I'm a Veteran

I was an Army officer from 1979 - 1988. My mother and sister, Betsy, pinned my gold bars on me in December 1978. My father was in Saudi Arabia so he couldn't be there, I will always be sad about that. In January my sister, Sue, and I drove from California to Maryland where I went to my initial schooling at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for three months then I went to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama for six months to finish my training as a Missile Maintenance Officer. I was trained in managing soldiers that repaired missile systems that were in the army. These included TOW and Dragon (pocket rockets for tanks), Chaparral and Vulcan (for aircraft), HAWK and Nike Hercules (high altitude aircraft), and Pershing and MLRS (used by the artillery). I also had to be trained in nuclear weapons because two of those systems were used to carry nukes. Most of the maintenance was on the electronics so the people that worked for me were very highly skilled and some of them had to go to school for up to a year. By the time I was sent to Kitzengen, Germany I had already been an officer for nine months where most officers had been in training for only three or four months. When I got to Germany I found out that the position I had been sent to Germany, and gone through all the advanced training, for had been postponed for two years. That meant essentially I had no job in Germany. I was "excess" and that meant I was available for every job no one else wanted to do. I remember my first week at the job they told me to, "...answer the phone and answer any question that comes up, that is the way to learn what is done around here." I was totally frustrated. I learned to change the paper in the copy machine (which was a new style and had a roll of paper and then a razor blade would cut the paper), I was in charge of ensuring all the back lights of the trucks had been upgraded to the larger size, I rode on a helicopter every day for two weeks carrying an empty box (except sometimes the box had cookies for some of the men in the field) because I was an officer and it gave credibility to using the helicopter. I started to understand the Army way. I was "excess" for a year then and a half and then they sent me to the unit I was supposed to go to and I did a job that I was actually trained for. After 6 months there I was sent to a new job in Wuerzburg (where, in fact, I was born). I really enjoyed my new job and I worked for the General Staff. It was a real experience because when we went to the field I was on duty from 10pm - 6am. What that really meant was when the general slept I sat in the command tent and kept his seat warm. I made sure the maps were up to date when the general came back in the morning and answered questions when requested. Really, I didn't do much because there were many senior sergeants there that told me what I should do (usually what I shouldn't do). It was interesting for me since I was a maintenance officer and had never been taught about infantry. I still laugh thinking of the time a colonel came into the tent at 2am looking for the officer in charge. By then I was a FIRST Lieutenant and I hurried over to him. He saw that I was a maintenance officer and only a Lieutenant and he started yelling at me, and then at the senior sergeant that he was a colonel and wanted to talk to the person in charge. I sheepishly said I was the senior officer for the night shift and asked him if I could help him. He yelled more and I told him if he wanted me to I could wake the general. The HE sheepishly said that wasn't necessary. He told me his problems and I helped him with the solution and he went away. I didn't have to wake the general. Six months before I left Germany I was given another job and had additional training on the first M1 tanks in Germany. After Germany I was sent for morning training in Alabama. After the one year of training I stayed in Huntsville, Alabama for another 3 years where I was in charge of writing evaluation tests for new equipment the Army wanted to buy. Many years later I saw the Army had the forklifts I had helped to write the evaluation test for. I also worked on testing the Sgt York which was a new weapon they were going to put in the Army to shoot down aircraft. While I was there they had the only six systems the army had to test. I remember hearing the news on the radio that they had decided not to buy Sgt York for the Army then I walked to the windows overlooking the systems and there were soldiers walking over to the six Sgt Yorks and turning them off and locking them. I also did some preliminary work on Directed Energy Weapons Systems (DEWS). I was asked to write an article on it and I did and it was published. After Alabama I was sent to Korea. In Korea I spent 2 months at the headquarters and then went to the missile maintenance company and was the commander. After Korea I went to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas and was there for two years until I got out of the Army.