October 12, 1966, 48 years ago, I joined The United States Army for a 4 year tour of duty with The Army Security Agency. I went to Ft. Jackson, S.C. for basic training for 8 weeks on the next day. After basic, I came home for a short leave of 2 weeks and then was assigned to Ft. Ord, California for Advanced Infantry Training and Leaders Preparation Course getting ready for OCS (officers candidate school) at Ft. Benning Ga.... Stayed at Ft. Ord for another 8 weeks in training and was able to visit the beautiful Monterrey Coast, my first visit to Los Angeles, Disneyland, and Santa Barbara. Well, after all of the training and 5 months later when I arrived at Ft. Benning for OCS, was told that Vietnam was going to be our ultimate destination and that we would be 2nd Lieutenants dropping out of a helicopter somewhere in the jungle and our average life expectancy for that would be about 14 seconds, I gave my decision of becoming an officer another thought. Along with about 12 of the 20 candidates that were with me, stepped to the side and made a choice to continue to be enlisted soldiers instead of wearing a brass bar for a minute or two. I was then transferred to Ft. Devins, Massachusetts for the Army Security Agency and trained as a high speed morse code intercept operator. After 6 months learning how to listen and type morse code at 58 words per minute, I was stationed at Ft. Clayton, Panama Canal Zone for the remaining 36 months of my enlistment. Seems like it was just a few years ago, but surely not 48 years ago. My how time flies. Just having one of those flashbacks in time and thought I would share that with anyone who is interested in reading it. Thanks for reading and have a great day.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 20:25:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015