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After retiring in Oct. 1988 I took advantage of the GI Bill and went back to school full time to finish up my degree. Graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a BS in Business Management. Worked for Exide Electronics for 10 years as a Quality Assurance Inspector until they shipped the factory to Mexico. Thanks NAFTA! Worked for a short time for Chloride Electronics as a Lab Technician.(QA & Design/Testing) After that I went to Corning as a Shift Tech. Maintained, Repaired and Modified equipment that produced Optical Fiber. Decided to go to work for myself so I got my Real Estate Brokers license. That was fun and profitable until the bottom fell out. Now I am enjoying my retirement and doing all those little things I didn't have time for before. Fishing, scouring the beach with a metal detector, puttering around the house, and sitting in front of this %#&* computer.
Other Comments:
Married to the same wonderful woman for 44 years, four kids, two boys and two girls. Livining in Wilmington, NC. close to the beach where I can persue my favorite pastimes, fishing and bikini watching. My home town of Charleston, SC is a few hours down the road and Myrtle Beach is only an hour away.
Description Exercise REFORGER IV was conducted in Germany during 9 January-22 March 1973. This exercise, the fourth in a series begun in 1969, is conducted annually in accordance with U.S. obligations to NATO, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany and is designed to test procedures for receiving, equipping, and assembling deploying U.S. Army troops assigned to reinforce NATO. About 10,000 troops from the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), Fort Riley, Kansas, the 3d Brigade, 2d Armored Division, Fort Hood, Texas, and eight nondivisional support units deployed from bases in the continental United States to Rhine-Main, Ramstein, and Echterdingen airfields in Germany, requiring 109 C-141, 4 DC-8, and 6 C-5 airlift missions by the Military Airlift Command. On arrival, troops drew prepositioned heavy equipment stored at several locations in Germany and moved immediately to assembly areas where combat-loading, final maintenance, and inspections were performed.
Major units:(Germany based unit): 557 QMC Idar-Oberstein. (U.S. based unit): 1st Infantry Division (Mech), 2nd Armored Division.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1973
To Month/Year
December / 1973
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember George Holmes Lee Rider Larry Widener Doc Brooks Al Gober Eli Ramos Ed Ehrgood Ed Benson
Memories 603rd TCS air deployed to Istanbul, Turkey. Convoy to Tekerdag using Turkish AF duece and a halfs. The drivers would not leave their trucks with us so each truck had a Turk attached to it. The bad part of this was our antenna stayed mounted on the truck and the driver ended up spending a month on a remote mountain top. Luck was with him as the Turkish Army was assigned security for the site so he found a place to eat and sleep. We were instructed not to offer the Turks any C Rats that contained pork. They seemed interested only in those and our library of Playboys and Penthouse mags. We were billeted in a hotel aptly named The Kum Bag Hotel.However there was a mixup and we were supposed to be at the Kumsal Motel on the Sea Of Mamara which was better but not by much. Great views though, the food wasn't too bad and they brought in some Belly Dancers for entertainment one night. I'm afraid the boys made asses of themselves so that never happened again. Had an hour bus ride every day up to the mountain top but the view was worth it and the radar picture was great. Took a trip into Istanbul,did the typical tourist stuff, went to the Grand Bazzar, did the Europe to Asia thing and consumed more than my share of VO at the Istanbul Hilton. Don't remember much about the return trip.Received a visit by a gaggle of NATO Generals and politicians.There were so many choppers decending on the site that I thought I was back in Nam.