“I graduated from Revere (MA) high school in 1962 and knew I wanted to go into the Air Force. I enlisted on a Thursday. The following Thursday I was at Lackland AFB in San Antonio for basic training” said Ed Greenberg about the start of his four-year stint in the Air Force.

Greenberg wanted to be an airborne radio mechanic. This position requires a technician to make repairs and perform maintenance of airborne communications, radar, computers, and electronic systems. Unfortunately, by the time Greenberg got around to signing up for it, the position no longer existed. His aptitude test said his next best-suited MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was administration. So, it was off to admin school for two months.

Greenberg’s next stop was Thule AFB in Greenland where he became an administrator working with an engineering squadron building portable bridges for use by the US Army in Vietnam. The bridges were built in multiple sections, then placed on a large transport aircraft and sent south. In his job as an admin, he made sure they had all the parts necessary to assemble the bridge portions.

Of his Greenland assignment Greenberg noted, “It was cold up there – and desolate. To work there you needed a high security clearance. The government didn’t want ‘prying eyes’ to see what we were doing. The good news was, because of those circumstances, we got combat pay. I was there for 10 months and 29 days!”

In the fall of 1962, the Soviet Union started amassing nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba. For about 13 days, things got very tense between the US and the Soviets. At one point, all Thule AFB personnel were called together and told that if things got bad, the Air Force was prepared to put them in Army fatigues, train them for combat duty, and standby to defend against the Soviets. The US/Soviet standoff ended when President Kennedy put a naval blockade around Cuba not allowing any Soviet ships to deliver material that would enable further building of the nuclear missile bases. Disaster was averted, and bridge-building reconvened at Thule AFB.

Greenberg’s next stop was McClellan AFB near Sacramento, CA. for another admin job. He wasn’t there long when he injured his arm, laying him up for several weeks. His injury limited the use of his arm and so he was transferred to a motor pool where he drove construction equipment. The equipment went to other bases around the country for construction work. So, Greenberg’s job was to drive the equipment where it needed to go and then fly home, or fly somewhere to retrieve a piece of equipment and drive it back.

On June 20, 1966, Greenberg’s tour ended, having served four years and two days. He mustered out as an E-3, Airman 3rd Class.

Back in Massachusetts, he picked up where he left off, working in retail at a Morse Shoe store in Peabody. It wasn’t long before he was transferred to the Morse store in Nashua to be an assistant manager, then a store manager. “The job was ok,” said Greenberg. “But the hours got to me. It was 6 days plus one or sometimes two nights a week. I wanted something more. And then, I saw an ad in the Nashua Telegraph. The Nashua Police Dept. was looking for some new officers. I always wanted to be a cop. It wasn’t long before I was walking a beat.” Greenberg joined the Nashua PD in April 1972.

Greenberg walked a beat on Nashua’s Main St. for six months, and was then sent to the Police Academy in Concord, NH. While at the academy he was playing football with other students – not a sanctioned game, just a bunch of guys with a football. Greenberg explains; “At the Academy we were playing tackle football. We had no padding, no equipment – just a football. I was tackled on two sides at once which threw out my back. They took me off the field on a stretcher. But I still graduated with my class.”

Back in Nashua, there was one occasion where then-President Gerald Ford was visiting, specifically, he would take a tour of Sanders Associates on Canal St. Security was tight, as one would expect. Every Nashua police officer was deployed. Greenberg was outside Sander’s building on the sidewalk when he noticed a man, wearing a long trench coat working his way through the crowd. Greenberg said, “This guy just didn’t look right. I had an instinct about it.”

Greenberg approached the man just as two Secret Service Agents came up. They had the man open his coat to reveal a rather large knife designed for throwing. Had this man not been stopped, President Ford might have been stabbed and possibly killed… not something Nashua or any city wants to be known for.

This incident, and another incident where Greenberg arrested an armed and dangerous man wanted by the FBI caused the FBI to take a closer look at him, and offer him a job. Lacking the requisite college education, the Secret Service offered to give him a desk job for the two years it would take for him to complete his education. But given the travel and the stress that would go with such a job, Greenberg decided the Nashua Police Department was where he wanted to be.

By December 1978, the pain from the back injury Greenberg sustained at the police academy got to be too much, and he took a medical retirement. He and his wife now live in Arizona.