I can believe that for sure.
What bases were you stationed at?
- Thread starter fuzzybuddy
- Start date
I don't give a damn what you call it. I call it Ft. Hood. Why? Because I served there.
I certainly haven't heard of it. Where is/was it?My last year and a half of active duty in the Army was at Sandia Base. I'll bet neither of you guys have heard of it.
I believe one of those incidents occurred at a Christmas Market. Granted, it wasn't Fasching, but a lot of people gather there sampling the wares and buying stuff, making those markets lucrative targets.
My last year and a half of active duty in the Army was at Sandia Base. I'll bet neither of you guys have heard of it.
Albuquerque New Mexico. It was a "consolidated" base created for the Atomic Energy Commission. Why was it called "consolidated" - because the airstrip was located in the west half of the base and called Kirkland AFB. Right, so the western part of the bases was Air Force and the eastern part was Army. In addition to that there were two (count 'em 2!) sailors who were barracks just across the quadrangle from my barracks. We became friends.
It was said that there were some Marines there too but I never met any so I don't know if it was true or not. I was discharged in 1968 and sometime after that the Army left so the whole place was then called Kirkland West and Kirkland East. Later still the whole place was just called Kirkland AFB. I don’t know if it’s still there.
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Twostep
Well-known Member
- Location
- Tiny town Oklahoma, OK
Atomic Support?My last year and a half of active duty in the Army was at Sandia Base. I'll bet neither of you guys have heard of it.
I have some sand from White Sands.
White Sands, or White Sands Missile Range was in the south-east part of the state. Sandia Base was in Albuquerque.
jujube
SF VIP
That was one of the alternate landing sites for the space shuttle back in the day.
I was chatting with some people at the Albuquerque airport years ago, waiting for a flight back to Orlando and it turned out they were part of the crew who was sent to every potential alternative landing site, which in this case was Kirkland.
The shuttle had safely landed at KSC, so they were heading home.
Twostep
Well-known Member
- Location
- Tiny town Oklahoma, OK
I know. Sandia was never fun. But ... .
Wow.
I drove through White Sands National Park once just to see the sand. It really does look like snow.
Twostep
Well-known Member
- Location
- Tiny town Oklahoma, OK
It is marvelous.
Now that we're on the subject of music and the Army, I don't suppose you ever met a piano player from the East Coast stationed in Germany until about 1969. His name was Washington.
Before my time. I didn't get to Germany (the first time) until 1979.
He deserted from Germany in 1969 and has been living here ever since then. I think it's strange that they gave him an amnesty and he was allowed to keep his American nationality. He even has an American passport now. I am surprised they were so lenient on him.
jujube
SF VIP
I had a boyfriend in my teens who was in the Army and stationed at Little Creek attending the music school. He was a tremendously talented trumpet player but had an attitude toward authority and a mouth that didn't know when to clamp shut.
Somehow, he made it through basic and part of the way through music school, but when ordered to do some kind of extra, temporary duty or training that he felt was below him, he smarted off and said that he didn't have to do grunt work because he was training to be an Army musician.
Whoever was in charge said, well that can be fixed, and BAM! he was out of the music school and now he WAS a grunt for the rest of his enlistment. Typical move on his part.
You can sometimes outsmart the Army but you have to be clever. I was assigned "extra duty" but I didn't want to do it. I had to get into one of those hazmat suits and learn how to pick up radioactive material in case of nuclear war. I wanted nothing to do with it so when we had to qualify I sabotaged the examination and intentionally flunked it. That was the end of that. However, they found out that I had some musical talent so they made me a bugler and I had to go to military funerals and play "taps" when the deceased was lowered into the ground. It was awful. I should have stayed with the radioactive duty instead. Even K.P. would have been much, much better.
LOL - in my experience, I have run into LOTS (certainly not all) of trumpet players who tend to be infatuated with themselves. They either put up or shut up musically, being naturally competitive, but within the military structure itself, there's more to it than just being a hot dog.
Ergo, the common threat at the SOM that was generally levied was "you can play it our way, or your way -- if you play it your way, you'll find yourself eventually playing it our way anyway." Which meant, of course, reassignment to a school in accordance with the needs of the Army.
They'd use either the infantry or cook school as threats. The funny thing about that was, I'd already been to cook school. But I knew enough to do what I was told and to keep my mouth shut -- within reason.
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He might've been part of Jimmy Carter's overall plan to pardon or otherwise excuse deserters, et. al., many of whom had fled to Canada.
NotCompSavvy
Senior Member
- Location
- Florida
funny thing is there are those in infantry who re-enlist because the Army offers them another MOS but its a con because after a year or so they wind up again as infantry .
Would not wish infantry on anyone .
Just a guess on my part, because I was never infantry or even wanted to be an infantryman, but I'd posit that in the post-Vietnam and post-draft US Army, those who specifically wanted to be infantryman were definitely motivated to serve as such. I ran into them most of all in Berlin -- these were highly motivated soldiers who reveled in being grunts. Much respect to them, especially in the older soldiers - platoon sergeants and above - who would ruck up, grab their weapons (or rubber facsimiles -- for training, don't laugh) and do their PT with astonishing capability.
One guy in particular -- the Deputy Brigade Commander of the Berlin Brigade, Colonel Michael Collins routinely did this every morning at 0500. He would do laps on the Yankee Stadium track, do pushups and situps after every lap, and do that for an hour. Amazing physical specimen and he was in his forties at that time.
These infantrymen were hard core.
Something "was up". He told me three different stories. He's a suspicious character. I met him a few times at cafés here in town (always pre-arranged by telephone) and on at least two occasions his son showed up sneaking around the corner to see what we were up to. Never once did he introduce me to his son and that's really odd. He always kept his distance. I could normally tell when his son was lurking because he would get a strange look in his eyes and he'd look over my shoulder at a short distance behind me.
I enjoyed meeting him because we both share an interest in 50's - 60's pop and jazz. We'd talk, sing, and thump the table to the beat non-stop for a couple of hours before he had to leave.
I never met his wife either but on the city bus one day I met this particular woman (I am not going to describe her for reasons of their privacy) and all the pieces fit together. We talked so when I say "all the pieces" you'll just have to trust me but if you knew what those pieces are you'd have to agree with me that it must have been his wife. I mentioned his name thinking it was nice but she denied knowing him or anyone like him. Sorry, but that's not possible. As I said, if you knew the pieces you'd understand.
To make this shorter I can tell you that he'd cancel 60% or our planned meetings so I had enough and blocked him from ringing. I don't know what his game is and I probably would regret knowing.
Mr. Ed
Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
- Location
- Central NY
Third base