I’ve noted a lot of stuff that had occurred during my time on active duty in the Army and today I noted that I hadn’t really documented how I ended up in the U. S. Army. I’ll start with some back story so this will make some sense then I’ll get to the title topic a bit later.
My military service started when I was 19 and I joined the Indiana Army National Guard (INARNG). I’d talked about joining the army with my father who was a Master Sergeant in the INARNG and his suggestion was that I might want to join the guard and see if I likely the army part time before I made it a full-time career. I thought that this was a sensible approach and so he took me with him to his next drill at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Camp Atterbury (Atterbury Reserve Forces Training Area or ARFTA), in 1978, was the home to several guard units:
• 128th General Supply Company
• 1413th Engineer Company
• 1313th Engineer Company
• Atterbury Training Site (ATS)
• A Medic Unit
• The Indiana Military Academy (IMA)
At the time, my father was the 1st Sergeant of the 128th General Supply Company (GS) and he gave me a tour of the base and all the tenant units. In March of 1978 I enlisted in the INARNG and joined the 128th General Supply Company. My father, incredulous as to why I joined his unit noted that I’m have to be; “twice as good as everyone else just to be even.” To which I replied “What is your point?”
I spent six years in the guard during which I got married, had three children, went to Officer Candidate School (OCS) and became an officer. All too often I ended up unemployed in civilian life. The late 70’s and early 80’s was not a great time to be a lower middle class blue-collar worker. I could testify to that by the difficulty I had in finding any kind of decent employment. As a last resort, I went to the Army recruiter in Clarksville, IN to see if I could get an active duty position as a Second Lieutenant. They were excited to have a branch qualified Quartermaster Lieutenant wanting to go active, and that lasted up to the point they asked where I’d graduated from college. It seemed that active duty required a college degree. With my back against the wall economically, I regrouped and replied; “How would you like a really well trained private?” This was working out better as I tested well enough I could have my choice of Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) and I was looking at becoming an X-Ray Technician. That looked like something I could get a civilian job in after my enlistment. That bubble lasted up until the question: “Do you have a previous MOS?” I replied “63 Bravo” and he replied “Congratulations you are now a Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic!”
Excited that I was able to enlist and deflated that I couldn’t be an active duty officer, I went home to tell the wife I’d been accepted for active duty. Signing the contract was one thing but going through the Military Enlistment Processing Center (MEPS) is another thing altogether. The good ole, poked and prodded tested for this and that and all kinds of fun stuff you don’t want to remember. The recruiter had put me up in the Louisville Inn in downtown Louisville so I could be at MEPS at 6 AM April 11th, 1984. I also used the Sauna to sweat off a few pounds as I was all too close to my maximum weight and if I weighed too much, I would be rejected. Being a fat boy was the fastest way to get out of the army at that point due to the all-volunteer force and other force reduction mandates due to the economy. Low and behold I weighed 211 and I was told I was over the limit. Then I noticed I’d been measured as 74 inches and asked them to measure me again and I remeasured 75 inches and that allowed me to weigh 217 pounds, so I was good to go. With the weight issue behind me, I only had one additional hurdle to pass. I had to report to my duty station before midnight.
The reporting before midnight was a stipulation caused by my unique pedigree in the military. When leaving the National Guard for active duty as an enlisted soldier, I had tendered a “Conditional Resignation.” This allowed me to serve on active duty as an enlisted soldier and have my National Guard commission transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) control group in St. Louis MO. I was going to be “Dual Component” active enlisted and reserve officer. The only catch was that I had to enlist and report for duty the same day. I was being assigned to the replacement detachment at Fort Hood TX, so that didn’t seem like a big issue. Until I got my travel voucher. I was dropped off at Standiford Field in Louisville, KY at about 3 PM with a voucher that got me tickets to Atlanta – Dallas/Fort Worth/Killen TX. The first two flights were Delta and the third was a regional TX airline called RIO Airways. My flight left Louisville at about 4 PM and I arrived in Atlanta before 6PM. My flight to Dallas left he gate about 45 minutes later, then promptly sat on the tarmac for an hour due to takeoff delays. This made my timing for my Dallas connection close even though the pilots did their best to make up time to DFW by never baking off the thrust the entire flight. The flight crew did everything they could for passengers with connecting flights. They asked who was going where and gave us our gate information and asked for all passengers not making a connection to sit while we heading out for our flights. I disembarked at Gate 10 and I had to meet my flight at gate 1, so I figured that would work out well, until I got between gate 8 and 9 and there was a final boarding call for my flight. In the 1970’s there as a TV commercial that had O. J. Simpson running through an airport hurdling seats to make a flight, I did my best to emulate him at that moment. I arrived at the ticket counter breathless and I was asked if I was “Insert a Name here” I said NO, but here is my boarding pass. They pointed to a door and I ran down a staircase and across the tarmac where they reopened the door of an idling aircraft and let me collapse in the rear seat.
At the time, Rio Airways flew 4-engine de Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft. These 50 seat commuter aircraft were the mainstay of their fleet. The plane landed in Killeen, TX at 11 PM and I was picked up by the staff of the reception station by 11:30 arriving at the post and signing in at about 11:45 PM. It was close, but I had completed the first requirement and had reported at Fort Hood before midnight. One of the first things I learned is that Fort Hood never refers to itself as Fort Hood. It is III Corps (Three Corps) and Fort Hood, as they never want anyone to forget that it is the only installation that has TWO army divisions as tenants of the installation. My arrival was pretty unceremonious, they signed me in, gave my sheets and a blanket and took me to the transient barracks. The staff duty runner did point out where the dining facility (Mess Hall) was located and that it opened at 6 AM and that I needed to report for in processing at 8 AM.
The first day of in processing was as uneventful as my day at MEPS the day earlier. The standard hurry up and wait army philosophy. I was halfway through my second day of in processing and explaining my dual component status for at least the third time when I was given a note to call the Red Cross. As a soldier, getting a message from the Red Cross is ALWAYS BAD NEWS. The Red Cross is the de facto civilian verification agency for family emergencies in the army. The message was to call my father. This left we with a quandary as I had no phone access and this was before long distance calling was cheap and simple. Fortunately, the sergeant working with me was on the ball and handing me a phone and told me it was a Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) line and to call home. I called my father and learned that my Grandmother Ida, had died. Ida had been my landlord for the past three years and she’d begged me not to go to the army the day before I left. My father asked if I wanted to come home and I said no, as it would have required taking advance pay and advance emergency leave, neither I wasn’t to deal with and besides, she had already passed and I wanted to remember her alive.
The next day I was carted off in a passenger van to West Fort Hood. I had been assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion at West Fort Hood. I was kinda dumbfounded as I never dealt with the MI and my only knowledge of the MI was that Military Intelligence was a contradiction in terms. The HHC commander was Captain Felix Aponte. I met him briefly during the in briefing to the unit from the 1st Sergeant and then I was taken outside to afternoon formation to meet my platoon sergeant. It was quite a surprise as the platoon sergeant was Sergeant First Class (SFC) Clarence Wood. Six years earlier, Sergeant (SGT) Clarence Wood had been one of my drill instructor in Bravo Company, 5th Battalion, 4th Advanced Individual Training (AIT) Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. To my utmost surprise, SFC Wood recognized and remembered me.
I had fond memories of SGT Wood when I was at the Wheeled Vehicle Mechanics Course (WVMC) there at Fort “Lost in the Woods” our affectionate name of that training base. SGT Wood ran B-5-4 into the ground. “Bravo Five Four, We Set the Standard!” was the company motto and he helped re-enforce that motto. SGT Wood at that time was likely in his mid-twenties and he smoked two packs of Kool cigarettes a day. You would think he couldn’t run and that assumption was a big mistake as I had soon learned. B-5-4 ran and ran and ran. During my tenure at B-5-4 there was an army promotion for good health called “Run for Your Life”. You could log 3 miles a day running to track what you were doing for yourself. My first two weeks in B-5-4 we accumulated enough total miles run that I could log 3 miles a day the entire six weeks I was there. Not only could SGT Wood run, he could also call cadence while we ran. The next morning, I learned that SFC Wood, could still run and still call cadence like he had six years earlier. I’d never been much of a runner and I’d always had challenges maintaining my weight, except for the times I was subject to Sergeant Wood and his love for running. That was how my entry on to active duty began.
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