Military life provides many opportunities for Thompsons

SEELEY LAKE – Steve Thompson was born, raised and educated in Missoula, Montana. He met his wife Cheryl at Camp Paxon in Seeley Lake and, after a stint in the United States Air Force, brought his family back to Seeley Lake to live. But those six years of military service gave the Thompsons an opportunity to visit parts of Europe and Scandinavia and to travel back and forth across the U.S.

Inspired partly by his cousin who was an Air Force pilot, Thompson enlisted in ROTC while at the University of Montana. When he was a senior at UM he was put in charge of the fall Freshman Orientation Weekend at Camp Paxon. Thompson said the first morning of Orientation, he woke up to six inches of snow and it was still dumping more. He quickly began splitting wood and rushing it to the cabins so they would have some heat. He had delivered wood to one cabin and when he came back to split more, the axe was gone.

"I followed the tracks in the snow," he said, "and found Cheri trying to split a chunk of wood. She obviously was not skilled with an axe. So it was kind of a 'give me that before you chop your foot off" and a 'oh shut up I know what I'm doing' kind of thing. A week later I asked her to marry me. And she said, 'I don't think that's a good idea, I have no domestic skills.' So I persisted and she finally said yes and we got engaged New Year's Eve."

June of 1966 was a busy year for Thompson. He was commissioned as an Air Force lieutenant on June 4, graduated from the University of Montana on June 5 and got married on June 25.

Cheri was from the Bay area so the wedding took place in Palo Alto, California. The couple honeymooned up the coast of California before returning to Missoula. Already disqualified for pilot training because of poor eyesight, Thompson was assigned to the 1005th Special Investigations Group (OSI) and ordered to report to the OSI District Office in downtown New York. The Thompsons loaded up their Volkswagen Bug and set off across the United States.

Thompson's primary work while at OSI New York was to check the backgrounds of new Air Force recruits and those of military and civilian personnel involved in the U.S. space program, which was in full swing in the mid-1960s. Background checks consisted of verification of the individual's name; date of birth; education; employment; credit status; criminal record, if any, and inquiry into any foreign travel. Verification sometimes required Thompson to go out in the field, to speak directly with an individual's employer or other interested person and to contact people named as references.

The mid-60s was also the time of the unpopular Vietnam War. Thompson said it was not uncommon to have to walk through protestors to get to his office. After one man was assaulted by demonstrators, the commanding officer told everyone to wear civilian clothes on their subway rides to and from work and to change into and out of their uniforms once they were safely inside the office.

Thompson was serving in New York when the new Federal Building in Federal Plaza downtown New York was completed. He said, "We actually moved from our old office off of Union Square down to 26 Federal Plaza which was a 42-story government building. So we went from pretty antiquated surroundings to pretty high tech, pretty plush accommodations there."

Thompson said he and his wife thoroughly enjoyed their time in New York. He singled out the United Service Organization (USO) there as "phenomenal."

"You could call the USO and ask them what they had for tickets, and they'd give you a rundown of what was available. We saw Hello Dolly with Carol Channing, Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel, the Ice Capades, the National Horse Show-and we didn't have two nickels to rub together. I was taking home $312 a month. We would go to Pete's Tavern and share a dinner, then ride the subway up to the show or the concert, whatever it was. And then we'd ride the subway back to Brooklyn and walk back to our apartment at Fort Hamilton."

On weekends in the winter, they skied in Upstate New York and became acquainted with the National Ski Patrol organization. In 1967 Cheri became a member of the ski patrol.

During their three-year stay in New York, they scrimped and managed to save enough money for a three-legged flight from NY to San Francisco to see Cheri's folks, then to Missoula to see his parents and then back to NY.

"That was a pretty big sacrifice," Thompson said. "But family was important to both of us."

Early in 1969 Thompson

took advanced counterintelligence training in Washington D. C. in preparation for his transfer to the OSI District Office in Italy. The Thompsons ended up living in a hotel in Naples for the first two months and then were able to rent a new duplex in the town of Grotta Ferrata near his work.

"This was back in the time when the spy business was hot and heavy," Thompson explained. "And there was a lot of counterintelligence work being done. We ended up getting involved in cases of GIs selling secrets. [The cases] were very involved, very technical in nature. It was a fun place to be though," he added. "We spent three years in Italy and never found a bad restaurant."

In addition to the counterintelligence work, Thompson said he also occasionally did what he called "high-level babysitting." The Distinguished Visitor Protection Program required 24-hour protection for high-ranking or important personnel.

"Sure as the devil," Thompson said, "as soon as you thought you had them bedded down for the night, they'd decide they wanted to go down on the Via Veneto. So we're wandering down the streets, keeping an eye on our subjects, making sure they don't get in trouble."

Thompson said one of the highlights of his time in Italy happened because he became acquainted with the brother of astronaut Michael Collins. Back on earth after their moon landing, Collins and his two fellow astronauts did a whirlwind world tour. One of their stops was in Rome.

"So we got to meet them and go aboard their aircraft and visit with them," Thompson said. "Yeah, it was pretty special!"

Another interesting event was the landing of Hugh Hefner's plane. Thompson said, "Of course all the young GIs on the base were all gaga-eyed at the bunnies who bubbled out of that airplane."

When they first arrived in Italy, they had purchased a used Volkswagen bus. Thompson retrofitted the inside, putting in platform beds that allowed them to travel widely around Europe during their yearly 30-day leave. One trip was to Germany to visit friends there. Another trip took them to Trondheim, Norway where Thompson had relatives.

"We had just a super trip out of it," Thompson said.

They camped all along the way there and back, stopping on the outskirts of Paris to visit the parents of another good friend. Thompson recalled their unique plumbing setup.

"The shower was out back," he said. "You walked through the garden and went in this little shack where there was a galvanized wash tub on the floor. It had a plug in it and there was a showerhead above it. So you got in and took your shower and when you were done, you pulled the plug and the water ran outside into the garden. They were making good use of all that water."

Though they thoroughly enjoyed their time abroad, the Thompsons decided against a military career.

"It's guaranteed that if you put in for a career, you're going to be bouncing about the country every three to four years and we were pretty family-oriented," he said.

The Thompsons' son was born in Italy and now has dual citizenship.

Thompson's separation from the military did not signal the immediate end of their travels, however. Before they left, they purchased a new Volkswagen camper in Germany and sent it "space available" to New York. It was waiting for them on their arrival back into the States. They took two months traveling around the United States in their camper, towing their VW bug behind.

Thompson said, "We just kind of wandered around. We put 10,000-11,000 miles on the camper and saw a lot of the countryside."

Their travels finally ended in Missoula in time for the new semester at the University of Montana. It wasn't long before they bought property in Seeley Lake, built their home and settled into the community. They have lived here almost 50 years.