This site is dedicated to the Honor and Stories of members of VFW POST 2143 "Bill Collins Memorial".
Hello,
My name is James (Jim) Bledsoe. I joined the Army May 25,1972, two days after I graduated High School in Kansas City, Missouri. I entered service on that day with two of my High School buddies under the buddy system. We were guaranteed 3 years together unless one of us broke the contract by a number of various ways of which I will not go into.
We left Kansas City on a flight to San Francisco and Ft. Ord, Ca. for a Vietnam Basic Training cycle, it would be the last cycle to go to Vietnam. 4 weeks into training, after a long night of interior guard mount at the Presidio of Monterey, while turning in our weapons, I was pulled out of line along with several other trainee's to go to Special Leadership Preparations School (SLPP), a 4 week coarse. I returned to my training unit H-1-3 one week before graduation, on one of our last days of training, the 1SG informed us that we would not be going to Vietnam and choose a Stateside or Overseas duty station. Being a little disappointed about not going, my buddies and I chose Ft. Riley, Kansas 165 miles from home, 1/63 Armor, that was nice. My two buddies were married and got apartments in Junction City, I on the other hand would usually go home for the weekends. We re-enlisted while there and the buddies were broke up as one of us went to ASA school. I was married in Mar of 75 and still am to her this day, in December of 75 I received orders for Germany (FRG) to the 11th ACR. I spent the night in Repo Depot Frankfurt, next to the hospital where we ate evei8ng chow, they had Hafentfeffer (rabbit) for dinner. One of the soldiers was as countrified as could be and after eating dinner he said that that was truly good, THEN I said to him, "do you know where they get the rabbits from for that dinner?", he said "No, Where!", so I told him "well, you ate in a hospital dinning hall, you know when they test a female to see if she is pregnant, the shot a rabbit with piss from the female, if the rabbit DIES, she is pregnant, not wanting to just throw the rabbit out, they cook them for dinner.", he immediately threw his guts. Everyone laughed it up for a long time, some asked him if he was eating rabbit again, he said not unless I shot it.
So, the unit came the next morning to pick me up, in a jeep, in December, in Germany, cold was not the word that day. The 11th ACR, being one of 3 units with a ACTIVE PEACE TIME MISSION, the 2nd ACR and 9th Inf were the others, patrolled the then East/West German Borders (DDR/FRG) along with German units. Returning to the states 3 years to the day, I was then stationed at Ft. Stewart, Ga. 1/9 Cav. 18 months later I was off to Korea (ROK) and 1/72 Armor (1st Tank). Funny thing there was that I was made the FLOOD CONTROL NCO, we were on top a mountain, DAMN. This unit supported the DMZ and 9th Inf. Upon arrival to Camp Casey you go through the TURTLE FARM, thus called because it took you 365 days to travel from the in-process door to the out-process door ten feet away. My next assignment took me to Ft. Carson, Co and the 10th Cav. What a hell hole that was, HORRIBLE.
I called DA and ask to be transferred to anywhere but there. I received orders to Ft. Irwin and the NTC after only 3 months at Carson, 2 PCS's in one year, thank you fiscal year, I became an Observer/Controller (OC) for Armor Platoons (COBRA's). I enjoyed the assignment immensely. Training Armor Platoon's so as to be able to make the correct decisions under combat situations that would save lives of fellow soldiers was satisfying. I did this for almost 4 years then came orders for Germany and the 2nd ACR, the other unit with an ACTIVE PEACETIME MISSION patrolling the Czechoslovakia/German (Czech/FRG) border. This border tour was in southern Bavaria along the Trizonal region of Czech/FRG/Austria, Beautiful, just BEAUTIFUL. OK, back to the states after 2 and a half years of this tour, spending a total of 3 and a half years on the COLD WAR Front lines, I ended up back at Ft. Irwin, not as an OC, but as the Live Fire Operations Sergeant controlling every aspect of life fire training. Operating as the S2/S3 entities, we issued all the Operations orders, Frag O's and Intelligence information to the training units to perform and give performance evaluations on.
After two years of this I decided that I was through with the Army experiences and ETS only to remain at Ft. Irwin for another 32 years working as a Government Contract employee maintaining the Army's Prepositioned fleet of training vehicles that were issued to the training units at the NTC. I retired in 2019 and did my little traveling stint in the excess of 6, 6oo miles round trip across the US to see family and friends. My deployment to Korea for 365 days entitled me to join the VFW as the Korean War is not over, just in a Truce/Cease Fire environment.
Thanks for your time reading my BLURB, hopefully you enjoyed it and learned a little about me and my time in service of this GREAT country.
