|
|
|
The military is just
like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer – it feels so good when you quit.
However, I do owe a considerable debt, to my experience in the Army. The
responsibilities, team environments, and goal oriented missions that are encountered in
the service, have similar, direct applications in business.
|
|
| February, 1969 – Greetings, as the draft notice
begins. Your friends and neighbors have chosen you to serve your country.
With friends like that , who needs enemies. |
What Have I
Got My Self Into Now?
|
|
|
Pershing I, Tactical Missile rising to launch position.
|
Nuclear
Warheads
Not quite Dr. Strangelove, but it had its moments.
One of many small U.S. Army detachments around Europe, we were 125
men in charge of several nuclear warheads. Stationed on a Lutwaffe airbase, the
Germans possessed the missile, we the warheads. For practice (. . and reality?) the
launch exercise would include mating the warhead with the missile, and a cooperative
launch. |
82 USA Missile
Detachment
Lagerlechfeld, Germany
1969
Landed in Frankfurt Germany, Thanksgiving day, 1969, left for
Vietnam in July 1970.
Greatest lesson learned here – appreciating good dark German
beer. |
| At the age of 19, I was promoted to Training NCO. This
position was charged with scheduling & maintaining the proficiency training program
for: warhead maintenance, security, launch, and destruction. Rigorous
and frequent inspections by U.S. and NATO commands were conducted to maintain
certification. The responsibility to meet these requirements was commensurate with a
unit possessing nuclear warheads. |
Warhead mated to missile with warhead carrier in background.
|
|
|
Young,
Naive, & Skinny
Returning from patrol with the 101st Airborne Division near Hue,
South Vietnam.
Significant lesson learned here – hating the rain, the
night, the unknown – and Carlings Black Label beer - what crap.
July 1970 - February 1971 |
|
|
|
