In 1955 I was a 2nd Lt. at the PsyWar Center, Smoke Bomb Hill, Fort Bragg, NC, about 10 miles NW of Fayetteville on the ACL main line. A weekend in June, I got a weekend pass, and cleared the western gate of the post,. not far from Southern Pines, at exactly midnight Friday night, just in time to catch one of the three Silver streamliners of the SAL at Southern Pines, with a round-trip, serviceman’s rate (traveling in uniform) coach reserved coach ticket. Someone can look up the OG and tell me which one of the three I used. I returned to Southern Pines in time to check back in at the West Gate just before midnight on Sunday, and again someone can check to see which SAL streamliner I used . I did have enough clout at the time to stop a train that normally would not stop at Southern Pines (time by shown in the employee’s timetable), but I am not sure whether I needed to use that “Protexia”.
The weekend was spent completely wtih my Dad and Mom, Dad at the time was 73 and Mom 63. We expecially enjoyed a free outdoor Goldman Band concert at the Central Park Mall, with Sousa Marches and Broadway Hits, and a brass- band verson of the Tchaicovski 1812 Overture. Everything went according to plan. Trains were on time, food good in the SAL diners, enjoyed watching the engine change northbound at Washington. It was a wonderful trip, and I appreciated the opportunity to make it.
Especially because a few days later, as I and my four enlisted men were working on some difficult electronic problem in our laboratory, my boss, Lt. Col. Hughes, came in and said, “David, I have some bad news, your Dad passed away last night in his sleep. the funeral is tomorrow morning.” He did not ask if I intended to go, he assumed I would, and already had the orders in his hand to give me to provide emergency leave. The Secretary to the PsyWar Board called and made plane reservation, and I think it was Piedmont from Fayetteville to Raleigh,