MOS 19D - Cavalry Scout
October '82 to October '84, 24 months and 1 day (friggin' leap year!). Interesting times... the shoot down of KAL 007, the blowing-up of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, invasion of Grenada, Iran/Iraq War (back then we rooted for Iraq), El Salvador, "Evil Empire", Contras, Afghanistan, Pershing IIs, SS-20s, SDI, Kremlin leadership in constant flux... interesting times.
Basic/OSUT at Ft Knox (for about two weeks we stayed in the same barracks where the movie "Stripes" was filmed). Served the remainder of my sentence at Ft Hood in the Recon Platoon of a helicopter attack squadron - 4/9 Cav of the 6th Cav Brigade (Air Combat). The 4th of the 9th was one of three units in the Army at the time that had motorcycles as part of their TO&E (another was the 7/17 our sister squadron and also part of the 6th Cav). Recon Platoon had six four-stroke KDL-250s that were painted green. We'd strap'em to the sides of our Hueys on a special skid, flew with one on each side to keep the bird balanced. Being assigned as a "Motorcycle Arero/Cav Scout" was definitely the funnest thing I ever did in uniform.
So other fun stuff.... watching A-10 Warthogs make low & slow passes while firing their 30mm gattling guns. Watching F-111s make low & fast passes while dropping dummy snake-eye bombs. Watching a F-4 Phantom photo recon plane drop flares at night, then seeing ourselves (looking up at the camera) in the pictures the next morning. Watching one of the last F-105 Thunderchiefs do touch-and-goes at an AFB in San Antonio (Spring of '83). Watching an entire squadron of Cobras shoot all their folding fin rockets in one big salvo. (Scouts watch a lot). Watching Cobras plink tanks with TOW missiles from a mile away. Shooting armadillos with pointed sticks shoved down the barrels of our M16s and propelled by a blank cartridge. Shooting up old tanks with and M60 from the door of a Huey.
Watching a "simulated 1 kiloton nuclear explosion" (now that was weird), the device was about the size of a duce'n-a-half, basically three explosive charges wired to go off at once: a tremendous flash, a huge concussion, and a giant powder/smoke mushroom cloud. Made ya wonder exactly what they were preparing us for. Repelling out of a Huey. Flying under a Chinook tethered to a rope with 7 other guys at 120 MPH at 1000 ft. Flying in a Huey and getting "killed" by the main gun on an M1 tank, our pilot almost put the M1's cannon thru the helicopter's windscreen, the M1 gunner hit his FIRE button and set off all our MILES alarms. Sweeping landing zones for the Airborne prior to the arrival of their Pathfinders (I gotta be a Pathfinder for the Pathfinders), actually, I think our job was more to chase off any stray cows that were roaming the landing zone (Ft Hood is an open range).
But is wasn't all fun.... being one of the first guys to the site of a crashed Cobra where pilot & gunner were both killed (Cobra's just weren't made to fly at night). Other fun stuff: Weekends in Austin (the Army gave us all the camping equipment we ever needed), and (the jewel in the crown) spending my last four months at Hood as a lifeguard at the NCO swimming pool and dating the daughter of a Sgt. Major in the 2nd AD.... but that's a topic for another forum.
FTA/FTW -- Kernel