Best Friends I got to Ft Monmouth in January, 1960. Since my school had not started yet, I was assigned to a holding barracks. We were given work assignments around the post. My first assignment was shoveling snow off of the walkways. Being from North Dakota, I was good at that. I do not remember which student barracks I was assigned to. I remember the classrooms and working on the GE microwave gear. One of my more vivid memories was being sent off to Pittsburgh to bring back an AWOL prisonner. He was a tall, gangly kid who I guess, just got home sick. I was called to the CO's office together with a Spc4 who would be in charge. We were issued .45 automatics with extra magazines. I had never fired a .45 before but it didn't seem like a big deal. We caught the train in Red Bank and rode it to Pittsburgh, went to a police station and picked the kid up. Felt sorry for him. He was going to do some "bad time". I graduated from microwave radio school in August, 1960 and got leave to go home. There was another fellow who was going further west than North Dakota so I hitched a ride with him and shared the gasoline. He would not let me drive, however. Even when he fell asleep at the wheel and damn near creamed us on a bridge abutment. He dropped me off in Sioux Falls and I took the Jack Rabbit Lines bus to Fargo where my Dad picked me up. It was quite a drive for him because he lived in Dickinson, at the other end of the state at that time. After my leave was over I flew back to New Jersey. Part of the trip was on a DC-3 from Fargo to Minneapolis. Northwest Airlines. That was quite a thrill. I remember the stewardess struggling up the aisle before the plane took off.