01 September 2008

Back "Home" to Ft. Knox


Why do I have this desire? Is it universal?
Ft. Knox is special to me.
Conscripted in 1966, I went through ARMY Basic Training there. I returned in 1967 and completed Officer Candidate's School.
After Viet Nam and a three year stint teaching Vietnamese to fly Hueys, I returned to Ft. Knox in '72 for the Armor Officer's Advanced Course. It's a big, lovely old Post, and the fact that I spent some of the most important/turbulent moments of my life there endears it to me.

Other than stopping at Godman Army Airfield once to refuel, I've not been to Ft. Knox since 1973. I've wanted to go back for a long time... to see how it's changed, and to see what remains of my past.

We were meeting friends there. We stopped off at the Patton Museum and walked around the exhibits until our friends arrived, then left to drive by the Bullion Depository you see above and check in at the visitor's quarters.

When I was last at Ft. Knox it was an open post. There were guards at the main gate, but they would flag you through as you approached. That's all changed. Everyone entering now stops and shows ID, and is asked what business they have on Post.

This visit we were housed in Yeoman Hall, a red brick structure with white columns at the entrance, built in 1937 and since modernized. It was beautiful, outside and in.

We ate South of Ft. Knox at Elizabethtown, then returned and searched for the area where I attended Basic Training. Those old WWII Oak barracks are long gone. The whole area is grown over with scrub trees, and the only indication the barracks were ever there is the "company streets" that poke out of the scrub and intersect with the main road. Those all-wood barracks were fire hazards. While I was in Basic we were required to have one soldier on "fire guard" all night. At lights out, one soldier would walk the barracks for an hour, then wake another to walk for an hour. This would continue from 10 P.M. until Reveille at 5 A.M. for the entire two months we were in Basic Training. I'm sure the ARMY was glad to be rid of the liability when they tore them down. I have heard rumors that when the contract to tear them down was let, a company did the job for free... they were solid oak and the lumber was worth enough to make doing it free worthwhile.
But the memories flow...
There is where the bank of 20 pay phones used to stand... and there is where the mess hall used to be. All gone, leaving a sad spot at my core. I wish I had taken pictures.

We returned to Yeoman Hall and adjourned to the patio for adult beverages and conversation. It's a beautiful summer evening.
BOOM, BOOM in the distance and I'm surprised... Saturday night and someone is on the tank firing range? Maybe a Reserve unit? It's an oddly comforting sound to me, and I'm glad my guests get to hear it.

We wake the next morning and share the continental breakfast. After checking out, it's off to pursue another of my memories... Otter Creek Park.
The weekend I graduated OCS and became a 2nd Lieutenant, we stayed in the Park in a cabin on a bluff high above the Ohio river. I remembered the view there as breathtaking, and on arrival we were not disappointed. Rental cabins are located on a bluff several hundred feet above a bend in the Ohio, overlooking farmland on the Indiana side of the river. From this point you are so high the view is most like you are flying. We all decide we must return later to rent a cabin.

I'm still missing one of my "ticket punches" for this trip...
I wanted to see where I lived during OCS. I've forgotten exactly where it was on Post. I had hoped that while driving around I might get a feeling of being close and homing into the location but so far, no luck. I ask some folks about things I remember... a swimming pool on one side, a baseball diamond on another.
"No, I think they filled that swimming pool with dirt some years ago" is one answer. In that case, they've torn that building down too. That seems odd, because like Yeoman Hall, it was a solid, brick structure.

It's time to go home. We drive to the Post gas station to fill up, then say our good-byes. But on the way to refuel I notice some U-shaped buildings exactly like my OCS barracks and point them out to Sara Jean. Our guests drive off in one direction, we go in another.
Later, on the road home while SJ is dozing, I grab the Ft. Knox map and start reviewing it. I notice the U-shaped buildings on the way to the gas station are depicted on the map exactly as they would look from above... U-shaped. I search the map for more of those and find one with an adjacent swimming pool. There is a baseball diamond on the other side! I wake Sara Jean with my exclamation... "AHA!!"
At this point we're almost an hour down the road, so going there will have to wait for our next visit. But there will be a "next visit"!

So back to my initial question...
Why do I have this desire to reach out and touch these places again? Most of us seem to have it... that's the reason for reunions, old school banquets, and things like tours to old battlegrounds.
Now I'm excited about going back to Ft. Knox to walk the area where I went to OCS.
What causes this need?

11 comments:

WomanHonorThyself said...

hi there..nostalgia and love of country perhaps?

Autorotate said...

I've never been there...might end up doing a gunnery there before its all said in done if I ever wake up and go 64's.

emily said...

an amazing NCO once told me, "Never forget where you came from."

I went to nursing school in E-Town. Was there when the towers came down. Spent much time and made many memories on that post.

Good memories I will visit on my way to work this morning. Thank you.

OlePrairiedog said...

I can't wait until I can begin my travels, Ft. Knox is on my list of be sure and go to's. Good article.

CJ said...

I've been to Fort Knox. We toured the base on a high school band trip, of all things. The Patton Museum was cool and my classmate who asked "So where do they keep the gold?" was irritating.

Anyway, it's the need we all have to stay connected to our past, don't you think? It's an anchor to what has been, to what so often gets lost as we get older.

I'm glad you got the chance to slow down and revisit what must have been an incredible time in your life.

cjh

ProPilots said...

Greybeard, it is an urge that I get as well. I love to revisit the places of old.
As part of my job I get to fly over many of the places that have had meaning in my life. I fly into Washington Dulles often. When landing to the North on 1R I often fly over the place that turned me into a 2ndLt in the USMC. That place is Quantico, VA. On an overnight I drove down to visit the old parade deck and barracks of OCS. Also got to visit the old room at The Basic School. The 2ndLts looked so young and I'm only 36.

When I fly to Southern California I enjoy entering the airspace where I learned to fly 19 years ago. I grew up there and it always feels like home when I check in with LA Center. From the air I can see the airports I visited as a young student pilot. The view of the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station makes me sad each time I see it. Its a ghost town now just waiting for the bulldozers to turn it into apartments, condos, and a park. I landed an F-18 on 34R there before they closed it!

Like another commentor said. Its important to remember where we came from.

Thanks for inspiring a future post!

Darren

PS Kandy made a post recently about what she can do in 5 minutes. She also takes some jabs at some of us jet pilots. I'm sure you will appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed your trip down memory lane, Idid my basic training at Ft Knox april to june 1966 . I haD played baseball in college one day the platoon sgt said to us anybody play baseball I couldnt believe my ears, I was selected to play for the 4th brigade, I was given a lot of perks basic trainees do not usually get. I love to hear from anyone who played ball then. Needless to say I was ultimately sent to Vietnam, Came back fine retired last year from Eastern Michigan as A Physical Education teacher and coach

Anonymous said...

Greybeard, I'm an OCS grad from Class 1-68, E-1 between the Halftrack Club and Old Ironsides Ave. I have photos of the red brick barracks and other info on OCS at Knox. Contact me at burmester_4@msn.com. Armor Sir!

Anonymous said...

Ft. Knox was home to me from 1969-1972 as a permasnent party LT and CPT with the 2nd Bn, School Brigade. It is a beatiful post and I revisited it again in 1995, between the first Gulf War and 9/11.The thing in '95 that stuck me the most was how guiet it was during the day. The distant sound of night fire of the gunnery ranges was reassuring. Someone once said "you never forget your time in the service."

Thank you and everyone for their service.

Uncle Tom said...

Fort Knox was `good duty.' I was there in a command support position in 1967. Every weekend there was a social event of some kind, live music events, dinner parties-- it was not your typical army post. It was big, busy and political, and there was a lot going on. These days it is but a shadow of its former self.

R C Smith said...

I enlisted in late 64-great timing,,chose ft knox for basic,,Ait,,I was in one of the New barracks and had a fine Gentleman,,John C Robey as a DI,hope he had a great life,
Things went a bit dim in Ait,,criminals forced to join or jail disrupted things,,poor cadre,diciplne etc,I compounded things when I was asked to stay as permanent party and entered into a rushed wartime marriage,,leaving for Viet when I did several months later was a relief,Those negative memories of Ft knox and the old barracks were relieved by serving in the 1st Inf Div,then my final year as cadre at Ft bliss,where I was treated with respect and my experience ,,awards and decorations counted,