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United States Army, Retired |
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UNITED STATES ARMY
Retired
Be All You Can Be!
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Enlisting in the Army was probably the single best thing I've ever done in my life that I never thought through before doing! Had I stopped to analyze what I was about to do at the time, I probably never would have gone through with it. The time between when I first walked into Army recruiting in their GCIC building office to the time I got on the plane headed for basic training was about 4 days. I went in with questions on a Monday and Friday night of that same week I was on my way to Fort Jackson.
I didn't even know exactly what kind of job I signed up for.. MOS 32D, Fixed Station Technical Controller, what is that? It was Greek to me! But in hindsight I knew that my recruiter, SSG Kin Nauta, did me an awesome favor. I could have been easily talked into the Infantry, Artillery, Armor, just about anything, 'coz I was just ready to go. But those kinds of MOSs were best left for the real 'Be All You Can Be' gungo ho warriors, not me. As it turned out, I enjoyed the career field and stuck with it for a whole 20 years.
Those years were spent in assignments requiring non-disclosure agreements, security briefings and debriefings, yadda yadda yadda. So it goes without saying that I don't have photo memoirs of Army life in terms that many envision... no pics in the motorpool, or posing on a tank or jeep or Humvee or slinging the latest weaponry, or any of that HOOAH stuff. Nope, the weapons of choice in my career field were patchcords, bit error rate test sets, multimeters, ASCII test generators, distortion analyzers, teletypewriters, modems and multiplexers, radios and various computers and computer networks. Cameras in the workplace were out of the question! In fact I think my family only saw my workplace once, during a specially organized, carefully orchestrated and "sanitized" family day event at one assignment.
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B Company, 5th Battalion, 1st BCT Brigade (TANK HILL) 3rd Platoon
Fort Jackson, South Carolina 10/78-12/78
CPT Saddler 
1SG Jonas
SSG Finster/SSG Fugate, 3rd Plt DIs
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When I left Guam for basic training, it was the first time I was going on a trip farther than Hawaii and the first time I'd see things that I'd previously only seen on TV. Row houses, real cities, etc.. In hindsight, boot camp was nothing but psychological reshaping. But at the time, it wasn't a party...
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B Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd School Brigade
Fort Gordon, Georgia 12/78-05/79
CPT Nickels
1SG Lunceford
MSG Wyatt, PSG Tech Control Platoon
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To this day I crack up when I think about AIT. One of the reasons for enlisting was to get on with life, to make up for lost time, and in many ways to get away from the 'boys' back home so I could get my shit straight. What do I find at Ft.Gordon but many of the old gangs and acquaintances from high school and home....
It was laid back tho. No PT, no details unless one messed up, just plain old go to school.
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Support Company, USAISC Site-R
Fort Ritchie, Maryland 05/79-08/80
CPT Monks | CPT Stevens
1SG Kuchler | 1SG Hamby
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Most of my AIT class went to Germany, but I went to Ft.Ritchie, a tiny post tucked away in the Catoctin Mountains of northwestern Maryland. Barracks life was pretty wild by today's standards. Of course that was pre-urinalysis, pre-alcohol deglamorization days. I'll leave it at that! The center of evening social activity was usually the NCO club. Now, can anyone in today's Army even imagine in their wildest dreams, picture this now, go-go dancers as entertainment at the NCO club on a military installation, complete with the little tassels on their titties that they twirl? Shit, does anyone remember being able to smoke in the workplace!!
My first duty assignment. Burn-in time as a tech controller at Site-R. That's where I learned the line 'forget what you learned in school, this is how we do it'. Work was fun tho, because in addition to a few people I knew in AIT who also got assignments to Ft.Ritchie ahead of me, quite a few went to other places that we worked with. Some were at the Pentagon, some at Ft.Detrick, some at Ft.Leavenworth (tech control, not prison). So it made getting on the orderwires and coordinating HJs fun. I worked rotating shifts in the tech control branch. Eh, not much to comment about... I was the mosquito wing newbie still learning my way around the block.
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USAISC Det INSCOM Kunia
US Army Field Station Kunia, Hawaii 08/80-09/86
MAJ Cruz / MAJ Robison / MAJ Bushover
1SG Braswell / 1SG West / 1SG Gardner
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Getting orders to Hawaii was almost like a group adventure because I was one in a group of tech controllers from around the MDW (military district of Washington) area who were chosen for what was called 'project Kunia'. We chosen ones had first to attend a one month satellite network controller course (the 'A1' ASI course) at Ft.Gordon and then a four month long TDY at Ft.Meade (at the puzzle palace) for OJT on the project. Our group was made up of all ranks but there were 6 of us, PFCs at the time, who basically knew each other from back in AIT and then had loose associations through our first duty stations. I think we were a pain for the NCOs in our group once in a while, getting into little mischievous situations (getting drunk and not making it into work, going out joyriding and ending up running into a wall, etc.). Good fun tho...
I spent 6 years at Kunia, and there have been too many adventures to detail. We were the first comm crew on the project. When we got to the tunnel it was still just a dark, dusty, semi-gutted building, of which we helped tear out and demolish the remnants of the Navy's post-war presence. Let no one bullshit you- we were the crew that installed and activated the Kunia comm center and tech control.
Once in Hawaii, that's when life broadened. It was on this assignment that Lou and I got married, Peaches and Justin were born, and I decided to stay in the Army. But that's to be left for the personal/family side of my pages...
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USAISC Det INSCOM, 36th Sig Bn
US Army Field Station Korea, Cp Humphreys, Korea 09/86-10/87
CPT Reeves / CPT Killebrew
1SG Williams
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I was actually supposed to go to the 293rd in Cp.Walker but, because of my clearance I was rerouted to Cp Humphreys to the INSCOM Detachment. Korea duty was an eye opener in that no one really cared about the job. The rule of thumb explained to me was that the first 6 months of the tour you're learning the job, and the last 6 months of the tour you're too busy marking off your short-timer's calendar.
On the one hand, Korea was fun. I'd met up with a good number of Chamorros, Hawaii and Samoan boys and we all ran together down in the ville (Anjong Ri), up to Yongsan to check out the islanders up there, good fun. On the other hand, I missed Lou and the kids terribly (they went to Guam)... like something I'd felt at times would never end. I guess a poor excuse is better than no excuse but I drank like a fish during my unaccompanied tour, predominantly to pass the time and forget about missing the wife and kids.
1st Signal Brigade Association Web Site Link
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Support Company, 1111th USA Signal Battalion
Fort Ritchie, Maryland 11/87-02/90
CPT Winslow / CPT Stoneking
1SG Scott
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Back to Ft.Ritchie. Definitely not out of choice! The biggest difference with going back to northwestern MD this time was I was now married. Lou had never been anywhere to the east coast except a childhood visit to Ft.Bragg, NC. Well I told her that Ft.Ritchie was way out in the sticks. I told her that on several occasions. I guess you have to have a frame of reference to actually digest the term 'out in the sticks' because I picked Lou and the kids up at BWI. We drove west on I70 into Fredrick and then up route 15. As I turned off of 15 onto 550 going up into the mountains, Lou turned to me and asked 'where the hell are you taking me?' She didn't have a full appreciation of what out in the sticks meant until that moment!
Our tour there wasn't the most memorable for Lou. I'd been there before so I dind't mind tho I would have preferred to have gotten other assignments. But Lou downright disliked the area. The part that made it bearable was making very good, close friends with two families while there. We three families seemed to always have get togethers for just about any reason, or sometimes for no reason! We all would soon get separate assignments to Hawaii within 3-4 months of each other!
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U.S.Army Element, Defense Information Systems Agency - Pacific
Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii 02/90-10/98
COL Rawlerson / COL Hussy / COL Harvey
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Ahh at last, an assignment 'home'. How I managed to pull off another assignment to Hawaii was no small feat, but it's a rather tedious story. I like to think I 'jedi mind tricked' DA into it. But once the re-up contract was in hand, that's all she wrote. I was NOT leaving Hawaii again! And I didn't -- by hook or by crook, I extended, did a COT, and face-to-faced with LTG Edmonds to secure a guarantee to remain at DISA-PAC until I retired.
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"Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is."
~ Barbara Bush (Former US First Lady)
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