I remember some of the details like it was yesterday, and some of the details just run into each other. I remember it wasn’t too long after I had my first child, Suzanne, and I was working in Venice California as a laborer, taking some classes, in training and fighting. I kept hearing about the Iran hostage situation, for some crazy reason I felt I should join the army, like my father did in World War II, and go over there and fight. By the way things were looking in the news, it seemed like it would just be a matter of time before a war broke out and we will go over there, so I went down to the local recruiter and joined the army. The recruiting office was in Santa Monica California, and for some strange reason when I told the recruiter I wanted to be in the infantry he seemed very happy about that. I wanted to be in the infantry, because that’s good job my father had when he was in the army.
From the time I enlisted, until basic training, there were a lot of sleepless nights, while I worried about getting killed overseas, and never seeing my family again. I did my basic training at Fort Benning Georgia. I’ll never forget my two drill sergeants, Sgt. Gillette, and Sgt. Beard (kind of weird, one was a razor, and the other was a beard)… I did very well in basic training and actually learned a lot about myself. Since I was used to training all the time, I felt it wasn’t physical enough so I would walk around with my pocket unbuttoned, so the Sgt. would punish me by doing extra push-ups, It turned into a little game, and before long the sergeants would just say just button your fucking pocket. I told Sgt. Beard that I wanted to do some extra training, so he very willingly obliged me, in fact, he what is the main creator of what is a now famous Pit workout called blackjack. After basic training, I was lucky enough to get stationed in my home-state of Hawaii. Schofield Barracks, 25the Infantry Division, 1/27 Wolfhounds. Where we continued to train and do other military maneuvers. I moved my wife and small child from California, and we moved into a small apartment on Oahu. I really liked the army, and I excelled, making “soldier of the month” more than once. I loved the physical training the most, the PT, the 12-mile road marches for time, and I always went to the gym after work to hit the bag and do my other martial arts training before I would go home. I also like the camaraderie of our platoon, our company, and even our division, but I didn’t like to stay on base and drink and socialize after work because I wanted to get home to my family. things were still tense, and we were on pretty high alert, because the hostages were not released yet, so we spent every day going through military maneuvers, both at the base, Where we spent a lot of time at the shooting range, and we would also go into the field, sometimes for weeks at a time. Then it happened, the hostages were released, and I had a huge sense of relief, and then confusion. What am I going to do now, I am in the Army infantry for one reason, and one reason only, now that reason as gone what should I do now?
Well I made up my mind and I should be out of the army now since they won’t be a war, So I went into my first sergeant’s office and told him that since the hostages have been given back, I would rather just get out of the army now and get a regular job since there won’t be any war, well after he stopped laughing first Sgt. Wery, who was also from Hawaii, told me that he recognize me from fighting in the golden gloves, and he asked me if I would be interested in fighting for the all Army boxing team, I told him I would love to, Where do I sign up. First Sgt. Wery was a great supervisor and a huge reason that I was able to try out for the all Army boxing team. now all I had to do was actually”Make” the team, Which happened to be the best boxing team, with the best boxers in the United States at the time.
I made the team.