Holloman vet visits base for first time in 62 years

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Siuta B. Ika
  • 49th Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Holloman defenders have been patrolling the base's grounds for almost 70 years, and in the process, they have protected the various weapon systems and people that have called the base home.

One of the earliest defenders, former U.S. Army Pvt. David Kelley, recently visited where he had called home more than 62 years ago.

"I started at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas then was transferred to Rome, New York from September 1947 to February 1948, before coming to Alamogordo," Kelley said. "This was my first time to go inside the base since I left. I drove by in 1962 with my family and that was the last time I was by here."

Kelley came back to the base to see the area he served from February 1948 to December 1949, he said.

"I'm not planning to visit any other installation -- this is my interest," he said. "This is where I went from being a teenage kid to a man."

Seeing the inside of the base for the first time in 62 years, Kelley was astonished at what he saw.

"I see nothing that even resembles what was here when I was," he said. "I can't see anything that even resembles the old base -- not even the guard gate. At the time, instead of a Welcome Center you would just come up to the guard gate and say 'I want to see so and so,' the guard would pick up the phone and call who you wanted to see and they would come to the front gate to get you. If whoever the person was there to see said no, you would have to make a u-turn and exit the base."

Kelley also toured the 49th Security Forces Squadron headquarters building, where he got to see the armory and the holding cells among other things.

"It's unbelievable to have a part of history come into the facility and show us what they used to do back then as Air Police," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Noe Corral-Galvan, 49th SFS electronic security systems NCO in-charge. "He really was the beginning of what we are today. If it weren't for him and the other defenders of his time, we wouldn't be where we are at today."

One thing noted by Kelley was the upgraded living conditions from his time.

"Back then we lived in wooden barracks -- 60 men to a barrack," he said. "We had no air-conditioning, no heat and you had to shake the bed covers at night to get the sand out... But, they have more to secure and take care of than we did. I did gate guard duty and patrolled over the high-security areas where they assembled the missiles and also the areas where they did the launches out on the north-west side of the base, but these guys now have a bigger area they are responsible for."

Galvan also commented on Kelley's living conditions.

"Airmen of today could learn from this man," he said. "This gentleman didn't have any heat or air conditioning here in these extreme conditions that we have and he dealt with it every day. The guys here could learn that it could always be worse and where they are now is not the worst."

Before departing the base, Kelley shared his thoughts on his visit.

"We usually go through Albuquerque when we head back east, but I wanted to make a stop by here one more time and see the base," Kelley said. "I learned a lot, so I'll have to sit down later to try and recap everything I saw. At the time I was here I thought it was rough, but it wasn't. The camaraderie among the group that was brought here for the purpose of creating a base is a memory I will take with me forever."