[John_W]

I took basic at Ft. Polk, LA. Our company was half regular army and half reserves. Hall of Fame tightend Charlie Sanders of the Detroit Lions was one of the reserves and they picked him to be our Field First. The drill sgts also let Charlie lead all of our marches since his steps were so long. He was 6'4" 230 lbs, so when marching in the third platoon like I had to, we were running most of the time just to keep in step. I think I've done all the marching I want to do. Besides I ride the bike for 60 minutes each day at MVP, play on 2 softball teams and play 18 holes once a week. I could probably still fit in my uniform but I'm 2" taller now than when I went in the Army at age 19, but only 20 pounds heavier.

When I came back from overseas I was stationed at Hunter AAF in Savannah, it's where the Army was training Vietnamese pilots to fly helicopters. By the fall of 1972 the base was starting to shut down and the flight training had stopped for the most part. Suddenly we no longer had new troops coming in, so even though I was an E-5 I had to pull guard duty and funeral detail. That was the worse part of my 3 years in the Army. About five times we were sent down to Jacksonville to a cemetary, there would be 7 soldiers each with a rifle and one squad leader. We would ride a little green Army bus for about two hours down I-95 and after the family arrived we got the nod, our squad would fire our rifles 3 times each for a 21 gun salute. It was kind of surreal because by late '72 it seemed the war was about over and so far away, and then suddenly we saw them putting a soldier in the ground.