11/14/2013 -
Received the following from Kendall:
Hello, long time no see....".hows abut you all" as we say in St Marys County MD
Kendall Free, left Munich in summer of 1961, went to Denmark as a lifeguard on the Danish Rivera, real nude beaches, to work in a ritzy very private camp for really rich kids from both sides of Europe. Met up with Steve Rice also. Had too good of a great time and by time I got back to home in Versailles my passport had expired and I got around on my German student card until the local post mistress whom my youngest sister who spoke street French with our next door neighbors French Foreign Legion patois was told by the post mistress that she had a French Army draft notice for me to be served the next day by armed draft notifiers who give you an hour and then take you by force if needed in the name of the Republic that was losing its butt in Algeria Francais.. My Dad, a SHAPE US Army political officer, swore me in to the US Army that afternoon and the next morning I met the draft guys in US uniform with a still warm laminated ID card. They were not amused and my talking back to them in my really bad street German really pissed them off but the went away. Next day I was on my way to Frankfort when the Berlin crisis hit the fan and I went straight to Berlin town with my still long really sun bleached hair, German clothing, and money but for 12 hours a day I was a totally untrained US dogface looking at East Germans and Russians about 30 meters away and then for 12 hours I was acting just like in Munich out on the streets in civies and having a great time with no thought of what was going on around me on the serious side. Six weeks later Kennedy and Krushouv winked and blinked and the Army booted me right into basic training in the swamps of New Jersey called Fort Dix. Did 2 tours in Greenland protecting Americas fresh ice supply, learned surveying and how to run a nuclear power plant, then computer programming and hit the streets as a buck sargeant in Oct 1964 in the inactive reserves. Army wanted to commission me as Viet nam was on the horizon but I told them "no way Jose" and even my Father as a 2 star said "I see why you said no" and that was that.
Graduated U of Md in 1969 with a BA in Soviet History minors in math/computer sciences and then went to American Univ to get a MS in Cpmputer Systems. Did the get the man to the moon and back thing, did a lot spelunking in the Appalacians and got into cave paleotology with Carneigh Institute starting in 1967 and am still doing it.
Retired from the CIA in 1995 so you see being in Munich and all that stuff as I hopped all over the Federal Govt in DC. with my funny U of Md degree worked out.
Bought a house in Silver Spring MD in 1976 for all the wrong reasons and still live there. Married an NSA crypie of Greek extraction and have a son who is a parttime forester and scrabbling for a full time job. Wife raises bees for their honey and bees wax for really expensive candles at our second house on the Bay where I have an old cranky fishing boat and fish a lot without my success. Such is life.
I did not plan any of this and just sort of lucked out. Health is good for a 72 year old bum. I see the Metzgers ie Diana McCough MD and Jim PHD in Chem who recently retired from his only ever job with Dupont, the Whitworths ie Myrna and John, and Mike League.
cheers, Kendall Free
freek@erols.com
(see below for updated email)
==========
7/21/2017 email and 8/4/2017 phone call - Additional info
and Update:
Kendall
Free here, at U of Md fall 1959 thru may 1961, You were student council pres
and I was the store manager.
Home
base was in Versailles along with Nina Davis (d) and Katy Shea. My
pop was Secretary of SHAPE for General Norstadt USAF.
After
Munich went with Steve Rice, guy with polio limp but great German and he got
by in Danish, as we became bronze gods of the Danish Riveria up in
Fredricksvaerk on Zeeland. Joined US Army and did first 6 weeks in
Berlin as Kennedy and Krusshouf winked at each other while I played army for
12 hours looking at scowling Russians and then was loose on the streets of
Berlin with longish hair and German clothing and lots of DM from the ritsy
camp I worked at. Came back to states for basic/advanced training as I had
been well schooled in military stuff was made soldier of the year for
first army at FT DIX and was sent to Greenland to teach Arctic warfare as i
could shoot everything expertly, skied, and my Danish was ok so I could talk
to the Danes and their Inuit natives.
After
army, finished at College Park in Russian history/math and American U in
Computer Systems and in 1995 retired from the CIA with a couple of medals.
Married with a 30 year old son and live in a house on the lower Cheaspeake Bay
Maybe
I will see you at the December MMDC toot. Last year it was an ice
storm and at our age I do not do slick DC streets so I passed.
How
about you?
Cheers
cell
240-595-0509
(updated
email: freek@starpower.net )