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-—--Hoary Lore of the Marine Corps—---
On May 18th, 1977 during the Morning Formation of my fighter squadron, VMFA-451, the “Warlords”, our Commanding Officer LtCol R. Neel Patrick told us that there would be the premier of a new space-based sci-fi film at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort base theater, that it was free, and we should all be there.
I was seated 3RD row center!
After the Colors were presented and retired, a gentleman with all shoulder length curly black hair wearing a charcoal pinstripe suit, walked to center stage, nervously wringing his hands in front of a theater filled with seven fighter squadrons worth of uniformed Marines, and cautiously introduced himself as George Lucas, that they had worked very hard on this film for years and here are the stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, and we hope you enjoy the show.
_Star Wars_ rolled, and we were all blown away!
After the movie, those of us on shift went back to work. In a scene resembling the Ice Planet Hoth hangar, I was in the middle of the Warlords hangar working on an aircraft with the RADAR package extended, and my Commanding Officer, LtCol R. Neel Patrick, in his flight suit pointed at my face with his right knife hand and yelled with a grin,
"YOU'RE WOOKIE!!"
I'm 6'3" tall, my hair and moustache was at the ragged edge of the regulations, and my last name is "WILKE". I did the only thing appropriate; I snapped a salute and yelled with a grin, "AYE AYE, SIR!". And that's how I became WOOKIE 48 years ago.
Many years later I worked on a constellation of 11 secure communications satellites known as "The UHF Follow-On Program" at Hughes Aircraft Company, commissioned by the US Navy for secure communications worldwide.
Inside one of the satellites I wrote with a black marker,. “Wookie was Here,” and a cartoon of a large-nosed humanoid peering over a fence as in the 1947 "Kilroy Was Here" movie (available on YouTube) about the protagonists' exploits during WWII in Germany. That is also an entertaining movie; his cartoons drove the Germans bananas during WWII. An ironic twist, my office was in a Kilroy building in El Segundo, California, the same building where Mr. Kilroy had his top-floor office!
So, a quick review of the level of Epicness:
Marine Aviation Callsign in a Top Secret NAVY Satellite
Satellite externally resembles a miniature BORG cube, so Star Trek Reference
Callsign is “Wookie” so Star wars reference
Satellite is Navy, so…
Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan as “Scotty” and Kilroy were Army Heroes
i will submit that the satellite can be considered a functional Memorial to those Veterans who Served under difficult and dangerous circumstances; without such men and women we would now be speaking Japanese or German.
I am no Hero, but enabled a great many Heroes to accomplish their Missions, and am Thankful every day that such men and women once walked this planet.
Whether or not you believe my tale is completely up to you. But only I know that it is absolutely true! And this will be one of the most entertaining Marine Corps stories you will ever read.
Steve Wilke, Veteran USMC Sergeant
Callsign Wookie, AKA “
Wook the Knife”
On May 18th, 1977 during the Morning Formation of my fighter squadron, VMFA-451, the “Warlords”, our Commanding Officer LtCol R. Neel Patrick told us that there would be the premier of a new space-based sci-fi film at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort base theater, that it was free, and we should all be there.
I was seated 3RD row center!
After the Colors were presented and retired, a gentleman with all shoulder length curly black hair wearing a charcoal pinstripe suit, walked to center stage, nervously wringing his hands in front of a theater filled with seven fighter squadrons worth of uniformed Marines, and cautiously introduced himself as George Lucas, that they had worked very hard on this film for years and here are the stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, and we hope you enjoy the show.
_Star Wars_ rolled, and we were all blown away!
After the movie, those of us on shift went back to work. In a scene resembling the Ice Planet Hoth hangar, I was in the middle of the Warlords hangar working on an aircraft with the RADAR package extended, and my Commanding Officer, LtCol R. Neel Patrick, in his flight suit pointed at my face with his right knife hand and yelled with a grin,
"YOU'RE WOOKIE!!"
I'm 6'3" tall, my hair and moustache was at the ragged edge of the regulations, and my last name is "WILKE". I did the only thing appropriate; I snapped a salute and yelled with a grin, "AYE AYE, SIR!". And that's how I became WOOKIE 48 years ago.
Many years later I worked on a constellation of 11 secure communications satellites known as "The UHF Follow-On Program" at Hughes Aircraft Company, commissioned by the US Navy for secure communications worldwide.
Inside one of the satellites I wrote with a black marker,. “Wookie was Here,” and a cartoon of a large-nosed humanoid peering over a fence as in the 1947 "Kilroy Was Here" movie (available on YouTube) about the protagonists' exploits during WWII in Germany. That is also an entertaining movie; his cartoons drove the Germans bananas during WWII. An ironic twist, my office was in a Kilroy building in El Segundo, California, the same building where Mr. Kilroy had his top-floor office!
So, a quick review of the level of Epicness:
Marine Aviation Callsign in a Top Secret NAVY Satellite
Satellite externally resembles a miniature BORG cube, so Star Trek Reference
Callsign is “Wookie” so Star wars reference
Satellite is Navy, so…
Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan as “Scotty” and Kilroy were Army Heroes
i will submit that the satellite can be considered a functional Memorial to those Veterans who Served under difficult and dangerous circumstances; without such men and women we would now be speaking Japanese or German.
I am no Hero, but enabled a great many Heroes to accomplish their Missions, and am Thankful every day that such men and women once walked this planet.
Whether or not you believe my tale is completely up to you. But only I know that it is absolutely true! And this will be one of the most entertaining Marine Corps stories you will ever read.
Steve Wilke, Veteran USMC Sergeant
Callsign Wookie, AKA “
Wook the Knife”
