Article 15

[Stick]

Enlisted in Oct. '65. After basic I got a short leave home at Christmas and go out with my prom date from six months earlier which is when my first daughter was conceived and after that leave I went on to Ft. Polk for AIT. During AIT I called home and was told that Joanne was pregnant and we would have to get married. Got married on April Fools Day, '66 after being transferred permanent party to Ft. Ritchie, Md. out of AIT. Had just made E-3 so Joanne and I had to live off post in a $75 a month, 2-room apartment. Only E-4 and above were authorized post housing. Terri was born at the Waynesboro, Pa. hospital in August. Christmas '66 Joanne, Terri and I went home to Cleveland on a leave and while there I bought my older brothers '59 Plymouth for $100 to drive back to post. While driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike the car broke down. A Pa. Trooper took us to his station where I was able to call Ft. Ritchie and tell them that I wouldn't be back before my leave was over at midnight. The CQ never wrote it down. When I got back to post the following afternoon I was immediately taken to the CO and given an Article 15 and busted back to E-2. The CQ never admitted that he received the phone call so I was AWOL for several hours when I reported for duty.
In late '66 I was transferred to STRATCOM CONUS in Suitland, Md. as a 'Classified Courier,' whatever the hell that is. What I did was pick up papers at the message center and run them over to the Pentagon or downtown DC. In March of '67 I went into post on a Monday morning and was told to go back home, get packed and be back at post by 08 hundred hours. I had to be at Dulles by 10 hundred hours for transport to Seoul Korea TDY. Joanne had taken Terri to the sitter and gone to work by the time I got back to the apartment so I had to leave a note on the door that I wouldn't be home for dinner FOR A WHILE. I had no idea how long I was going to be in Korea. "IT WAS CLASSIFIED IMFORMATION" doncha know? Hell I didn't "need to know" did I? Spent 21 days in Korea and was sent back to Suitland. Soon after I got back, Joanne and I were going out on a date and driving down the road in that old '59 Plymouth. We stop at a light and the dude who stopped next to us looks over at Joanne and screams, "man, would I like to f_ck that." The light turns green and I give that 318 a kick in the butt and take off. Had to stop for the next light and the dude stops beside us again screaming that he wants to f_ck that" and the light turns green. We pull in the theater parking lot to the left and I pull into the first available parking spot and another car screeches to a stop behind us and before Jo or I get out there?s a guy at my door screaming ?hey, white boy, didn?t you here me? I want to f_ck that white bitch you?re sitting beside.? I bang the door open into the guys? crotch and get out kicking and swinging. Believe it or not the guy end up crying against his car and Joanne and I go to the movie.
Next day I get to post and was called to the CO's office where they promptly bust me to E-2 with another Article 15 for fighting another enlisted man. I had taken the first punch and he was a CTSN (whatever that is) in the Navy who just happened to see my gate pass bumper sticker and remembered the number. There goes my Good Conduct medal.
A couple of months later I got my orders for Viet Nam and arrive in QuiNhon a Private E-2 with just barely enough time and grade to make PFC. I promptly get my stripe and get assigned to 1st APU, APO San Fran 96238 as the units supply clerk. All I have to do is take care of supplies for the unit and write requisitions for needed supplies. We have a unit of about 50 men and I have to drive those men from our billets to the unit every morning. I get the drivers seat of a M-109 commo van deuce and a half while the rest of the guys get to ride in the back. Soon after I get to the APU I write a req. for a 37 passenger, Isuzu bus since I?ve seen one sitting at the motor pool and we get it. Captain Francisco, the CO had been riding beside me in the deuce and a half and needed a jeep so I wrote a req. for one and found out that we weren?t authorized one. A week later I found out that a good jeep had been ?combat lost? in the AnKhe pass and I got it from my buddy, supply clerk with the 15th admin. in AnKhe. Captain Francisco real happy with his jeep.
Soon after we got the jeep we were notified that the IG was coming to the APU for an inspection. When he arrived he saw the jeep, the bus, and several other things that weren?t authorized and asked how we got them. Captain says, ?I don?t know. PFC Romph wrote the req?s and they end up here.?
We get gigged and I end up busted again, this time without the loss of a stripe but immediately transferred to the Air Field Security Detachment.
It was just before Thanksgiving when I went to the guard towers and bunkers. I was supposed to be in the detachment for only 30 days but the APU got another supply clerk and I was no longer authorized there so I stayed in the towers until just before my DEROS nine months later when I end up my tour by catching a little metal in my left knee and riding a stretcher back across the pond. I end up at Valley Forge Army Hospital as a PFC, E3 where I?m promptly promoted to SP4 which is what I ETS as. Since I didn?t get back to the APU after catching that metal, I didn?t get any purple metal. Don?t mean nuthin.
Article 15?s ?don?t mean NUTHIN!?
Anyone else here experienced this form of "military justice" BS?