Accepting my commission meant that I lost my job as a full time recruiter.   There were dozens of jobs for recruiting sergeants but only two available for second lieutenants.   I was not too worried I got commissioned on 5 February, 1978 and all ready had my orders to report to Fort Gordon on 24 February, 1978 for my 12 week Signal Officer Basic Course.  With the leave time that I cashed in and being paid at the end of January I was not expecting another check any way until the end of February.  However, once again my unit saw fit to give me several more days of active duty through out the battalion as an officer reviewing different supply procedures and such during the weeks that I had before reporting to Fort Gordon. 

My mother was again worried about me going back into the Army once again and away from home.   She knew in my heart that I was planning to stay gone this time and make the regular Army my career.  I spent as much time as I could with her in the next couple of weeks.   My grandmother, (her mother) had just passed away a couple of days before I was commissioned and we were all still feeling her loss at the time as well during this time.  I was very close to my grandmother and we grew up in a family where every one mad grandma’s house their home.    One very good thing about the Army when she passed away I was just days away from my graduation from Officer Candidate School (OCS), yet the commandant allow me to spend as much time as I needed away from the last few days of training to be with my family and to attend her funeral.   Caring for my soldiers later in my career was something I learned from a very personal point of view from my National Guard days in Iowa. 

A friend of mine Bob Slagle, from my unit in Iowa had finally decided to accept his commission about the same time I got mine.  He had actually graduated from OCS a couple of years prior, but he could not accept it at the time because of his full time position with the Guard.   He was working full time in a sergeant position and accepting his commission would mean he’d have to give up his job.   There were very few full time jobs for officers compared to the many for enlisted personnel in the Guard.   1SG Gibson came to his rescue and offered him a full time job working with him a few months prior, so he was able to accept his commission and move on with the National Guard now as an officer.  Bob actually was the 1SG of my old company until he accepted his commission.   

Bob had a mini motor-home at the time and had planned to drive it from Des Moines to Fort Gordon and asked me to go with him.  I was a littler reluctant at first since I remembered the days during 1975 in the Army with out a car and did not look forward to another 12 weeks at Fort Gordon with out my own transportation.  The problem by then was my car was no longer in shape for the trip and I did not think we’d have much off duty time anyway. 

22 February, 1978 was the day I left Des Moines I went over to my mother’s house for dinner and to spend a few hours with her before I left.  I remember clearly when it came time to leave she needed a ride downtown and I took her there.   When I dropped her off she had tears in her eyes knowing full well that I would never be coming home to live in Des Moines again.  I was not exactly as sure as she was at the time even though it had always been my goal to stay in the Army as an officer.  I remember her telling me to come home when I was done and I remember telling her not to worry it would only be 12 weeks and I’d be home just like in 1975.  I left her on the corner and drove to my sister’s house to drop off my car with her and my brother-in-law. 

My sister took me over to Bob’s house about seven that night and it was very cold in Des Moines if I remember correctly about 12 degrees or so.   My stomach had been upset for a few hours and little did I know I was coming down with the worst case of food poisoning I had ever had up until then.  Bob and I took off with the understanding that he would drive first and when he got tired I would drive.  However by the first re-fuel stop I was in the restroom believing I would die.  I was there for about 20 minutes before Bob started pounding on the door wondering if I were alive or dead.  I wished I were dead, but soon that attack was over and we got on the way again still with Bob driving.  It was a very long night for me trying to sleep with my stomach so upset and having to make Bob pull over every couple of hours.  

Outside of me being so sick the trip was very good and fast.  We got to Fort Gordon late Saturday evening and were able to check into the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters (BOQ).  We each had a private room sort of like a normal bachelor apartment except we did share a kitchen together with a private entrance for each of us. 

The next day was Sunday and the weather at Fort Gordon was great compared to Des Moines.  The temperature was in the 60’s and Bob wanted to play golf so after we ate and reported for duty we had the rest of the day off and played golf. 

Monday morning 25 February, 1978 was our first day of classes and most of the day was simply spent processing. I think there were like 40 of us in the class.  Yes, that was a small class but it turned out to be a lot of fun.   About 30 of us were all products of OCS so there were varied amounts of real army experience there.  One of the men I met was a former CW3 that was a pilot he and about 10 others had just graduated a couple of weeks before from the regular Army OCS program at Fort Benning.   It was a very unusual class with so many with prior enlisted service.  We turned out to be quite a challenge for most of the instructors.  They were more use to young lieutenants with no experience.    We challenged them every step of the way based on many times having much more real experience in the Army than they had.  I remember one instructor in particular that really had the class in his face.  He was a Staff Sergeant and the first words out of his mouth were to tell us how dumb we all were and how much more money he made than we did.    He did not do his homework at all on us because nearly 90% of the class had so much more service than he did and we made more money than he did.   His classes were always presented with anger towards us and his material was nearly always not what any of us knew to be true. 

Most of the training was simply refresher for most of us and old basic stuff, after all it was the Basic Signal Officer’s (SOBC) course designed primarily for brand new second lieutenants with no service at all right out of ROTC and college.   Those of us with prior service breezed through most of the classes and had plenty of free time to explore Augusta, Georgia the big town right outside of Fort Gordon. 

Needless to say we spent a lot time in the bars and watching the dancers there.  They were not allowed in those days to dance nude, but would dance in bikinis.   I actually dated one of the dancers for a couple of weeks, not traditional dates but hanging out and walking around the downtown area.   I did not even kiss her we just liked being together.

About a month prior to graduation a new class of second lieutenants reported for duty for their own SOBC.  It was the tradition of the current class to throw a party for the new comers their first week.  We did that and about half of them came with us to the Pizza Inn.  That was the night I met Susan, (my wife of 22 years)  we could not keep our eyes off each other but the first thing I noticed was she was wearing a wedding ring.   We all danced together later at a bar.  I did not particularly want to dance with Susan since it was obvious that she was married and no real future with her.   However we did manage to dance several times together. 

During the next week Susan and I had dinner at the Officer’s Club and she told me she had been separated from her husband for almost a year and in the process of getting a divorce from him.   She told me that they were having some problems in their marriage and during the last year they were together they had decided to see other people that was going okay until one night her husband caught her in the closet with another man and he was not really ready for that so they separated.  I heard another story after we broke up some 22 years later she told me that she divorced him because he choose drugs over her.   Her mother told me her version after Susan and I separated.  Her mother told me that Susan told her that she came home one day and found her husband in bed with another man.  I now tend to believe her mother’s version more because of the way she acted towards intimacy the first year we were married. 

 I asked Susan why she still wore the ring then if she wanted to date and move on.  I remember very clearly that she told me because she did not want men hitting on her.  She wanted to pick and choose who she wanted to date.  This statement stuck with me always, and it was one that haunts me to this day mainly because sometime in the late 1990’s she started to take off her ring as she started to hang out with her the friends she met in Idaho, more on that subject towards the end of the book. 

When she told me she was all but free I started to see a lot more of her and wanted to pursue a relationship with her.   That weekend I rented a car and we drove together to Savannah, Georgia and had a great time together.   We hung out together and went to the beach and to the river front area to walk around.  We spent the whole day there and had a very good time together.    I did not even kiss her until that night when we got back and I took her to her room, she lived just down the hall from me in the BOQ.

The next weekend we went out on Friday night and nothing was ever the same again in my life.  We danced very close to each other and kissed most of the night on the dance floor.  Later we went back to my room and she spent the night with me there.   

By this time I only had a couple of weeks left at Fort Gordon and was applying for an active duty tour with the Army.  I had been in contact with my National Guard Unit and not a single full time officer’s job had come open.   I found out the last week I was there that I had been accepted for the tour and was further ordered to active duty not in the two year tour that I applied for but in an indefinite status.   My orders were to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with another school in between back at Fort Sill. Oklahoma.   

It was quite the coincidence I was graduated from SOBC at Fort Gordon, and 19 May 1978 and ordered to Fort Sill just 3 years to the date when I graduated from my first training at Fort Sill and was ordered to Fort Gordon in 1975. 

The last week I was at Fort Gordon, Susan and I spent all our free time together and every night together.  I was to leave on a Friday but stayed until Saturday to spend one more night with her.  I had fallen head over heals for her by then and was very much in love with her.  I had only one real girl friend before her and only had sex with two other women before in my whole life.  She was upset that I was leaving and so was I, but we promised to write to each other and call each other when we could. 

I left on Saturday morning and went back to Des Moines to arrange shipment of my belongings to my active duty post at Fort Huachuca.  The first night there I was invited to an officer’s party with my National Guard battalion where I told them about my decision to stay in the Army. That went very well with congratulations all around.  They were all very happy for me and told me I would do well in the Army.  I had a few drinks that night at the party then left to go to one of the clubs that I use to go to in Des Moines before I left.   

The club was called the Joker and it was a blast and it was very large, with one large disco room, a large café room, a large live band room, a very big game room, and even a theater where they showed real movies.  I was really looking to find a girl there I had dated a few times.  I was not sure I would really see Susan again and I wanted to tell the girl that this would be my last time at the Joker.  I never found her and simply started to drink and dance with who ever would dance with me.  I got so drunk that night.  I was use to getting drunk and simply driving home from the club, but this time it hit me I could not drive drunk as an officer.  So starting that night I never drank and drove again and walked across the street to a hotel and got a room.   I had not only grown up but I had a very deep respect for the Army and the image of an officer and did not ever want to bring disgrace to the Officer Corp or the Army. 

The next week I spent with my mother and sister and telling my friends all good bye.  I was leaving Des Moines once and for all.  I called Susan nearly every day and certainly wrote to her everyday I was in Des Moines.   I missed her very much and knew then that I had to see her again and wanted to grow the relationship with her the best we could. 

I drove my own car to Fort Sill this time and once again the class was very basic for me.   Not only were the classes in the same building I had been too 3 years before but many of the instructors were the same and remembered me.  Of course they were all sergeants and I was a lieutenant but we still had a good time getting up to date with each other.  I breezed through the courses there easier than the ones that I just had at Fort Gordon.  The course was called the Communications Electronics Staff Officer’s Course.  It was designed to familiarize young signal officers with the duties and communications equipment of a combat battalion.  I had been through the mechanics course there and the repair course at Fort Gordon both in 1975.   I was not only familiar with all the equipment but actually better trained than the instructors on the equipment and had experience while in the National Guard. 

After a couple of weeks I realized that I was making good money and my car, a 1975 Vega was shot.  I went into town and bough my first brand new car, a 1978 Monte Carlo.   That was my dream car for the past 3 years.   

Susan and I had stayed in touch and during the 4^th of July weekend made arrangements for her to come to Oklahoma City where I’d pick her up and we’d spend the weekend together for the first time in about 7 weeks.  We had a great time and I took her for her first trip to Des Moines to meet my family and she flew back to Fort Gordon from Des Moines that Sunday afternoon. 

Susan told me that she was planning on applying for active duty the same as I did when she got back to Fort Gordon.   Susan ran into a problem however and was denied active duty.  She was caught in a scam to help another officer apply for active duty and all the officers were denied active duty.   In case you did not know it an officer’s honesty is critical to their duty performance and there is no room in the military at all for an officer that would lie or cheat.   She had been denied active duty she told me out of ROTC and this was her second failure to get an active duty status.  I am not at all sure why she failed the process out of ROTC because as I learned in 22 years with her that she was very use to telling people only what she wanted to tell them truth or not, the real problem was that her memory of any event was different nearly 80% of the time over what anyone else remembered.  To this day I think she honestly has ADDS. 

After she graduated from her SOBC class she came to Fort Sill and spent a week with me before going home to Washington.  She really did not want to go home because there was no work for her there and she had no future left in the Army at all.   

I graduated from my course at Fort Sill in August and had two weeks before I had to report to Fort Huachuca so I went up to Des Moines again.  Susan and I had agreed that she would come to Des Moines and make the drive with me to Fort Huachuca with me and find a place to live (by herself) and a job so we could get to know each other and be with each other.  I knew I wanted to know her better and really wanted a life time with her. 

We had a great time together in Des Moines and on the trip to Arizona.  We took the scenic routes as much as possible even going to the Grand Canyon on our way to Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona.