Jon Votraw:  

Life Hi everyone, where to start huh? Well shortly after graduation Ernest Spicer, Jerry West and myself had a plan to get our own place and attend at UNO. I departed for Basic Training in the Army on June 30, 1988. I elected the Army over the Navy, at the time it seemed to be the best option. Looking back I would have chosen differently however life don't work that way lol. So I passed over opportunities for Germanic Crypto Linguist, Nuclear Power Plant Operator (Navy), Communications Specialist, and a few good high tech Air Force jobs for Unit Supply Specialist because that school was only an 8 week course. Things you wish you had a second chance to do over... So anyways I head out to Ft. Jackson and did my Basic and stayed on post for AIT as well. A few weeks into that, I called back to Nebraska to talk to Erine only to find out he and Jerry took off for Active Duty on the Army. So I ended up having to follow mom and dad to upstate NY in Plattsburgh. For awhile I was unsure what to do once I finished training, so I start as undeclared at Clinton Community College. I first tried out Criminal Justice but I didn't find much challenge in that, so after a semester of that I changed to Applied Math/Science, with the hopes I could eventually turn that into a Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering. While attending school I worked part time at K-Mart. Life was really busy at that point and I was fortunate enough to have SSG Richard B. Dinsmore as my supervisor in the reserves. His dedication to training all of us in the supply section how to be able to do his job if need be paid off for me down the road. I cannot thank him enough. August 2, 1990 was our first day of Annual training and we went to Ft. Drum for that. As we were all arriving, quite a few of us we wondering if we were going to be there longer then 2 weeks as that was the day Iraq went into Kuwait. Within 3 days we were watching a good deal of the infantry brigades there doing extensive MOPP training (Mission Oriented Protective Posture) aka chemical gear. That was one point in time I began to recall something said at Basic Training. Back in training, just before graduation, one of the Drill Sgt's asked all of us what career fields we were going into. Many truck drivers, admins, infantry, artillery, commo, and of course like me supply. He also asked if any of us thought what we were going to do wouldn't put us in harms way. He pointed out that almost every career field no matter combat service support or combat itself, was going to go if something occurred and that something would occur before our careers were over. Sure enough that all came true. We weren't activated that day, but by the end of 1990 we were ...Expand for more