As a young man, just out of high school in 1951, I joined the Rhode Island Air National Guard. I attended weekend meetings, summer camp at Spätzl Air Force Base and so forth.

Each meeting or summer camp we attended, we were given points. I and a group from the RIANG were sent for Basic Training to Sampson Air Force Base up in northern NY on one of the Finger Lakes.

We were there over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. It was so cold at night that the commodes froze. We had coal fed boilers that were not that efficient.

After 8 weeks, we were very happy to get back to "Little Ole Rhode Island". The Korean conflict began to warm up and they decided that more troops were needed in the Army.

If we had a certain number of points we would not be taken out of the Air Guard. Several of us were something like four points short and thus were drafted into the Army. We ended up taking Army Basic Training at Indiantown Gap near Harrisburg PA.

Eight more weeks of Hell, although we knew what to expect, it was still a pain. It so happened that the Korean Conflict cooled down just as quickly as it had heated up and after basic training at Indiantown Gap we were held there a few months to start closing down the various areas of the camp.

Following the closing down of the camp, we were sent to Germany to serve out the remainder of our two years.

That was my two Basic Trainings between the years of 1951 and 1955.