The Bottle Incident

Before I get around to subject of this post here's another aerial photograph I recently found of Keesler AFB that gives a much better perspective of the "triangle" as it was back in 1973:

Yeah - this picture really captures how "institutional" it was... And on to the story:

Late one evening (well after dark) about a month after we got to Keesler, Juneau and I headed out the west gate (on foot) with another airmen (whose name I no longer recall) to grab something to eat at one of the fast food places... We were heading west on the north shoulder of Pass Road less than block past the "tee" intersection with Iberville Road, when we heard a car make the left turn from Iberville onto Pass behind us at a high rate of speed... A couple of seconds later a beer bottle missed our companion's head by mere inches before smashing into a telephone pole... The bottle had been moving frighteningly fast and there was absolutely no doubt it was intended to cause injury. (At that speed it might have been fatal.)

The "projectile" had been launched from a gold 1970 Pontiac GTO and we got a real good look at the passenger as the car sped past (he was yelling obscenities out the window). We also made note of the license plate number as it disappeared off into the distance... Not surprisingly, we were a bit perturbed... We immediately ran back to the dorm and got a ride to the Biloxi Police Station.

Aside: There is a certain word I have avoided using in my posts because it is incredibly offensive, but in this case I feel it's justified as a reminder of the extent to which bigotry existed as recently as 1973... And if current residents of Biloxi are offended by my narrative, I understand that this all happened many years ago, but it is (unfortunately) part of your town's history... So, here goes:

When we arrived at the station we went up to the desk and began to describe what had happened (which immediately captured the attention of everyone within earshot). But before we got to the details we were interrupted by an officer standing next to the desk who asked (and I will never forget this): "Was they niggers???"

I cannot begin to describe how disoriented I became at that moment. It was as if someone had suddenly yanked the cord that tethered me to reality. I was trying to process the implications of what I had just heard but I couldn't quite wrap my brain around it...

When we informed the officers that the culprits were actually young white males (with longish blond hair) their interest instantly "deflated" (like someone letting the air out of a balloon). They even tried to dissuade us from filing a report, saying things like "I'm sure they were just having some fun - you don't need worry about it" but we insisted so they (eventually) wrote down the information.

Aside: I remember that at one point Juneau used a mild expletive in describing the perpetrators and the senior officer informed him that bad language would not be tolerated in the police station... Yeah - but the "N-word" was not a problem... Ironic...

In the weeks that followed the airman who had almost been hit by the bottle continued to investigate. He discovered that the plates on the GTO had been stolen from a Ford Fairlane in Gulfport and interviewed the elderly owner to determine exactly when and where they were taken. Also, word of the incident had spread throughout the squadron and we were getting occasional reports of GTO sightings from the other airmen... All of the information was relayed to the Biloxi Police - and they continued to do absolutely nothing...

It was all rather strange (the attitude of the community toward airmen)...  The guys in the GTO obviously had some sort of issue with "our kind" but I have no idea what it was. And I couldn't help but think that if we had been locals (or if the perpetrators had been minorities) the police would have been all over it.

It didn't take long before we were spending almost all of our time on the base. (The BX, movie theater, Airmen's Club and "auto hobby shop" provided plenty of entertainment)... And when we ventured out we went to Gulfport, Pascagoula, Hattiesburg, or even Mobile...

Anywhere but Biloxi.