I worked there for a bout six months until I received orders to go to Europe to replace someone who was leaving. So I got to go Europe by a lucky chance.
Q: What were your main tasks in Europe? .
A: I was sent to Europe because of my training in drafting. There too many qualified draftsmen, planners, architects than for that kind of work available so to avoid getting a bad job, I volunteered to drive a jeep for the officers of various inspections and deliveries. This is when I learned to drive a shift stick vehicle, and how to survive on the road with very dangerous European drivers. Therefore, my lasting benefit from the army life in Europe was becoming a good, aggressive driver.
Q: Did the Vietnam War have an effect on you and your "squad" even though it was happening in a different section of the world?.
A: My "squad" in Europe was really 6-8 people I shared a room with and most of the time my roomies were either coming from or going to Vietnam. That was the "War Zone", there people die, everyone (even the children) are the enemy, and there were not any rules or logic to the war. Battles were fought large and small, the enemy would be defeated but was allowed to escape to a safe place. The war seemed to go on forever. But I was in the "Comfort Zone" where we faced a "potential" enemy, the USSR, but there were so many of us on each side that the fight would be almost unthinkable and suicidal, so we sent our supplies and troops to faraway Vietnam where to win was just to boost you ego, like a sports victory. So we spent a semi-boring and lonely life in Europe doing our job of defending liberty but not being shot at unless at unless fate scooped us up. Some of my friends with only 6 months of service left were sent to die in that hell.
Q: Were the people you were staying with friendly for the most part? .
A: We tolerated each other and went on weekend trips, out to eat, or enjoyed rock "n" roll music together, but we were not real close friends until we had to bond together and defend each other against a mostly crazy and power-hungry man named Sgt.
