Category: England (Air Force)

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Memory submitted by Helen Boone

When did you meet Mickey?
1972

Where did you meet him?
Air Force friends from the 70’s

Memory of Mickey
After Hurricane Katrina I was working again for Habitat for Humanity, and Oprah Winfrey developed a plan to build a street of houses in Jackson, MS, for families who had left New Orleans after the storm. This was going to be a week-long blitz with 10 or 12 houses, and we needed volunteers. I invited Mickey and Sharon to come over to stay with us and work. It was great fun: Sharon, as the architect, could identify which pieces went where in the construction. Mickey, on the other hand, could do it all. His (and her) community spirit reached far and wide.

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Memory submitted by Larry Thompson

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
U.S. Air Force

Memory of Mickey
I arrived at RAF Lakenheath with a terrible headache. I thought I was just jet-lagged, but the headache and confusion increased. A flight surgeon on night call assumed that I was an addicted anesthesiologist needing narcotic without an OR supply. He wrote me off, but Mickey Nardo, covering the next day, also suspicious that I might be needing a “fix”, didn’t write me off. He had the insight to know that I had been at Wichita Falls, Texas for basic training, where equine encephalitis was epidemic at the time. He admitted me to the hospital, where a spinal tap sent to N.I.H. confirmed his diagnosis. It would be fair to say that “Mickey Nardo saved my life.” I will always be grateful to him for his ability to read me well enough to believe that I would not be an addict.

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Memory submitted by Walter Boone

When did you meet Mickey?
1972

Where did you meet him?
In the Air Force as internists.

Memory of Mickey
Mickey and I served as Internal Medicine partners in the Air Force at Lakenheath AFB in the UK in the 70’s. There was a little rebellion on our part: wide blue ties, unauthorized haircuts, borrowing gates to use for pig roasting, etc. But I think that is where we learned to practice medicine. Together we got our footing in sharing patient stories and searching for solutions. He went on to become a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; I trained in gastroenterology. Those years, however, were among the best I remember as a physician. Our friendship has never wavered through the years.

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Memory submitted by Connie Bobbitt

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
RAF Lakenheath

Memory of Mickey
These photos were from one of our Pig Roasts (4th of July) while at RAF Lakenheath. We had one in 1972 & 1973 – both were held at Mickey & Sharons beautiful country home Lidgate Hall. I’m not certain but these may have been the beginning of Mickey’s Pig Roast career. All of the guys were stay at the house cooking the pig all night then the ladies would show up with our Aunt Zoe’s beans, cucumber-onion salad and desserts. Our British friends really enjoyed helping the “Yanks” celebrate our Independence Day! The funniest story was that Mickey & Walter Boone were in search of a grate large & sturdy enough hold the pig over the fire pit when behold they spied a perfect gate at the hospital! Naturally they decided to “borrow” it one evening – somehow the hospital commander didn’t find it at all humorous!

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Memory submitted by Connie Bobbitt

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk England

Memory of Mickey
The first few photos are from one of our two Pig Roasts held at Mickey & Sharon’s home, Lidgate Hall. We had one in 1972 and another in 1973, then the Nardos & Bobbitts returned stateside the summer of 1974. The invitation says 4th Annual, but honestly I don’t know why. I guess we just picked up the tradition! One thing that made ours so much fun was that we invited our British friends who totally enjoyed celebrating our Independence Day!

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Memory submitted by Connie

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
RAFLakenheath

Memory of Mickey
After being station together @ RAF Lakenheath for 3 years and returning home to different areas of the US, several couples decided in 1975 to have a long weekend reunion in Nashville. That weekend began a tradition of annual summer vacations each August (to accommodate Mickey’s schedule 😊) with our growing families in tow. Little did we ever imagine what wonderful trips, stories and destinations would result in the following decades. We are still taking those trips albeit back to only the original adults (with an occasional child or grandchildren showing up)! This group became dubbed TGE (Thursday Gastronome Extraordinaire) after the name we gave a dining group of 4-6 couples who ate together at restaurants within driving distance of base the last 6 months before we returned to the US for residencies.

I am going to attempt to post some photos of Mickey during this part of his life because it has meant so much to our family to have known him and shared these moments together.

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Memory submitted by Jim Swartley

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
Lakenheath

Memory of Mickey
Mickey was my “go to guy”. When I was a newly commissioned general medical officer in the Air Force he was always there to back me up or correct my errors while in England. Since then I have seen him most summers on our numerous TGE vacations. He was always available to answer personal medical questions over the years including encouraging me to have an MRI when I had a headache which turned out to be a subdural hematoma which needed treatment. He also gave me appropriate advise regarding a defibrillator after my heart attack. All this came after he was a “shrink” not an internist. But I always valued his opinion and will miss that.

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Memory submitted by Carl Mahoney

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
USAF Hospital, RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, England

Memory of Mickey
I was watching “Eyes on the Prize” last night and could hardly stop thinking about friend Mickey. I remember probing him after dinners at Lidgate Hall to explain for me what I needed to know about the Civil Rights movement in America. You see, I was 12 when LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act in 1964. My worldview was perfectly solipsistic while friend Mickey had been paying attention throughout the period. By the time he and Sharon “adopted” me, I was 19 and beginning to pay attention and certainly had impressions and concerns of the then current social and political milieu (Richard Nixon was our Commander in Chief for goodness sake!). As all who have contributed to these pages will attest, Mickey’s assessment of very nearly anything at all was thorough, measured, well supported with data , engaging and, though he might be ill-at-ease with this characterization, NEVER wrong!

I enjoyed a lot of quality time with Mickey, Sharon, and Abby back then and it has been an ongoing and much cherished gift across the lifespan. In keeping with a theme noted by other contributors, I include photos of Mickey and my ‘chilren (as Al would say). On 10/28/98, Dr. Mickey arrived in the delivery room a few minutes after my son, Eric emerged from the womb…he’d brought a sack of fried chicken from the Church’s up the street from the hospital in Decatur! I love the picture of Mickey and Kate doing crafts that Mickey brought along; he genuinely liked the company of children and they sure did reciprocate that sentiment.

Y’all should have been there the day he diagnosed a case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in rural Suffolk, England! His brilliance shall not soon diminish given how much he gave to so many. What a man, our friend Mickey.