Ken Padgett

  While I was in the Army in the early 70s, I was stationed in a little picturesque town Southeast of Frankfurt, Germany called Büdingen that grew up in and around a castle built in the 1200s.    It was a great place to be stationed, but there wasn't a lot of action there, so we usually went to Frankfurt for that. But most evenings we hung out in the local gasthaus (bar), drinking beer, shooting pool and playing fooseball. One quiet night, I was hanging out with some friends in the gasthaus, when the door opened and much to my surprise a stream of girls started coming in. It turned out to be a group of 17 year old high school girls on a field trip. I couldn't believe my good luck! It wasn't long before I hooked up with a ...

In 1969, one week after turning 17 and two years after dropping out of high school, I went to the Army recruiting office at a shopping center near my home in Suitland, Maryland. Two weeks later I was riding a bus with other new recruits on the way to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The bus arrived at the reception center at 4AM and a drill sergeant came on board and screamed at us to “Get off the bus, now!” “Line up on the marks” “No talking” I was terrified, and immediately began to question my decision to join the Army but it was too late for that, because I had already signed the papers and taken the oath. They fed us and put us to bed for a couple of hours. Later that day, we got buzz cuts and our new uniforms. After a week in the reception area, we were assigned to platoons for basic training. Our days began at 4:30 AM, with the drill sergeant yelling at the top of his lungs for us to get out of bed. I had a hard time adjusting to waking up that early, especially since I wa...