A Change of Scenery

June 8, 2018

This month's first blog is going to take you back a few years...well; 32 years to be mathematically correct. It was 1986. I had completed a tour of Korea, and place I will never forget.  It made me a man, a way better soldier, and lifelong friendships were forged that year.

 I arrived at Fort Riley; the First Infantry Division, and was assigned to the 55th Engineer Company. The Military Occupational Specialty )MOS) that I held encompassed a large array of military bridges. This company was equipped with the Medium Girder Bridge (MGB) that is built with the SALB system (Soldier's Arms, Legs, and Backs.)

Oh boy, I thought... what a change. But life was different here. First of all, I couldn't legally consume alcohol (I was just 19), and there were no ten dollar hookers to be found. Most of all, there were no communist bastards waiting to kill me just a kilometer across the river. Talk about boredom.
But I had some friends here, and things began to get better. A buddy I knew from Korea lived in housing, and we spent time over there just to get "away from the Army" now and then.
Time passed by, and one thing really changed for me...the scenery was very different here, but the Army was the same...except for leadership. I had not like most of my Sergeants in Korea; definitely not my last Platoon Sergeant. Some of my NCO's had been blatant racists, clique organizers, and alcoholics. My new company had the same problems.
But two guys (platoon sergeants) here at "55" showed me what leadership is, and did some things that none of the other ones did. One of them was black; the other was white.
First of all, SSG Oatis didn't care what color you were. He also didn't care how many push ups you did...he just cared that you did your job, and that HE was taking care of you. The second NCO that was like this was SSG Simmons. He had the same ideals. These guys were real people, and real soldiers. That is rare. Sometimes men are great soldiers, but worthless human beings. The opposite can also be true.
The new scene started looking up for me...and although I left the Army for a while in 1988, these men's leadership, character, and moral compass passed on to me. I would later draw on these traits to be a leader myself. Sometimes I was not liked for this, other times I was praised heartily for them. But I carried them with me all of my life, and still do up to this day.