Another Sentimental Journey

Today is the anniversary of the day I left the Army, 27 February 1975. My wife and I usually celebrate by going out for lunch but today they had a church potluck so we will go out later this afternoon for dessert — sundaes at Culver’s.

Well, I thought I'd take you on a sentimental journey with me as I tell about my Army career. It's a bit long even with cutting out all the extra stuff and just trying to stay with the main things!

Just a bit of a “prequel”: When I was in the 10th grade and 2/3 of the way in 11th grade I was in Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). My tour there ended when we moved from Denver, CO back home to Springfield, OH. While in the ROTC I decided I would join the Army after high school. 

On 13 February 1970, while a senior in high school, I enlisted in the 120-day delayed entry program in the U.S. Army. It was a Friday and I chose that day to snub my nose at superstition. It was the following Tuesday, the 17th, when I actually went to Columbus to take all the tests and physical exams and then get sworn in to the inactive reserve. When asked what specialty I wanted I said Infantry so I could also be a paratrooper. The recruiting sergeant said I had maxed all the tests and could do anything I wanted (except be a pilot due to my vision) but he wouldn’t let me go infantry. So I said it would be interesting to learn about explosives so he shook his head at me like I was a fool (really I was just ignorant and only thought about going to Vietnam) and put me in for Combat Engineer.

Two weeks after graduating from high school I entered active duty with the Army on 17 June 1970 at the Armed Forces Entrance and Examining Station in Columbus, OH, and was sent to Ft. Bragg, NC for basic training. My first unit was Company D, US Army Reception Station and that is where we were issued uniforms and other gear, and had photos taken for sending back home, as you see here with me wearing a “bus driver hat”.

Actual basic training began with Company B, 10th Battalion, 2nd Basic Combat Training Brigade. (This was the next-to-last class for basic training at Ft. Bragg.) Because I had learned the manual of the guidon in ROTC I was assigned as company guidon bearer. Here I am in front of my barrack with my friend Frankie Chan. The “BRM” stands for “Basic Rifle Marksmanship,” and was an award made to my company besting other units. Having been on the rifle team in ROTC I earned my “Expert Marksmanship” badge for rifle (years later added a bar for machine gun).

This next photo was taken mid-August on graduation day, with our commanding officer standing with some of us: I’m second from the right side of the photo. I received an accelerated advancement to Private E-2 (the one stripe) for excellent performance, which was made moot by virtue of back promotion due to the delayed entry enlistment so I actually started Basic as an E-2!

After a couple weeks leave home, at the end of August 1970, I flew to Ft. Leonard Wood, MO for Combat Engineer Training with Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Engineer Advanced Individual Training Brigade, spending almost two weeks there before volunteering for a two-week course at the Leadership Preparatory School, HHC Leadership Academy. I was then reassigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 1st EAIT Brigade for the next couple months.

During Combat Engineer training we learned map-reading and navigation, rigging (learning knots and using ropes for just about everything, including a 3-rope foot bridge!), how to build timber bridges, pontoon bridges and Bailey Bridges; learned all about explosives and demolition with them, how to place and remove mines, building field fortifications including the use of barbed wire; camouflage, engineer tools, building roads and airfields and of course continuous drill and weapons training. During this time I again carried the guidon, as you see in the following two photos (the castle is the symbol of Engineers).

An interesting thing was that at the end of the course a First Sergeant (a Vietnam vet) from the 47th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne) at Ft. Bragg was able to have a meeting with all who were heading to jump school for paratroop training. He told us none of us would be sent to Vietnam because the military was beginning a drawdown and would shortly be bringing people home. He was seeking volunteers to join the 47th because it was very understrength from having sent so many to Vietnam--and it was sort of an elite unit. We were told that the mission of the 47th was to build forward airstrips for the Air Force: a dirt runway to land C-130 transports would be completed within 48 hours of the jump in while a runway made from landing mats for fighters would take 72 hours. Well, that sounded like a great idea so I was one of several volunteers (some others ended up with the 307th Engineer Battalion (CBT)(ABN) of the 82nd Airborne Division)

I graduated engineer training on 21 November with an “Outstanding Trainee Award” and accelerated promotion to Private First Class.  Since it was Thanksgiving week I took a short leave on the way to Ft. Benning, GA for jump school, first assigned to 47th Company, 4th Student Battalion (Airborne), The School Brigade, and I arrived there on November 28th.

During the first week of training an administrative error dropped me from the class and I was reassigned to 48th Company in the next class, which didn’t start until after the holidays about five weeks later on 4 January 1971.  So I spent those weeks pulling KP (“kitchen police”) and guard duty, and a week leave to Ohio for Christmas.

When I started class it was the largest in history, beginning with almost 1500 men, graduating on the drop zone on Sunday 24 January with about 1000 men who made it through the course.  Because of the size of the class, we did not use the 250’ parachute towers. 

On 27 January 1971 I arrived at Ft. Bragg and was assigned to the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 47th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne), under the 160th Engineer Group (Construction), 12th Combat Support Brigade.  We lived in WWII era barracks on the east side of the base and wore the shoulder patch of the 12th Combat Support Brigade.

One of my first combat engineer jobs was working with the battalion building helipads at Simmons Army Air Field at Ft. Bragg.

In April 1971 I joined the Ft. Bragg Flying Club, and in November acquired a Private Pilot License.  Over the next few years I upgraded to Commercial Pilot, acquired a multi-engine rating, and started on an Instrument Rating before exiting the Army.

This photo, taken in April, was just before some sort of ceremony for the unit, which I don’t remember. Notice that paratroopers wear their jump boots with every uniform. 

On 22 April I finally made my first post-jump school parachute jump—a “Hollywood” jump just for training.  (An earlier jump was scheduled for a field training exercise—FTX— but weather cancelled it and we rode in trucks to the field for a week.)

Over the next few months we learned how to patch membrane runways. In August I was promoted to the rank of Specialist 4th Class.

In November 1971, the 160th Engineer Group was replaced by the 35th Engineer Group (Construction) returning from Vietnam so that became our mother unit, still with the 12th CSB.

During the first week of January 1972 I spent three days learning to be a generator operator and then competed and took Battalion Soldier of the Month. 

On 31 January 1972 the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat) returned from Vietnam, so we took their colors and suddenly became the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne), still under the 35th Group and 12th CSB.

Beginning on 14 February 1972 I spent five days at the Leadership School and passed at the top of my class.  I then entered competition for the 35th Group Soldier of the Month and won that.  Then learning of levies coming down for sending people to Germany, I re-enlisted (cutting short my first 3-year enlistment) on 28 February 1972 to be guaranteed a year of present duty so I could continue working on my commercial pilot license.

On 21 March we had war games, in which we began with an airborne assault. By this time I had been assigned to carry the M-60 machine gun instead of the M-16 rifle. To jump with the M-60 I also had to jump with a field radio, 500 rounds of blank ammunition, the tripod for the gun, a case of C-rations, and my own field gear; this photo shows the bag I had to jump with.

During this war game I was credited with “shooting down” an F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber acting as an enemy aircraft attacking us. Here you see my foxhole with my gun.

Mid-April I was promoted to Combat Demolition Specialist with the rank of Specialist 5th class.

As time went by that spring, we spent time building war game areas for the 82nd Airborne Division and the Marines near Camp Lejeune.  A lot of work, but a lot of fun.  Constant training, engineer projects, more parachute jumps.  

Sometime in June I was also promoted to Acting Sergeant for a while, as you can see in this photo; ribbons on my right side are unit awards which can only be worn while with the unit except if you were with the unit when they were awarded you can wear them the rest of your career. (Notice the bad spelling of “Engneer”.)

On 22 June the 12th CSB was retired and replaced by the 1st Corps Support Command, and we took on new shoulder patches.  

August 1972 was the first time I joined the team for Leapfest competition; very tough training.  Leapfest was a Labor Day competition of paratroop units, and we didn’t place this year.

Later that month we did an Operational Readiness Training Test (war games) and photos I took became part of the Battalion history archives. This photo is of me in front of the barracks ready to head to the air base.

This photo is of the type aircraft we usually jumped from, a Lockheed C-130E Hercules.

During March 1973 I had the following photo taken for sending home. You can see the 1st COSCOM patch we wore since June 1972. Notice the castle insignia on my lapel.

About the 22nd of February 1973, my ex-Platoon Sergeant, who had been reassigned as the Operations NCO in Headquarters Company, requested me as the Operations and Training Clerk, based on his knowledge of my typing capabilities and my record as a top-notch trooper.  He said it would take me out of KP and guard duty, and I’d end up with a top secret clearance and live in warm tents while on field exercises, so I took the job and was attached to Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

Time passed with more FTXs, ORTTs, endless training, more jumps, flying as safety NCO on jumps, me doing tons of paperwork and coordinating between HHC offices and the 35th Engineer Group and the occasional leave. 

Here are a couple photos of a jump on 19 June ’73; the first is as we are waiting to board the aircraft and the other is of me hanging under my chute taking photos, taken by my best friend (who a few years later was my best man when I married Jill).

Also, I began more training for Leapfest with HHC this year, and this time we were disqualified because, due to confusion, some of the team jumped after being given the red light for drop zone hazard!

When I was attached to HHC back in February, I had to leave the M-60 behind. Instead, I was assigned an M203, which is an M-16 mounting a 40mm grenade launcher underneath, as shown in this photo taken in October 1973 at the gunnery ranges.

Also in April, airborne troops no longer wore the garrison cap with the glider/parachute patch because we were authorized to wear the maroon beret as many airborne units around the world wore. (Although I think it was later in the summer when everyone was equipped with them so we could wear them as a unit.)

Second week of October we went on standby alert, drew all our gear, weapons and ammo, with the trucks carrying parachutes parked in the company streets; we were locked down in the battalion area for possible deployment to Israel for the Yom Kippur War. We were all disappointed when we ended up not going.

In March 1974 I was assigned to replace the Battalion Training Sergeant who just left service.  And then we went to Hilton Head Island, SC to build a pontoon bridge after a barge crashed into the only bridge connecting the mainland.  Very historical event! I took this photo after it was completed.

The next month I was chosen to fly to Ft. Benning to pick up new troops and led them to jumping in to Ft. Bragg.  First and only time I participated in in-flight rigging of jumpers. 

This next photo was taken on 21 June 1974 and is one of the best shots I have showing all the jumpers in the air. 

The next day the 35th Engineer Group turned in their colors and became the 20th Engineer Brigade (Construction)(Airborne Corps), which had returned from Vietnam. Here you see the new shoulder patch we got to wear, and which is still worn by the 27th.

On 24 June we had the actual ceremony changing from the 35th to the 20th and this photo shows me with the new beret for the ceremony.

NOTE: With all the above shoulder patches, the only personnel who wear the "AIRBORNE" tab are those in airborne units. In all three major commands, our unit and a parachute rigger unit were the only personnel wearing the tab..

In July I got into an argument with a Military Policeman at the Army Airfield because he was showing off his authority to his girlfriend who was in his guard house (illegally) and was delaying me from going to the flying club with a friend. On my way back out later he arrested me for “disorderly conduct” (arguing was disorderly?!), essentially because I was in the right and it embarrassed him in front of his girlfriend. So my battalion commander reduced me in rank to Specialist 4th class. This didn’t set well with my B Company Commanding Officer and he did some fighting for me, to no avail.

When my brother (16 months younger) left the Army in July 1974, he met me at Ft. Bragg and I took leave and rode up to Springfield with him. On 1 August, while looking for a Snoopy pin, I met Jill Tessneer at the “Card Cage” where she worked, and we ended up spending most of my leave time together.  (See the complete story of our meeting and courtship.)

After returning from leave, I purchased a 1972 VW Super Beetle with money I was saving to go to an airplane mechanic school.

Then the HHC Leapfest team won on Labor Day, so we got a 3-day pass, which I used to go to Ohio to see Jill, as shown in this photo as I’m about to head back to Ft. Bragg on 8 September.

In October my B Company C.O. finally had enough of my treatment at Battalion HQ and relieved me from attachment; he then promoted me to Acting Sergeant as B Company Operations and Training NCO, the office of which I held until I left service.

Meanwhile I was able to make a few more weekend trips to see Jill, and made my last parachute jump on 6 December 1974 (I was scheduled for one in January 1975 but the jump was cancelled due to weather).

After I received my pilot license back in November 1971, I took many fellow troopers flying. Some began calling me the “Red Baron,” but I said that he was a great pilot and dead, so someone pointed out that whenever I wasn’t in uniform I wore blue so they began calling me the “Blue Baron.” So on 27 February 1975, when I came to sign out of the Army about noon (after spending the morning turning in equipment, getting security debriefings and an exit physical exam) I found a cake next to the sign-out log, baked by the company Executive Officer’s wife. Stuck in it was one of the silly business cards cards I had made up.

After signing out I drove almost 10 hours to Columbus, OH where by then Jill was attending Ohio State University. This photo was taken by one of her roommates as I walked into the door of her dorm room.

I slept in their dorm in the room with the desks, and the next day, Friday, I went to school with her before taking her home to Enon by way of Springfield to see my family. I stayed with my family dating Jill over the weekend and on Sunday took her back to OSU and spent the night in London, OH with my brother.