Those who have followed my Fort Wadsworth tales know that I had an unusual Army career that did not include foreign deployment. I spent the final eight months of m two ear hitch stationed at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, under the might Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The place mainly held miscellaneous soldiers who were appealing overseas deployments based upon the well known sole surviving son policy of the US military, something that whoever assigned Chuck Hagel and his brother to the same combat unit in Vietnam had overlooked. Also, courtesy of the US Army Clerk's Mafia, which I had informally joined, there was a constantly changing group of mainly disgruntled combat veterans on their ways to Germany where their toxic attitudes would not infect raw recruits.
Now as part of doing my Army thing I'd get periodic assignment to overnight guard duty at Miller Army Air Field. This always enraged me as I would see a cop car enter and head for the beach without so much as a "by your leave" to me, who after all was representing the majesty of the US Army at this US Armi facility. I'd leave hours later not having seen them exit. Clearly the officers in it were sleeping in their cop car on the beach of Miller Field.
Staff Sergeant DiNapoli explained that a complaint would result in a shower of parking and moving violation tickets against the Fort's staff and that I'd be identified as the culpable party. At that very moment Staff Sergeant DiMedici showed up with a bag of pot, way more than an ounce, that he had confiscated in a search of the transient barracks. The three Staff Sergeants informally vouchered the contraband.
We also had a case hardened veteran, Master Sergeant Dumbham, recently arrived from Saigon where he won a medal for devising a method by which Army documents would not be scattered by the wind caused by gigantic office fans, and sporting a Pacific Islander young wife who he began pimping out in the transient barracks. He represented the true Army spirit.
Lo and behold, as remote an outpost as this was, and under the tutelage of a mafiosi commander, the US Army did make sporadic attempts to assert its authority there. Somehow word of the good Master Sergeant's entrepreneurial undertaking leaked to the ears of some do-gooder and as a consequence, Dumbham got reassigned.
And once the Inspector General actually made a call, something for which we prepared diligently, buffing and waxing floors, scrubbing kitchen tiles, and more importantly having me review the files of documents whose relationship to Fort Wadsworth were a great unknown, Me being the only one there who had gotten and training in Army Personnel Records (with Dumbham gone) it fell to me to make a command decision, which was: any document that I could not identify or explain would be incinerated.
This we did and Fort Wadsworth passed the IG inspection with flying colors.
http://pleasedontvomitinthetaxi.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results
Now as part of doing my Army thing I'd get periodic assignment to overnight guard duty at Miller Army Air Field. This always enraged me as I would see a cop car enter and head for the beach without so much as a "by your leave" to me, who after all was representing the majesty of the US Army at this US Armi facility. I'd leave hours later not having seen them exit. Clearly the officers in it were sleeping in their cop car on the beach of Miller Field.
Staff Sergeant DiNapoli explained that a complaint would result in a shower of parking and moving violation tickets against the Fort's staff and that I'd be identified as the culpable party. At that very moment Staff Sergeant DiMedici showed up with a bag of pot, way more than an ounce, that he had confiscated in a search of the transient barracks. The three Staff Sergeants informally vouchered the contraband.
  | |
| Location of Miller Field, Staten Island | |
|---|---|
We also had a case hardened veteran, Master Sergeant Dumbham, recently arrived from Saigon where he won a medal for devising a method by which Army documents would not be scattered by the wind caused by gigantic office fans, and sporting a Pacific Islander young wife who he began pimping out in the transient barracks. He represented the true Army spirit.
Lo and behold, as remote an outpost as this was, and under the tutelage of a mafiosi commander, the US Army did make sporadic attempts to assert its authority there. Somehow word of the good Master Sergeant's entrepreneurial undertaking leaked to the ears of some do-gooder and as a consequence, Dumbham got reassigned.
And once the Inspector General actually made a call, something for which we prepared diligently, buffing and waxing floors, scrubbing kitchen tiles, and more importantly having me review the files of documents whose relationship to Fort Wadsworth were a great unknown, Me being the only one there who had gotten and training in Army Personnel Records (with Dumbham gone) it fell to me to make a command decision, which was: any document that I could not identify or explain would be incinerated.
This we did and Fort Wadsworth passed the IG inspection with flying colors.
http://pleasedontvomitinthetaxi.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results
