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* * .. ' ' Master technician likes challenge at MCC I'AliK :t-l'I.Alft|»KAI,KK - FRIDAY. DECEMBER t, 1M3 Kurt Begalka Free Press Media Behind a blue door in Room 240 of McHennr County College lies the domain of audiovisual technician Fred Wallis. A white-walled studio with videotape cameras gives way to a cramped, quiet workshop. A of the opera - Verdi Spectacular - is playing in the semi-darkened room. "I like all music," Wallis says. He also likes his job, which he has held for nearly three years. "I like the., versatility; the challenge," he says. "No two days are the same." Wallis, 52, is master of more than 200 pieces of equipment, including video cameras, projectors and video cassette and record players. In con- Junction with the MCC Learning Resources Center production services, Wallis tunes in to most of the activities on campus. Lectures, speeches and other classroom assignments are taped under his auspices. Wallis also makes audio tapes of all board meetings ana sets up sound systems for functions in the multi-purpose building, student lounge, etc. "It's almost impossible for me to say, this time is mine,' Wallis acknowledges, KITS he but doesn't the long hours upon his Job as work He enjoys meeting 'Tm outgoing." wallis says. 'I have never met a person I didn't like." He also enjoys working with his hands in electronics, but he is by no means an audio-video Junkie. "If they took the sports and news off the air. I'd sell my television," Wallis said. f/I would much rather read a book or tinker with something." Much of the equipment is more than 10 years old but careful maintenance keeps it running. Wallis stocks a pot­ pourri of tools and machinery, including an oscilloscope and a distortion analyzer, used to measure electronic signals. After retiring from the Army in 1974, Wallis met and married his wife Betty and settled down in Woodstock. He worked - for an electric company until 1976. when a back injury sidelined him for much of the next four years. "That has convinced me that I never want to retire," Wallis says. "I always want an office to so to and something to look Forward to." Wallis learned the tricks of the trade at the U.S. Army Pictorial Center located in Long Island City, N.Y., where he spent five years. After the Korean War ended, Wallis was sent to Fort Bliss. Texas, before being reassigned to New York as an operations sergeant in the motion picture division. Working under a civilian producer and director, Wallis bandied lighting, audio and filminff Hercules cameras for training films from 1965 to 1961. These Included the of Hawk and Nike- missile launchings. Wallis, a Chicago native, was attending Western Illinois University in Macomb, when he was drafted by the Army. He went to Korea in 1952 as a foot soldier. He was stationed in Japan two years later and was among those who witnessed the release of prisoners of war from North Korea at P'anmunjom. "I drove one of the big bus ambulances," Wallis says. A triage screened POWs, them to the appropriate facility. "I saw some terrible things come across the bridge. Things I would call inhuman," Wallis says. He did three duty tours in Vietnam with the Military Assistance Command beginning in 1962. He spent three years there and says he found it a "very rewarding experience." Wallis says most of the people he associated with were officers. Drugs were not a problem for his unit, althought they were readily available. Only the "10- percenters' - 10 percent of the soldiers - used drugs, Wallis says. The public's reactions after the war still bothers Wallis. "In some cases, the green uniform was like waving a red flag before a bull," he says. "The American military was not defeated. Our hands were tied by the political disruption. They wouldn t let us fight so we had to get out." He sees the same pitfalls in El Salvador and Lebanon. "You die just as dead in a peace action as you do in a war, Wallis notes. If there is one thing Wallis learned from his military ex­ perience, it is patience. "I'm very cramped, but we're all cramped at the college," Wallis says. He'd like to get a half-inch tape editing system, which costs $7,000 or $8,000. Wallis would like backdrops in the studio to make lighting easier; another $3,000 and $4,000. But money is tight "I'll go on doing what I'm doing and get the job done," Walfis said. He is a realist. That resigned attitude allowed H general News Presbyterian church schedules 'hanging of the green' ceremony Faith Presbyterian Church, located at the intersection of Lincoln and Chapel Hill Roads, across from the drive-in movie theatre, will be hosting a Hanging of the Greens ceremony beginning at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11. Following the decoration of the beautiful Christmas tree and sanctuary, a pot-luck dinner will be served, and then a time of singing and sharing of familiar Christmas carols. Visitors are encouraged to attend this youthful and growing church. Christmas Eve services will be held at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday evening, the twenty- fourth, and Christmas Day services will be held at the usual times of 8:30 and 10:35 a.m. pet, although the rodents and a visiting colonel didn't think much of it. Wallis said he came across the "Alcoholic's Prayer" one day in his reading, and has never forgotten it. It reads: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change things that I can and the wisdom to know the difference." Wallis adds: "When you ac­ cept these things as a way of life, it's very easy to be as I am." 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