My Army Story (War Stories)

Foreword

Just a quick note: I might not have a lot of time to write a complete entry this session, etc…

This is actually not the beginning. I’ve been working on this story for a while. To get the first part of the story, you’ll want to track down the paper version. I think it turned out pretty good, etc.
In case I’m a little off on where we left off last time, I’ll give a short recap:
Toward the end of AIT (before graduation), we received our orders for our first active duty assignment. My AIT platoon was basically an OSUT unit except we didn’t stay on Jackson, we all went to Fort Gordon. I never kept in touch with any of my Basic/AIT peers/buddies except for one whom I didn’t exactly think of as a friend. I guess that’s normal in the workplace, but when the workplace includes your off-duty residence, it gives credence to not being buddies, etc… I’m sure I’ll say more about Ron Henderson, but for now, we’ll assume that we are where we left off last time (insert disclaimer here).
On a side note, SPC Harry Mercado and I recently reconnected via LinkedIn (although I actually tracked him down). As is turns out, he’s also a JROTC instructor in Chicago (where he grew up). I have always considered him my hero professionally. I won’t go into the details, but suffice it to say he rose to one of the highest if not the highest position in the Army’s Signal Corps as an enlisted soldier.

Up to Date

SPC Mercado picked us (Henderson and me) up from the replacement detachment in Baumholder, Germany. It’s funny because we started by going to parade rest and calling him -yes/no- Specialist. He got a kick out of it, and it is pretty funny to look back, but what else do you expect from well trained and reasonably disciplined privates fresh from AIT. It’s a crying shame that those types of soldiers are long gone in my estimation. I saw that as far back as the late 90’s and definitely into the 2000’s.
Including everything I remember about my time in Germany is not going to be concise or organized. It will most likely be not in the order things happened, but rather more like following rabbit trails, especially like white ones with pocket watches.

The Barracks

Baumholder for the most part had old German Army barracks. I can’t say how old they were, but they were old as of 1990 (34 years ago). They were situated in rows along the roads going uphill from the sports field in the upper part of the lowest part of the valley. Our row, going down the road maybe half a mile or more, was the next up from the sports field. I remember seeing the AAFES burger bar (like a knock off burger king or the food service of a bowling alley) and being amazed to think that we would have the freedom/liberty to go there to eat if we wanted. I think up the hill next was the smaller, down hill motor pool next to the Chow Hall. Up the hill from there was the main Barracks building for our company (HHC). It was on the road there that we had our company formations. At the top of the hill was the main motor pool and our Commo Shop where I worked (although, I worked all over really). There was a basement floor that looked basically the same as the main three floors except there were no soldier rooms there. It was mostly used for Supply Rooms or Arms Rooms or other similar work spaces. I don’t really remember who worked on each floor and especially in the other barracks buildings. I only remember that on our floor was the Commo section, the cooks, and for a time period I don’t remember a friend of mine, Alan (I don’t remember his last name, but he was a legal clerk and had light skin and was losing his hair at a very early age). There was a lot of palling around among the cooks and commo, drinking at night and the weekends, mostly. Eric Moles, one of our crew, was the Casanova of the bunch. There was a fire escape outside our end of the building that was constructed more like a regular set of stairs by American standards. When the weather was nice it became somewhat of a hangout during off-duty time. I’m trying to remember, but it seems like maybe at some point it became off limits. I imagine there was somebody on post that got drunk and fell while on their fire escape (that’s usually how the Army responds to such events). There were two man rooms and six man rooms. I’m not sure if there were other sizes, but naturally, with enough rank you had at least a two man rooms to yourself. I don’t think I ever lived in the barracks and had my own bonafide room, although in Korea, I had the room to myself for a few extended periods between roommates. The rooms were of plain construction. The walls were thick and solid of concrete, rocks, bricks, or a combination. We really could have fought from there if needed. There were no closets, just wall lockers. This was what we were used to from Basic and AIT, so it seemed normal. The bunks could stack or fit both on the floor, although I think we kept them stacked. Maybe there was a dresser or a fridge? Henderson ended up as my roommate for most of not the entire time in Germany, so that’s just built into the story. I know he had a TV in the room for most of the time. American TVs couldn’t pick up German programs. That’s ok, because there was the Armed Forces Network (AFN) to watch popular programs from back home. The bathroom aka latrine was on the end of the hall. I think the showers were separate, but I can’t remember for sure. The laundry room was in the middle of the hall. Part of our daily routine after PT was to clean the halls, the latrines, and I think the cooks took care of the laundry room. I can’t really think of much else about the barracks other than many hours looking out the windows feeling alone. I did not want to follow the popular lifestyle of partying and drinking which basically everybody in my unit did. Other than the time I spent with my friend Alan, it was a very lonely time, unless I ventured away from my unit, like to church and spending time with church friends. (I’ll talk more about that later).

The Commo Shop

There’s not much I can remember about the shop, well… I can picture it in my head, but I’m not sure if I can describe it. I guess I’ll try though. So we were situated across the road from the Main Motor Pool. We had a connex (Container, External) for storing tents and such (oh it was soooo heavy). Facing the shop which was tall enough to have a loft, the double door entrance was on the right side. The main room of the shop is very hard to remember as far as details go. I think there was a fridge. There was definitely a heater… maybe a diesel burning heater? I can’t remember. Along the center of the back there was like a storage area and some stairs to a loft storage area… I remember this mostly because of a fire extinguisher going off that sucked the air right out of your lungs. Continuing around toward the left of the building was our little Wire Section work/store room. I spent a lot of time there, mostly just not doing much. As I recall, at the shop I spent most of that time not really doing anything. A few of the guys were always going in and out throughout the day, but we spent plenty of time just chatting. It was also where I finally got the best of Henderson in a scuffle of some sort over something. It was a matter of grabbing his head and straining his neck. Anyway, after that, I didn’t really have any more issues from him. The latrine was through a doorway heading back to the Chief’s and the CESO’s (the old name for SIGO) office. I remember two of our chief’s and maybe a third, but the guy I’m thinking of, I can’t be sure he was ever the Commo Chief. The second chief we had actually scammed me out of $300 for about 6 months. He ‘sold’ me a car and talked me into paying him while he ‘repaired’ it. He never did bring me the car, but he eventually gave me my money back (very illegal, or at least unethical and could have gotten him in some serious trouble if I had the mind to whine and complain about it). Maybe next time I’ll try to remember the names of the guys in our shop. One other note: I was in the 3/12th Infantry (M) Battalion. This was not too long before they started assigning females to combat units. At the time I was in Germany, 3/12th was a guys only establishment. It seemed normal to me because it was all I’d ever known.