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Army life

Pete was drafted by the Army while he was in college at Cal-Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA. He was sent to Fort Ord for basic training. 

Then after being home at Christmas time, he was sent to Fort Momonth, NJ for ADPS (Auxillary Data Process System) training.

After graduating the top of his class, he was sent to Viet Nam for a year of duty. First stop was a base called Ahn Khe. After that a convoy that included a landing ship trip to Da Nang he ended up at Camp Evans.  Time was passed with a lot of guard duty, KP, and running the office of the electronics repair shop.  After finding out that he could repair the huge Army washing machines, he received free laundry services (and fresh milk that was very hard to obtain) for the rest of his time there.

After having the transmitter sent by his parents, Pete built a low-power FM station to be able to listen to tapes on the receiver he bought at the PX. The rest of the base could hear the transmitter too (about 10,000 troups). Tapes for broadcast were donated by several of the listeners and a couple of DJs were added.

One special day, a phone was installed in the office that Pete worked in. Just for the heck of it he tried to call his high school friend, Gary Matz,  who was just  finishing up his year in “nam”. After going through 6 or 7 operators (everything was manual- no dialing) , Gary answered the phone at his company - real luck and totally against Army regulations.

After about 10 months, Pete took an R&R to Honolulu, Hawaii where his parents met him for the week’s vacation.

Pete finished his active duty as a Specialist 5 (E-5), after a total of 22 months of service.

Basic Training

With dad

Self Portrait

Saying goodby

About to leave

Checking those orders

Headed into the fort

Leaning against a truck

Ready for battle

Happy Soldier!

Sunset in Southeast Asia

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