Updated MAY 26, 2008
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of Bob Moats |
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the story continues...
One cold morning in February 1969, my parents drove me to Mt. Clemens to board
a bus that would take me to a Detroit induction center to be fitted for army
life. It was a long and drawn out process and then we finally took the oath
to be good for America and we were flown off to regions around the U.S. of
which I ended up in Fort Knox, Kentucky. We sat on a bus at Fort Knox after
arriving from the Louisville Airport when this big black drill Sargent came
on and started the standard scare tactics on us raw recruits. I was only 19
years old at the time and this was not anything familiar to me, so I was a
bit un-nerved by it all. Staff Sargent Giles was this man and he would be
my platoon Drill Instructor. There were three other DI's breaking the bus
group into four platoons and leading them off to the slaughter of Basic
Training.
The large picture on the left shows myself, third
from the left, front row; Sgt. Giles was fifth from left with Sgt. Brantely
next to him.
During basic I was getting letters from Lisa Mathias and I made an unauthorized
trip back to Detroit on one weekend that we were allowed to leave Fort Knox. I
got a plane back and stayed with her at her new apartment. Paul Petrucci and his
new girlfriend Dee came to pick us up and we went to the Chatterbox for dancing.
Paul dropped us back at her place and the next morning I was back at Fort Knox.
See sent me one last letter saying she was moving again and that was the last I
heard from her.
The end of basic
brought the big ceremony of graduation and my parents drove all the way from
Michigan to Kentucky to watch me become a GI. It was swelteringly hot and many
of the guys having to stand at attention in the hot sun on the asphalt field
were fainting away. I made it through the ordeal and was allowed to go home for
a few days before being shipped off to my Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at
Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
Tonight, (March 2005) I tuned into PBS on my TV and they were running concerts
from the 60's and I have always believed music has a very strong influence on
memory. I plugged in my headphones and popped in my CD of "The Association" and
went back to when I was in Virginia, a hop, skip and a jump from Washington D.C.
and my experiences there. Flower Power, Love-in's and hippies. Yep I grew up in
it, but I was playing soldier at the time. I used to go into D.C. by a rickity
old bus that was so kindly provided by a local minister who asked for nothing
more than a small out of pocket donation for gas. One night we were on the way
back to Fort Belvoir and some crap ass agent for the D.C. transit authority was
on the bus and busted the minister for taking money for rides back to the base.
Guess the D.C. bus people missed the chump change that the G.I.'s were providing
to this little guy for a ride home. My love for governmental politics started to
grow bitter then. I needed my time in D.C. to get away from the military, and
the asses who tried to stop our journey didn't deter me.
One way or another I got into D.C. and hung out at the U.S.O. where I got to know
many of the people who worked there. After a while I admited to doing magic and
one night the USO had a special party and I performed my small show there. While
I hung out at the USO I met a girl named Jeannie Simmons who volunteered there
who I developed a small crush on. I have many memories of those times at the USO
but one not so good. I came in one night and found out one of the girl volunteers
had drowned on a boat trip in the Potomic. I knew her well, one night her, Jeannie
and I went clubbing and ended up back at her apartment for the night. It was in
the bad end of Washington D.C. but she made it seem safe. The USO held a memorial
for her shortly after, but I was getting close to leaving Fort Belvoir so lost
touch with Jeannie and the good people at the D.C. USO.
I spent four weeks training to be a
generator mechanic and when that class graduated, half went straight to Viet Nam
and the other half went to the second phase of training, I missed Viet Nam. The
second phase was precise power generation and I made it through that. After that
class graduated, again, half went to Viet Nam and the rest were spread over the
world, I went to Germany. Lucked out twice. Before going to Germany I was allowed
a little over a week to visit the folks back home. I hooked up with Howard again
and we went to track down Lisa but she had moved again, so I never saw her again.
The week went by too fast and I was off to Germany.
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Sgt. Giles was a hard man but over the six weeks of Basic Training I found he was
the most fair of the unholy four, as I thought of them. I'm not going into details
about basic training at this time, I may add this later. I did manage to get back
home a few times which was not
allowed but everyone did it, as long as they didn't miss getting back on time.
While I was there some how they found out I did magic shows, and some officer
more or less ordered me to perform for a battalion talent show. My Drill Sargent
was less than happy that I had to do this but he had to obey the orders. I did
the show which went well considering I had to put together make shift equipment
and had my mom send me a few of my magic props from home. My sharp shooting
abilities were brought out at rifle firing and my Drill Sargent was a bit happier
with me that I shot so well. The day we were to qualify for our shooting badges,
I didn't do quite as well and Sarge let me know he wasn't happy. Oh, well.
