First of all Mark that was 44 years ago, but good times. I once heard that our Wing Commander had been the pilot that accidently dropped an atomic bomb in Maryland. Soooo, I knew why he was at MHAFB but never learned why I was there.
I'd guess we drove over to Jackpot a half dozen times in my twenty months of joy, now Elko was great.

Where was Diamond Jim's?
Ok...I'm not sure, never having been there sober, but I think it was on the west side of the street with a big dirt parking lot but it was usually dark when we'd get there and we started our "attitude adjustment" at the club before we left MHAFB. Those 16oz Country Club Stouts had a way of taking off the edge for us. I remember Cactus Pete's but we went to Diamond Jim's. And, Jackpot was just a wide spot in the road, it still is. We'd play until about 3am and drive back to the base and continue fighting commies(?)- I guess.

What did it look like?
If I recall it was single story and wider than deep with a big bright sign. We'd drive in pitch black for a couple hours and all of a sudden here's this "BRIGHT" sign. I think they had four or five tables and a bunch of slots. I don't recall if there was a cafe but probably. There was a small stage you could see from the tables and they had a western(?) band. I didn't hear Tyrus do the Karaoke but I'll bet his performance would have put them to shame. I mean I'm from SoCal and they didn't know any Dick Dale numbers, so there. They had Roy Acuff down pat.

I wouldn't mind a story or two!
#1 One night a guy who was obviously drunk came over to our table. I know, how could we tell he was drunk - it was easy. He was quite angry but no threat to the two of us after all we were trained to fight communists, right? He asked if we'd bump our bets with his chips and he played as well. He told us he had been one of the original owners and had been run out by the present group and wanted to get even. We looked at the dealer and he just shrugged his shoulders. So on every hand for a while we'd have our $1 chip and ten $5 chips per hand. When we won he'd tip us a $5 chip. I'd love to really build this up but...I really cannot recall how we did. I think we brought back a few extra bucks.

#2 We had read and practiced the system in James O. Thorp's “Beat the Dealer” and used his system with mixed results. We did get hot one time and felt they brought in a mechanic but probably not. Why would they have a mechanic in Jackpot? I asked a dealer if he'd heard of Thorp but he said he was new to Jackpot and didn't know anyone(?) and wouldn't know Dick Dale from Dale Evans - go figure.