Jim McCormick -- Drums -- The Shingle Shakers
I don't believe my father drove a milk truck or ever worked in a mill. I certainly did not. So I'll jump ahead to the winter of 1971, perhaps one of discontent, when I was drumming four nights a week at The Village Inn with the Shingle Shakers when I should have been doing "homework. "
Two years earlier, Larry Garrett used his clarinet as collateral so I could get a bank loan and thus buy a used set of champagne -colored drums we saw advertised in a St. Louis newspaper. I guess that adventure set the stage, so to speak, for my continued close association with the band members, our music (for the ages, and perhaps the aged), and our collective resistance to any thoughts of growing old. Larry, Rich Howard and I took off for St. Louis to buy the drums, where upon arrival, I realized I forgot the check. To which they suggested I hitchhike back to Columbia, and they would meet me on my return. While I have replaced most of the associated hardware since, the drums heads are each the original item. Would that body parts weathered time as well.
And so that January of 1971 I found myself one course shy of graduating from the University of Missouri 's Journalism School. Actually, I had completed the course, but had trouble convincing the professor that I deserved a grade. I needed that degree to get accepted into the US Air Force Officer Training School, and subsequent flight training. And so Mrs. Braddock (why should I remember that name ( and I struck a deal – she would pass me, if I promised never to go into advertising. The rest is history.
During the next quarter century, I logged over 1500 hours in F -4 (Phantom ( and RF -4 fighters. While stateside assignments included Montgomery, Alabama; Austin, Texas; and Denver, Colorado, thirteen of those years we lived overseas, to include Thailand, Okinawa, Spain, Germany and finally Italy. Along the way, I spent anywhere from a few days to many months in twenty -eight other foreign countries, and have several large jelly jars of unspent and much devaluated currency to prove it.
Had some exciting moments during those years. Ejected from a burning jet during one very bad day in Spain. During one of a half-dozen ocean crossings, developed engine problems 300 miles south of Iceland in January and spent the next two weeks (after finding the island), much of it in darkness, waiting for the weather to allow a departure. Some years later, I commanded a unit during Desert Storm, coordinating the ground operations of our own and French Special Forces, as well as the combat efforts of the Syrian, Egyptian, Saudi and Kuwait coalition forces. One of my most memorable experiences was just prior to retiring, when as project officer for an international airshow at Aviano Air Base, Italy, we set a European attendance record – 600,000 visitors came out one Sunday to watch seventeen countries perform, with the Alps as the backdrop. For this I was rewarded with a flight with the Italian Air Force’s 10-aircraft acrobatic team, the Frecce Tricolore. How ya gonna keep em down on the farm. . . . .
Since horse-trading with Mrs. Braddock, I've completed a Masters degree in International Relations, and just a few years ago, an MBA (International Business) from the University of Denver. Since, I've found my niche in substitute teaching multiple subjects to high school students in a half-dozen Colorado school districts. It's not the CEO position I sought, but there's something about the opportunity to make a daily difference in the lives of today's kids that keeps me going back for more. Plus I can attend our growing number of band reunions without having to ask permission.
While I was stationed on Okinawa, I met my wife, Joanna, who was at the time a radio operator with the SR-71 "Blackbird" operation. We married in 1978 while we lived in Madrid, and have two daughters, both born in Germany. Meghan is now a lieutenant in the Air Force, and finishes up intelligence officer training in San Angelo, Texas, in March 2005. She has received her first permanent duty assignment to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Allison is a sophomore at Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison, where she managed to make the Dean's List while still snowboarding sixty days last winter. Mrs. Braddock would approve.
Joanna and I have lived in Castle Rock, CO, mid-way between Denver and Colorado Springs, since 1992, except for those three years in Italy. I can be reached at JimMcCormick