C-47 FLIGHTS ABROAD FAR FROM JOY RIDES VET WAS TIGHT SPOT DURING GEAR INSPECTION.

Byline: BETTIE RENCORET Senior columnist

QUARTZ HILL - It was a terrible job but somebody had to do it, Korea and Vietnam veteran Ed Bratt said of his military duty.

Bratt, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, spent 11 years as an airplane mechanic attached to the Military Airlift Command.

``We flew the C-47s that delivered supplies and support equipment for the helicopters,'' he said. ``We also carried troops to the combat zones and then brought them back in body bags from Okinawa to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. That's where they went for mortuary processing before being shipped home for burial.''

Bratt, who had a stroke in 1983 and uses a wheelchair but puts out the Quartz Hill VFW Post 3000 newsletter every month, said:

``You never knew what was going to happen next. One time we were coming in for a landing and the gear wouldn't come down. I had to crawl down into such a tight space that there wasn't room enough for me to have a parachute on.''

He said he had to look down into the wheel well through a small hole to see if he could find the problem.

``There was only about three-eighths of an inch between me and sudden death if I slipped,'' he said, ``but the wheels were down and locked OK. The landing gear indicator on the instrument panel had just failed to work.''

During Bratt's 17 years of active duty he was stationed at numerous overseas basses, including in North Africa, Spain, England and Okinawa, as well as in Alaska, Georgia, Ohio, Arkansas and at Edwards Air Force Base.

He was born in Newcastle, Pa. on Nov. 14, 1933, but his family left there when he was young. He grew up in Wellsville, Ohio, and joined the Air Force in 1953.

``I got two years of college while I was in the Air Force, at several different colleges,'' he said. ``I attended the University of Arkansas, University of Maryland and Golden Gate University. All night classes on the base.''

In the Air Force in Arkansas, he met Patricia Schultz and fell in love. They eloped April 28, 1956, and got married in Mississippi. They have one son, Alan Wayne Bratt of Lancaster and 10 grandchildren.

When Bratt returned from duty on Okinawa in 1968, he went to work at Edwards. He and Pat bought a house in Lancaster - a former Assembly of God church parsonage, bought for $34,000 - and settled down.

Pat got a job at Edwards as a civil service computer programmer, from which she is now retired.

``We still live in the same house,'' said Bratt.

In 1973, he retired from the Air Force and in 1978, became the second owner of Sarge's Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge in Quartz Hill.

``The original owner was George Sargent and that's where the name came from,'' he said. ``Since I was a retired sergeant, I decided to keep the name.''

He gave the restaurant up when he had his stroke in 1983 and had to spend almost a year in the Sepulveda Veterans Hospital.

``I could tell I wasn't going to be coddled,'' he said. ``But I couldn't complain. The VA took good care of me. They do wonderful things down there. I was in rehab many months because I couldn't walk and I couldn't talk.''

He laughed as he said: ``Now my wife wishes I hadn't learned to talk again.''

He still has some paralysis on his left side but he's able to get around in spite of it. He can stand and walk some and drive his own car, but he takes his wheelchair with him wherever he goes.

``I get around and I do OK,'' he grinned.

He's been the adjutant - the military term for secretary - for 13 years at Post 3000, of which he's been a member since 1973. He's also a member of the Citizens Committee for the Lancaster Veterans Home, which is raising money for amenities for the state veterans home expected to start construction this year or next in Lancaster.

Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster and Palmdale have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk, for a suggested donation of $2.

Monday: MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY.

Tuesday: Baked fish fillet, baked potato, peas and carrots, creamy coleslaw, citrus cup.

Wednesday: Roast beef, mashed potatoes, winter squash, garden salad, pineapple juice, Jell-O with fruit.

Thursday: Garlic ginger chicken, wild rice, corn Niblets, marinated beets, juice, apple.

Friday: Swedish meatballs, parsleyed noodles, Normandy vegetables, lettuce and tomato salad, juice, tapioca pudding.

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Photo:

Ed Bratt uses a wheelchair, but still has the energy to put out his VFW post newsletter on his own.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer