Fort Knox, first stateside duty appointment.

I was just beginning a new four year enlistment and was sent to Fort Knox for initial in processing and waiting for my MOS assignment.  I was assigned initially to B Company at the Reception Station.  I did not have to go back through basic again, but I did need to receive my initial clothing issue and to re-qualify with the M-14 rifle and the .45 Cal. pistol.  While waiting in line to be measured for clothing, the drill instructors would come around and hassle the new 'cruts'.  One of them, a real short 'buck' Sergeant, decided he was going to get on my case because I was older that most of the guys coming through.  He was laughing and telling his friends how he was going to run me into the ground.  I had been a SP/5 E-5, the same pay grade as  he was when I got out the first time.  I did loose one grade because of the two year separation in service. So, he was following me down the line, cussing up a blue storm, and when we got to the end of the line, the NCOIC (Non Commissioned Officer in Charge) of the Quartermasters stopped me and gave me my E-4 ranks to go on my uniforms.  Should have seen the look of the DI, he couldn't believe it.  His whole attitude changed, he came around to my side and asked what the E-4 stripes was all about.  I explained to him I had four years of prior service, I was not going back through basic, and I was assigned to the Reception Station waiting on orders.

The command Sergeant Major was an older man who had been my First Sergeant on my prior assignment to Okinawa, Japan.  He had me doing odd jobs around the Reception Station area.  Re-wiring and old building, painting and for a few weeks being first assistant to the Mess Sergeant.  This is where I learned a lot of baking and cooking.

One day, at the Reception Station they had family day.  All the mothers and fathers and girl friends of the recruits came for visits.  The Sergeant Major wanted to set the reception up in the picnic area behind B Company.  My job was to make everyone feel at home, make sure there was coffee, ice tea, donuts, finger foods, etc.  The company clerk of Company B was a man by the name of Rape.  So, here I was, making sure everything was okay with all the families there.  The First Sergeant came out of the Orderly Room, came over to where I was and asked me if I had seen the clerk anywhere.  I told him that I had not seen him since early that morning.  So, the First Sergeant in his loud, command voice, in the middle of the reception called for his clerk, "RAPE. . . RAPE."  Needless to say, it got so quite you could hear a pin drop, his face turned red as a beet and he turned around and went back into the Orderly Room.  I explained to the families there what had happened, an the everyone had a big laugh at the First Sergeant's expense.

Not long after this incident, I was called to the orderly room and the First Sergeant said that my MOS reclassification had come back.  They were going to make me an 11B, a basic infantryman, which meant that I would be going to Fort Benning, Georgia for further training.  I did not want to be in the Infantry so I decided on my own that I would rather be an 11E, which is an Armor Crewman.  Being an Armor Crewman was taught at the home of Armor,  right there at Fort Knox.  So I went to see my friend, the Sergeant Major, who told me he had a friend at the Pentagon he would call.  Two days later, I received my orders, 11E with a refresher course and then assignment to the 194th Armor Brigade there at Knox.  I had been traveling between Pleasure Ridge Park in Louisville to Fort Knox daily.  When I got my orders assigning me to Knox, we sold our trailer and moved into enlisted quarters on post.  This was Gaffey Heights, close to the gold repository. Not long after this move, our son, Michael, was born at Ireland Army Hospital at Fort Knox.