Danielle Brantley:
CLASS OF 1961
Baker High SchoolClass of 1961
Baker city, OR
Danielle's Story
Life
Sorry, this is my military experience. My life experience is under the military heading.
I left Baker shortly after graduating because of a personal problem at home. My vehicle of escape was the Army. I enlisted for three years and spent two of those years at Ft. Hamilton, Brooklyn, NY and one year at the First Army Headquarters at Ft. Jay, Governors Island, NY. Governors Island is off the tip of Manhattan, so you can see I didn't get very far.
For the first two years I served as the Company Clerk of the First Army Flight Detachment (think Radar in MASH without so much fun). However, because I was the only woman in the Flight Detachment, I did get away with more than a man in the same position would have.
The was most memorable thing about working in the Flight Detachment was being able to fly in the planes and helicopters. The saddest thing was learning that one of the pilots sent to Viet Nam as a trainer was killed in a training acc...Expand for more
ident. The war had not offically started yet, but I have always thought that his plane did not crash due to pilot error. I'm sure it was shot down.
My next assignment was as a clerk in the department that drafted doctors. I actually processed the paperwork for the brother of a friend. That was a little weird. The two things I remember most about being at Ft. Jay was riding the ferry to and from (that ferry was cold in the winter!) and seeing groups of prisoners (there was a military prison at Ft. Jay) everyday cleaning the grounds. We were supposed to ignore them and we did, but it was impossible not to see them hobbling around in leg chains. If nothing else, I learned how dehumanitising prison could be and that I never ever wanted to do anything that might be imprisoned.
I can't say that being in the military was something I enjoyed, but I did learn a lot about myself and gained a sense of self worth I might never have learned elsewhere.
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