The promotion to PFC was the first SIGNIFICANT pay increase since I’d arrived, and that too had a negative side effect of reducing our food stamp aid which we soon lost altogether when I received the next promotion in December. Anna was managing our funds masterfully. We always had enough, not a lot left over, but the bills were paid, there was food on the table and somehow there was always enough to make a batch of cookies for church. The week before Thanksgiving We received a HUGE gift basket from the unit. and Christmas gifts from the unit. Every year, the families that needed the most and had the least were selected for food gift baskets for Thanksgiving. I was never privy to how this was actually decided I was just really surprised that we were selected as comparatively we felt we were doing pretty well after a previous year of near total unemployment. We didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and graciously accepted what was delivered to us by SGTs Jaramillo and Carmichael. The next month when Christmas rolled around, we were again the beneficiary of the Units benevolence. It was quite a feeling to experience, but I’m glad that we’ve been on the giving end ever since.
The December, for the most part was the end of our “Struggle” and 1985 began our period of prosperity. My promotion to SP4 was accompanied by another job change in the motor pool. The motor pool was divided into three mechanic shops: The generator shop (Military Intelligence units use a lot of radios in their mission and in the field, have large demands for power. The Battalion had over 100 generators) The Bottom Shop (At the base of a small hill) and the Top Shop (On top of the small hill). I was assigned to the TOP Shop which was run by Sergeant First Class (SFC) Hunter. My supervisor was SGT Moreau. This was my first time actually doing any significant work as a mechanic (a skill the army had initially trained me for nearly seven years earlier) and I was already learning I had a lot to learn. The Army was phasing out the Jeep and other small tactical vehicles but the Humvee was still in testing and development so the military decided that there had to be an interim vehicle until the Humvee was in production. The interim vehicle was the Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle (CUCV) which was Chevy Blazers and Silverado Pickups that were modified to government standards. Of course, the army had to make changes like a 24-volt electrical system and since they wanted to get away from gasoline and move to a single fuel across the military the opted for 6.2-liter Diesel engines. These engines, due to the rush in production proved to be problematic as they had a tendency to blow the rear main oil seal on the crankshaft. Since they were under warranty from General Motors, that meant they were sent to the local dealers for service until their service sections became so overloaded that GM contracted with the army Department of Industrial Operations (DIO) and paid the Army to fix them. This made me happy as the repairs were being completed faster with this latest change.
The Top Shop was an interesting and eye opening experience for me. SFC Hunter was a good supervisor and I learned a good deal about how to run a shop, but I also learned how wonderful and independent my wife was as a person. SFC Hunter’s wife called him 10, 15, 20 times a day. This is before cell phones; this was all a land line. 90% of the time, if the phone rang, she was on the other end of the line. So the majority of the time I was working for my squad leader SGT Moreau. Like so many people, SGT Moreau was a decent guy I suppose but he too had his problems. His main one was he was an alcoholic. This didn’t become evident until we had a battalion picnic and it became quickly evident that he’d had too much beer and became quite obnoxious to wives and families at the picnic, especially my wife. Apparently, he had been called by the leadership to account for his actions and was required to formally apologize to my wife in public. This made my work situation with him awkward at best, but he never seemed to hold a grudge against us for his troubles.
Both Top Shop and Bottom Shop were assigned M543A2 5 ton wreckers so that they could recover vehicles from the field when they broke down. Part of my list of jobs in the shop was assistant wrecker operator. One day, about noon, we got a call that one of the 2 ½ ton cargo trucks from Charlie Company had broken down at North Fort Hood and we had to go retrieve it. The primary operator SP4 Adams and I hopped in and he drove and I navigated. He was driving this Mack truck the full 62 MPH it would go because it was over a 40-minute drive just to get to the truck then we had to evaluate the situation and get it back, hopefully before dark. When we arrived, we were both relieved, (It was in a big empty parking lot) and concerned (It was pulling a generator trailer) about getting it back safely. The deuce was definitely going to be towed, as there were several quarts of oil underneath it where the rear main seal of the crankshaft had failed. There was also a lake sized puddle of water 20 or so feet across in front of the truck so Adams wanted to pull it forward to get it on dry ground where we could hook it up. This is where the problems started.
These wreakers had a front winch, rear winch and a crane boom. Adams said the rear winch was inoperative and he decided to winch the deuce forward with the boom. So here I am walking this block and tackle out from the book to the chains we had configured on the deuce and I’m almost connected when the cable comes loose from the drum on the crane. He’d been too far away and wasn’t watching that he’d gone below two wraps on the drum, the minimum to ensure that the cable doesn’t come loose. We spent the next 90 minutes rethreading the cable into the boom and getting it re-attached to the drum. Once completed, then we repositioned the truck closer and winched to deuce up to the wrecker and connected the tow bar. Now we are chasing daylight. The last thing we want is to be towing a truck, and a trailer 33 miles back to base in the dark. Once we have the rigging checked and pull it around the lot to confirm it is rigged ok, we headed south. The deuce had a shelter on the back and apparently, it was full, because the wrecker was sitting low on its springs supporting the front end of the deuce. The made for a rough ride and I was so happy when we finally arrived at the motor pool gate.
A few other items of interest occurred during my brief assignment at Fort Hood. I started college. My councilor at the education center had started me on my path to continue my education with the CLEP general exams. Now he was guiding me how to use those credits and credit for “Military Acquired Skills” to get a college degree. On post, Central Texas College (CTC) had an extension in the on base learning center and I found out that if I took two classes at the college, then I could matriculate my CLEP and military experience. With the help of some timely Christmas cash, I enrolled at the college for two night classes. US History after 1877 and State and Local government. I soon learned the joys of being a night student in the army was we had a field exercise in the middle of the semester. For two weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday, they drove me in from the field, (Generally pretty dirty and nasty) for my classes. I felt bad for my fellow students but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. The field problem ended and I managed to pass both classes with a B, so I was now an official college student. I was trying to make grandma proud too.
I mentioned earlier my levy notification for assignment to Alaska. This left us with a major problem; what do we do about our vehicles? Anna had (and still has) a 1968 Ford Mustang. We both agreed, that car did not need to go to Alaska so we made arrangements for it to be taken care of back at home. Our other vehicle was a 1978 Ford Fairmont. This car was a real piece of junk. A four door, four cylinder, 4-speed clunker that I struggled to keep running and that we were still making payment upon, we both agreed, this was not a vehicle to take to Alaska. We liked the idea of a super cab pickup and we were liking Fords so we looked mostly for F-series pickups. We learned that most trucks in out price range were trashed and less likely to make it to AK than the Fairmont. After several weeks searching we finally found the truck we wanted. F150 super cab, 351 Windsor engine, decent mileage and the body was in good shape. I went to the bank for a loan and got my hopes quickly crushed. In 1985, I couldn’t get a loan for a 1977 truck because it was a year too old. We really needed this truck and with banks again conspiring against us (We’d had issues in Indiana trying to get money to fix a car once) creative financing was the next option. A friend of my wife had joined the Air Force and sold her car, she had $1600 she could loan us. My mother and her second husband Al, loaned us the remaining $900. Armed with $2500 in case and trading the Fairmont for the payoff of the loan, we became owners of a Ford pickup. Once we had confirmation that we were going to make the trip to Alaska together, we made some upgrades to the truck. Four new tires and 3 spares, a platform in the bed to store items under and sleep on top and an aluminum topper covering the bed. Our income tax return paid for the tiers and the topper and the topper purchase was a tough decision. We had gone to Temple so we could get a good selection (Everything around the post was overpriced and we knew we could do better in Temple) and there we found a quandary. We had narrowed our choice down to one of two toppers. A new on that was pricey, or a scratch and dent one that had better features (Side windows that we could open for air) but had some dings and saved us some coins. We finally decided on the scratch and dent as the truck has some minor dings on it from the previous owner. We bought it and they mounted it for us and we drove it home. That night, we encountered our first Texas hail storm, the truck was undamaged, but our scratch and dent topper survived, but with a lot more dents in it. Prophetic, wasn’t it?
We were ready to leave 1210 Charisse Ave and Killeen TX. This place was what I’d call a C grade quadruplex apartment. Generally, the other tenants in our building were okay. Two were other soldiers and their families and the forth apartment for the most part was unoccupied during our stay. The unoccupied apartment had a pipe freeze during the winter and we had a hard time getting the management company to come out and fix it. We told them it was fine with us; they could let the place get ruined and they finally sent a plumber to investigate. Most of our problems there involved neighbors in other buildings. Like the one who lived down the street and drove home drunk and slammed into our downstairs neighbor’s car, then just drove down the street, leaking oil and fluids to their garage. Or the drug bust in the downstairs apartment of the building next door. We’d long suspected drug activity at that place and is was encouraging to see them in handcuffs leaving in a police car.
We spent our last night at Fort Hood sleeping in the camper of our truck (An of course had an unseasonable cold snap) Friday May 31, 1985. The next morning, I signed out on leave and we started our trek to Alaska with a slight deviation to home near Louisville, KY first to visit family and place the Mustang in Storage. The army had determined that my trip to Alaska was 4419 miles and they paid travel pay of thirty-five cents per mile ($1500+) and they allowed me a day of travel for every 350 miles traveled (13 days). With accrued leave, this gave us until June 6 to arrive at Fort Richardson, AK near Anchorage.
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