15 X 20

Not that I’m trying to “one up” the girls in Hawaii, but I too lived on an island once! LOL! For two years, my family and I lived out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Located about 700 hundred miles west of Portugal is a chain of islands called the Azores. We lived on Terceira island, the third largest of the nine in the archipelago. Formed from many years of volcanic activity, the island has lots of culture, scattered with small fishing towns and many vineyards.

Only 15 miles long by 20 miles wide, Terceira is home to the U.S.’s Lajes Field and the Portuguese’s Air Base No. 4. Originally formed in the 1950s, the base basically serves as a “big gas station” in the ocean for planes transiting between the U.S. and Europe. It was a huge staging area for many different kinds of aircraft during Desert Shield/Desert Storm (you couldn’t even see the runway for all of the planes!). Our firing range was located down inside of an inactive volcano! Whenever four-wheel drive vehicles were unavailable, sometimes we would have to hike down in there with our weapons and ammunition.

The weather there was pretty awesome, having about 6 to 7 months of beautiful, summertime weather. As the plane descended out of the clouds when first we first arrived, I remember the stewardess saying, “For those of you getting off in Lajes, you’ve just landed in ‘softball heaven!’” (Due to the nice weather, softball has a very extended season!) Winters there had quite a bit of rain and high winds, sometimes reaching up to 120 miles per hour! School for the kids would be canceled if winds reached 90 m.p.h. or higher.While stationed there, the rock band Extreme played an outdoor concert. The guitar player, Nuno Bettencourt, is originally from the island’s city of Praia.

Being on such a small island, we missed some of the conveniences of the states—fast food and shopping malls. Eventually though, we got used to the slow, easy-going European lifestyle. All in all, living on Terceira was quite a memorable experience that my whole family enjoyed. We sure would love to go back and visit the Azores again one day!