In almost every Army unit, vehicles are required to have a guy in the right seat to be the "TC". Truck Commander? Tank Commander? Not Vehicle Commander because that particular achronym was already taken in Asia. In any case...the duty of the TC is to be in charge, keep the driver awake, help spot landmarks and road signs, perhaps navigate, and make sure the vehicle doesn't get used for anything it isn't supposed to be used for. Some units take the TC job more seriously than others, but...

During my second break in service we lived in Phoenix. For a while I was an instructor at the Arizona School of Driving...in fact I was the instructor Trainer there for a while. People come to professional drivers instructors for a variety of reasons, but they all boil down to one thing...it ain't as easy as it looks. Dad brings little Suzy into the office, he wants her to have the best training available, it's a rough world out there...the streets and traffic in this town are getting wors...

The Group Leader thought it was a good match. The hour's worth of repetitive techniques and structured training was through and it was time for the favorite part of the session...free-style sparring. The Philipino was a little shorter and about 20 pounds lighter, but he was quick and experienced. The white kid was a bit of a novice, but a quick learner and very aggressive. Larry, the Group Leader, was sure the Philipino would take the match, but he was anxious to see how the white kid re...

The Swirling Epicenter is unusually aswirl this last week. The shooting at Pastor Ted's Church has gotten international coverage, the local talk radio is aflame with rhetoric about gun control and gun proliferation and who should shoot, who shouldn't shoot, who can carry and who can't carry. The ususal teams line up on opposite sides of the ball and the game is on. The problem is that I agree with both sides to an extent, but disagree as well. There has been a lot of discussion, even here...

Tis the season...so I think I will share a tradition or two with you that are among my favorites. This one is not from my family, but when the fella told me about it I immedialtely wished it was. This is how it went: When he was a kid, everyone went to Grandma and Grandpa's farm for Christmas. It was a large family, with dozens of grandchildren. The rule was to keep the childrens' presents hidden in the barns and other out-buildings until the kids were asleep on Christmas Eve. Then the...

I had to get out the old M-14 and start cleaning it today. I made the mistake of listening to too much news on TV this morning. The cleaning is a calming process and helps with perspective. Pry open the trigger guard and lift the trigger mechanism out of the stock. This makes it possible to separate the receiver from the top of the stock. A fella named Soto was asked if he wasn't endangering the public with his flight from the police, driving the wrong way through traffic and sideswi...

A small word of warning. I don't do blue...but this one may not be for everyone...contains scatological humor. In order to ramp up for any major exercise, little three day exercises are planned to fine tune some aspects of field operations. I have been against three day field stints for a long time. The problem is that a GI can endure anything (almost) for three days. They can avoid hygiene, live in the same clothes, and hold their potty needs. In order to learn to live in the field, ...

We were pulled out of Log Base Nellingen and regrouped in Echo. We only had one vehicle loss, a 5000 gallon JP-8 tanker that was still burning two weeks after we dropped it in flames. We accounted for all of our equipment and did a couple dozen shake down inspections to make sure no one was trying to bring an AK-47 back to Germany. There was a mad rush to get us down to the Desert Inn, a holding camp set up with tents, pizza hut, ice cream shop and other comforts so we could move our vehic...

I went to Twentynine Palms in the summer of 1977 with the 7th Infantry Division. We were part of a huge exercise that was supposed to teach us a lot about living and fighting in the desert. The Marines were our aggressors (that means that they were our simulated enemy). The Marine/Navy aviation were bad guys, Air Force was on our side. There wound up being more than 25000 troops involved in this little desert war. Before I tell you how the Colorado National Guard played a huge role in ke...

I was musing over things that were common experiences for GIs in the sixties. Life was a lot different then, obviously, but there are a few oldies but goodies out there so I decided to play the old, "Do you remember..." game tonight. Wherever you go in the Army, you hear the troops talking about the places they've been and the things they had to do. It serves as a kind of bonding to have common experiences...it also provides your creds...you have been there and done that...you are one of u...

I had my first sit down with the two most important men in my platoon as soon as I could. I knew Pwoody from an earlier turn at Fort Ord; he had been a hell-raising drunken corporal at the time. When we locked eyes I saw that he recognized me. We had not been friends. Ricky was a small Philipino who looked as straight as they come. These were my squad leaders, the intermediate leaders who would be the supervisers in my platoon. In a nutshell, they could make or break me. They both had...

Over the years I have met all kinds of people in the Army...I mean people from all over the world. Sometimes the people you meet that are from other countries don't speak English all that well. It can lead to some funny situations. I have already mentioned my first First Sergeant whose accent was so thick that when he got mad and started chewing everyone looked at each other and shrugged, no one knew what it was about. I was in a unit once when the operations sergeant was Philippino and ...

I mentioned recently that I had to attend a funeral for an old friend. He was a retired Sergeant Major, an organized and responsible man, who knew he had just a few days left. He called in his kids and gave them instructions on how to take care of their mother after he was gone. He had arranged things to a "T" and gave them all the information they needed to take care of his affairs. He told his wife the night he died that she would not have to worry about anything, the house and the car...

Happy Thanksgiving, Joe...hope you have a lot to be thankful for.

Litke came back from Germany with a Super Beetle, a 1600cc with loud pipes and oversized tires. We were on the same team of instructors at the Fort Ord Drivers School. Our office was connected to one of the big classrooms in a drafty old pre-WWII shop building...the last in a row across the street from the monster motor pool where our trucks were parked. Just across the apron on the north side of our shop was the post incenerator where the local police and sheriffs offices burned up all t...