Class 24-66  Artillery O.C.S.

Off to rotary wing flight school after OCS.  Fell out of the sky and thought I'd find another line of work.  Quit and received orders for RVN.  Diverted to Hawaii for 9 months while the 11th LIB was formed.  Deployed with the Bde in late '67 and served with 6/11 Arty and 3/16 Arty as Bn LNO to Infantry and Cavalry units with Americal Div.  2nd half of tour spent as an Advisor to RF/PF in I Corps.  Returned CONUS late '68 for Pershing Missile School at Sill then 2 years in Neu Ulm, Germany with 1/81 Arty (Pershing).  Met an American gal, left active duty, lived in Germany for a year, got married to her and returned to my hometown.  Re-entered the military as a Reservist for a couple of years. Finished college and began work with a regional transportation and logistics firm. Retired in '05 after 32 years as Director. Still with the same great wife (no kids). Currently active in local Lions Club activities and working on our 1886 carriage house and gardens.  Also running web sites for about 10 military and civic groups.  Haven't had a hair cut in 7 years and the pony tail is now 20" long ...
(UPDATE: The hair was cut to a conventional style in May of 2011)

  Internet Research Shows:
Instructor in Target Acquisition Dept. at Ft. Sill '66-'68.  Received MSW in 1970 and PhD in 1975. Currently Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Social Work at University of Texas at Arlington.

Graduated from OCS in October 1966 and went to Airborne Training at Ft. Benning, GA.  From there I went to Ft. Bragg, NC, and trained with the Special Forces on Smoke Bomb Hill.  I trained with Detachment A-26 of the 3^rd Special Forces Group.  From Ft. Bragg, I was deployed to Vietnam (11/67-11/68), where I was assigned to Detachment B-51, of the 5^th Special Forces Group at Dong Ba Tihn down by Cam Rahn Bay.  Spent a year there and came back to the States, where I went through the Field Artillery Officer’s Career Course.  From there, I went to Germany and was the Commander of B Battery, 3/79^th Artillery, an Honest John unit of the 41st Artillery Group, 3^rd Army, stationed in Giessen just north of Frankfurt.  I volunteered for a second tour in Vietnam, and left Germany to go back to Ft. Sill for a Refresher Course before being redeployed back into Vietnam.  In Vietnam, I was assigned as Battery Commander/S-4 for the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery of the 3/18^th Artillery, 23^rd Infantry Division (Americal).  I stood the 3/18^th down and sent all of their equipment back to Okinawa.  After being with the Americal Division for five months, I went up-country and finished my tour as the Assistant Division S-4 for the Headquarters of the 101^st Airborne Division at Camp Eagle up by Hue/Phu Bi, close to the DMZ.  When I came back States side, I was assigned as an Advisor to the 3/16 Artillery Reserve Unit in Sioux City, IA, until the RIF caught up with me in September of 1973.  After the service, I worked for the Square D Company in IA as an Industrial Engineer, and then went to work for a company as a Manufacturing Engineering Manager in CA called Conrac.  Conrac manufactured TV monitors like those you see in airports or the large banks of monitors in television control rooms like ESPN, etc.  Came back to Iowa where I became the Physical Plant Director for a large K-12 school district.  Then I went on to Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, IA, as their Physical Plant Director.  While at Cornell, I met my wife Virginia on a humanitarian delegation in 1994 going to a children’s hospital in Moscow, Russia, and we were married in ‘98.  I love living in sunny, Southern California.  I am now the Manager of a large third party logistics warehouse (413,000 ft²), 56 dock doors where we ship other companies’ merchandise.  This truly keeps me busy.  Planning on work a few more years, and then when Virginia retires, so will I.  We are planning on buying a Mini-Winnie motor home and spending our retirement years just traveling.   See all of you then!

   Internet Research Shows:
 BS Accounting 1965; JD 1975.  1976 - Present, Partner/Principal with law firms in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Deceased - May 1, 2007

Since leaving active duty in October 1968, I've not thought about my military experience unless someone asked. As a matter of fact, I had to dig through dusty file folders to find evidence that I actually served. The results of that search shows that upon graduation from OCS, I stayed on as a Tactical Officer in 4th Platoon (Class 18-67) Battery E, 1st Battalion, then moved to Battery E, 5th Battalion, and finally as a Field Instructor. During my Ft. Sill assignment, Mike Herring, Dave Sacco, Jim Furhman and I became good friends. In January 1968 I arrived in Viet Nam and served in the 9th Infantry Division (south of Saigon). I was with Battery C, 1st Battalion, 11th Artillery (105 mm) as a Battery XO, then assigned as a Forward Observer, supporting Company C, 2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry. In August 1968, I returned to Battery C as a Fire Direction Officer and held that position until my discharge in October 1968. My wife Cathy and I were married 4 days after OCS graduation and spent our honeymoon driving back to our first duty station at Ft. Sill. Joe DelSordo was Best Man at our wedding since we went through high school, college, basic, AIT, and OCS together. Mike Herring attended our wedding and we are godparents to his son Patrick, a Naval Academy graduate who is currently on active duty. Cathy and I went to the same elementary school although she was 2 grades behind. Joe and I were into skydiving in college and on one of my first dates with Cathy, she rode in the plane that took us to jump altitude. Upon discharge from the Army, Cathy and I returned to our hometown of Lansdowne, PA and I began a career with First Pennsylvania Bank. That lasted 19 years until a merger forced me out. In 1988, I moved into the equipment leasing industry. That led me into the purchase of an equipment rental company that I eventually sold in 1992. I then began a new career as an independent contractor. That work gave me the idea to establish a staffing company in 1995. My firm provides interim professional staffing to banks and financial institutions in PA, NJ, and DE. Cathy and I now live in Wallingford, PA. We have 3 children and 3 grand children. My oldest son was a Marine Officer who received his Artillery Training at Ft. Sill in 1994. He is no longer in the military.

After school I stayed on post and was assigned to a Target acquisition unit-it's out of my head right now-wait- "Hastings what was our unit designation?"- he probably knows. While there I was the HQ Battery-mess officer, motor officer, commo officer, unit fund officer and anything else they could think of. I was safety officer the whole time and was volunteered as aggressor officer for a couple of months. Got fired from that job - too effective - on the last day of a TX for a deploying gun unit I captured the HQ group with visitors and threw them all into our prison camp - ooopps. The CO was pissed and ripped me - my CO covered me. Soon after I deployed to Nam - was assigned to a 9th Div unit - lasted 2 1/2 weeks and ended up in Camp Kue in Okinawa for 3 months. While in the hospital I read in the Army Times that my unit was wiped by the VC. I returned to Nam to the 1st Div right after Tet. Was assigned to the 2nd of the 33rd Arty in Lia Khe. My entry to Lia Khe was quick and hot. The Huey I was on skidded down the runway, the pilot said, "bail", the mortars were right behind us  -no kidding - welcome back to Nam. While looking for my unit, it was getting dark and the post was in black-out - I wandered into a HQ hooch with a single light. A voice from the back of the hooch asked if I needed help. I said I was looking for the 2nd of the 33rd. As this person approached I saw it was a full bird and his stature triggered a mental response of, "oh, shit". That's right, the bird I embarrassed at Sill by throwing him into prison. He saw my name and got nose to nose with me - what do you say - "Evening, Sir". He looked at me for a moment and said, Welcome to Nam son!", and took me to my unit a short walk. He introduced me to my CO and told him this is the kid that threw me into the can. My CO said he'd give me a desk since I was coming out of Camp Kue - I told him I hated desks so I was assigned to the 1st Ranger Bat, 16th Inf, Delta Co.,as an FO - my handle was Devour9R4. I busted brush for 7 1/2 months until the unit was traded to the Delta and the 9th Div for a mech unit. Hey, Rudin, I think you might have delivered steel for me a couple of times - I had a droop snoop outfit make some deliveries for me. If it was you, THANKS from and the boys of Delta Company and the rest of Devour. I got out of country in October - stayed in the Reserves for four more years and got out a Captain. A few years later I married, had three kids - girl, boy and boy. Pasted the architectural licensing exam in '75 in NJ & 76 in NY and been going great guns since then. I'm into RC planes. That it guys. Life's quiet now, except for the dog.

Located 12/19/09 -

Nothing terribly exciting (although some think differently) in that I separated after 5 years of active duty.  I spent only 4 1/2 months in Nam but when I returned for my Father’s funeral, I did not return.  I was reassigned to Homestead AFB in Florida where I served in the
G-2, as a Public Information Officer and then as a HQ Battery Commander.  It was a Hawk Missile unit, for which none of us were trained, so they had a tough time figuring out what to do with me.  As I had been given the Purple Heart in Nam, I was rolled out to attend ceremonies, take mothers and small children American flags etc. and gave talks which was a bit over the top, as I was certainly not any kind of hero. In 1969, my then wife and our 1 year old daughter moved to Gainesville, FL where I began a life in sales.  I had no college degree and there were no businesses looking for Artillery Officers.  I began by driving a delivery van for UPS.  This I found really quite a comedown as I had just left a job where I was the big man on campus.  I landed (by chance) in the Life Insurance business, (only to learn later that if a man was breathing, he was a great prospect for that industry) then moved on to Cattle and Livestock Supplies, then back to Insurance and Mutual Fund sales.  This profession brought me to England in 1983 and I have lived in Europe since that time. (the exception being that when I remarried in 1993 I returned to FL for about 2 yrs.) In 1996 I resumed my Insurance career in England where my wife is from.  We also had a wonderful son in 1996.  I became a Pop again at the ripe young age of 52.  When I returned to England I re-entered the Insurance and Fund sales business but my heart was not in it.  At age 57 I left that industry forever and took up a Public Speaking career; a great and interesting story in itself.  It was something very new to me but it worked out nicely and I have enjoyed it immensely. Still do some with some old clients in London. 19 months ago my wife, son and I moved to Italy where we now happily reside. In my lifetime there have been ups and downs, successes and failures but mainly I have and continue to be very blessed as a man.  Please don't interpret the use of the word blessed as a reference to any sort of formal religion affiliation.  It's just that I count myself a very lucky man.  I have zero health problems, am a little over weight, bald as many our age and generally have a very positive outlook about life. I am a member of the VFW, Post 8862 in Vicenza, Italy.  It's about 20 miles from where we live.  I Went to my first ever meeting two weeks ago.  It was nice to be around “the fella's”.  Most were retired senior noncom's and pretty switched-on.  Others were local active duty guys who are part of the Afghanistan war.  Vicenza is the staging area and HQ for most of the units down there.  In fact they refer to Afghanistan as “going down-range”. 

Thanks to Jim Wambold and Sam Dauer for making it possible for us to get together again on the web.  It's amazing how little I remember from my time in the Army. Fortunately, my parents saved some  letters that I found recently. So here's the story I've pieced together. After OCS I stayed at Ft. Sill for a year as Como Officer and then XO of B Btry, 3/25 Target Acquisition Battalion. Shipping out to Vietnam in September, 1967,  I was assigned the 25th Inf Div. I spent most of the time as an FO, first in B Co, 4/23 Mech Inf and then in C Co, 5/11 Mech Inf. We provided security for forest clearing operations in III Corps from Cu Chi north to Tay Ninh and the Cambodian border. I was wounded in a land mine explosion at the end of January 1968 and "missed" the Tet offensive. I returned to the field in March as FDO for C Btry, 7/11th Arty. On May 9, I was wounded when the VC attacked Fire Support Base Maury. That night got me a Silver Star and six months in the hospital at Ft. Belvoir, VA. I extended, made Captain, and became the BC for a 155 SP battery, 1/19 Arty, Ft. Carson, CO. After a year, I "retired" to go back to college at the University of Colorado. I've been here ever since. Professionally, I've just retired after a career in high tech electronics, as a researcher in a Federal Government lab, an engineer in the disk drive industry, and in sales for an electronic test equipment manufacturer. My wife, Linda, and I have been married for more than 30 years. We have four children  and six grandchildren. We're enjoying traveling across the country in our RV. A bout with cancer last year reinforced how important it is to live every day to the fullest. "It's a long way to Robinson Barracks. It's a long way back home." I went back to Ft. Sill about 15 years ago to look for Robinson Barracks. After an hour, I found the arch and saw that everything beyond it was an empty field. But there was no mistaking the hill for jarks on the weekends! Class 24-66 lives on in each of us.

Return To Main Page