Cora Ann Metz:  

/////////////////////////SEE NOTES OF MY LATEST ADVENTURE BELOW//////////////////////// After 22 years of service, I retired from the United States Army. I started out with an assignment to the US Army Intelligence and Security Command as a Morse Code Interceptor at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. I learned the Morse Code and was due to be assigned to a listening post in Korea for 12 months. I opted out of that assignment for personal, compassionate reasons (separation from my kids). So, I requested and received a transfer to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, where I graduated as an Army Stenographer. From there, I had a brief assignment to HHC, DISCOM, Fort Polk, Louisiana. While at Fort Polk, I filed for a divorce from my abusive husband. My ex took everything…all the furniture, the children's clothes, books, bicycles, even their toys. I received full custody of my two girls. He left me with my sewing machine because I knew how to sew. I always made my clothes and my children's clothes to save money. I never looked back. God continued to bless me from that day forward. Also, while at Fort Polk, I visited my late sister Rose, who still lived in New Orleans at that time. A few months later, I received orders to Headquarters, US Army Europe, Heidelberg, Germany as an Army Stenographer for a 4-star General. This was the best tour of my Army career. I had so many perks and opportunities. I traveled to other countries (Italy and The Netherlands) with the general on his private plane. The general had a very diverse and professional staff. We all got along very well. Anxious to do something more challenging, I applied for the counterintelligence course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. I was the only female in a class of 25 guys. After graduation, I was assigned to the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California, for the Russian and German language courses. Once I graduated from DLI, I returned to Frankfurt, Germany, to the G2 of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade as a Counterintelligence Agent. My job included: interviewing military and civilian personnel for security clearances, writing security reports of investigations, investigating security violations, and conducting security training. Three years later, I transferred to another intelligence assignment at the 527th Military Intelligence Battalion in Kaiserslautern, Germany. I moved up in the ranks and got promoted to Sergeant First Class as a Senior Counterintelligence Agent. I attended more advanced military intelligence courses at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. My next assignment was to the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as the G2 SCIF Noncommissioned Officer (NCO). A SCIF is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. It is an enclosed area within a building that is used to process sensitive compartmented information (SCI) types of Secret and Top Secret/SCI classified information. Two years before retiring, I applied for the Army Equal Opportunity Course at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) on Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach, Florida. After graduating as an Army Equal Opportunity (EO) Advisor, I returned to Heidelberg, Germany, and was assigned to V Corps Headquarters as the enlisted EO Advisor. I handled and processed initial EO cases, appeal cases, and conducted EO training for soldiers at the V Corps Headquarters. I traveled to units all over Germany to conduct staff assistance visits, talk with commanders and soldiers, and advise commanders on how to improve their EO climate in their units. I also trained soldiers and advised commanders on the Army EO Program requirements. After the Dayton Peace Accord framed the peace agreement between the Bosnians and the Serbians after the war, I deployed to Taszar and ...Expand for more