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My military career

Posted 10.27.06 at 10:20 AM

By Shad Allen

I served in the U.S. Army from October 1994 to October 1998. I went to boot camp in Fort Lawton, Okla., where I trained for 13 weeks and finished on Feb. 16, 1995. Then I went to my duty station at Fort Campbell, Ky.

I was a cannon crew member and did maintenance on my tank, and we shot fire missions down field on targets over 10 to 15 miles that we could not see. Surveys told us how to adjust our next projectile to hit our targets.

I also did security guard around our perimeter while were in the field and dug fox holes for the tallest persons in our section with just a shovel. We dug all night, rotating shifts to sleep for about two hours until we finished digging the holes and putting sandbags around them for cover to hide from the enemy. We stayed in the field for 30 days before we got to go back to our barracks.

Then, in May 1997, I was transferred to Camp Casey, Korea, where I stayed until I got out in October 1998. I had fun there. I made friends with the Koreans. The Korean soldiers had to join the army for two years after they turned 18. They got paid only $10 a month, while U.S. soldiers were paid more.

I finished my time in the Army and joined the National Guard. I had to do four more years in the service to finish my eight-year contract. While I was stationed in Durant, Okla., I was a supply officer. My job was to hand out supplies to the soldiers, such as weapons, food and clothing. I kept their weapons clean when they trained in Arkansas for the weekend, and I also drove the captain in a Hummer when we left for Arkansas at night. We would leave on a Friday and return on Sunday afternoon. When we got back, everybody had to put up their weapons and Hummer before we left to go home until next month.

Then in June 2000 I decided to go to the Navy full-time. I went to the Great Lakes where I waited to go to culinary school in San Antonio, Texas, for eight weeks. There, I learned to break down recipes to measure the correct ingredients and how to adjust a recipe for 150 people. I learned how to make bread and other pastries. I graduated in September 2000 and went to my ship in Yokosuka, Japan.

I stayed there until June 2004 and cooked for 330 crew members and some free riders. We trained out in the ocean for about a week, and then we would dock in some other country for three to four days to relax. We went to Australia, Hong Kong, Guam, Thailand, Korea, Russia and Saipan.

We also went to Afghanistan after 9/11, and it took us a week to get there. When we arrived, the bombing had already started, but we joined in, destroying everything that the president had ordered us to destroy. We spent 75 days over there. I worked seven days a week, about 19 hours a day. We were all stressed out and ready for it be over so we could go home.

After we had destroyed everything we were told to, we were ordered to leave and go back to Japan, but we stopped and enjoyed Thailand for about four days. We got back on Dec. 24, the day before Christmas. I had to get up at 4 a.m. to cook breakfast for the crew who had to stay with the ship and didn’t have a home to go to. Then we cooked dinner and had it ready to serve at noon. About six other cooks came in to help after breakfast ended at 7, but everybody loved the dinner that we prepared for them. It was like being back in the USA at Christmas.

I got to come to Texas one time to see my family after two years of being in Japan. Then in June 2004 my time came to an end. I had to decide to reenlist or get out, and it was a hard choice to make. However, I chose to get out and go home to Clarksville, and now I’m attending Paris Junior College.

Shad Allen of Clarksville, Texas, is a freshman at PJC majoring in kinesiology.

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