Thirty Years and Counting

At approximately 0900 hrs on the 21st of July 1976, in front of my ROTC company orderly room, my father swore me in as a Lieutenant. I remember that day as my parents drove from Lexington, Virginia so my father could do the honors. It was a typical hot humid summer day at Fort Bragg, and by the time 0900 arrived it was already sweltering. I was wearing a brand new set of Khaki’s and they were already wilted. My parents arrived, my father in a gray suit, white shirt, bow tie, and his ever-present Stetson Open Road. My mother was equally well attired, I cannot remember if she was wearing a hat and white gloves but it would not surprise me--as she was very old and proper southerner. My father, by 1976 had been retired from the Army for 31 years, he was retired medically at the end of World War II. The swearing in took place in an old World War Ii Company Orderly Room, present for the occasion were the Company SGM--a crusty SF SGM who was missing the better part of one hand, and the Company Clerk and efficient but humorless AG type. When my father swore me in, it was done right, he produced a bible, and at the end of the oath of office, intoned with the most dignified of lawyer voice, "So help you god." I remember little else of that day, as it was rush to get out of Fort Bragg as quickly as possible. On 21 July 2006 I marked my 30th years in the Army--my only comment it seems like only yesterday.