Cold War Service; Ft Hood, Texas

[South]

Good morning all,

My Cold War military service had me as an arty recon sgt within a large armor division at Ft Hood, Kileen, Texas.

Besides being on the chart, my additional work had me as the HQ Battery Training NCO (no additional pay). In practical terms, because arty battalions are small when compared to eg infantry battalions, I was the Battalion Training NCO.

Having received poor-quality training prior to going to Vietnam, I made a efforts to "do it right". If I may say so, I was successful. The senior people- the lifers - gave me complete support. Eg: EVERYONE went to the range. Besides shooting their assigned weapon(s), they also got to pop off some rounds from everything else used in the Battalion. They even had the opportunity to fire a couple of different private handguns....if they paid for the ammo....not USG provided ammo. Otherwise, they's probably never shoot a revolver - at least not in an arty unit.

Had 4 Military Occupational Specialities (MOS):

82C10 - arty surveyor; many arty recon sgts hold this MOS.

13A10 - arty crewman (nicknamed "gun bunny")

11C10 - inf indirect fire weapons crewman (mortars) Might explain later how I got this.

71Q20 - Info Specialist. In Vietnam, because of the negative news reporting, all units were to assign someone to deal with the press in case they showed up. I got this job and the "O.J.T." -on the job training. (Believe former Vice President Al Gore held this MOS)

Later, depending on my psychological state and mood, will probably discuss "how your military service affected your life".


Warm regards,

Bob

[Mick Stewart, AFCWA]

Bob,

Thanks for sharing that with us.

I have always wondered what that MOS was that handled the press!

Mick

[sgtt]

Thanks for sharing your experience at Ft Hood. I was at Ft Hood '76 to '78 in an armored division. I wasn't used to such a large complex after arriving from a small post in FRG. I must admit I had some adjustment problems after arrival (i can speak about later in another posting). One thing I didn't know about Texas was it could be hot and the winter weather could be miserable at times. LOL!
Richard