I am thankful for having had the chance to serve in the United States military...
At the age of eighteen, I joined the Army. I signed up while I was in my senior year of high school with the agreement that as soon as I finished high school, I would sign my enlistment papers. And that is just what I did.
Thus, on the day of my graduation from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, I was on my way to a basic training unit at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Then after two months of learning how to be a soldier, I was sent to my next level of training, which was Fort Polk, Louisiana. Here in hot and swampy Louisiana, I took my training as an infantryman. And from there I was on my way to South Korea where I did a thirteen-month tour with the First of the Seventeenth Mechanized Infantry Division, where we went on maneuvers in the remote and rugged northern region of the country, and along what is now known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates the North from the South.
South Korea was an interesting place. With tensions always on high between the North and South, we had to stay on alert. On occasion, we would catch glimpses of shadowy North Korean soldiers off in the distance as we looked beyond the "38th Parallel" and across the cold, murky river which separated us.
But when my tour was over, it was back to the States where my next assignment awaited me: Fort Knox, Kentucky. Here I had orders to report to the Headquarters of the 58th Infantry Division. But to my surprise, when I reached the unit, I discovered the 58th had been disbanded maybe a year before. So I ended up being retrained as a clerk typist for a basic training unit. I was assigned to Battalion Headquarters, and it was here where I learned how to type and file. I became adept at paperwork, and this would carry over to civilian life where, when I came to prison, I was already proficient at using a typewriter. This is what I use today as a part of my own modest ministry.
As a veteran, I am thankful to have served and completed my three-year enlistment from June 1971 to June 1974. I was honorably discharged and left the Army with the desire to rejoin my family and friends, and to start a new life.
Things went well for a while. Within a few weeks after my discharge, I got a job with a security outfit called IBI Security. I was assigned to the night shift, where I worked with two guard dogs as I patrolled the truck yards that were in place at the time. My last assignment was at the Universal Car loading yard that encompassed several city blocks in Manhattan from Tenth Avenue at West 31st to 34th Streets, and almost to 12th Avenue and the Hudson River waterfront.
Good memories. I am happy to have served my country. I'm seventy years old now, but if I could reenlist, I would.
D.B.
Thus, on the day of my graduation from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, I was on my way to a basic training unit at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Then after two months of learning how to be a soldier, I was sent to my next level of training, which was Fort Polk, Louisiana. Here in hot and swampy Louisiana, I took my training as an infantryman. And from there I was on my way to South Korea where I did a thirteen-month tour with the First of the Seventeenth Mechanized Infantry Division, where we went on maneuvers in the remote and rugged northern region of the country, and along what is now known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates the North from the South.
South Korea was an interesting place. With tensions always on high between the North and South, we had to stay on alert. On occasion, we would catch glimpses of shadowy North Korean soldiers off in the distance as we looked beyond the "38th Parallel" and across the cold, murky river which separated us.
But when my tour was over, it was back to the States where my next assignment awaited me: Fort Knox, Kentucky. Here I had orders to report to the Headquarters of the 58th Infantry Division. But to my surprise, when I reached the unit, I discovered the 58th had been disbanded maybe a year before. So I ended up being retrained as a clerk typist for a basic training unit. I was assigned to Battalion Headquarters, and it was here where I learned how to type and file. I became adept at paperwork, and this would carry over to civilian life where, when I came to prison, I was already proficient at using a typewriter. This is what I use today as a part of my own modest ministry.
As a veteran, I am thankful to have served and completed my three-year enlistment from June 1971 to June 1974. I was honorably discharged and left the Army with the desire to rejoin my family and friends, and to start a new life.
Things went well for a while. Within a few weeks after my discharge, I got a job with a security outfit called IBI Security. I was assigned to the night shift, where I worked with two guard dogs as I patrolled the truck yards that were in place at the time. My last assignment was at the Universal Car loading yard that encompassed several city blocks in Manhattan from Tenth Avenue at West 31st to 34th Streets, and almost to 12th Avenue and the Hudson River waterfront.
Good memories. I am happy to have served my country. I'm seventy years old now, but if I could reenlist, I would.
D.B.
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