October 13, 2012
After College Graduation (Part 5)
US Army Reserves
After college graduation I continued helping mom develop the family business (DaLe Monogramming & Signs). The Viet Nam war had started and I decided that I would join the army reserves instead of waiting to be drafted.
My choice was a pretty good one and I attended reserve meeting once a month in an available reserve unit in Cherokee, Iowa about a 1 hour drive from my home in Sac City. There was a branch unit in Sac City of the same unit, but they were at maximum strength.
I returned from my training after 4 ½ months. I was trained as a personnel administrative specialist and a cook. In just a few months I was given the job as company clerk for the Cherokee unit. That was a very good job, as I discovered later. I was aware of everything that went on in the unit.
This memory happened while I was company clerk and I remember it well. It has to do with my meeting and getting acquainted with a friend that I would know and love for the rest of my life. He is the one that inspired me to write this memory.
I recall the company commander and the company’s first sergeant were discussing what they were going to do with a man that was supposed to be transferring from a Sioux Falls, South Dakota to our unit. He had not reported for a couple of months so they were considering asking that he be activated into the regular army.
The very next monthly meeting he showed up. He explained that he and his family had moved to Spencer, Iowa, (my home town I had spent my first 13 years) and had spent some time getting settled. His name was Jim and we began getting acquainted right away. I was dating my first wife, Sharon, at the time.
Our reserve unit was an artillery unit and we received orders that we would be going to Camp Ripley, Minnesota for our two week reserve training shortly after he started attending our meetings.
I am a bit foggy as to how we ended up being together in a jeep in the convoy as we travelled from Cherokee to Camp Ripley but nevertheless He drove the jeep as he had an authorized army jeep driver’s license and I was his backup driver and rode in the jeep with him.
The trip was long and it rained like cats and dogs at one point in our trip. The jeep had a vacuum activated windshield wiper (just one) but for some reason wasn’t working very well. It had a back-up system and, I was it. I had to manually operate the windshield wiper from a lever on the top part of the inside windshield. It was a part of the trip we discussed many times during our lives.
While at camp we lived in tent type shelters and it was pretty uncomfortable. The weekend between the two week training we had off and could do whatever we wanted to do. My birthday fell on the Sunday of that weekend.
Jim said that he was going to call his wife and have her come pick us up and take us back to Minneapolis for the weekend. His wife arrived and we road with her back to their parent’s homes in Minneapolis.
One of Best Birthdays
That ended up being one of my best birthdays ever. Saturday we went “bar hopping” down Hennepin in Minneapolis an saw some things ....well I won’t go into detail but it was very interesting to say the least
On Sunday after we had recovered from the night on the town Jim’s mother fixed a wonderful beef roast dinner with all the trimmings. It was fantastic, and I still remember it very well.
All the other years we went to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin for our 2 week summer training. My last summer camp was very memorable.
I was promoted to Staff Sergeant E-7 with hopes and an insensitive to reenlist. While at camp the last year we went there with no objective. Back in or base unit in Fort Dodge we had be simulating the processing of payroll for over a year.
For the first couple of days we did nothing except police our company area …. That meant we spent our time picking up cigarette butts and field striping them (removing the filters and paper spreading the tobacco out on the ground and tossing the rest into a trash can.
My Reserve unit was Honored for Superior Work
Our Company Commander was getting pretty upset at his “higher-ups” for not providing us an objective. I had an Army drivers license to drive a jeep so he told me to go get his jeep and drive him to battalion headquarters. At battalion headquarters were the only “full-time” Army personnel; two lieutenants and a WAC Major. The WAC major was the highest ranking officer there.
As my company commander was attempting to get somebody to help him, I was sitting in the receiving area. The WAC major came out, saw me and said “What are you doing here?” in a rough voice. She insisted on details….so I told her why Captain Larson had me drive him there.
In the process I told her we had no objective and my “finance-trained” men were picking up cigarette butts. She then asked me if we could process payroll for 1000 attachés’ that were at camp and had served 2 years on active duty. They were required to attend one summer camp.
I told her that we had been simulating processing payroll for over a year and that we could do the job very well.
She went in a pulled my CO (Commanding Officer) out and told him that Sergeant Logan was going to work for her and process payroll for 1000 men she had to pay for the two weeks of summer camp.
She told me I could have anything I wanted to make my job easier. I told her I wanted a separate area for my 30 men away from our normal Company area. She gave me that in the form of a separate 2 story building. I was to march my men to this building each morning and do whatever I needed to do to get these 1000 men paid at the end of the two week period.
I had w two story building. I set the ground floor up military style. All of the tables with typewriters were set up in a row. You could look down the row and see, what appeared to be one typewriter. All of the in=processing papers were stacked next to the typewriters for processing. There were 20 typewriters and I had 30 men.
It would take 30 men working a normal 8 hour day 3 days to complete the work. I had to stretch it into approximately 2 weeks. I told them to convert the second floor into a “Day room” where they could read play games or whatever they wanted to as long as it was quiet. We posted two or three guards outside of the building to watch for officers and especially the WAC Major coming toward the building. I they spotted an officer or the WAC major, they were to sound an alert and the designated 20 men would go to their typewriters and continue process the payrolls. We determined that working jus a few hours a day we could complete the job in good time with one day to spare.
Inspected by a Fifth Army General
We had only 3 alerts that turned out to be nothing and one the afternoon of the day before we were to be completed an alarm was sounded and my me assumed their positions of processing the payroll as the WAC major and a General from fifth Army approach our building.
They entered and we were hard at work and impressed them so much I was complimented by the General for doing such a good job. After we returned to Fort Dodge our unit was given a citation of Good Work and presented with a trophy. The Company Personnel First Sergeant informed me that I had been nominated for a Warrant Officer slot that opened up in our home unit. I choose to decline the offer as I would have had to reenlist for 4 more years. (This was one of the more stupid moves in my past!). I soon finished my 6 year obligation (June of 1970) in the Army and returned to regular life. I got an Honorable Discharge as an E-7. I have the paper to this day showing this discharge and my rank at discharge.
