Army

This is my US Army career page.  I'll talk about what I have done and places I have been.

I joined the Army 15 June 1995.  I enlisted as Infantry and attended Basic Training & Advanced Individual Training at Fort Benning, Georgia.  I stayed afterwards for Airborne School, also at Fort Benning, since I asked for it in my contract.  While in AIT, I recieved my orders for my first duty station - Alaska.  Upon graduation of Airborne School and 14 days of leave back home, I landed in Fort Richardson on Halloween.  When I arrived, there were too many of us new soldiers for the unit.  They made us stand on opposite sides of the hallway in the Inprocessing building.  Then they said, "If your on the right side, your staying here...if your on the left side, don't unpack your headed north."  The next day, the remainder of us were flown to Fort Wainwright, just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.

I was assigned to 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry (1/17 INF) after inprocessing there.  Me and all my buddies were once again separated in two, with the other guys going to 2/1 INF.  They initially placed us in the Charlie Company barracks because Charlie was in Thailand for the month long Cobra Gold mission.  Before they got back, we were all sent to Headquarters.  Charlie Company was pretty full, so we were to be Bravo Company bound, but they had just left to Guantanamo Bay to work the camp down there.  In the mean time, we were divvied up amongst the various sections of HHQ.  Some to Scouts, some to Support, while me and my now roommate Aaron Leach went to the Mortars.  Unfortunately, I had no clue was a mortar even was, but learned a little and got to fire the 81mm a few times.  Of course the rotor wash from a Chinook at -80° ambient sucks while helping sling load a palate of mortar rounds, but hey.

My mortarman time was soon coming to an end with my final event with them - winter phase of NWTC (Northern Warfare training Center).  At this three week course, we were taught survival in the arctic, basic mountaineering, skiing (including rucksack & weapon), snowshoeing and other various arctic skills.  This was a pretty in-depth course compared to what you normally received at your unit in Alaska.  By the time I left, I was a very competent skier, able to downhill, cross-country, telemark and instruct others.

When we got back from Fort Greely (the location of NWTC), Leach went to the Scout section.  The mortars received a few actual 11C mortarmen, so I was sent along with a couple of my friends to the Bravo Company rear detachment.  The handful of us got there and helped the broken and troublemaker soldiers finish refurbishing the barracks.  They had been completely remodeled and we had to paint the interior.  Smith, a large guy from the Midwest and his good friend Jay Hatch came to Bravo from the Anti-Tank section.  They had been sent to Alaska from their first units in Texas.  My very good friend Steve Haugan, who was with me since day 1 in Basic Training also came with us.  The guy who was the next roster number to me in Basic and AIT, Patrick Landry was sent to Bravo as well.  Both Haugan and Landry were Washington State kids, Wenatchee & Loon Lake, respectively.  Gary Deitz, who came to us from Fort Campbell and Fort Ord before that, joined us and became another friend throughout my Alaska days.  Two guys, Arvel Delong and Ehman, quickly welcomed us and tried to corrupt us.  They were both pending medical discharge.  Ehman was a decent guy, but his best friend Delong and a classic Shithouse Lawyer.  He was into some shady stuff and of course, I was his roommate.  Luckily I never fell prey to any of his shenanigans, but I fought it off hard a few times... quiet literally too.  After seemingly endless days of working barely four hours and nights filled with Dominoes Pizza and Basketball on Sega Genesis, Bravo Company returned from Getmo.