The Colorado College Caper

USAFA Cadets Buckles and Carr (roommates) pull off a late-night caper

It began when we thought of doing something for our first home varsity football game.  I had been previously to Colorado College and remembered the Four Headed Tigers holding the flagpole prominently on Nevada Blvd. right in front of the campus.  Paint came to mind.  There were no Home Depots on Lowry AFB so we needed ATO help.  Bob Buckles knew Bob Hess, so we sought help.  The delivery arrived with two-gallon cans, Blue and Silver, both ENAMEL!

USAFA Cadets Buckles and Carr (roommates) pull off a late-night caper in a 1950 Chevy

I had a cousin who's husband worked in the PMEL Lab next to the entry gate.  They lived about a mile from Lowry where I kept a 1950 Chevy.  Bob and I climbed the fence and then marched in step (according to Hess) to the car.  We found the campus quiet at 2AM and began to paint with abandon.  About two thirds through our task, a police car showed up on campus next to the buildings.  We leaped in my car as the lights began flashing on the police car.  We took off, lights out and down shifting to slow, through the residential streets of Colorado Springs.  Found a dark spot with other cars and stopped.  Cops went by and we waited about a half hour and sneaked north through all the back streets we could find to the highway.  Parked the car and back over the fence to bed.

Surprise!  In the morning, we found that the ATOs had a bed check, and two cadets were missing!   As we know, "No good deed will go unpunished". Class 3 boards were our reward for the caper.  My board was chaired by Bent Wing Ben!  My answer to his first question resulted in the first time he was looking for a response in my prescience.  He asked, "How did you get to Colorado Springs", and my response was, "Sir, I drove my car".  After a bit of silence, he said, "You have to get rid of it".  I said, "Yes, Sir".  I had to walk 100 tours before I could buy another 1950 Chevy.

Bob Buckles and I were the only ones on the tour path back and forth across the quad for the rest of the football season.  Once in a while, we would get a sympathetic boss of Security Flight who would put the radio broadcast of our games over the loudspeakers in the quad.  I believe they were all on radio.

On my last trip to Colorado College I was with Trude See, a grad, and I believe I can still find bits of blue and silver enamel paint deep in the tiger's manes!

Dick Carr

P.S. I just remembered the first time I was in Colorado Springs.  In the summer of 1954, I drove a truck full of household goods to my cousin in Denver.  They took me sightseeing and one of the stops was Colorado Springs.  How things change ... I was taken by surprise as I read a sign in front of the courthouse!  It said in large letters:  "DOGS AND SOLDIERS KEEP OFF THE GRASS".