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Silver Creek MN | I was a young lad, 18 years of age, and decided to cash in on an all expense paid winter vacation. Three months in the beautiful area of Rolla, Missouri. Yup, you guessed it, basic training and AIT in the Army at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I figured this absolutely had to be better than your average central Minnesota winter. I was oh-so-wrong! The winter of 1976-1977 was the coldest and snowiest in a long, long time in southern Missouri. Of course I was disappointed to not get the reprieve from the cold and snow that I had counted on, but it was somewhat of a consolation to watch the guys from southern climates freezing their butts off. Speaking of consolation, it was cold enough that they called off the bivouac (camping trip in the woods) for us. One night at the mess hall, I experienced one of the cruelest things I had ever seen. There was an obese kid from Hawaii, an actual native islander, sitting next to me in the mess hall on a particularly cold January night. The cold weather was really taking a toll on him. He sat down with his steel tray of hot food, probably the only nice thing he would experience all day. Just as he was about to take his first bite of food, a Drill Sergeant walked up and told him he was too fat. He ordered the kid to get up and go back to the barracks, with no supper. I snuck some dessert into a pocket of my field jacket and took it back to him at the barracks. I may have contributed to his getting booted out of the military, but I like to think I helped save him from getting stationed in Alaska. | |
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Memories of Past Winters - Vol 1
