|
36th AIB Cold War
| |
This narrative was provide by John Latham of Combat Support Company 2-36
Infantry. 1976-1979
I arrived at Kirchgoen in January of
1976 and was assigned 2/36 infantry. When I arrived, Capt Montgomery was the
commander and SFC Bloodworth was the acting first sergeant. I was in the heavy
mortar platoon where SSG McGhee was the acting platoon sergeant, Lt Wylie?
was the platoon leader and sergeant Velez was my squad leader.
It was a difficult time for me there
on the rock.
It was an unreal environment and you needed to watch your back at all times. The
racial violence was diminished at the time of my arrival but I heard stories of
some terrible riots not too long before I arrived. Drugs ran rabid among
the soldiers there and heroin(scag as it was called) was fairly common. This was
before the days of the urinalysis so in order to get busted, they needed to
catch you with the drugs on your person.
I pretty much adjusted to the
place. During my first summer there, I participated in a boxing smoker and tko'd
my opponent in the first round. Although I never would enter the ring again, my
performance gained me the respect of the old-timers and I was pretty much left
alone as far as red bellies and initiations went.
I worked hard, froze a lot in the
field and
eventually was made squad leader. My driver was a SP4 Timothy Cole who hailed
from Hickory, North Carolina. I'll admit, I was tough on ole Timothy and to this
day wish I could take it back but that was the order of the day as the Army was
transitioning from the days of the old brown boot to the new all volunteer
force. By the way, although I was tough on Timothy Cole, he did leave the Army
with an honorable discharge which was great considering the number of jobs he
had in the company that he was fired from. Anyways, I hope there are no hard
feelings from you Timothy if you ever have the chance to read this letter.
I did have my share of trouble though. My biggest
problem was that I couldn't read a map for chit and was always getting my squad
lost. As a matter of fact, I really didn't become an able map reader until
several years later.
I guess that's what happens when you become a squad
leader with less than two years in the Army.
John S. Latham
ret SFC
Return to 2 -36
|
