I noticed people would come and go quite often when I first got to the unit. Most were transferring to new duty stations elsewhere, but others were either retiring or reaching the end of their Army term. And always, there was a going away party. One party I recall was for SPC Haines that was held at Soldier's Lake just off post. About everyone in HHB was there, however I really didn't know her well at all. It didn't matter, as long as someone was partying, I was there. The bunch I went with nearly cleaned out the shopette's beer cooler, so we went over to Katterbach and got more drinks at the Class 6 store. This was the equivalent of Mike's Liquors back home. I was short on funds by the time I got there, so I settled on Boone's Farm to go with the beer I already had. We arrived at the party around 1600 hours, or 4 pm and already there was a crowd. There was food being barbecued and alcohol flowing freely from a common cooler that we all contributed to. I started getting drunk real early, and it was showing. Someone had a set of yard darts, which hadn't been available for many years, and I felt I could join the festivities too. After two throws and near misses, SSG Bechtel's husband felt it was necessary to suspend my part of the game for the best interest of everyone's safety. I remember hearing KISS' Double Platinum CD being played and I was doing my best drunken sing along routine. One thing about me as a drinker, I am quite funny, yet bold, when I get drunk. I don't get redneck or crying, and when I'm partying, everyone has to party just as hard with me.
As the evening wore on, the party was in high swing and I realized I was out of my Boone's Farm and low on beer. One of the guys handed me a paper bag and said, "Here, I'm done with this, take it." Inside was Mad Dog 20-20, grape flavored. I hadn't drank that before but it was free alcohol, who cared? I swigged the grape flavored concoction down, not knowing that it was very potent and had a legacy of making people very sick. I downed the whole bottle in no time and eventually, I lost all recollection from there on. From what I have been told, I was a riot, seemingly super-charged and partying the night away. Eventually everyone parted ways and headed back to the barracks at some point and those who were with me lost sight of me. I woke up freezing cold along the side of the road to the back gate at almost dawn. My leather jacket had a hint of frost on it, I had passed out on my journey back to the barracks and had been left, or more than likely I had wandered off from my crowd and ended up where I was. Either way, I was cold, my clothes were wet from the ground and my head was still buzzing. Once I got back to the room, I showered and changed for bed. I wrapped up in my sleeping bag and wool blankets but could not get the chill out of my system. I'm sure that had I not woke up when I did, I would have frozen to death just a 100 or so yards from Shipton's back gate. I was sick beyond belief the whole day after, and my toes were still numb from the cold up until early afternoon. I dodged the reaper for the first time.
One morning during formation, I was called out to the front with several others. We were all up for promotion and I was promoted to Private First Class, or PFC. It was a short and simple ceremony and took a total of maybe five minutes; Captain Taylor saluted us, we all saluted back and it was over that quick. I really didn't see it as much more responsibility and didn't take it as such, which probably hurt me in the long run. It all didn't matter to me much, I was just a another soldier in another damned Army called 6/43. How quickly that changed in the aid station though. SSG Bechtel told me with my promotion came extra duties, so I would be in charge of keeping our publications up to date and creating a sort of library of the ones we had on file. Not too bad, I thought, but then realized what a task it would be due to the fact no one else had been doing the work.
One thing about everyone in the barracks...we were all in the same boat together and looked out for each other. I made some good friends early on. One in particular was Farley, an African-American girl who was Bohlen's room mate. She hung out with us but didn't party as much as I did, or at least I saw anyway. One night I had been partying a bit too much and got locked out of my room without a key. I sat down in the hallway and ended up passing out next to my room. Every morning the staff duty NCO would do a walk through in the barracks and 'gather up' those who were out of line. To avoid that happening to me, Farley, with some help, dragged me into her room to keep me from getting busted. I woke up the next day confused but grateful to her. Another party friend was a British girl named Allison who would come party with us. She was not a usual 'Goose Slut', the name we would give girls that would come up just to score with a GI, but a girl who just wanted to party like we all did. She spoke with a thick British accent, was kind of heavy set with long dark hair and funny as hell with her jokes or 'quips' as she called them. One night after my usual drunken parties, I again passed out in the hallway. A couple of guys, White and Ruble, put me in White's room. I woke up the next day next to Allison in bed, very confused due to the fact that we all considered her as a mutual friend only. The guys and Allison let me think that something had happened well up into the day and I kept apologizing for breaching that friendship threshold, then the joke was on me...and well deserved.
Aside from the party life and day to day routine, my barracks life was miserable. After the episode with Himel and his girlfriend, I was determined to find a new room. I spoke with SSG Bechtel who told me to talk to the first sergeant. The day I spoke to 1SG Moshner, he called me into his office rather informally and asked what was going on. I told him that Himel and I didn't get along and I wanted to move, that the situation was just too much for me. First Sergeant Moshner told me that Himel only had about two months left in the unit and I should stick it out, but I held my guns. Finally, the first sergeant agreed to let me move so I went back upstairs to start the packing process. A few minutes later, a knock came at my door, it was the first sergeant. He had found an available room with a guy named Galvin who had been there about a year and was pretty squared away. First Sergeant Moshner told me that he would take care of Himel, that this wasn't the first time a room mate had moved out. I was glad the first sergeant was understanding, but being as this was a pattern with Himel, I supposed he had to be after so long.
I met Galvin down the hall, he seemed okay and pretty laid back. Apparently, he had been made aware of my partying ways and told me he was cool with having a good time as long as it wasn't in his room. I could respect that, as long as he was not overbearing and a total ass. I got settled in later in the day and we chatted about the unit and how things were going. He had been there a while and seen a lot so far, his best advice was to just go with the flow and stay under the radar. Galvin was a guy who was very squared away. His uniforms were crisp, boots highly shined and his demeanor was that of a leader. I felt that maybe he could steer me in the right direction, perhaps bring me out of my funk I was in and become a model soldier. We got along good, however he stayed gone a lot. Galvin was a Stinger Missile Specialist and was being evaluated for promotion to sergeant E-5. He kept a level head about things and didn't seem too egotistical. The room was at the far end of the hallway, away from everyone else I was used to but still not too bad. I was just glad to be out of Himel's world finally.
Not long after I moved, 6/43 had to participate in a Brigade Change of Command Ceremony in Geibelstadt. Our home brigade, the 69th Brigade, was based there and Colonel Rountree was retiring. The week leading up to the event, we did drill and ceremony over and over, much like at Fort Sam. The day came to do the ceremony and we boarded buses for the roughly hour and a half long trip. On the way there, the skies became gloomy and it began to rain. By the time we reached brigade headquarters, it was pouring down. We parked the buses at a hanger on the airstrip and formed up inside...and waited. We had all our TA-50 on, except our ruck sacks, and our M-16's so it wasn't entirely the most comfortable wait at all. Outside the hangar, the rain poured down and the cold air breezed through the open hangar and made for an even more miserable experience. A few minutes later, we were told to fall out and wait until we got word to go ahead with the ceremony, which was to be held outside. The day was a lot of hurry up and wait as usual and there wasn't anything really to pass the time there. Our platoon sergeants kept walking by inspecting us to make sure we were still in top form visually, a lot of high ranking soldiers were milling about too. An hour or so later, we were told to form up again and put on our rain gear, which was a pull over poncho. The rain had eased up some but still was going to be a factor in the whole process of the change of command. Our battalion commander came out and addressed the group by saying due to the weather issues, the whole battalion would not be required to stand outside for the ceremony. I hoped that I would be spared, remembering the long drawn out ordeal at Fort Sam. I got my wish, the medic platoon was spared mostly from the outside activities, but we were now thrust into the eye of the senior ranking commanders and officers of 69th Brigade.
The ceremony seemed to take forever, Colonel Rountree spoke about his military service and how his first duty command was at 6th Battalion 43rd Air Defense, hmm, how coincidental. He went on by saying the unit was distinguished during its tour of duty during Operation Desert Storm and he was proud to have commanded a fine bunch of soldiers. I hadn't really thought much about the history of the unit until then, I guessed I should have learned all I could about my home for two years. The brigade's flag was then handed off to Colonel Dodgen who had been a battalion commander at Fort Bliss, Texas. After the ceremony, there was a reception in the hangar with an assortment of food that went far beyond what was served in the chow hall on post. After a long while, we boarded the buses and headed back to Ansbach, another boring ADA day behind me.
I went on a couple more field exercises between April and May, they were starting to become common by then. I remember once we went to a place with Headquarters Battery and set up the battalion aid station rather than a field triage tent. These exercises seemed pointless to me, we always did things the same way over and over again. Little did I realize, or was even told then, was that we were being evaluated for our mission in Saudi Arabia that was looming ahead. During the headquarters exercise we did some medic based training, doing scenarios like we did at Fort Sam. We occasionally did some type of training every Thursday back at Shipton, but this seemed more enjoyable to me. One down side of that exercise was having to do mess duty, commonly called KP. It wasn't as bad as my experience at Fort Jackson, but still sucked regardless. Extra duties weren't a stranger for the medic platoon. We had a guard rotation that we did back at Shipton, meaning we would be scheduled to work at a guard shack at one of the entrances or at the operations site entrance. It was mundane duty lasting four hours each shift by two at the main gate, two at the back gate until 1800 hours or one in the operations area. Our duty was to check ID's for anyone coming into post and collect ID's from visitors, as well as look for any suspicious activity around the perimeter. We weren't armed with any weapons, so if there was an imminent threat we were helpless beyond hand to hand combat. The field exercises were different though, all we had to worry about was fire guard during cold weather months so that wasn't too bad.
The training schedules were picking up pace during early spring and when we weren't in the field, we were tasked out with inventorying our equipment and getting the unit's 600+ medical records organized. This meant when we weren't in the field, it would be long days at the aid station accomplishing these tasks. There were several nights that I didn't leave duty until well after 1900 hours, or 7 p.m. Organizing the medical records was a daunting task. We had to go through all the records for each individual soldier and log what vaccinations they had and when they needed more, as well as any condition that would make them undeployable. We organized the files by which battery the soldier was in, only problem was when we got the records from Katterbach's clinic, they were filed alphabetically and under a general 6/43 category. So we had to break down over 600 records into what battery they were part of, then the captain who tasked us out for this thought it would be best to go an extra step and organize the files into platoons. Needless to say my liver thanked her during this time, but it was mind draining work that went long hours.
After duty on Fridays, I had to get away from the barracks. I had gotten used to the life of going out to the clubs, even when the others didn't want to go with me. Galvin stayed elsewhere, so I didn't really hang out with him much. I was left to my own most of the time, which was okay with me, I could sort things out in my head better on my own. I was still pretty bitter of the break up with Kim and had no plans to be involved with anyone soon. I just wanted to be me and numb myself if I felt the least bit homesick or lonely. During my strolls into town I found other places beyond The Goose or Hai Life that were entertaining, some where the American GI's hardly frequented. One place was down near the McDonald's and was more of an arcade and pool hall than anything. It reminded me some of Gateway Video Store back home, where my friends and I would spend hours hanging out and playing pool or my favorite pinball games. This was similar, yet so different, I knew no one there. The camaraderie wasn't there like back home. I usually just ordered a beer then went upstairs and played pinball until I either got bored or ran out of pfennigs, or coin currency. A lot of times I would just wander down the small streets taking in the sights of the old town of Ansbach, usually alone and quite content. One evening I wandered into Hai Life for my usual routine. I was starting to become recognized by a few there and had made some friends. I got a beer then went to the game room to play a round of arcade games, all of which were full. I found an open pinball machine and started playing it, racking up the high scores. Apparently, when I get into a pinball game, I get so into it that I am very animated. As I play, I get into a zone, something that I guess is entertaining because during a break I noticed there were a few people standing at the machine watching me play. I at first thought I was keeping someone from a game and motioned for the next player who immediately waved it off, he and the others were watching me and my wild antics at the machine. I laughed and continued playing, but was distracted the rest of the time by the audience. One girl came to me and started talking to me after the game telling me that I looked funny. I didn't know if I should be offended or laugh with her, I chose to just go along with it. We laughed and talked some more through the evening, getting along pretty good. The girl's name was Karin, she was from Ansbach and had a smile that lit any dull mood. She spoke English pretty well, although with a heavy accent. Karin was a nurse at the local hospital, or krankenhaus as it was called there. We parted ways around midnight, she had to be at work early and offered me a ride, but I wanted to walk back as I always did. She gave me her number and said goodnight with her smile. I walked back to the barracks, not entirely buzzed or drunk as usual, I guess keeping up conversation with Karin kept me in check somewhat. I didn't want to think about a relationship or anything else than just someone to talk to and wanted to leave it at that, but Karin seemed like a nice girl that I could see more often.
Back at Shipton, life in the barracks had eased up considerably since the move. I still hung out with Rucker and Brightbill often, usually after duty hours we sat around and drank. Occasionally we would get wind of a party and go to it. One party in particular that has become quite infamous occurred when I was still in Himel's room, about a month before I moved out. There was a party at Foxtrot Barracks that we were going to, but first there were some stops we made. I was with Rucker, Bell and a few others and we went over to a room in Delta Barracks for a while. I started drinking malt beer, which is stronger than my usual Budweiser, then I progressed on to Jim Beam and Vodka. We stayed for a while then went over to Foxtrot Barracks where the whole second floor had turned into a block party. One thing about the Army, it is culturally diverse, even when a party is involved. The group of people were mainly African-American, but it didn't matter to anyone there. As the night progressed, I drank more and more, the last thing I recall drinking was tequila. I hadn't really been a tequila drinker, and under sober circumstances, the mere smell of it makes me nauseated. I downed most of a fifth bottle like it was water. I remember someone in a room that was open telling anyone who came in that it was toga only, so I went to seek out a toga. I ended up with a green wool Army blanket as a toga and proceeded on. The room I got the blanket from was a couple doors down and I went almost true toga, leaving my underwear on underneath it, and my other clothes in that room. At this point I wasn't really aware of my surroundings or who I was. Rucker related the rest of the story to me later. He and Bell went over to HHB Barracks. Later, I was going to go with them down to The Goose, but I ended up telling them to go on and come back later, that I was enjoying the night a little too much. Later on when Rucker and Bell came to get me, I was still in my toga, but at some point decided to go true toga, meaning nothing underneath. They told me to come on and I was telling them I needed my clothes, but I couldn't figure out where they were since I had been from room to room by this time. While going door to door I lost my toga, so here I was going door to door butt naked looking for who had my clothes. One could imagine the looks I'm sure I got from people as they opened the doors. Eventually someone tossed out my clothes and with some help, I got dressed. As Rucker and Bell were escorting me out of the barracks and from further embarrassment, I darted away from them to get another beer and lost sight of them. When the guys got to the lobby area of the barracks, they realized I wasn't with them so Bell decided to go back and look for me. That's when he heard a loud "Niagara Falls" shout from above and the trickle of liquid flowing down. As he raced up to find me, he slipped on a wet step and caught his shin on the corner. When Bell finally got to me, I was standing at the top of the stair case with my pants down, urinating and laughing the whole time. Bell had slipped my a puddle of my piss on his way up. Further tragedy averted, I finally was escorted back to my room. Bell and Rucker heaved me up to my top bunk and left me to pass out, but not before thinking they would have some fun with the drunk guy. They waited outside for a few minutes, then came back in the room, they hadn't shut the door when leaving. Once inside they thought it would be funny to mess with me a bit so I would wake up the next day in a weird or compromising position. What they didn't realize is that I wasn't passed out yet and when they came in, I heard them and bolted off the bunk to see who was at the door. Bell yelled out, "get him!" to Rucker and grabbed me. I had no idea who it was in the darkness and the survival instinct kicked in. I swung and caught Bell on the cheek bone just under his eye and then hit him again on the temple. They ran out of the room and I got back into bed unscathed,
The next morning, I woke up still about half buzzing with my right hand swelled and bruised. I had no memory of most of the night, the last thing I recall was drinking tequila in someone's room. As the day wore on, I saw Bell in the hallway, his left eye was swelled and blackened,
"Jesus Christ, man, what happened to you?" I asked, thinking he had got into a scuffle at The Goose.
"Dude, you don't remember? You did this to me last night. You are one strong drunk," he replied. I stood there not believing him as he told me what happened, then we went to Rucker's room so he could verify what happened. Rucker told me about the attempted raid on me, the Niagara Falls incident and me running naked up the hallway. That's when I thought they had exaggerated just a bit far and passed it off. Around 1300 hours, I went to eat finally and the guy doing head count looked up at me and smiled, asking if I had found my clothes. I looked at him shocked, still thinking it was exaggeration from Bell and Rucker, and then realized that it had been true. The worst part is the guy in the chow hall told me someone had video taped me running up the hallway! Nice, very nice, I thought. Now I would surely be the laughing stock of Shipton. A few days later, I finally saw the footage of me running down the hallway. An out of focus video showed me going door to door, my bare ass fully exposed and the cameraman giving a commentary like, "look at this dumb ass, looking for his clothes and scaring the shit out of everyone." Even later down the road, several months later, people in Foxtrot Battery still referred me as "The Streak."
Another not so proud moment happened around the same time the streaking incident occurred. I had been partying one night, finally turning in around 0430 on a Saturday morning. One of the last things SSG Bechtel did at the end of day formation was to tell us to look at the duty roster. That Friday, she said that and I checked the roster, sure enough I was slated for gate guard duty. Guard duty started at 0600 hours in the lobby of the HHB Command Area. The sergeant of the guard for the day would go by the duty roster and assign us shifts for the day. If we didn't report to duty, we were considered AWOL, or away without leave and could face serious consequences. That morning, I awoke to a pounding at my door and a bellowing voice yelling, "Kiskaden, get out here right damn now!" I had no idea who it was so I stammered to the door and opened it up still hazy from the night before. It was the sergeant of the guard yelling at me, which quickly woke and sobered me up.
"Dammit, boy, you smell like a damn brewery," the sergeant yelled at me. I had no reply and knew instantly I was in deep trouble. The sergeant continued telling me that I was in violation of several articles of the UCMJ and could get an Article 15. Then the sergeant looked around and came on in the door.
"Okay, I got that official shit out of the way," the sergeant said, "soldier what the Hell were you thinking getting drunk then not reporting to duty. It's 0700 hours!" I was sure that I was in for it and offered an apology as I scurried to get my uniform ready.
"I know you were partying last night, I saw you, so I told the commander that you were doing a task for me that's why you weren't at guard briefing. You owe me," he continued. Then he told me he had put me on second watch at 1200 hours and to be cleaned up and ready to go by then or else. I had dodged a career bullet for the first time.
I called Karin one afternoon and told her I was going to be at Hai Life after duty and asked if she would be there. She sounded happy that I had called and agreed to meet me there. The duty day however, lasted until 1900 hours, well beyond what I wanted. After the day ended I retreated upstairs and popped open a beer. As I got ready to leave, I continued to drink and took some with me for my walk to town. I got to Hai Life with a little bit of a buzz a little after 2100 hours and proceeded to go to the bar and get a tall glass of hefeweizen. I looked around and finally saw Karin sitting at a Tetris arcade game. I walked over to her and she glanced at me with a stern look.
"You are late," she said. I explained that we had more stuff to do on post than normally expected and I think she was okay with it, but was still kind of cold to me. This wore on me a bit, so I grabbed another beer, then another while she played the game and appeared to ignore me. Finally she got up and we moved to a table to talk. By now, I was feeling rather good and I guess it was showing.
"You are drunk aren't you," Karin asked.
"Noooo, no I-I-I'm good," I slurred. She just smiled and shook her head. The bar was pretty dead that night, so we left and went to her apartment across town. I had no idea how we got there, my head was spinning by then. We went into her apartment and sat down and talked some more. I was still sort of perturbed by her being cold to me so I put a block up internally. I'm sure she thought that our alone time was going to be more of a get to know each other, and I got no vibes of it being just a sexual tryst, but that internal block plus the alcohol and bitter feelings probably ruined anything at all. I couldn't get out of my mind how she acted like she didn't believe the reason I was late or how she ignored me, was that game more important? I became a bit colder toward her as we talked, prompting her to ask if I was okay. I told her it was late and I needed to get back to Shipton. Karin told me I could stay with her that night, but I didn't want to, my mind was made up; I didn't need anyone to give a damn about, or about me.
Karin drove me back to Shipton and I parted ways with her, feeling a bit guilty for being jaded. I hugged her and walked into the gate, not looking back. I called her a few days later and she was okay with me it seemed, so I was happy that I didn't make her dislike me. Another few days went by and I met her again at Hai Life, commencing on getting drunk yet again. I could tell early on she wasn't real happy with me getting hammered, but I didn't take that into account. She left the bar without asking me to join her that night nor did she offer a ride back to the barracks. I went back to Hai Life a few days later and she wasn't there, then the same again the following week. I tried to call but she wasn't home usually, or she wasn't answering, I thought. One night I went back to Hai Life with some guys from the barracks and commenced into oblivion. I was in rare form apparently and saw Karin standing near the table. I got up and walked to her to talk, tripping over the chair in the process. I cackled in laughter at the whole mess I had made and then walked to the back with Karin. I used to take my camera with me from time to time, stashing it in my jacket. I had left it on the table with the guys that night as Karin and I walked to the arcade room. There is a picture that was taken by someone that tells the rest of the story. It shows Karin standing facing me, my back to the camera and this look on her face that shows one of disgust and hurt. What the guys and the picture didn't see or hear was our conversation. Karin asked if I was drunk, I told her I was very drunk and she backed away from me. She began by telling me she really liked me and thought I was cool and that she hadn't dated any Americans before. Then she told me that we couldn't see each other again because I drank entirely too much and said things that hurt her feelings when I was drunk. I stuttered and tried to calm her but her mind was made up. She left by putting her hand on my chest and saying something like, "I know it's in there." As I watched her walk away, that block came back again. Good riddance, I thought to myself, what does she know by telling me how to run my life? I went back to the bar got a round of drinks for everyone and kept on going. The other picture taken that night was of me totally blitzed standing between two palm trees in a planter.
Looking back, I realize I was an ass to Karin and I was out of control. My life had turned stone cold crazy and she was the collateral damage. I never saw her again after that night and never tried to call her again. I told myself I didn't need her or anyone to care for me, I was just fine, and believed that for a long time. Karin was a sweet girl, one who didn't deserve to be the one who came in the middle of my self destruction and self pity for the past month or so. I never gave her a chance to see if it could work, and looking back I see that all things happen for a reason, and the two of us just weren't meant to happen.
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| Todd Villanueva, aka Ace and his 49's room decor. |
Indeed, Army life was nothing like I had envisioned. The mundane duties coupled with the stone cold crazy lifestyle I was living after duty hours certainly made life interesting. The only things I worried about were staying under the radar and waking up the next day. Changes were looming just ahead, like that light at the tunnel's end that turns out to be a train.
