Turning now to some of the NCOs, I remember SSG Arvin Eck, SSG Birk and SGT Mitchell. SSG Birk and SGT Mitchell both lived there in H D Smith Barracks. I don't know where they ended up, although I'm pretty sure SSG Birk decided to leave the Army and go back to The World. For some reason I think his home was in Kentucky.
SSG Eck and I once had the unpleasant task of visiting one of the junior platoon members down in the Mannheim lockup. It was hard to feel sorry for the guy in question since he'd deserted more than once and brought it entirely upon himself, but, still, prison is a pretty miserable place. I hope that the military runs them better than the civilians, that's for sure. Everybody ought to get a good close look at a prison before he's old enough to get himself locked up in one.
1SGT Henderson -- Top was a thin, keen runner. We'd wrap up PT in the morning and he'd tear-ass out of the Company AO and go run another five or ten clicks. Like most First Sergeants he wasn't an easy guy to please, but I still remember how happy he was when we nailed all those EIBs in 1987. Alpha Company had something like seven out of the eleven EIBs that the battalion earned that year, and everybody knows that it takes a strong set of NCOs to turn out that kind of result. Now that I think of it, I've got my EIB right here at my desk. CIBs were another story, since the Vietnam vets were starting to retire in big numbers by the late 1980s. We never imagined there'd be so many young guys with CIBs now. I haven't read the figures but it would have to be something like 90% of the MOS.
I do remember a
lot of other NCOs from Baumholder, especially in 3rd Platoon Alpha Company 1/39 Inf (M), but I can't recall all their names right now.
Before I forget -- please add your name to
the roster if you haven't already.
