....Bill Marvin...? They were his progeny. They love Lakenheath as I do.

LTC Marvin was the line football coach for the Lancers. He was even meaner than coach.

Emelda Fight... Another teacher meaner than tequila... I loved her too.

Mr. McCullough... He held me to a standard my sister set, the year before. My sister's standard was low enough, I squeaked by. Then there were the Alberts...

I love Lakenheath with all of my heart.

I know you do too.

LaRoy Brandt ( On White Rabbit )

Every time I hear this song, it takes me back to LHS. During our senior year, we had the opportunity to see a great production of the play, Go Ask Alice!

I need to dig out my year book, because I don't remember the last name of the girl who played the lead role, but her first name was Mary.

Her acting was so powerful, I can still see her as she put everything into her role. It may be the bias of fond memories, but I still feel that Mary's role as Alice was, and still is one of the best performances I have seen anywhere.

Michael Penko

Well, it's in a moment of great vulnerability and exceptionalism from the rule of order in this old boy's life that I find myself reaching out to simply say "hello" to many memories from my past... Danny whom I have texted with recently and William and Gary and Ron and Mark and Cyndi whom I've communicated with and Kelly and Debbie and Deedee and Louise and Valerie and Tracy and Jane and Trina and Pete and Julie and Gretchen and Paul and others who this old brain has encountered a time when remembering is not always as easy as it used to be... I've never been one for social media nor reaching out to the past but as the great Don Ameche said "things change".

I was at Feltwell and Lakenheath from '71 to '77 and I played baseball and I learned of friendship and loyalty and I brushed against the much greater lessons of love and loss. I learned at a young age as many of you did the joys and pains of new friendships and the loss of friendships when it came time to go back to "the world". I experienced the thrill of victory in sports with fellow brothers. I have fragrance of memories of high school dances ... of first kisses and first embraces ... of the pains of lost loves and the unbelievable anticipation of new hopes.

I see that I am babbling but I'm none the less at a point where I'm compelled to simply reach out and say hello to any who might remember me from some time so long long long ago.

Hello fellow Lancers!

Mike Penko

FB Post 07/13/2018

Howard Coleman

Memories staying @ the "Bird in Hand" directly after landing in R.A.F. Mildenhall from Heathrow airport in London , we stayed there approximately 2 months before settling in Bury Saint Edmunds in a small British town on Phytle close for a year before base housing became available . I'll never forget eating from the base cafeteria across the road on French fries and grilled cheese sandwiches and hamburgers then walking to a fish and chip shop nearby for haddock , fries with only salt and vinegar wrapped in the daily news .