Reflections
Operation NEW ARRIVALS, Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, 1975

        I remember the tornado incident at Fort Chaffee. I was in that guard shack a couple of days before. 

       When we went to Chaffee we didn’t want to go.  When it was time to go back we didn’t want to leave.  When we got back we couldn’t wait for the next rotation to go back. Never happened, all the evacuees were processed out.  I think it was the extra $75 per month to be there. That was a lot of money back then in the Army.
 
         I was sitting in a guard shack on the perimeter watching empty barracks.  This was the first night of guard duty for everyone (12 hour shifts no days off for the first 30 days).  My Platoon Sergeant, SSG Busby (spell?) stopped buy checking the guard posts.  I asked him what I was supposed to be guarding because the barracks were empty. He said, "dammed if I know just stay put."  I was near the west end of the rows of barracks. Maybe ten blocks from the east side. In a little while I looked at the sky to the west and then sky was full of real large planes landing at Fort Smith. Within a few hours the barracks were filling up in front of me.  Transportation had delivered several thousand refugees within that time period.

        In our barracks there was only one record player with only one album,"Queen."   Before we rotated out, we wore the record out and knew all the words to all the songs.

        Prior to Chaffee there was an attitude among the three companies of we are better than you.  Being mixed together was good.  We got to meet and make friends with the guys from the other units.

SGT David W. Sullivan (MAJ Retired) 401st MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, February 1974-September 1976.