Aside from a three-and-one-half year stint as Tactical Officer of C Co. and Field Music at Valley Forge Military Academy & College in Wayne, PA, I worked in the publishing industry after retiring from the Army in September 1991. I started out as Executive Editor of Presidio Press, a San Francisco Bay Area book publisher specializing in military history and military affairs. After leaving VFMA&C in the summer of 1998, I became my own boss--using contacts I'd made with Presidio to line up freelance copy-editing projects for several commercial and scholarly book publishers. I finally had to give up work entirely in 2004, however, when my body began letting me down. Fortunately, all of my disabling conditions are either directly or indirectly service-connected--making me eligible for a wide range of VA benefits--without which I'd be up the proverbial estuary without a manipulator!
Other Comments:
For 20 years I lived on Hawaii's Big Island with my wife, Carol, in a subdivision about a mile outside of Mountain View--almost exactly halfway between Hilo and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. However, I moved to Idaho in late July 2019 to settle in the Sagle area not far from the Pend Oreille River. Between the Blue State politics, earthquakes and eruptions, I decided it was time to bid Hawaii Aloha and head for cooler climes! It was a wise decision. I absolutely love it here in the northern Idaho panhandle!
Best Moment Attending the III Corps Mechondo Course with the entire platoon.
Worst Moment We were participating in force-on-force maneuvers with the 1st Cav Div. in the spring of '73 when a UH-1H carrying a squad of grunts from the 1CD dropped out of low-hanging scud when we had the airspace. I was in a "slick" with my squad and a "pink team" consisting of an OH-58 Kiowa and an AH-1G Cobra gunship was leading us into an LZ. The 1CD bird's main rotor hit our scout's fuel tank. The resulting explosion killed the pilots and crew chief in the -58 and five of the 10 men in the 1CD chopper. It was the worst aviation disaster in Ft. Hood's history--and still is as far as I know. The left-seater in our scout bird was from Brownsville, so we provided the funeral detail consisting of our PSG, six pallbearers, a seven-man firing detail and a bugler from the 2AD band. It was one of the saddest funerals I was ever a part of in the military. . . .
Chain of Command CPT Daniel Karis - PL (an OCS guy and UH-1 pilot, he was caught in the RIF and reverted to E-5. Last I heard, he had gone on to serve in Ranger battalions and made CSM)
1LT Adams - PL (replaced Karis; was SF-qualified and said he served in the infamous Det. B-57, which gained notoriety for its rôle in Operation Phoenix in Vietnam)
SFC "Doc" Daugherty - PSG (I ran into him at Fort Carson, CO, when I was a CPT in the 2-34th AR and he was a MSG in the 1-8th IN. He was court-martialed in his 18th year of service for some misconduct that I cannot recall.)
Other Memories D Troop was the armored cav squadron's aviation unit and I served in the aerorifle platoon. We were the only light infantry in the 2d Armd. Div.
