rebecca madrid - king high remembers
TRANSCRIPT
Rebecca Madrid Mackenzie Williams Wendell Ashley U.S. Air Force 19551983
Wendell Ashley
Wendell Ashley was born in 1932 in Tuskegee, AL to Alonzo Ray and Beatrice Hyde
Ashley. He has two brothers and one sister. His family grew up together in Tuskegee. All of his
schooling through college took place in Tuskegee he received an MBA from Boston
University.When he was a junior in college he interned in Philadelphia, PA with William L.
Charr Architectural Firm. There he met his future wife, Elaine Dockery. He graduated college
the following year. Wendell and Elaine were married December 31, 1955, just 6 months after he
joined the U.S. Air Force. He took part in the Vietnam War and during his service, he and his
wife had two sons, Wendell Jr. and Anthony.
When Wendell was in high school he took an interest in architecture and that is what he
later studied in college. He was called to active duty in the Air Force in June of 1955. After
completing of his ROTC he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S Air Force.
Being a commissioned officer he was not subject to the draft or bootcamp. Wendell's first job,
once called in, actually had nothing to do with Mainstream Military activities. He was called to a
meeting just a few days after arriving at base where there were many high ranking officers
waiting for him. They told him they had been waiting for an architect to be assigned to their Air
Force base for quite some time, and he was the type officer they wanted. The officers gave him
the job of redesigning the entire entrance to Brookley Air Force base. Wendell completed the
redesign of the main entrance to Brookley Air Force Base and the now base entrance made the
front page of the mobile, AL register Newspaper.
Along with architectural jobs, Wendell was also called to many places around the world
to serve his country. In 1962 he traveled to Thailand and for about six months only seleceted
officers and those coordinating the trip knew his location. The operation was classified. He was
not able to tell his wife and family where he was for safety purposes. He rarely received mail
because his APO address was constantly changing due to the secrecy of his locations. Also in
Thailand the men had to live in tents and faced many challenges. The biggest challenge was the
wildlife as king cobras are well known for residing there. Wendell said they had many runins
with some animals. One time elephants stampeded their camp, and another time a puma got in
one of his friend’s tents. The friend did not realized until he was in the tent and it scared him
pretty bad, although he was not hurt.
Another job Wendell was assigned was very special. He and one another American
engineer from the Marines, and two engineers from each of the SEATO countries were asked to
investigate areas in the South Eastern Asia countries. Their jobs were to examine the existing
aircraft landing areas to determine the maximum number air craft this could land at these various
sites. Because of his job, Wendell was able to travel to exotic places that he otherwise never
would have seen. Two of his favorite duty stations were in Japan and Alaska.
In Japan, Wendell learned much about the Japanese culture than anything. He and his
wife, Elaine, grew very appreciative of their belongings and their homeland after seeing what life
was like in Japan and a few other countries. Elaine explained that in Japan the people were very
resourceful and not wasteful. They mended any piece of clothing that was worn or had holes in
it, and they did it quite well. In places like Japan, Wendell and Elaine learned to appreciate their
food. They saw that every family would keep every last bit of their food and eat whatever food
they had left on their place for the next meal and the next until it was gone. Elaine even
remembers seeing a small, struggling child sitting by the street with no food. As a result of all
these things, the couple grew appreciative and resourceful.
Wendell was also able to spend four years in Alaska on a base with his family. They
visited amazing natural beauties and even his children loved it. They never wanted to leave. In
Alaska Wendell's position was Deputy Base Civil Engineer for OffBase Facilities. He was
responsible for the maintenance, repair and construction of real property facilities and system at
the 28 Air Force Remote Station located throughout Alaska. Several of the remote stations where
located at very high elevations and each required a lower elevation support camp. To transport
personnel and supplies between the upper and lower camps they used system much like a ski lifts
with a large enclosed cab. Summers were not too warm, but winters were very cold, so much so
that the lifts between the upper and lower camps would sometimes freeze up. The people would
be stuck on their level until the system was up and running again. This was a challenge, but the
opportunities outweighed the cold and struggles they faced.
Living on military bases was different from living in normal communities for the Ashley
family, but they managed. They were constantly moving, 19 moves during his years of service to
be exact, and sometimes they were separated for awhile, which was tough. Luckily Wendell
knew he had his family in his heart and that is what kept him going. During his first year in the
Air Force Wendell made $222.22 a month and they had to use that to buy food, pay rent and get
other necessities. A meal cost about 20 cents, so food did not take up too much of their budget.
In fact, when Wendell received a promotion, the family decided they did not need the extra
money since they lived just fine off their $222.22, so they put what they did not need away for
savings. They did not have a washing machine so the clothes had to be washed by hand. Elaine
did much housework during the day, such as washing the clothes which helped pass time until
Wendell came home. She also became acquainted with the other wives of the servicemen and
they found ways to pass time together. They would play games like Yahtzee and bowling and
also learned skills such as ceramics and jewelry making. Wendell enjoyed participating when he
could, but around the base he received many jobs that had to do with architecture and
engineering. This took up much of his time.
Wendell stayed in the military long after the war ended. He was released in 1983 and he
said his experience in the military was very positive. He learned many skills and life lessons, and
he shared that he had to grow up fast once he joined the military, but it was worth it. When
Wendell returned home, people welcomed him. Many opposed the war and had negative
reactions to vets coming home, but Wendell never experienced this directly. He then worked
with a few organizations that dealt with engineering and maintenance. He retired in 2006 and
regained touch with some old friends in Riverside. They loved the area and convinced the
Ashleys to move. Now Wendell is happily living with his wife in Riverside, California.
Wendell says one of the biggest reasons he was so willing to fight was because he wanted
to protect the amazing country America is. Traveling to so many places and seeing how much
worse off other countries are than America made him realize how lucky he is. He currently
supports the idea of having a strong defense as a nation and agrees that we have to be willing to
put forth the money and effort to defend our country. It is unique and worth fighting for.