I BEGAN WORK AT McCALL'S CORP. ON JUNE 5 th , 1964 , JUST A FEW DAYS AFTER OUR COMMENCEMENT. SOMETIME IN JANUARY 1968 (THE EXACT DATE ESCAPES ME NOW) I RECEIVED AN INVITATION FROM UNCLE SAM, TO BE HIS VALENTINE. I WAS DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY FEB. 14, 1968.

     WHEN WE GOT DOWN TO THE CINCINNATI INDUCTION CENTER , WE WERE TOLD TO "LINE UP & COUNT OFF BY FOURS". I WAS A NUMBER THREE. THEN THEY TOLD ALL NUMBER FOURS TO "TAKE ONE STEP FORWARD" & SAID, "CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE NOW UNITED STATES MARINES" !! WHEW !!! IMAGINE I WAS ONE NUMBER FROM BEING A ‘JARHEAD'. HA ! HA! (A LITTLE INTER-SERVICE HUMOR THERE !)

     WE WERE SENT TO FORT BENNING , GA. FOR BASIC TRAINING AT THE SAND HILL TRAINING CAMP. THE SAND HILL COMPLEX HAD NOT AT THAT TIME, BEEN USED SINCE THE KOREAN WAR. THE PLATOON STYLE BARRACKS WERE COAL HEATED. IMAGINE HAVING TO FACE WHITE GLOVE INSPECTIONS WITH ALL THAT COAL DUST ALL OVER EVERYTHING. I TURNED 22 IN BASIC & WAS LITTERALY THE ‘OLD MAN' OF THE COMPANY. EVEN THOUGH I LOST 5-DAYS OF BASIC WHILE HOSPITALIZED WITH PNUEMONIA, I MANAGED TO GRADUATE WITH MY CYCLE & WE BY VIRTUE OF OUR P.T.SCORES AND I.Q.TESTING WERE HONOR COMPANY AND LED THE BATTALION ON THE GRADUATON PARADE DAY.

     AFTER BASIC I AND SOME OF MY OTHER CYCLE MATES WERE SENT DIRECTLY TO FORT ORD , CA. FOR ADVANCED TRAINING. (IN OUR CASE INFANTRY TRAINING.) BY NOW, I WAS PRETTY MUCH CONVINCED I WAS VIET NAM BOUND UNLESS; I COULD SCORE HIGH ENOUGH ON TESTING TO CREATE ANOTHER OUTCOME. A LOT OF COLONEL WHITE TEACHERS WOULD BE PROUD TO KNOW, THAT EVEN THOUGH MY GRADES DIDN'T REFLECT IT, WHAT THEY TAUGHT SUNK IN! MY PLATOON AND WHOLE COMPANY WAS HONOR COMPANY OF OUR GRADUATING TRANINING BRIGADE & WE MARCHED IN THE FRONT OF THE GRADUATION PARADE AGAIN AT FORT ORD.

     MY SCORES WERE HIGH ENOUGH THAT THEY KEPT PUSHING ME TO GO TO O.C.S. ( OFFICERS CANDIDATE SCHOOL ). I SAID "OK AS LONG AS I STILL GET OUT IN 2- YEARS". THERE WAS EVEN TALK ABOUT GETTING TONY HALL (I BELIEVE HE WAS OUR CONGRESSMAN AT THAT TIME) TO NOMINATE ME FOR WEST POINT, BUT I NIXED THAT TOO, BECAUSE IT MEANT STAYING IN FOR 4 YEARS ACTIVE DUTY ALSO.

     SO….. THEY DID THE NEXT BEST THING THEY COULD DO FOR ME AND SENT ME TO FT. MYER , VA. HOME OF "THE OLD GUARD" 3rd INFANTRY 1st BATTALION. IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF IT (I HADN'T), IT SURROUNDS ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY (NORTH POST ON ONE SIDE – SOUTH POST ON THE OTHER). "THE OLD GUARD" IS THE PRESIDENTIAL GUARD FOR OUR NATIONS CAPITOL. WHILE IN "THE OLD GUARD" I PERFORMED AS PART OF THE ‘WORLD WAR ONE DRILL TEAM' EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT THE JEFFERSON (MY OLD GRADE SCHOOL 7-th & 8-th GRADES) MEMORIAL. OTHER MEMORABLE EVENTS I WAS INVOLVED IN WERE ‘TORCHLIGHT TATTOO' AT THE FT. MYER GYM, EISENHOWERS FUNERAL (CORDON), GENERAL WESTMORELANDS RETIREMENT PARADE, NIXONS INAUGURATION (REAR GUARD), AND MANY LESSER PARADES AND EVENTS AT ARLINGTON CEMETERY TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION.

     DURING THE WAR & RACE RIOTS OF 1969 I WAS ONE OF ONLY 3 MACHINE GUN TEAMS SENT TO BE EMBEDDED AROUND THE WHITE HOUSE FOR INTERNAL PROTECTION. WE WERE TRAINED SPECIFICALLY FOR FIRING THE M-60 MCHINE GUN UNDER THE ARM ON THE RUN ALA 'RAMBO' STYLE. THE WHOLE WHITE HOUSE WAS SURROUNDED BY D.C. CITY BUSES PARKED BUMPER TO BUMPER WITH D.C. RIOT POLICE INSIDE OF THAT. ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUSES WERE MARINES FROM QUANTICO , VA. AND LINE TROOPS FROM "THE OLD GUARD" IN FULL RIOT GEAR. NEEDLESS TO SAY THOSE WERE SOME OF THE HARDEST DAYS OUR NATION FACED, UNTIL' 9-11'.

     WHEN IT CAME TIME FOR ME TO BE RELEASED FROM ACTIVE DUTY IN FEB.1970, TO CLEAR POST, YOU HAD TO HAVE YOUR PAPERS SIGNED BY NUMEROUS PEOPLE AND ARMY DEPTS. SO…….. WHEN IT CAME TIME FOR ME TO SEE THE RE-ENLISTMENT NCO, HE SAID "BOB I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS MAN'S ARMY BUT, I HAVE TO ASK YOU AS A FORMALITY. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT RE-ENLISTMENT?" AND SO I SAID "YEAH SARGE, I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, LAUGHED ABOUT IT, & FORGOT ABOUT IT !! " (TRUE STORY)! BACK THEN AS AN E-4 I WAS ONLY GROSSING $220 A MONTH & COULD BRING HOME THAT MUCH ON MY JOB BACK HOME PER WEEK. BUT…..WITH HINDSIGHT BEING 20-20 I CAN SEE HOW FOOLISH I WAS TO PASS UP OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING ON MY DOOR. IF I HAD STAYED IN I COULD HAVE RETIRED IN 1988 WITH 20 YEARS OR WITH FULL BENEFITS IN 1998 WITH 30 YEARS.

Jack H. Bader

     This is a picture of me on the left and my brother Michael on the right celebrating Octoberfest in Munich Germany October 2001.

     I joined the Navy Reserve on my 17th birthday 10 FEB 1963 . A recruiter that came to Colonel White recruited me. I drilled every Tuesday night at the reserve center on Gettysburg  Avenue .

     I went to boot camp at Great Lakes , Ill from June until September 1963. I got home just in time for school. They were taking senior pictures alphabetically so I was towards the front of the list. My mother talked to someone and got him or her to put me at the end of the list to give my hair time to grow out a little bit.

     I was stationed at Patuxent River Naval Air Station from 1968 until 1970 as a 3rd class electronics technician.

     I was the Officer Recruiting Officer for Atlanta , Columbus and Macon , Georgia and Chattanooga , Tennessee from 1986 until 1988.

     I was stationed at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington , DC from 1998 until 2002. I came back to active duty to work on the Y2K problem with the Navy's computers on board ships and planes. I was awarded the NAVY AND MARINE CORPS COMMENDATION MEDAL for my work on the NAVSEA Y2K Project from 30 NOV 98 to 30 MAR 00 .

     I retired in 2004 as a Lieutenant Commander after 26 years in the Navy Reserve.

Jim Ashby

     I served in the US Army from Aug 65 to Aug 69.  I served 18 months in Vietnam as a company clerk, Cam Rahn Bay, Da Nang, and Phan Rang. I came home in 67 and was station in Fort Polk LA as an Specialist 5th class (E-5).

Ben Holman

US NAVY 1967 - 1971
Aerographers Mate 2nd Class
1968 - 1970 Guam/Vietnam -- VW1 Squadron (Typhoon Trackers
1970 - 1971 Fleet Weather Facility, Suitland , MD

Connie Patton

US Navy 1965-1967
Recruit Training Instructor Bainbridge, Maryland (Drill Sgt) to anyone else not in Navy; Yeoman 4th Class Third Naval District, New York, NY; Staff of Admiral John McCain; U.S Naval Representative to the U.N. father of Senator John McCain who was a POW when I served under Admiral McCain.

Jim Spires

July 29 1965 - July 31 1986
AF Msgt Retired
Medical Corpman, Cardiopulmonary Lab Technician.  I retired from Wright-Patterson AFB 31 July 1986.

Daryl Shank

I was drafted into the Army in March of 1969. This was soon after I graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in microbiology in the spring of 1968 and married my wife Sue the same month. The notice for my induction physical was in the mail box when we got back from our honeymoon.

Paul Logan

I served in the US Navy from 1965 to 1968. Spent one year at the Printing and Publications Center at the Naval Air Test Facility in Patuxent River Maryland and two years in charge of the print shop on board the aircraft carrier USS Randolph (CVS 15). Married my wife (Nancy Weaver) also a 64 graduate of CW and had our first son while stationed at Norfolk, Virginia.