Texas Triangle—Part 1

The butterflies in my stomach, coupled with the excited pounding of my heart, kept me on high alert. I was flying for the first time.

My destination? Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, USA. It was May 1967, and I had joined the WAF (Women in the Air Force)—just one month before my twentieth birthday. It had all happened so fast; I was still in a state of semi-shock.

Just a month or so before this, I was working at Fleet Insurance Agency in Haltom City, just east of Fort Worth, Texas. Following my baptism at age thirteen, I started to dream of becoming a nurse and serving as a missionary in Africa. So what does that have to do with joining the air force? The local recruiter had convinced me that once I completed basic training, I would be assigned to some medically related field of service—and I believed him.

Six weeks after arriving at Lackland Air Force Base, I had completed basic training and anxiously waited, again with butterflies and pounding heart, for my first assignment.

When it came, I almost went into shock for real.

Nowhere in my orders was there anything remotely related to the medical field. Instead, I was assigned to be a computer programmer.

The training would be in Wichita Falls, also in Texas.

At this point, I felt doubly frustrated.

I had lived for the past eleven years in Texas and had hoped that joining the air force would get me out of the Lone Star State. This assignment did not fit any of my expectations or dreams. As I sat on the bus headed to Wichita Falls, I had a sinking feeling that this WAF thing was not going to be my cup of tea after all. When tech school ended, I once again entertained the hope that my next assignment would get me beyond the Texas border.

Wrong again! My heart plummeted when I read my orders.

Destination? Carswell Air Force Base, just west of Fort Worth and less than thirty miles from where I began my journey. Things were definitely not going as I had hoped.

But God had a big surprise in store for me.

And it did not take long before it was revealed.

Friends, we can trust the One who promises us that His plans for us give us hope and a future.

Sharon Clark