Bio - Details
My name is Virgil Lee Fuqua III and I was born on February 7, 1947 in the city of Oakland, County of Almeda in California. I did not stay long. Yes, that my handsome person in the picture to the right.
Now if you think I'm going to tell some of my deep dark secrets you're really
sadly mistaken. I have outlived many of those and they are now buried deep so that where they are staying. But here's the general substance of my life.
I always claimed as a child that my family must be gypsy. We were always moving. Between the time of my birth and the age of twelve we lived in three states. I attended more then seven elementary schools. At the age of twelve my family moved to Dallas, Texas. Finally one city big enough that we did not have to leave to keep moving. Yes we kept right on moving.
As an adult I have a positive aversions to changes in my life style. Jobs, work, home or routines I do not like for them to change. When I worked I hated it when they decided to move us from one location to another. I personally never saw any improvement from the changes.
But life is about change. From birth to death we grow, live, reproduce and finally die. It's all change. So I have changed over the years. I think I have improved. The new improved model. LOL, for you new to the internet that means "Laughing Out Loud".
I got married too young or to say "we" did. The strange thing was how long we stayed married, nine years. But from that we had five wonderful children. They in turn have had eight children, who as of this time have had two. Those are my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Isn't changes great!
Now in my years of decline I'm not sitting still waiting. I'm taking college courses, I'm still reading new books and finally after years of hearing "you ought to write your own stories" I am. I joke about it, I waited till I could not read so I could write and not have to read them.
Well this has been added since the above was written. In Feb of 1968 my wife and me were having difficulties. We finally separated to ease the tension between us. I moved in with my parents. Anyway I was 21 at this time and had three children. One of the things we were having trouble with was my job. So I looked around and notified the draft board that I had moved. They reclassified me! I was shocked at the the time, I went from 3A to a 1A. So I went to the Marines recuriting station and talke to them. The Sgt. there said well let see if you qualify for service.
This was right at the height of the Viet Nam war I could had hobbled in there on one leg and been qualified for service. Well after a day, it felt like the whole day, I found out that I was physically and mental qualified to serve my country. Now the Sgt. told me tha with my scores on the IQ test that I could get a guarantee to the air wing of the Marine if I signed up for four years. Yeah, I was a sucker, they saw me coming. I told him that if I was qualified would then not assigned me to the air wing anyway? He just looked at me and said "Yeah" so I signed for four years without the guarantee.
The Sgt. ran to get the officer to sign the papers before I could change my mind. He came back real slow. The Major said he could not sign them as I had three children. They could not take me.
Now up till then I had just been following my nose but this got me a little upset. I pulled my draft card out and showed the Sgt. he just shook his head. So I ask him for all my papers. He gave them to me. I walked out and two block down the street to the Selective Service office. I explain to the lady there what had just happen. I had to explain it to her three times as she kept bringing more people to hear my story. Finally her boss had come out to see what was going on. He ask one of the worker to see my records. They pulled them out of a file cabinet. LOL, could you imagine an office with only paper records today?
They then told me that I would receive an order in the mail within 60 days to report for induction into the arm forces of the United States. I ask if they could speed that up. They all laughed. That was not the usual response to a notice that you were going to get drafted. One of the ladies there set down and type up a simple half page form and had me sign it. She gave me a copy. It was a notice to report within seven day for induction. She said take that to the Marine recuruitor.
So back I went to the Marine Sgt. I walked in over to his desk laid all my papers there with that notice of induction on top. He laughed when he saw that told me to wait and went to see his Major again. When he returned he ask if I wanted that seven days if not I would be inducted at a ceromony that afternoon and go straight to Love Field to fly out immediately to San Diego. I was now on my way to being a Marine.