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Richard Reis was barely out of high school when he joined the U.S. Air Force.
He's not sure to this day why he wanted to be in the military.
An older brother, Charles, had already joined the Air Force, and a war involving the U.S. and Korea was happening on the other side of the globe.
"Within a week (of high school graduation), I was on a bus going down to Harrisburg," he recalled.
From there, Reis headed to Sampson Air Force Base at Lake Seneca in New York for basic training.
After that, he was sent to Amarillo, Texas for jet fighter school.
"I ended up on the flight line," he said.
It was there, as a young airman, that Reis performed such duties as refueling airplanes and helping prepare them for flight.
After spending a brief time in Pittsburgh for similar work, Reis found himself at Ernest Harman Air Force Base in Newfoundland, Canada, where he said, "it was very cold and snowy."
North of the border, he pulled any one of various shifts.
"We worked 24/7 because we had a plane on alert all the time," he said.
It was, after all, the mid-1950s, and the Cold War was very much alive and well.
Reis said the possibility of the Soviet Union launching an attack on the U.S. was not far from anyone's mind.
"There were times when the whistle blew," he said.
That was the signal for personnel to rush to the flight line and get planes into the air.
Reis recalled much of his free time away from the base as less than exciting.
The town of Stephenville, actually no more than a village with dirt streets, was close by.
He spent some of those off-duty hours with a family that lived in town.
"It gave me an outlet instead of sitting in the barracks all the time," he said.
Big-name entertainers including Grace Kelly and Walter Pidgeon occasionally visited the base to see the troops and Reis recalled being on KP duty and handing coffee cups to some of the celebrities.
Comedian Bob Hope also came to the base.
"When Hope found out Reis's friend and fellow airman, Bob Koveleski, played the accordion, he wanted him in his show.
To this day, Reis and Koveleski remain in touch.
From New Foundland, Reis reported to Mobile, Alabama, where he pulled more flight line duty.
He also got sent to places such as Arizona for temporary duty (TDY) assignments.
Reis mulled over signing on for another four years when his enlistment was coming to an end in 1956.
"I liked it," he said. "I wanted to stay in,"
Instead, the newly married Reis returned home.
"I got a job driving a truck for Faxon Cleaners," he said.
Reis later worked for Valley Farms before setting into a career as a driver for UPS. He retired in 1993 after 30 years with the company. But military life was not something he wanted to completely leave behind.
Not so very long after leaving active duty, he joined the Air Force Reserves.
"I got called up during the Cuban Missile Crisis," he said.
The U.S. blockade of Soviet ships in Cuba nearly set off a nuclear war in 1962. Reis was sent to a naval base in Willow Grove.
"It really wasn't a big deal, but it could have been," Reis said.
Looking back, Reis, now a grandfather of five, said he enjoyed his time in the service.
These days, he remains involved with veterans organizations, including the American Legion.