The Army

 I graduated from high school in 1988, after school I pretty much moved out and worked at a couple farms until I got hurt. It was after I got hurt and didn't get any support from the last one that I decided to go into the Army. What a ride!


When I was at the recruiter, I got my ASVAB score and was looking into what I could do. I wanted to get into air traffic control like my dad but was told that there were no slots available. Looking back I think that I didn't score high enough. They started showing me helicopters and told me that I could be a mechanic and fly. The Apache looked cool but I couldn't fly on it, next was the Chinook and I said "That looks like a flying dumpster" so that was out. Lastly was the Blackhawk, it looked cool and I could fly too. So that was a go, next was where I wanted to be stationed after schooling. I had no clue where to go, I remember the recruiter asking "Are you married? Nope. Do you plan on getting married soon? Nope. Go to Germany!"


I made it through basic training with no real issues, I actually kind of enjoyed it. Being in Ft. Dix N.J. in the early spring wasn't exactly warm but it sure beat the heat. I remember that my dad came out to be at my graduation. I will tell you that my dad looked bad, he was dealing with diabetes and had lost so much weight. I was happy to have him there but felt so bad for him. After basic came advanced individual(AIT training at Ft. Eustis Va., we thought we were done with drill sergeants but boy were we wrong. One of the drill sergeants we had was the 2-mile run record holder at Ft. Dix, that joker could run like a gazelle for days. 


After finishing AIT I went home for a week before heading to Germany. I spent time with my friends Pete and Tom, did stuff around the house, and just got ready to go overseas. Back in those days, there wasn't the internet or any real easy way to find out information on where I was going, so I was heading to Germany blind. I remember landing in Frankfurt and walking through the airport there just in awe of the differences from home. I was looking at all the different types of food, you could buy beer everywhere and there were cigarette machines all over the place. We spent some time at a replacement center, once I found out what unit I was going to I was shipped out to another replacement unit. I remember being on a bus traveling down the autobahn, and each exit had the word "ausfahrt" on it, I thought that Germany must have been one huge city with the same name. 


I went through all of the in-processing and through all the new soldier classes. One of the classes which was basic German, they taught us how to ask where things were like the train station or bakery. What they didn't do however was how to understand all the info that was going to be coming back at you pretty fast as the person thought you spoke German fluently. It took me a while but I did get better. On my 19th birthday, I got to my permanent duty station. I remember that night like it was yesterday, I knew absolutely no one and I went to get a pizza by myself at the bistro on post. I remember feeling so alone that night. 


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