Jewells of Thought

“I was getting ready to rotate back to states, but they said anybody that had less than this many points was going to be extended. I said bull hockey, so I reenlisted to go back to [the] states. Uh… went to Fort Hood Texas, I was with uh Cavalry outfit I don’t remember the designation I think it was the 18th Cavalry, I was with the 3rd Armored Division.”

“Anyway… I was there with them for quite a while. Things got real bad there were suicides, drugs was rampant, Sergeant’s committing suicide. Uh I had a 1st Sergeant that was in my unit that tried to commit suicide and didn’t completely… he just fumbled it. I had a bunch of drugees in my outfit, but I rehabilitated them. I was trained in Germany as a counselor and so I trained them to get off drugs and I was very successful.”

“They got off drugs or at least they got off the heavy stuff and got on the lighter stuff. I got them off the Speed and got them on to the Marijuana which is better; I can handle them on the Marijuana. The Speed I couldn’t handle uh but I even got a lot of them off the Marijuana eventually. The Battalion Commander called me up one morning and chewed me out. He goes how dare I have the authority to counsel my men and I looked at him and said Sir, I’m the one that has to be in the foxhole with them not you. I’m the one and I said besides that, I’m paid to be a counselor and we got into it. He said, what’s wrong with you? You crazy or something? I said what do you think? Am I crazy? He said yes!”

What do you think? Was Uncle Tom being crazy or actually a man with common sense in a crazy scenario?

“We had a big fight and he sent me to a Psychiatric Unit. They deemed me unpsychiatrically unfit and so they sent me to a what they call a Dumb-Dumb Squad and I was in charge of the Dumb-Dumb Squad. Why did they put me in charge of a Double-D Squad if they thought I was incapable, but anyway they was going to discharge me because they wanted me to accept a Chapter 13 with an undersirable discharge. Well I went to JAG which Judge Advocate Court, military justice and I told them this is not right. I told them the whole story and they said well we’ll put a clause 12 or 11 whatever it was that you could get an honorable discharge instead. I says well that sounds good to me so the Division Commander called me out on his carpet and he said you have an impeccable record, he said you have an outstanding record he said do you say you wanna go through with this? I said, yes sir, I said I’ve had enough I said drugs are rampant and we get NCO’s killing themselves because drugs [are] bad. I said it’s terrible, I don’t know what to do with it anymore I don’t want to fight it anymore I’m tired of it. He said, well I hate to see a good soldier lost, but I can say I’ll sign out on this.”

Uncle Tom served in the Army for over 10 years and then served in the Army National Guards making the total 22 years worth. He retired July of 1988 I would have been 3 years old. Uncle Tom and Aunt Helen had two children Kenny and Dori my Mom’s first cousins and my 2nd cousins, but I have still claimed them as my cousins as well as Kenny’s kids and grandkids. My niece and his granddaughter have become fast friends keeping Aunt Helen as close to us as possible in the last few years.

Our family ties are still strong with Grandma’s sister Helen and her ever-growing family.