Puppy Out Of Breath

Puppy Out Of Breath
Doug's stories are now in a book: www.puppyoutofbreath.com

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Marching To The Addams Family Theme Song



PFC Klinkenberg was my platoon leader when I was at the United States Army Aviation School.  He would march us from our barracks to the school, and he was noted for being creative with cadence counts.



Instead of the tried-and-true "Give me your left, your left, your left-right-left!", he had us sing the Addams Family theme song while we marched, complete with finger snaps.

One day, PFC Klinkenberg announced that his brother had been killed in Vietnam.  When I watched him pack his duffel bag, I thought he was leaving to go to the funeral --- but he was actually leaving the Army.

PFC Klinkenberg was leaving the Army because he was a Sole Surviving Son.  I did not fully understand that concept until 40 years later, when I visited Waterloo, Iowa.


I walked into the Iowa Veterans Museum in Waterloo, and right in front of me was a full-size replica of the prow of a US Navy cruiser, painted in camoflage colors and busting through the wall of the lobby. 


It was a copy of the prow of the USS Juneau, sunk in the Pacific in 1942.  On board were George Sullivan, Frank Sullivan, Joe Sullivan, Matt Sullivan, and Al Sullivan.  They were brothers; they were from Waterloo; none of them survived the sinking.

I walked past the prow and into the museum, dedicated to Iowa veterans from the Civil War to the present.  I liked the museum: it was not too big and not too small.


The Vietnam section reverberated with me: they had a UH-1 helicopter on display.  It was not a shiny UH-1 --- it was worn and even had bird droppings on it, making it feel real.  I spent a lot of time staring at the helicopter; the United States Army Aviation School had trained me to repair this type of helicopter, but fate had kept me away from helicopters and away from Vietnam.

The Civil War exhibit also reverberated.  


Over half the male population of Iowa was in uniform, which meant that women had to run farms and raise families by themselves during the Civil War.   

The story was told through the eyes of a little farm boy whose father was away at war.  At sundown his mother went out to round up the grazing cows and bring them back to the barn.  I felt the boy's anguish as he described standing at the window of an upstairs bedroom and watching his mother go out in search of the cows.  He would continue standing at the window, transfixed by fear, hoping that his mother would come back.

I walked through the displays for World War One and World War Two.  I noticed a subtle hint in the displays: Iowans were called upon in difficult battle situations.  If there was an impregnable enemy machine gun nest, the military would call upon Iowans to attack and wipe it out.

I wondered if it was because the military thought Iowans were tough fighters – or if the military thought that Iowans were expendable…


My walk through the museum ended on the second floor.  Walking past a sculpture of all five Sullivan brothers, I stepped out onto on the full-size replica of the prow of the Navy cruiser and gazed into the lobby below.

I realized that the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo had cast a long shadow. 

After World War Two, the military did not station siblings together.  After World War Two, if a family lost a child in a war, the family would not lose another child in that war.  

That is why the Army made sure that PFC Klinkenberg was out of harm’s way and sent him home for good. 


We continued to march from our barracks to the United States Army Aviation School, and, fortunately, our new platoon leader had us sing the Addams Family theme song while we marched.


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A 5-minute video tour of the museums in Waterloo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCDJ32LuNmk

The lyrics to the Addams Family theme song (1.5 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJoTEliQcU


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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com


Sunday, August 24, 2014

The Kid Who Could Identify A Kaiser


When I found out about the Missouri Veterans History Project, I called up and got an appointment to be interviewed.  I was eager to share my story because the interview will wind up in the Library of Congress.


It would be the story of my time in the US military - back in the days when we had two armies: the United States Army and the Army of the United States.  I was in the latter.


It took three people to interview me: one to run the camera, one to take notes, and one to ask me questions from a script.  I sat down, faced the camera, all eager to talk about my time at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Fort Rucker in Alabama, and Fort Lewis in Washington State.

But I was unprepared for the first bunch of questions: 


THEIR QUESTION: Where did I go to elementary school?

I was puzzled because I did not see what this had to do with my military service.  Plus it was an embarrassing question because I had been shuffled around to five different schools between kindergarten and 3rd grade. I did not want to admit that the Board of Education treated me like a displaced person.

MY ANSWER: I went to a bunch of different elementary schools.


THEIR QUESTION: What were my favorite childhood activities and sports?

Now I was very puzzled because the people doing the interview were about my age.  Didn't they know that kids in the 1940's did not have activities and did not have sports?


Back in the 1940's, kids did not go to gymnastics class or take karate lessons or play in soccer leagues.  Kids simply walked out the door and joined in with whatever their friends were doing.  It could be blackberry picking, figuring out how to make bubbles with chewing gum, riding scooters, playing two-hand touch, throwing dirt bombs in mock battles, or, my favorite, following our local stream deep into the woods, where there was lots of skunk cabbage and jack-in-the-pulpits.  These were not activities; these were ways to spend time.

MY ANSWER: I hung out with the kids in my neighborhood.


THEIR QUESTION: What was my biggest accomplishment as a child?

Now I was really puzzled.  I had never looked back on my childhood as having accomplishments. So, I thought about how I had impressed my father.


Our house overlooked New York State Route 25A, the major east-west road on the North Shore of Long Island.  It was a busy road.  I would sit on our steps and identify the different makes of the cars that drove by at the breakneck speed of 35 MPH.  

It was a childhood form of bird watching.  Just like a bird-watcher, I was really thrilled when I spotted a rare specimen: a Kaiser or a Hudson or a Studebaker.  Or, best of all, a luxurious Packard with its grand hood ornament.  I was six years old, and my father bragged about me. 


MY ANSWER: My biggest accomplishment was being able to identify makes of cars at an early age.


I slowly understood the goal of the interview.  The Missouri Veterans History Project wanted a picture of what kind of person I was before I went into the Army.  They went on to ask me questions about my military service, but their goal was to show me as more than a soldier.

And I began to worry: when my interview winds up in the Library of Congress, will viewers focus on what I did as a soldier or will they focus on the fact that I could identify a Kaiser at the age of six?


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A 30 second You Tube promo for the Missouri Veterans History Project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnJ74F6klZU




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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com




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