[Vision2020] As We Approach Memorial Day, I Remember . . .

[Tom Hansen]

My assignments –

June 15, 1969 – Enlisted (Army Recruiting Office – Sherman Oaks,
California) - Enlistee

June 16-18, 1969 – Induction Center in downtown Los Angeles - Enlistee

June 19 – June 25, 1969 – Reception Station (Fort Ord, California) – Hold
status pending assignment.

June 26– August 20, 1969 – Company B, 1st Battalion, 3rd Basic Combat
Training Brigade (Fort Ord, California) – Trainee (Promoted to Private
E-2)

August 21 – October 17, 1969 – Company C, 1st Battalion, 4th Combat
Support Training Brigade (Fort Ord, California) – Trainee (Promoted to
Private First Class E-3)

October 18 – November 2, 1969 – On leave.

November 1969 – August 1970 – Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 6th
Infantry Regiment (just outside Tan Son Nhut Air Base, RVN) – Battalion
S-3 Operations Clerk (Promoted to Specialist E-4)

September 1970 – May 1972 – Company D, 71st Maintenance Battalion (Merrell
Barracks, Nurnberg, Germany) – Shop Office Clerk

September 1972 – March 1974 – 504th Maintenance Company (Muna Kaserne,
Bamberg, Germany) – Unit Supply Clerk

March 1974 – July 1974 – Court Reporter School (Newport Naval Station,
Newport, Rhode Island) – Training (flunked out – partied WAY too much)
(Reduced to Private First Class E-3)

July 1974 – January 1976 – Company D, 4th Battalion, 3rd Basic Combat
Training Brigade (Fort Dix New Jersey) – Unit Armorer (Promoted to
Specialist E-4)

February 1976 – March 1977 – Headquarters Company, 802nd Engineer
Battalion (Camp Humphreys, Pyong Taek, South Korea) – Unit Armorer

March 1977 – November 1977 – Headquarters Company, 504th Military Police
Battalion (Presidio of San Francisco, California) – Battalion S-3 Training
Clerk (Promoted to Specialist E-5)

November 1977 – August 1982 – Headquarters Company, VII Corps (Kelley
Barracks, Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany) – Assistant Training NCO/Training
NCO (Promoted to Staff Sergeant E-6)

August 1982 – August 1983 – Headquarters Company, National Training Center
(Fort Irwin, California) – Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (Admin
Services Branch)

Placed on orders for reclassification to 11M (Bradley Fighting Vehicle
Infantryman)

August 1983 – November 1983 – Company B, 5th Battalion, 3rd Basic Combat
Training Brigade (Fort Benning, Georgia) Trainee

November 1983 – March 1984 – Bradley Training Unit, 1st Battalion, 29th
Infantry Regiment (Fort Benning, Georgia) – Trainee

March 1984 – November 1984 – Operations Group, National Training Center
(Fort Irwin, California) – Battlefield Effects Controller (fancy name for,
what was better known as a “firemarker”)

November1984 – December 1986 – Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry
(Mechanized) (Harvey Barracks, Kitzingen, Germany) – Squad Leader/Platoon
Sergeant (Promoted to Sergeant First Class E-7)

Medically evacuated in December 1986

Here is where you’ve got to tip your hat to the Navy.  I was medically
evacuated from Kitzingen, Germany to San Diego, California (via Landstuhl,
Germany).  My wife accompanied me as a “medical assistant” (on orders) on
the flights (more than one flight, as I had multiple over-night layovers
in Washington, DC and Travis Air Force Base, California).  The Navy, in
its infinite wit, payed both myself and my wife travel pay (with per diem)
from Kitzingen, Germany to San Diego, California (almost five thousand
dollars).  If I had been evacuated to an Army hospital (like maybe
Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco), my reimbursement would
have amounted to nothing more than the taxi fare from the airport.

To continue . . .

December 1986 – September 1987 – Medical Hold Detachment (Balboa Naval
Hospital, San Diego, California – Patient/Holdover

Here is another feather for the Navy cap.  After having recovered from an
operation, and realizing that I was going to be there for some time, some
lieutenant commander asked me what my primary duties were in the Army, so
that I can be given duties at Med Hold until I am sent to Fort Ord for
medical boarding.  I told him that I was a platoon sergeant in an infantry
line unit before I was medically evacuated. (I didn’t tell him about my 14
years of administration)  It seems that Med Hold had no temporary duties
suitable for an infantryman.  They, therefore, assigned me to home, a
cottage-like house (on University Street across from Tubaman’s Grand Slam,
a tavern almost identical to Mingle’s) where my wife and I stayed until .
. .

September 1987 – July 1989 – Medical Hold Detachment (Silas Hayes Army
Hospital, Fort Ord, California) – Party Animal pending medical retirement
on . . .

July 15, 1989 – Disably retired from the Army.

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It was a fun ride.

Pro patria, V-peeps.

Tom Hansen
SFC, US Army (Retired)
Moscow, Idaho

In memory . . .

WETSU, John Wiggins of Calhoun, Louisiana (March 6, 1970) and Dave Cobb of
Bangor, Maine (March 6, 1970).