Men entering the US military in the early 1970’s pretty much expected to see some “action” – probably in Vietnam. Few thought they would experience military action… as a non-participating spectator!

On August 16, 1972, as King Hassan of Morocco was returning from a personal trip to France, his plane, a Boeing 727, was intercepted by four Royal Moroccan Air Force pilots flying Northrop F-5 fighter jets, who tried to shoot Hassan out of the sky. The King’s plane was unarmed. The fighters shot holes through the fuselage, killing several passengers, but the King was unhurt. The motives for the attempted coup were unclear but it might have been due to perceived or alleged corruption within the Hassan government. An earlier coup was attempted a year prior.

Those responsible for the 1972 coup were primarily members of the Moroccan military based at Kenitra Air Base in Morocco, a base shared with American Marines and Navy personnel. Members of Hassan’s forces surrounded the base routing out 220 Moroccan airmen who were arrested, tried and convicted, and sentenced to jails from which they never left. 

“We were pretty concerned watching this all go down,” remarked Stanwyck during his interview. 

“We thought we were going to get booted out of the country. But actually, the Moroccan government liked having us there. It was a good deal for them as the Navy employed many locals as contractors. A couple of days after all that commotion, it was like nothing happened and it was business as usual.”

Stanwyck noted, “In-country, the base was known as 3 EME Aerienne Kenitra. The official US name was NAVCOMSTA Morocco. Stanwyck was at the transmitter site which was miles away called Bouknadel RTF, the receiver site was miles away in Sidi Yahia it was called NCS… all Navy acronyms.”

Michael Stanwyck was born in Tewksbury, MA March 19, 1952. At 18 years old, in March 1970, he enlisted in the Naval Reserves for what was supposed to be two years of active duty and three years or reserve duty. Stanwyck continues, “After basic at Great Lakes, we were told to go back to our reserve unit and await orders, to let us know what school or training we would be attending. My Navy aptitude test showed I knew something about electricity, and I had had some electricity courses in high school… so that’s where the Navy thought I ought to be. The next thing I knew, I was off to Class A electrician’s school in Rhode Island!”

Stanwyck attended school from February to June 1971. Then sent home to await orders for his deployment. Stanwyck remembers, “I thought sure I was going to Vietnam. Everyone did during that time. You can just imagine my surprise when my orders told me to report to NAVCOMSTA Morocco.”

Kenitra Air Base was not your ordinary US military base. It was huge; and a contingent of US Marines and US Navy personnel shared space with the Moroccan Air Force. Stanwyck explains, “It was definitely a different kind of place. When we arrived on base for the first time, we had to wear civilian clothes. When we left the base for any reason, we had to be wearing civvies. If we went into town for the evening, we wore civies. As far as anyone knew, we were just government contractors.” The purpose of the base and the Navy’s mission, was to maintain communication with American subs operating in the Mediterranean.

Stanwyck’s job was to keep motors and generators running so communications could be maintained. Stanwyck recalled, “It was our job to keep the lights on in our area. It was a great job. We worked five days on, then had 80 hours off. It gave me plenty of time to visit places I will probably never see again. I bought a motorcycle in Spain; a Norton 750 and got to tour different cities like Tangier, Marrakesh, and Casablanca to name a few. Back then, gasoline on the base was 25 cents per gallon. In town it was a buck a gallon.”

Today, the city of Kenitra is a modern, bustling metropolis of a half-million people.  In 1972, the population was about 175,000, and nowhere near as modern as today. Stanwyck remembered, “It was very easy to get around back then. A bus would take you from the base to the city. Then you could take a train if you wanted to go to a different city, or a taxi in-town. As one would imagine, there were plenty of bars in town. They didn’t open until 10:00 p.m. and stayed open all night. One time, some friends and I got chased out of a bar at 11:00 in the morning.”

Stanwyck continues, “In Casablanca, I didn’t see ‘Rick’s Café American’ but there were plenty of small pubs. You could stay at a Holiday Inn for whatever the going rate was then. Or stay in one of the quaint local hotels for about five bucks a night. People were nice to us wherever we went. They liked Americans… and American dollars. It was a good tour. And for whatever reason, I managed to score an early-out of my active duty. I left active service at Boston on December 1, 1972.”

Reserve service meant a 2-week tour in Maine in the summer, for the next three years, where his unit worked on whatever project happened to be underway. Time moved on for the base in Kenitra as well. In 1976, satellite communications rendered the communications base obsolete and Navy and Marine personnel left.

In civilian life, Stanwyck took his electronics experience to Wang Laboratories in Tewksbury. A few years later, the bottom fell out of that market and he landed at the US Post Office North Chelmsford, MA.  In 2008 Stanwyck moved to Nashua where he presently resides.

For more about Nashua history, go to: store.bookbaby.com. In the search bar type in “Gary Ledoux.” To reach the author, go to mayorclum@gmail.com