Having quit high school to join the Army, I had no idea of what the world was like. I quickly learned a lot when my first duty assignment was with Headquarters, I Corps Artillery at Camp Saint Barbara, only a few miles south of the DMZ. I learned a lot on my ten or eleven months in Korea and came to love the Korean people.
With just over a year on the Army I reenlisted to go to Vietnam where my identical twin brother was heading. After a year with the 101st Airborne and 23rd Infantry Division I was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas where I stayed for 18 months until I was discharged into the reserves.
I changed my MOS to Military Police as I was trying to get on NYPD. The reserves were a perfect fit for me, and I kept reenlisting until it brought me to retirement as a Sergeant First Class 23 years later for a total of 27 years of service.
I did receive my GED in Korea and that allowed me to apply for college and to ultimately be the first in my family to earn a college degree and eventually a Master level education. With a career that spanned law enforcement, computer operations and public school teaching, civilian service with the Navy and Air Force and I am now fully retired and enjoying working with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and my neighborhood association. I am also the Colonel Commanding of the Artillery Company of Newport, the Nation’s oldest continuously operating militia.
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