It is 04:00 in the morning January 23, 1974.  Today is the day I start my journey to join the US Army. 

 

I am a senior at East High School in Des Moines, Iowa. Like any January morning in Des Moines it is

 

freezing, and I am awake a couple hours earlier than normal. Today I am headed to Fort Des Moines and

 

the Armed Forces Entrance and Examining Station (AFEES) for a morning long series of mental exams

 

and a physical.  

 

I arrived at Fort Des Moines at 05:30 in the morning 30 minutes earlier than my report time of 06:00.  I was given a series of papers to fill out that was only the beginning of a very long morning. Men were reporting in from all over the state of Iowa. Many were coning in that morning for the tests, physical and would also ship out that same day.  I was joining up on a buddy program and would not have to report to basic training until the summer two weeks after I graduated from high school. The deal was what they called the buddy program. As many of us that would join before the time to report were guaranteed the same basic training, the same advanced individual training and our first assignment together at the same post. There were two of my friends I had known since the 9^th grade and we were all going to be military policemen. Our plan was to get the training and come back to Des Moines to be on the local police force.

 

At 06:00 the sergeant in charge barked at us to start to line up according to service. There were men testing today for all the branches of the armed forces, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the Air Force.  We were all guided to colored lines we were to follow all day long based on our services.

 

            It was now 14:00 hours and I had completed all the mental exams and my physical.  There was one hitch that seemed simple enough at first.  On the physical exam questionnaire there was a block to check if you had a family history of diabetes. I marked that block because grandmothers, my mother and many of my aunts suffered from type two diabetes.  Little did I know that one check would change the whole course of my career forever.

 

            My recruiting sergeant had recommended that I not bring the subject up about family diabetes.  I had always had this problem with telling a lie that goes way back into my child hood .  So I marked it as the little voice inside of me directed me too. What it caused was a nightmare of bureaucracy and follow up medical examinations. I often joked that I should have taken it as a sign that maybe the Army was not the right choice for me. But, I couldn’t do that I was about to turn 18 in less than a month and all I ever wanted to do as long as I could remember was join the Army.

 

            The first step at this problem was to report to a specialized medical clinic in town for a simple diabetic test. That was done only 3 days later, and I passed. ( By the way to this day I am still not diabetic)  However by the time the report made it back to the doctors at  AFEES someone mistakenly sent a medical report to my draft board that I did have diabetes and they promptly rated me 4-F unfit for military duty. I think it was about the fastest action ever taken by any draft board ever. The reason was the Draft Board was closing forever that same day.

 

            What happened next was the recruiting sergeant could not just enlist me at this point no matter how many doctors said I was in perfect health. I learned all about following orders and how supervisors can punish you for not following orders even if you are telling the truth and doing what you know to be right. He took it upon himself to hold me over and never requested a waiver from the US Surgeon General as was required to life the 4-F classification once the Draft Board had closed and there was no appeal process anymore. I actually think he had his quota for the month and decided to keep me in a holding pattern until a month came that he needed a body. 

 

            I lost my slot to go with my buddies and the year drug on. It looked as if I would never realize my dream of a career in the Army.  I was getting use to being out of school I had just met my first girl friend and was enjoying everything that went along with that experience (like any young man with his first love). 

 

            Next thing I knew  it was July of 1974 and a recruiter of the Iowa Army National Guard looking for new recruits contacted me.  One thing led to another and after many more medical exams and weeks of waiting for the approval of the Surgeon General I got a call from the Sergeant at the Red Horse Armory on 19 November 1974.  He told me approval had been received all I needed to do was come in, be sworn in and sign my enlistment papers.   I did not waste any time and went straight in to do the deed and by the end of the day I was  a Private E-1 in the Iowa Army National Guard beginning my 20 year career after a nearly 11 month battle just to get in.  I had enlisted in the Signal Corps a major difference than being a Military Policeman but it actually led to a far more exciting life and career than I had ever hoped for at the time.

 

            From the very beginning my life was not going to be ordinary or easy every thing would be done in a bigger way or a harder way than most people would deal with.  One of the toughest parts of the summer of 74 was dealing with my first love.  My experience with getting in to the Army was very difficult and a combination of very bizarre turns.  In a time frame that the Army was struggling to meet the goals of an all volunteer force doors seemingly were being closed in my face.  Eventually my first love had given into the popular believe that I had been lying about trying to enlist.  Her parents happened to have a friend that was a sergeant in the National Guard and had never heard of any thing like I was going through.  Therefore he concluded and convinced her parents that I had to be lying.  By September I experience my first blow with love when she choose to break off with me based on what others said had to be true.  Now of course a simple phone call or a trip to the armory and speaking with the sergeants and officers dealing with my enlistment could have easily cleared it all up.  Later on in life  little did I know that my life would be plagued with a wife that would choose to believe stories that would be more popular and easier to believe than the truth.   Exactly the same as my first love my wife could not be bothered with simple investigations to discover the truth.

 

 

      There was of course a very big benefit to this first experience of rejection of the truth and the repeated rejections and the eventual isolation from my wife they would all serve to strengthen me to stand alone over and over again giving my fate simply to the Lord.  My marriage was the perfect training ground for the most challenging rejection of the truth in my life and why today I am writing this story.  Not all enemies of our Constitution live on distant shores.  Like our founding fathers knew from the beginning a government left to its own supervision would be a bigger threat to our freedom and survival than any foreign power we could ever face.

 

            I have to keep this perspective in this book now more than ever.  I am a Christian and as such I believe that God allowed everything in my life for a purpose. That exact purpose is as yet unclear to me. I do know that through each and every difficult time in my life even before I was a believer God was guiding my steps and carrying me through. Teaching me to have faith in Him to bring good out of every situation.  Pretty much from the time I was eleven years old when my father left home,  every crisis no matter how small or major I was left alone to deal with.  All I could do was pray and ask for strength and guidance.  Now, as a believer I not only understand, but I know there is no better place to be than to be left alone with God to carry me through my trials. No one knows the truth or my heart like He does.  In the final analysis nothing else matters