Monday, March 19, 2012

February 1978, The saga continues...

The War in Vietnam (Conflict as they called it every night on the news. Sure looked like we were fighting a war to me.) As a child, every nightly news show was filled with stories and video from Vietnam. I can remember that several of my own cousins were serving their time in Vietnam. After watching the horrors of war every night on TV for all of those years, the last place I ever want to be was in the military. I was scared to death of war, as I grew up.

But there I was standing outside the door of the recruiting station in Western Hills. I seem to recall being very nervous about pulling on that door. As I finally stepped in, I remember seeing that all  of the recruiters had signs outside their doors. I saw the Marines, The Navy, The Air Force and there at the end of the hall was the Army recruiter office. I had already spoken to several of the recruiters on the phone over the last few months and I knew what each had to offer.

The Army recruiter was who I was there to see. I knew that I could take a test and then they would send me to a school I qualified for. They would even guarantee my first duty station. A little stability in the chaos that I was looking at.

I took the ASVAB test as it was called and the list was a good one. Down the list a bit was the job called "Military Police". My thoughts immediately turned to Officer Sweeney, who I mention a few posts ago. I recall laughing and telling the recruiter that there was an error on the results and he told me that I was qualified and that it was not an error.

I drove away a few minutes later, still chuckling to myself about the thought of being a police officer. A career I had never even considered.



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