Manuel M. Villarreal

San Antonio, Texas

April 5, 2004

Joseph Garcia

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - Spring 2004

What did you do at Kelly?
I started as a mechanic learner and when I came out of the service I went into a four-year apprenticeship as an aircraft instrument mechanic. I graduated in 1961, then I quit Kelly in '62, I went to Los Angeles and I worked as an electronic technician out there. That was in '62, I mainly worked on the auto pilot mechanisms and stuff like that. I worked for General Dynamics as an electronics inspector. I worked there for about six or seven months then I went to North American in El Segundo, California and I worked there for about six months. When the contract ended they laid us off so we came back to San Antonio. I started working at Kelly again in '64.

What did you do at General Dynamics?
We built rockets to put the satellites up into space. They were also building the xb-70 , it was the precursor to the bombers that we have now. They built the xb-70 but the government pulled the plug on it. But they took all of the ideas for other bombers from the xb-70. It was good work and I liked it because it was in San Diego.

What specifically did your job entail at Kelly?
Logistics. Equipment specialists they called us. What we would do, we would inspect equipment that supported the weapons systems of the f-16 . and the a-10 and the bombers. What we did is we managed the test stations that automatically check out the black boxes in the aircraft. The radar communications and stuff like that. What we did is we would go out and purchase the test stations from the companies on the outside that made them. We would go approve them before we bought them. After we bought them we would make sure that we bought enough spares in case one broke down we had to replace it. We made provisions for all the parts in each one of the boxes in there. Our test station would have a spectrum analyzer, a scope, a counter and all this other stuff. We made sure that we had the supplies to repair it. You see, Kelly was repairing the instruments for the aircraft. We would sometimes go on the flight deck with a blue suiter to double check all of the instruments.

Why did you originally want to work at Kelly?
That was the best job there was in San Antonio. It was either Kelly, City Public Service, or the telephone company, but CPS and the telephone company really didn't hire Chicanos at the time. The only one that would hire Chicanos was the water board and that was to dig ditches.

Did you have to have much education to work at Kelly ?
No that's why I went through a four-year apprenticeship program. I went up the ladder, I started at mechanic learner, then I went through an apprenticeship, then got my journeyman. As a blue collar, I went up to wg-13. That's about as high as you can go without being a supervisor. There was only five of us on the base that were wg-13. I got my promotions but I worked for them. I didn't believe in the union or anything like that. I always said if you work your ass off and you know what you're doing then you can challenge your god-damned supervisor even if he hates Chicanos. You have to have ammunition to fight you can't just walk up and say "I want a raise."

Do you remember what was going during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
I was in California at that time working for North American Aviation.

Was it the same thing like how it was with the Taliban where everyone was preparing for attacks and war?
Yeah, everyone was going out and getting food supplies and all that. The United States government was definitely prepared.

Did the family take any type of special precautions in case of war?
Yeah, the Civil Defense would kick in if they decided to pop the United States. Your mother and your Uncle Manuel were little and we lived in a little neighborhood. They would tell you what building to go to or where they had the air defense. I was at work and we heard on the radio and then I came home and got your grandma and went straight to the store and we filled up the basket and there was people everywhere buying up all the food.

So they told you were to go?
Yeah everyone had their designated shelter if they blew the alarms, there were also designated exits out of the city because we lived so close to Los Angeles.

How long did it take after the crisis for everything to get back to normal?
It wasn't that long, not long at all. Whenever they back out everyone was like OK. Then the race was on for the space program.

Now looking back do you think that we were overreacting to the Russians?
No it was pretty real. The Russians did back off though. Of course you know Kennedy made some sort of deal, him and Khrushchev.

Within the last couple of years, we have gone to a color coded alert system for the general public. Was there anything like that during the '60s?
Not really, sometimes they would put us on alert and they wouldn't let anyone off of the base.

Why would they put the base on alert?
Because they would suspect sabotage or something like that.

Did anything ever serious happen?
No. Not that we're aware of. If you were just about ready to come off of work and they had the red alert you would be stuck on base. The longest I was ever held was just about two hours.

So after the Cuban Missile Crisis it was off the the race for space; was it a big deal in day to day life?
Yeah, Russia put up satellites and Kennedy said we have to get one up too. We had to get ready for space. When I was working for General Dynamics we were making the rockets to put the satellites up in space.

Some people say that we didn't really walk on the moon; that it was staged so it would seem like we beat the Russians. Did anyone think that when it happened?
No, I certainly couldn't believe that we were walking on the moon and I still don't. I could see the government faking it. It's not impossible to land on the moon, but I wouldn't put it past the government to fake it. I do remember when we landed on the moon. The spider spaceship landed on the moon; that was something when it landed and they got off and walked on the moon and all. But no, no one doubted it. When that happened everyone was like "Yeah, we got it." That was in '69.