Posted by Gene Wentworth on April 7, 2007:

TWIMC- The first time that I ever met Fred Easley was right after Beast Barracks, during the time when we were moving into permanent Barracks Assignments and getting prepared to begin the 1954-55 academic year. My Company Commander, Lou Tebodo, came to my room in Co D-1 and told me that I was to report to a certain room in Co. G-2 in the lost 50's and to make haste. When I knocked and reported my presence, I was told to enter and did so. To my surprise, sitting around the three desks in that room were my high school classmate and longtime friend Jerry Crancer....his roomate John Martling and the Cadet Bde. Commander, Don Olvey (all "55). I was given the command to "fallout" and was promptly recognized by both Jerry Crancer and one John Martling whom I had met at the Crancer home on two different occasions during Cadet Leave periods...when I was still in High School. I was greeted but not "recognized" by Don Olvey, even though he was then and had been dating Jerry's sister Rita Jane. I would have thought that being recognized by my Bde Cdr. would not only have been improper but something that would have made me suspiciously uncomfortable. At that same moment, I noticed that there was a "Plebe" standing at the rigid position of attention in between two wall lockers....and it was then that my friend Jerry Crancer introduced me to Mr. Easley. That was almost as embarrasing as being addressed by the Bde. Cdr, and I could just imagine what this fellow thoght of me falling out with him in a brace against the wall who was introduced to me as "Mr. Fox Oboe Easley"......a name that I called Fred for as long as we knew each other. That is the handle that his squad leader Jerry Crancer had given him, and not even Fred ever knew why Jerry coined that name. Fred later confessed that even though he and I had not met in Beast Barracks that when he was introduced to me he just knew that he would hate my "BJ" ass forever. As it turned out, Fred and I became very close friends through other mutual contacts and remained so all four years at the Academy. It was not until the Class Trip to Thailand, Singapore and China in 1992 that Fred (sans Frau)my JoAnne and I met up and reunited. Fred was writing scripts for TV at that time, and we had great fun getting reacquainted, telling lots of stories about our many years apart and lying a lot about our prowess as Cadets some of which had to do with our first meeting in September 1954. During the Class Trip we usually sat together on the buses, the trains,the boats and the planes. In fact, it was Fred who was the last person off the plane from somewhere to Xian (to see the TerraCotta Warriors)....Fred was getting something from behind his seat...pushed too hard and caused every seat back in the plane to collapse forward like dominoes. Those who saw just how the Chinese planes seats collapsed were quite thankful to Fred that they would not have to fly anywhere again in that same plane. Fred said that was just one more credit to Mao's ingenuity. And from that point on Mao became an obsession with Fred. As many of you may remember we saw a lot of Mao's fat grinning face on the walls in BeiJIng and all around the country to include on the Great Wall itself. One evening in some town along the way, we stayed in a hotel that was right next door to a Chinese Dance Hall that featured Carioci. JoAnne, Fred and I decided to go into this dance hall got a table ordered a few drinks that featured an alcoholic beverage that was reminiscient of turpentine....but cheap, and we all three got just high enough to finally take over the band stand and do a little impromptu singing. It was pretty easy, because we were the only peolle in the throng of young Chinese in the hall who spoke English and all of the songs were in English with Chinese character subtitles !!! Well, the young people seemed to really be enjoyed the singing and antics of us CONUS Clowns....until we broke out singing one of the songs that we all sang frequently on the many bus trips ....especially when we passed a painted picture or banner of old Mao himself...sounding only a little bit like Eddy Cantor....."Mao, He's Makin' Eyes at Me !!!!" As you can imagine, the whole dance hall got silent and all eyes were on the bandstand. Fred casually took a mike went to the front, bowed deeply and then said in his impish and clever way. "Ladies and Gentlemen....It has been a pleasure to have been able to entertain you tonight, and we hope that you will come to hear us when we open Shanghai tomorrow night !!! With that we hightailed it out the side door and ran across the parking lot to safe sanctuary in our Hotel. Fred will be remembered as a pleasant and jolly fellow who enjoyed life and proved that those comments written in the Howitzer back in 1958 were prophetically true "....this same determination and abilty (of doing well ) when it counts, made Fred (Fox-Oboe-Easley)a close and dependable friend..." May It Be Said Well Done !! Rest in Peace Good Buddy !!

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