Tucson: Arrival in the Desert

By Cliff Potts
Bay Bay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 30, 2026

This is a serialized installment from the autobiography of Cliff Potts.

A Bus Somewhere in the Southwest

My first clear memory does not begin in Tucson. It begins on a long-distance bus somewhere in the American Southwest. I was four years old, small enough to sleep folded into positions that would not make sense to an adult body.

I woke up in a stranger’s lap.

He was not my father. I understood that immediately. My mother and my sisters were several rows ahead across the aisle, exhausted from travel. Why this man was the one holding me, I do not know. Perhaps my mother needed help and he offered it.

I was not afraid. I blinked at him, took in the moment, and the world continued.

That is where memory begins.

Entering Tucson

We were headed to Tucson, Arizona — toward heat, dust, and a city tied closely to military infrastructure. We arrived in 1961, between the U-2 incident involving Gary Powers and the Cuban Missile Crisis that would follow the next year. I did not understand those events then, but they formed part of the era’s background.

Tucson was not random. My father had secured work connected to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. He understood military systems and military structure.

My Father’s Military Years

My father had served in the Army Air Corps during World War II in the Pacific theater. His role was as a cook. It was not glamorous work, but it was necessary. A newspaper clipping once noted that he had won an award for being the best chicken fryer in the United States Army.

After the war, he re-enlisted in the newly formed United States Air Force, made sergeant, and eventually left the service to care for my mother when her knee collapsed completely.

A Life Already in Motion

By the time we reached Tucson, movement was already the family norm. Military service had been followed by civilian heavy-equipment work. Contracts shifted. Locations changed. We adjusted.

The bus ride marked another transition — one of many.