Lee Taylor:
CLASS OF 1964
Springville High SchoolClass of 1964
Springville, UT
Utah Technical CollegeClass of 1976
Provo, UT
Brigham Young UniversityClass of 1968
Provo, UT
Springville Junior High SchoolClass of 1961
Springville, UT
Jefferson Elementary SchoolClass of 1958
Springville, UT
Lee's Story
Military
After my freshman year at Brigham Young University, I decided it would be more fun to make my way in the world, so I went to work instead of planning on my educational future. That worked until Novermber of 1965, when I received my draft notice. Not wanting to be a rifelman by choice, I enlisted and chose to be a heavy equipment operator. I entered the Army on 4 Feb 66, and after basic training (with 4 high school friends) at Fort Ord, I was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for AIT with the 593rd Engineer Company. While there I learned to operate most of the heavy equipment in the Engineer Arsenal. I moved into the operation center and became the operations clerk after completion of training. When orders started coming in to dissapate the freshly trained operators, I declined an invitation to go to Europe (I was on hold for acceptance to OCS), but I jumped on a change to go to Okinawa. I was assigned as an "Engineer Equipment Operator". Sounds good huh, but it turns out that generators are engineer equipment. I was assigned to a HAWK Missile battery, as a generator operator. It was not what I had in mind as a job, but in the long run I could not have asked for better duty. ...Expand for more
I could have spent the entire 18 month tour there, but I felt like I was missing out on doing what I enlisted for, so I submitted a 1049 for duty in Vietnam. I just knew that going over there as a heavy equipment operator was what I really wanted to do. I almost made it too. I was assigned to a Quartermaster Company, as an equipment repairman. Due to my operator background, I was put in position to do some land clearing and finish leveling for vehicle storage. I ended up being promoted to E-5 as a crane and shovel operator, and put into a position as squad leader. After 4 months in country (including TET of 1968, when all hell broke loose) I was burned by gasoline in a yard accident that sent me home to finish my enlistment. I was sent through the 93rd Medivac (Long Binh) to the 106th General Hospital (Yokahama, Japan) and on to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado. I picked Fort Belvoir, Virginia (THE ARMY ENGINEER CENTER) as my final duty station, spending my final 7 months there, as a crane and shovel operator, with the 77th Engineer Company (Port Construction), on the banks of the Patomac River. I was released from active duty on 3 Feb 69, and made my way back to Utah.
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