EQGuy
US Veteran
The Bridge discussion reminds me of a bridge story you might be interested in hearing.
I spent the summer of 1969 TDY to Fort Greely from Fort Wainwright in Alaska. Ft Greeley was the winter test center for the Army. I can verify that it snows in July in Alaska, at least it did at Ft Greely that year. I was there when they landed on the moon for the first time. They went to great lengths to broadcast that live throughout the world but not to Alaska. We were on a two week tape delay so we didn’t get to see it live but that is another story. I was in the 808th Engineers, Construction. Our task that summer was to remove trees and brush and to plow a nice field so that the Airborne troops from Georgia would have a nice soft field to land on after they jumped out of their planes during a big war maneuver in 1969. After we finished our project we returned to Ft Wainwright. A good friend of mine was carrying a D8 dozer blade and a sheepfoots roller back to Ft Wainwright on a lowboy trailer with the dozer blade down on the trailer and the arms up in the air. As he was coming to the Tanana River crossing he poured on the gas, diesel really, to make the hill the other side of the bridge. As he hit the bridge the trailer bounced and the dozer blade arms took out a couple of the cross beams of the bridge and the sheepsfoots roller came off the trailer and knocked a big hole in the bridge. Now this was the Friday before Labor Day weekend and the US Army had just about destroyed the bridge on the only road thru to Fairbanks. We got to construct a Bailey bridge over the river next to the state one so that is how I spent Labor Day weekend in 1969.
After the dust had settled the State of Alaska presented the US Army with a bill for one million dollars for the repair of the bridge. The Army told Alaska that the person responsible was our platoon leader, Lt B. Now Lt B was 100 miles away when the lowboy was loaded but he was the man in charge. Lt B was a pretty nice guy even though he once commented to me that he could not understand why I was slacking off lately. I was a Spec 5 E5 at the time. He even told me that they were thinking of making me a Buck Sargent E5 at one time. Now if I had any desire to make a career of the Army I would have jumped at that offer. But I just told him the truth and said, “Sir, I would rather be a Spec 4 then a Buck Sargent”. His words were “Soldier, that can be arranged”. I took the hint and straightened out my act after that. I mustered out of the Army in March 1970 and Lt B was still fighting the lawsuit and the Army refused to offer him any assistance. I have often wondered what ever happened to him. I sure am glad that I did not get to go to OCS as I had planned on doing.
I spent the summer of 1969 TDY to Fort Greely from Fort Wainwright in Alaska. Ft Greeley was the winter test center for the Army. I can verify that it snows in July in Alaska, at least it did at Ft Greely that year. I was there when they landed on the moon for the first time. They went to great lengths to broadcast that live throughout the world but not to Alaska. We were on a two week tape delay so we didn’t get to see it live but that is another story. I was in the 808th Engineers, Construction. Our task that summer was to remove trees and brush and to plow a nice field so that the Airborne troops from Georgia would have a nice soft field to land on after they jumped out of their planes during a big war maneuver in 1969. After we finished our project we returned to Ft Wainwright. A good friend of mine was carrying a D8 dozer blade and a sheepfoots roller back to Ft Wainwright on a lowboy trailer with the dozer blade down on the trailer and the arms up in the air. As he was coming to the Tanana River crossing he poured on the gas, diesel really, to make the hill the other side of the bridge. As he hit the bridge the trailer bounced and the dozer blade arms took out a couple of the cross beams of the bridge and the sheepsfoots roller came off the trailer and knocked a big hole in the bridge. Now this was the Friday before Labor Day weekend and the US Army had just about destroyed the bridge on the only road thru to Fairbanks. We got to construct a Bailey bridge over the river next to the state one so that is how I spent Labor Day weekend in 1969.
After the dust had settled the State of Alaska presented the US Army with a bill for one million dollars for the repair of the bridge. The Army told Alaska that the person responsible was our platoon leader, Lt B. Now Lt B was 100 miles away when the lowboy was loaded but he was the man in charge. Lt B was a pretty nice guy even though he once commented to me that he could not understand why I was slacking off lately. I was a Spec 5 E5 at the time. He even told me that they were thinking of making me a Buck Sargent E5 at one time. Now if I had any desire to make a career of the Army I would have jumped at that offer. But I just told him the truth and said, “Sir, I would rather be a Spec 4 then a Buck Sargent”. His words were “Soldier, that can be arranged”. I took the hint and straightened out my act after that. I mustered out of the Army in March 1970 and Lt B was still fighting the lawsuit and the Army refused to offer him any assistance. I have often wondered what ever happened to him. I sure am glad that I did not get to go to OCS as I had planned on doing.
