I joined the army when I was eighteen years old. I was stationed at Camp Chaffi for three months in Arkansas. Then I was sent by ship to Baumholder Germany and assigned to 66th tank battalion 2nd armored division as a loader on a medium tank crew. After two months of radio training I took charge of radio communications for company c. Each company consisted of one radio commo chief and two radio repair men. This company didn't. It had me. I took charge of radio repairs and commo chief responsibilities.

I liked it. It was peace time. We had Saturday afternoons and Sundays off. However, I had difficulty with the army discipline. Many army outfits allowed soldiers weekend passes. They could be free until Monday morning. This camp was different. You had to ask for a pass, and it was only good one night until midnight. Either Friday or Saturday.

My first sergeant and I didn't agree on most things, so I usually wasn't allowed a pass. At first I didn't care, but as time went on I decided I was going to town with or without a pass. Which was usually without a pass. Many times I was brought back by MPs and soon I was restricted to barracks. Now, I sure liked to dance back then. There was no way I was not going to town to dance on Saturday evenings. My company commander, a captain, always promoted me to pfc because of my work on the radios, and usually a week or two later, I was demoted back to private by my first sergeant. This went on until I was discharged from the army in December 56.

If I didn't like dancing Friday or Saturday nights at the taverns, I would have easily been discharged a sergeant.