It’s still crystal-clear in David’s memory – May 22nd 1966 – 50 years ago to the day… He had just finished work down at the local Timken plant in Little Rock – David worked second shift so it was around 11:30 PM when he got home. David’s Dad, Charlie, had worked at the plant for over 20 years since returning home from “the War”, and had managed to get David a job there once he graduated high school the previous summer. David worked in the “heavy bearing” section, machining bearings for heavy duty vehicles such as large trucks and buses. Mom, as usual, had dinner ready – but something was different – Mom was moody, edgy, as if something was bothering her. “Somethin’ wrong Mom?” he asked. She pointed over to the table – there was a letter on it – it looked official – David glanced down and saw it was addressed to him, and the return address in the corner said “Selective Service System”…
The letter wasn’t unexpected – David watched the news – he knew the war in Vietnam was expanding, and saw several of his high school classmates get drafted and sent overseas. He talked over the possibility of being drafted with his Dad – his father had seen war “close up” in the Pacific – and he didn’t want his son to go through that hell. Together, they decided that David should enlist in the Air Force if his draft notice came – his enlistment would cancel the notice and David would have at least some control over his future. So the next day down to the Federal Building he went – the Air Force recruiter sure was a nice guy; friendly, polite, welcoming. The Air Force even let him pick his occupational specialty; he chose heavy vehicle maintenance or “Heavy Junk” as the recruiter called it. The recruiter said he may even “luck out” and get a state-side assignment, maybe even one right there at Little Rock AFB, or one of the many air bases in Europe. But first, David had to get to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio by 15 Jun – to start Basic Training. San Antonio wasn’t that far away, and David didn’t even consider flying – he made bearings for heavy duty vehicles – David was going by bus…
The next day he started looking at options, and it became quickly apparent that he only had three choices. Greyhound had a daily bus that went directly from Little Rock to San Antonio – and the unit serving this route was a GM PD 4104. The PD 4014 was a superb intercity coach, a true legend, and was produced in larger quantities than its more famous stable mate, the GM PD 4501 Scenicrusier. It was powered by a GM 6-71 engine with a Spicer 4-speed manual transmission. However, it had been superseded by the PD 4106; Greyhound’s last 4104s were built between 1957 and 1960, so almost all had at least six years of hard, over-the-road use on them – and the one used on this route sure looked it…
A second option was Continental Trailways – Continental didn’t have a daily run, but they did offer a bus on Tuesdays and Thursdays that went to Dallas and then on to San Antonio. Trailways used an older model Flxible VL-100 Vista-Liner on this route. The Vista-Liner was unique – Flxible built only 208 of these split-level coaches at their factory at Loudonville Ohio, from 1954 through 1958, and Trailways purchased 126 of them. The buses seated 39 passengers and could be ordered with either a Cummins JT 6 or General Motors 6-71 diesel engine. In their prime, these were very nice coaches; they came with Flxible’s “torsilastic” springs, independent front suspension, air conditioning, comfortable seating and individual speakers. But it was clear this Vista-Liner had seen better days – too bad this route didn’t have one of Trailways’ new Eagle 01 series coaches built by Bus and Car, NV, in Belgium.
David had one other option – the Air Force had a weekly shuttle that ran from Little Rock AFB down to San Antonio. It was used mainly to ferry airmen and retirees to the Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio – one of the largest military hospitals in the US. The USAF shuttle was a new government fleet purchased MCI 5A model, commonly called a “Challenger.” It had recently come off the assembly line at MCI’s new Pembina, North Dakota assembly plant. It had an air suspension similar to that used on GM models, came with a new GM 8V-71 diesel and had an Allison MT 644 auto transmission. Smooth…
David decided to take the Air Force shuttle, besides being newer, Timken was a supplier to MCI – some of his bearings may be in the axles of this coach. He could also get to San Antonio a few days early to see the Alamo and enjoy the River Walk area – all before getting his buzz cut and being issued his green fatigues…
May 22nd 1966…it seemed just like yesterday…
Thank you for this well written story .
.
At this same time , I was incarcerated in rural New Hampshire and occasionally was sent to Boston and I always rode the bus .
.
In time I covered most of new England by bus and mostly enjoyed it .
.
-Nate
Great story, Jim. I love that it was set exactly fifty years ago, today.
I can identify with this story. In 1971, I rode a PD4501, last Scenicruiser I was ever on, from Birmingham, AL. to Reception Station at Montgomery, AL. Then, after a couple of days processing, rode a PD4104 from there to Ft. Campbell, KY. for basic training.
After that, rode another 4104 back to Birmingham for a short leave before Advanced Training. I haven’t been on a Greyhound since.
MCI is pretty well known in my little corner of northeastern North Dakota; they still have the plant in Pembina (although, in local parlance, it’s usually referred to as “Motor Coach” or simply “the bus plant”).
When I was growing up during the 1970’s .through my elementary school and junior high school years, our School District offered Summer Day Camp for elementary age and Junior High age kids…..The Day Camp was held at a couple of schools in our district.
We would have weekly trips to Amusement parks, Major League Ballgames, beaches, etc…..The shorter trips of an hour or less were done in chartered school buses….The longer trips of 2 or 3 hours each way usually involved chartered motorcoaches…..These were generally used coaches bought by the charter company…I can recall a PD4104, along with GM fishbowl buses and the GM Buffalo Bus…PD4905 or whatever the designation was….I recall one of those Buffalo buses having a crank-down tag axle.
A late 60’s or early 70’s vintage Prevost coach was used on several trips….
Some of the smaller busses had Detroit 6V-71 diesels but most had the 8V71 with 4 speed sticks.
My first riding experience with an Automatic transmission coach was when the MCI MC-8 and MC-9’s came out….8V71’s on the MC-8’s and 6V92’s on the MC-9’s……Those older 2 stroke Detroit diesels had a unique sound……Nowadays, busses of this size have 4 stroke diesels which run cleaner and quieter for stricter emission laws.
Every time I seen a picture of a Scenicruiser I’m reminded of the toy versions finished in Greyhound livery. I think I had one as a kid although very briefly as some of my toys didn’t survive up to age five.
To my knowledge the Scenicruiser was never used by Greyhound in western Canada. As a result seeing one being used by Trailways or Greyhound when travelling in the United States was a feast for the eyes when I was young.
I rode Continental Trailways to Viet Nam in 1968. Well, almost. I did ride with them from Miami, FL to Ft. Lewis, WA where I stayed for a few days before boarding a Seaboard World Airlines DC-8-63 for Cam Ranh Bay in Viet Nam.
Even back then I know that Continental’s Eagles were the queen of the highways and I couldn’t tell you how many times over the years I rode them from one end of the USA to the other.
I had a few rides on the Silver Eagle. Knoxville to Boston via the NY NJ Port Authority at 12 and 13 years old. Can you believe it? Later 4 RTs from Bennettsville SC to Boston on a Greyhound Scenicruiser and once on an MCI 7 My last bus ride was 1976 Boston to SC and then flew the rest of the time! I loved riding the bus way back then. As a kid I also rode Plymouth and Brockton many times from Plymouth to Boston, old Flixble, a Silverside, then a coach style New Look and then a GM Buffalo which was swell.