I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, But...

He's a Certified Hero in the Army Now.

He got out of Basic on July 3rd, 1996.

Then he spent several weeks at Fort Huachuca, AZ. He missed the start of AIT and had to do KP until Aug 19th. Then 5 weeks of training followed by 3 weeks of jump school at Ft. Benning, GA.

He didn't make it through jump school. That was okay by him since he would have ended up stationed at Ft Bragg. Instead he spent several weeks waiting for new orders to be cut. Didn't do KP but it was just as interesting.

He finally got his orders on 11/20 and was back in Portland for a couple of weeks leave on Thanksgiving. Then on to Ft Campbell, NW of Nashville on the KY/TN border. Home of the Screaming Eagles, the 101st Airborne Infantry (Air Assault).

Ft. Campbell

Now he's (can you guess?) waiting to be processed so he can be shipped out to his final unit. We're hoping to have a new address for him any day now.

Well, he ended up in the 2nd Battalian. He spent time in armory training and then his unit went down to Louisiana to fight someone at joint maneuvers. His side won and he got a certificate (good for 5 promotion points) declaring him a 'Hero of the Battlefield'. His surveillance unit caught the other side in time for a counter-attack. Plus he missed the flooding in Kentucky.

He's planning to go back to Louisiana for the next round to be a civilian. He went and was a spy in a small village that was never touched. He kept waiting for the locals to assassinate him but they never did.

Now he's back in Ft Campbell waiting for leave. Will spend a week in Chicago and then to Portland, 9/21-28.

He's been and gone now. Next stop, Mojave Desert for Top Secret maneuvers. You heard about it first here! As of 10/6/97, he says, "Happy Birthday" Spent most of 98 in Ft Campbell. He re-upped for an additional two years and got retrained in the bargain. His new specialty in communications. They messed up getting his security clearance and he spent an additional few weeks in Georgia waiting for new orders. He ended up getting posted to Ft Lewis, Washington.

So we see him occassionally. And he does manuevers near Yakima. Spent a month in the field this summer. But now (9/99) he's on leave before getting shipped to Izmir, Turkey. He'll do a 15 month hitch there and that should be that, unless he re-ups again.

Actually, he didn't end up in Turkey. A week before he was to go, he called up to arrange getting from Izmir to the base and the folks in Belgium he was talking to said, "Izmir?? You've been assigned to Belgium." Seems the paper work trailed him by a few weeks so he got away from Ft Lewis before the change arrived. He had to go back to Ft. Lewis and exchange his tickets to Izmir and get his new orders.

He got to Belgium okay. Now he's working 4 days on, 4 days off. From the little he's told us, he likes it and he's getting a chance to see some of Europe.
For his address, email me at
cvh@teleport.com
Last Modified: 1/16/00