Todd Motschenbacher:  

and then finally as F Company, 5th Avn Regt. Regardless of the name, the mission was the same, which was to perform AVIM (intermediate) level maintenance of the AH-1 helicopter. During this time, I also did on-the-job training in MOS 35K10, avionics technician. By the end of my tour, I was a phase team leader and acted as my platoon's motor pool NCO. There was a three month mandatory drop in 1988, so I got out of the Army early. Intending to move to Tucson and start a new life there, I actually made it as far as Albuquerque. After struggling there for a half year, I re-entered the Army on November 27, 1988. I was assigned to Alpha Troop, 2/17 Cavalry at Fort Campbell, KY. This was a very different assignment than my previous one, as I was now a helicopter crew chief, with my own helicopter to take care of. Initially, it did not go well. From the first day, my platoon sgt, SSG Hughes, was extremely difficult to get along with. Within 6 months, I was ready to quit, and had approached the unit's chaplain about getting a transfer or leaving the Army entirely. Fortunately, SSG Hughes got orders to PCS (to Hawaii, no less), and we got SSG Morgan as our new platoon sgt. This man knew how to get people to actually want to work for him, and my spirits changed. In early 1990, Alpha Troop was temporarily assigned to 1st Battalion, 101st Avn Brigade, and went on a three month TDY to Fort Hunter-Liggett, CA. This was an interesting assignment, to say the least. We were out in the middle of nowhere, but the military provided all-expenses-paid trips to somewhere nearly every weekend. During this period, I took control of a different Cobra than I had previously been assigned to, and before the end of that TDY I had been awarded the Army Achievement Award spontaneously by Colonel Cody, CO of 1st battalion, for my efforts with that aircraft. On Sept 9, 1990, my unit shipped out to King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia as an early part of Operation Desert Shield. During the war itself, we moved into Iraq and ended up NW of Basra. We redeployed back to Fort Campbell, KY, in May, 1991. As an unmarried soldier, I was "volunteered" by my unit to remain behind an extra week to make sure our 5 Cobras made it to the ships for their return home. I had been scheduled to return to Fort Eustis, VA, in late 1990 to attend the school for the CH-47D Chinook helicopter, but the war interfered in that. As a result, by the time I returned to the States from the war, I was stuck in a Catch-22 situation. I couldn't reenlist. since they no longer wanted to retain people in my MOS at my rank. I couldn't get promoted, since they were no longer promoting people in my MOS. I couldn't get to school to change my MOS, since you had to have at least two years remaining before they would accept you. I remained on active duty until November, 1992, when the forced drawdown caught me in its net, and I was given an involuntary separation. This boiled down to the Army giving me $9000 to make up for my lost career. I did not consider it a fair trade. I did at this point move to Tucson, where I decided to try and get a full-time position with the Arizona National Guard. Unfortunately, the drawdown was starting to hit there too, and the full-time slot never opened. I quit the part-time component in 1994, and my military career came to an end.