Get a job! I got a job! I hated my job! I loved my job! I got demoted! I got promoted! The pay is HOW MUCH?!
I'm rich!
On New Year's Eve 1965, Chuck Owen, Zeke Veron, Danny Gillmore and a few more worked the party at the Alconbury Officers Club. We washed dishes, bussed tables, consumed beverages, poured champagne, consumed beverages, cleaned up after the all the revelers staggered home, stacked chairs, and consumed beverages. All that for $1.00 an hour!
Frank D Kelley '66
Charles Lee Owen
Two things I remember from that night is I learned how to open a champagne bottle and how I really really really liked champagne, (still do!)
Peggy Williams-Schmelzle
I worked the dinner shift at Wethersfield AFB NCO Club for 75 cent's an hour and had to share my tips with the busboy. Still thought I was rich. LOL.
Glen Roberson
I had a job at new freight terminal at mildenhall one summer painting everything yellow.made 100 dollars a week cash.
Leslie Langford
I babysat for 50 cents an hour! Cheap labor back then!
John Hemersbach
My first job was dishwasher at the NCO Club washing dishes...1970 I think. New Years was a blast.....and I think it was a buck an hour also. Loved the English cooks.
Les Dyer
Short order cook at the Rod and Gun Club one summer; '63 as I recall.
Mike H Steuck
I worked for $0.90 an hour at the old Brandon Park guest house for the RAF Lakenheath Officers Club while my mom managed that Transit facility in Brandon. Then I got a raise to $1 an hour! It was a lot of dough at that time.
Tom Mendell
Worked a glass cleaner, bar stocker puke cleaner upper and general all around gopher for .75/hr at the RAF Molesworth all grades club. Got a raise to 1.00/hr when the manager thought I was a GI.He didn't drop it when I came in wearing my letter jacket one night. Old WW2 Italian POW, Tony, ran the bar and made sure the Brit Ladies of the night didn't harass me too much. Great memories. Paid for my Rome trip.
Peter Dawson
That reminds me of the fun we had painting Base Ops, even without beverages!
Greg Sederberg
Well since we're telling of all the money we made in England....I worked at the Chicksands Officers Club for 2 years and started at $0.50 p/h and ended as a grill cook at the Airmans Club making CRAZY money....$1.25 p/h!!! And...I loved every minute of it....I guess that was my calling as I worked in the restaurant industry for 36 years.
Ralph Gaines
Ivy Gallihugh and I worked summers and weekends at the base airmen's club for $.90 per hour. Most other dependents were only getting $.75 for part time jobs on base. We felt rich.
Dave Williams
I worked in the kitchen summers and weekends at the O Club at Greenham Common. Everything but cook. Moved up to night desk attendant at BOQ/TAQ at Brize Norton.
We would love to hear YOUR work experience in England!
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Pop Cochran
Worked at the Croughton 'O Club' as a waiter. Denny Mcgrady and I worked at the NCO Club as sous chef, bar back, short order cook, dishwasher, and waiter. Worked Friday night after we got off the bus until midnight, Saturday from 4pm to 1am, Sunday morning brunch, and then back on the bus at 1:30pm. For the princely sum of 75 cents then later 90 cents an hour. (plus tips). Couple of times an airmen paid me $20 to pull his 11pm to 0700 K.P. shift at the messhall. Crazy bloke chef we worked for at the NCO Club had a couple of Vespas that he'd let us use on the holidays. Some of the best fun ever on a scooter for hours on the English back roads.
Danny Prichard
I just sent this story to a high school friend of mine and figured I'd share it with everyone. I was a dependent at the time of the story and had just graduated from high school. I have never been a big NASCAR fan but I worked at the Lakenheath Officer's Club 72 and part of 73. A driver named David Pearson was visiting bases in Europe and when he got to Lakenheath we set up a projector and screen so he could show some of his recordings of his races and talk about racing. It was a big hit as there was standing room only. The Officer's Club was opened up for all ranks that day so everyone could attend and meet Mr. Pearson and a bunch of people showed up. Well, I was running the projector and Pearson was talking about what was on the screen and this one young (Captain) pilot was drunk and started talking shit. The Captain was a well-known jerk who treated everyone who worked at the Officer's Club like his personal slaves. He was also a fighter pilot so he thought his shit didn't stink. Keep in mind, this is around 2 P.M. on a Saturday afternoon and he was already drunk. He kept interrupting Pearson making smart-ass remarks like "Driving a car doesn't require any skill. Try flying a fighter aircraft and then we can talk." For whatever reason this guy used to get away with this type of shit all the time ... not sure why but the senior officers let him get away with it. Probably because he was a fighter pilot. Anyway, Pearson wasn't a small guy and he put up with it for a few minutes but had finally had enough. He stood up, pointed at the guy who was mouthing off (he was sitting down), and said something like "If you don't shut your mouth I'll shut it for you. Don't interrupt me again." The Captain sat there with a little smirk on his face and the moment Pearson started to make his next comment the guy interrupted him again and said "What the hell are you going to do about it?" Pearson calmly looked at me and asked me to stop the projector, stood up, walked over to where this guy was sitting, and hit him with a perfect upper cut. Lifted the guy right off his seat and deposited him on the floor. Out cold. A beautiful one-punch knockout. At this point some of the senior officers FINALLY decided enough was enough and myself and a friend named Larry Lynch who also worked there had to drag his punk ass to the lobby. A couple of this guy's friends came and got him and that was that. I'd like to say that changed his demeanor but it didn't. He was back for breakfast the next day and he was the same asshole he'd always been. It was the first time I realized just how much slack fighter pilots received in the Air Force. But David Pearson has always been one of my heroes ever since that day. So cool. 🙂 I saw some crazy, crazy stuff happen at the Officer's Club at Lakenheath. I don't know if they're all like that, but that place was a zoo.
