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This is a picture of me at age 11 taken in D.C. next to the USMC memorial. |
I grew up with military icons around me from a very young age.
The first Peters to emigrate to america was a British naval officer in 1821. My Dad's
father and mother both served in the navy during WWII, which is where they met. Plus
movies like Kelly's Hero's in 1970, The Boys From Company C in 1977, A Bridge Too Far in
1977 and The Deer Hunter in 1978 also encouraged my interest in the military.
At age 4 with my very first helmet.
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This is a picture of me at age 11 taken in D.C. next to the USMC memorial. |
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I originally wanted to be a marine like my mother's three brothers, two of whom served in Vietnam. Uncle Les was killed at Marble Mountain, RVN. |
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This is me and a vietnam vet in front of the army museum at Fort DeRussy, HA. We played frisbee a few times and my bad throws caused him to hustle all over the place. I really felt bad about that, he was a really nice guy. |
I signed up for three years in the army, during the 80s, right out of high school. Here are some photos from my
years of active duty (regular army) service. On retrospect I wish I'd taken more. It
didn't occur to me, at the time, to take a camera along. I took for granted all the things
I did and the places I went to, though there probably would have been few opportunities to
take photos - darkness, rain, no time to do so etc..
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This is me, on leave from
basic training during the christmas holidays with my grandmother & stepmother's mother
at my father's house in Annadale, Virginia with a shaved head, no ribbons on my uniform,
no unit patches
and a marksman badge. The term you're looking for is "squid" except I wasn't in the navy. Hey, we all have to start somewhere. After finishing basic training at Fort Jackson, SC. I completed the 31/2 month military occupatioinal school for radio operators at Fort Gordon, GA. Every soldier has stories to tell. I've got quite a few but here's a couple from my time attending the signal course. There was an instructor, who'd joined in the army in the 1970s (which meant he wasn't too bright) told us that he'd offer a prize for those who had perfect scores on their tests. Robert Hansen and I were the only ones and he gave us a coca cola each - we felt so ripped off. There was a private with dandruff so bad, no one wanted to go into the training'radio hut' with him when we were being divided into 2 man teams, so they traded everyone off with him throughout the day. That guy later ended up at my unit at Ft. Bragg with prescription medecine for his condition. I had one more training stop before being assigned to a unit. I arrived at Fort Benning, GA to attend airborne (parachutist) school. |
Here is a picture of me wearing what is called the Class A or dress green uniform while I was serving with the 50th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade(abn) at Ft. Bragg, NC. The maroon beret just means that you're a paratrooper - the silver badge, with the orange cloth around it, (the colored oval fabrics worn while assigned to an airborne unit are called ovals) on this picture it says the person has completed the airborne school (sometimes non-airborne personnel are assigned to jump units and they wear berets too). Everyone knows of the "green berets" which had the same policy until a few years ago. Now only qualified "green beret" soldiers can wear it - all special forces soldiers are airborne qualified. The last type of beret for the army is black. Worn within the ranger battalions - (the air force police/security guys wear black ones too which confuses civilians) by people assigned to the ranger regiment - about 2,000 soldiers. Some have passed the ranger course while others within the ranger regiment have not had the opportunity to go. It takes about a year before they send new members of the ranger regiment to the course from within the ranger battalions. Almost all of the ranger battalion members are airborne qualified. Even more confusing to civilians is that you can pass the special forces course but if the person is not currently assigned to a "green beret" unit you can't wear the beret, just the shoulder patch. Same goes for the rangers. The patch is displayed on the left shoulder and says "special forces or ranger". Occasionally phonies are caught, even within the army, trying to get away with wearing them and I have run into alot of wannabee seals, "green berets", rangers, vietnam vets etc. in my time.
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This picture of me and Specialist 4 Ellis, down at the motorpool of the 50th signal bn (abn), 35th Signal Brigade at Ft. Bragg was taken the day I had 3 haircuts in a row because my platoon sargent said my hair wasn't up to regulations. So I had the barber shave all the hair off between my ears and top of my head. You can see the 35th's patch on his shoulder - a lion with crossed lightning bolts, was popularly referred to as the electric pussy brigade. |
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This is me with James Rogers, off Yadkin Road - I think. James hipped me to some profound advice that I've never forgotten - "always keep perspective" and though the girls weren't always stellar, he was a "ladies man". I hope he enjoyed himself at the Univ. of Miami. Go Hurricanes! |
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Here I'm operating a URC-101 tactical satellite radio at the 82nd Airborne Division TOC during Market Square II in May of 1988. I was with Alpha Company, 82nd Signal Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division |
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This is me and Private First Class John Engel (John had so many tattoes
the military ordered him to abstain from getting any more)
at A Co. 50th Signal Battalion(abn), 35th signal brigade's dayroom, testing out some commo
and the Grid Hadron (computer equipment) in November of 1988. |
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This is just outside the unit armory in March of 1988 getting ready for Operation Golden Pheasant in Honduras. A "real world operation", meaning it could develop into a war. In this case it didn't. We went down as a show of force, against the communist Nicaraguan Sandinista's attack on the Nicaraguan contra rebels & the Sandista's invasion of Honduras (where the contras where hiding out) |
This is what I do in the army
click on this photo for my 1990s Army reserve service
If anyone knows Marshall Lee Byers (A Co. 50th Sig Bn, 35th Sig Bde Abn), Charles Leon Dauphine, Jr. from New Orleans, LA., SSgt Robert Carrol Cooley (7th special forces group), Robert Narvol Hansen (307th Medical Bn, 82nd Abn Div), James Morin (504th inf bn, 82nd Abn Div), Sargent Courtney Settle (17th Cavalry, 82nd Abn Div) or Duane Jones Burbank from Arizona, and T.J. Roe from Las Vegas, NV (A co. 50th Sig, 35th Sig Bde) let me know.
And on Veterans and Memorial Day please visit a veteran's hospital and push a handicap veteran's wheelchair out into the sun or go to a cemetary and clean a headstone. These people's lives have FOREVER been changed by their military service.
