David Spearel:  

To catch some of you up since I left Tacoma and my Clover Park Warriors and moved to Travis AFB, California. I finished my Junior and Senior year as a Viking. After High School, I attended Solano Community College until January 78 when I enlisted in the Army. I went to Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri for Basic Training and in March migrated south to good old Ft. Bennning for Infantry and Basic Airborne School where I managed to share top Distinguished Honor Graduate honors with a ROTC Cadet. I was more nervous getting my wings pinned on by a General than my first jump. After Benning I moved on to Ft. Bragg, N.C. where I spent my next 3 1/2 years. During my time there I got to see the Mojave Dessert for Dessert Warfare training. There we learned how difficult it can be to fight in the dessert. At least most of the units heading for the Middle East got training there before shipping out. Following that I went to Ft. Sherman, Panama for the Jungle Warfare School where I became a Jungle Expert. We got to jump in on a drop zone with grass taller than us. We played war games there and got to walk cross the Panama Canal several times. It's truly an engineering marvel to watch how ships go through and to see the water is transferred from lock to lock by gravity. This was Pre-Noriega but the corruption was present long before he took over. To top off my time in, I got to go to Ft. Wainwright, Alaska for training at the Northwest Training Center. We even had our own G I Olympics where no one got any medals but we all sure got a lot of laughs. I learned how to get around on snow shoes and how to survive the cold. I even have a few stiches to remember the place by. I had too much fun on Thanksgiving night and passed out from severe alcohol poisoning kissing the floor of the Latrine. I was lucky, It almost killed me. When they say there is no daylight, they weren't kidding but it made for an excellent light show from the Northern Lights. From what I could see, Alaska is a rocking state. I got out of the Army the first part of 82 only to go back in in October of same year after getting married. We were stationed in Germany where I started out driving an M113 personnel carrier. There I transferred to a Brigade Headquarters where I got my Sergeant stripes before coming home to my next assignment at Leavenworth Kansas. Toto was there to greet us.LOL.It was a fun but short assignment.I lived across the way from the Federal Penn which is an ominous sight to look at on your way to work. You think of some of the most notorious criminals who were there at one time or another. I would say that living there was neat. I felt like I lived in Mayberry in a way but still with it's own unique identity. There is something to...Expand for more