Air Force Blue

What is Air Force Blue?

From 1966 when he enlisted to 1972 when he was honorably discharged, my grandfather, Marvin A. VanHise Jr., served in the United States Air Force as a bomb specialist. His enlistment in the Vietnam War took him from a small farmhouse in New Jersey, across the United States, and then abroad to Guam, Vietnam, and lastly Taiwan where he met and married my grandmother.

The first clear memory I have of him talking about his enlistment he was sitting behind a slide projector at the dining room table.  Clicking his way through hundreds of photos, every five or so clicks he’d begin a new story– my favorite being the time he lit an Air Force Policeman’s boot on fire with napalm. Fast forward to December of 2024, I was handed a 30-page booklet bound by a single staple in the corner. The pages contained a first-person recount of his time spent serving as well as all the humor that makes “Marvin-isms” – the official term for my grandfather’s quips, jokes, and witty remarks– uniquely his.

 This project is the preview book, a small taste if you will, of the comprehensive and all-encompassing tale that began when my Gong Gong – the Chinese term for maternal grandfather– was just 18 years old. It includes his personal story, his photographs, documents, and other ephemera he saved from his time as a bomb specialist in the United States Air Force.  

Note: I would like to clarify that my Gong Gong was active duty from 1966-1970 and inactive Air Force reserves from 1970-1972.