biography

In May 1968, I enlisted in the Army under the "guaranteed enlistment program." I signed up for the Military Police. Basic Training was at Fort Dix, New Jersey. I then went to Fort Gordon, Georgia. I was originally assigned to a training company quartered in the new section. I believe they called it the Bhreem Barracks. When the dream sheets came out I volunteered to go to Vietnam.

When I arrived in November, I was assigned to B Company, 720th MP Battalion. The Company Commander asked what I had done in civilian life. After listing the jobs, he decided to assign me to the motor pool. I made a point of screwing up regularly so I could get assigned to an ambush squad. It worked!

I was assigned to Ambush & Recon Squad 75. Things went along kind of quietly until late March, 1969. While on an ambush early on the morning of 29 March 1969 on Hill 15, I was leading the squad off of the hill to a pick up on the river. A booby trap stopped the return to the company for the entire squad. SSG Richard Slaven was killed. The rest of the squad survived, although badly wounded. I was sent home a few weeks later.

After medical leave I was assigned to the 532nd MP Company at Fort Dix, New Jersey. There I served on an AWOL Apprehension Team, as a Provost Marshals Investigator, and as Traffic Accident Investigator. I received my honorable discharge in May 1971.

In 1972, after moving to Florida, I got my GED diploma, and attended college. I also joined the Gulfport Police Department. Soon after that I got married. I worked as a Patrolman, K-9 Officer, Detective, Sergeant and Administrative Assistant to the Chief of Police. I left there in 1978 and did about a year stint with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office as a Deputy, and K-9 Officer.

Then to the St. Petersburg Beach Police Department for two years as a Patrolman. I later returned to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in 1987 after two kids and a divorce. I served as a Deputy, Intelligence Detective, and Sergeant.

I remarried in 1995 and took an early retirement in 1999. The wife and I now live in a log home on a mountain top in Montana. My son Pete, named after his uncle Pete, MIA, Laos, 1973, became a Deputy Sheriff in Pinellas County, Florida, in 2000. My daughter, Jennifer is finishing high school in Florida.

My regrets are not doing a full thirty years and retiring much sooner and with a whole lot more money and benefits than I did. Also, loosing (stolen by someone when I was wounded) my Squad 75 Beret.

My two best memories involved: 1- making the “FNG’s” hold the far corner of the huge Garrison Flag on a very windy day and having the rest of the flag detail “forget” to hold on! 2- sneaking in to the Post CQ Office at Fort Dix at night and substituting the “Revelry” tape with “Inagoddadavita”!