This story will pull together two of the men from other stories I have written for the “Early HAWK” pages. The third Battery Commander of Battery A was Jack J LaSpina, AKA Jumpin’ Jack. He was the principle character in the story which carried Frank Deutsch’s byline entitled “Night Mission”. LaSpina took over the Battery as a First Lieutenant and quickly was promoted to Captain. He was our Battery Commander wwhen we had that huge fire on Christmas Eve, 1963.
I was assigned to ARADCOM Headquarters in July 1971 and ran into LaSpina there and he was now a LTC. After retirement he settled in El Paso, Texas, and subsequently became totally retired in Austin, Texas. He located me and Frank Deutsch while browsing on this web site about a year ago. We chatted by phone and exchanged emails.
More recently, about mid-July of 2004 he called me and said he would be visiting in Colorado and would like to stop and visit me. In our phone conversation he mentioned Frank Deutsch and Jimmy Goodin and stated “You guys meant a lot to me” and I detected just a slight change in the pitch of his voice and knew that he was speaking from his heart. He asked me to relay that comment to Frank and Jimmy if at all possible. So I did.
When Jack LaSpina firmed up his travel plans, he called again and said he would visit me on the morning of August 11, 2004. Right after I relayed that information to Frank Deutsch I received an email from his wife, Kelly, in which she stated that I should not be surprised if Frank came to visit at the same time. The Deutsch’s live in Melbourne, Florida.
Frank Deutsch had been the Chief Maintenance Technician on the Battery Control Center and the Pulse Acquisition Radar, which made him the most important technician on the site. As he was the senior enlisted man when our First Sergeant was away, he also managed to do a credible job in that capacity. Frank became a HAWK Warrant Officer and retired as a CW-2.
Well, Frank arrived in Colorado Springs around noon on August 10. We met him at the airport and had a fine time reminiscing about our days with early HAWK. The next morning, August 11, we were all up early because Jumping Jack was somewhere on the horizon and we wanted to be ready for his arrival. Almost the entire morning was gone before I received a phone call from LaSpina that he was about 20 minutes away on I-25. By then I’m sure Frank was wondering about the price he paid for his plane ticket versus a possible no-show guest. But now all was well and we planned how we would greet the expected visitor.
We decided that Frank should open the door when LaSpina rang the door bell, just to see his reaction. Well, I saw LaSpina coming up the steps to my front porch and he was carrying a large floral display. When Frank opened the door LaSpina stepped into the foyer and stated, “You’re not Al Garrett”. Frank answered, “No, I’m not”. Then I stepped out from behind a door in the living room with camera in hand and ready to capture the moment LaSpina realized it was Frank.
My movement caused LaSpina to look my way and he said, “That’s Al Garrett.” He was still drawing a blank on Frank. Then Jumpin’ Jack began to look beyond Frank’s white moustache and he eventually exclaimed, “You, you, you, you are Frank Deutsch”! Well these two old soldiers went into an embrace, flowers still in hand, that is forever etched in my memory, because in the emotion of the event I forgot to get the picture.
My wife put the flowers in a vase as all three of us were talking at the same time. Eventually we settled down and this special reunion evolved into the kind of behavior you would expect from men who had not seen each other for 20-35 years. Entire lifetimes were discussed in a matter of a few hours.
And, much too soon, it ended. LaSpina had another person to visit here in Colorado Springs and he was gone.
Frank took Elsa and me to dinner and the next morning he returned to Florida knowing his visit to Colorado Springs was well worth it.
