After being sworn in on the 4th of November 1958 in Seattle, WA, I was flown to Monterey, CA. There were several other new recruits at the airport and we were picked up by a bus and taken to the Reception Station at Fort Ord. One of the first things we did was go to Central Issue and received our clothing, etc. Then off to the barber shop for the standard military hair cut. Then things took a turn for the worse. I was taken to the mess hall and put to work. I pulled KP for three days!!! What have I got myself into? This is not what I imagined the Army to be like. Finally I was told to get dressed in Class A's and I was driven back to the airport and put on a plane to Columbus, GA which is near Ft Benning, GA.
On to Basic Training - Fort Benning, Georgia
November 9, 1958
We were put on a bus at the airport and taken to Fort Benning, GA. There we were met be our "welcoming committee". Two drill sergeants were there with a Deuce and a half truck to take us to our unit on Sand Hill in Fort Benning where we would be exposed to 8 weeks of BCT (Basic Combat Training). The barracks there were the old WWII wooden barracks. After BCT we were moved to Kelly Hill for AIT (Advanced Individual training) and BUT (Basic Unit Training). This was really a step up. The barracks were three story concrete buildings and were fairly new and liveable. The four months of training went by pretty quickly and really raised our confidence level. From here we went by truck to Savannah, GA were we boarded the USNS Buckner for our trip to Germany.
Ledward Barracks, Schweinfurt, Germany
April 1959
On our way across the Atlantic we ran into some heavy weather and quite a few of the troops got seasick. Luckily I was not one of them. After seven days at sea we pulled into the harbor at Bremerhaven, Germany and we were transferred to a train. This was to take us to our duty station in Schweinfurt, Germany. Once there we were moved to Ledward Barracks, my "home" for the next year or so.
