"Yes Sir."
If we heard those words once, we heard them hundreds of times during a two-day visit to Company A and other posts at the summer camp at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Mayor A.O. Gigstad, Capt. Lawrence Brown, Don Mason and myself were guests of Capt. Gary Barrett and the other Nebraska City - based guardsmen at the camp south of Colorado Springs.
Lt. Col. John Ratliff, Lincoln, our congenial guide, host and righthand man, warned we would be on our feet along with the troops. And he was sure right. I looked long and far for a place to get into a prone position out of the hot sun and never found it until nightfall.
We made the two-hour flight from Lincoln to Colorado Springs in a four-engine C-54 Air Guard plane. We were met at their airport by Maj. Gen. Lyle Welch who chartered a helicopter to greet us.
After a bus trip to the field we were met by Sgt. Dale Helser of near Dunbar, who drove us to the Company A campsite. There we met the troops who were returning amid a cloud of dust from a day's training.
"Roughing it" is the way to describe how Company A guardsmen are spending their two weeks. They participate in military problems each day and spend other time for the never-ending task of maintenance of their handguns and other weapons to huddles by troop and battalion commanders.
Although the camp was soaked the first of the week by rain, you'd never know it by the end of the week. The clouds of dust fell back into several inches of red powder only to be churned by the tracks of tanks.
If you happened to be standing a bit too close, you got it.
The only gripes we heard came Friday night when the word was that there would be no passes. We were told that because of fights between blacks and other guardsmen on the post grounds, all guardsmen in the field were restricted.
However, there was entertainment. Company A knocked off the other units in softball during the week and won the battalion championship 26-12 behind the pitching of Sfc. Allan Barrett.
The Army ain't what it usedto be.
I had been told that a certain two-wheeled trailer with a heavy canvas over it was the entertainment center. I was too hot, too dirty and too tired to be entertained . . . that is until about 6:30 p.m., when I found out what was in that trailer.
Thanks to Lynn Shallenberger for the cold cans of Budweiser enjoyed by Capt. Gary Barrett, company commander, Majors Glen Cohn, Del Broers and us "civilians."
(Just goes to prove Company A was prepared for a disaster.)
We tried twice to hold Dennis Golden, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Golden, but he was pretty busy keeping radio equipment operating and we were unable to get a picture of him and his trophy — the skin of a rattlesnake killed near the campgrounds.
For ole' sailors like Don Mason and myself, a "head" is a toilet.
And I thought the GI's called them latrines. I dasn't print what Company A guardsmen call 'em. All I can report is that one young man told me that he had to take a bayonet with him to the watchamacallit . . . to whittle the seat a little smoother [illegible] boasted, "we've got an eight-holer."
Thanks to Major Broers, we "civilians" got passes and went to town, cauffered by Sergeant Helser under orders from Captain Barrett. We had dinner at the Embers, a favorite of General Welch for lamb chops, and wrapped up the evening in the Piccadilly Room at the Antlers Plaza. Mayor Gigstad has a better memory so ask him about the jokes by the entertainers.
Senator Keyes of Papillion is considering filing as an independent for Congress in the Second District in opposition to Hlavacek and McCollister, both of Omaha. The senator said on the flight that he feels he can do the voters a better service in Congress and his friends have urged him to file.
Sen. Florence Reynolds, Fourteenth District, Omaha, was my flight companion on the way home. She's a gracious woman and a good politician.
She retired as a school teacher in Omaha after 49 years and was elected to a four-year term in the legislature. She will be on the November ballot although she trailed the leader, Duke Snider, by 54 votes. "He's a nice young man, but he's got a lot to learn."
Miss Reynolds was orphaned when she was a child and was reared by two sisters, the oldest 18 years of age. A determined person, she wanted to get into the medical field, but in 1916 there were no jobs for young college girls. So she switched to music and taught others for those years.
She said the legislature will miss Sen. Rick Budd of Nebraska City. "He was so helpful to me," she said.
And so ends the interview at 8,000 feet over Nebraska.
The Nebraska City group was particularly interested in Company A and thanks to the courtesies of General Welch and his staff, we thoroughly enjoyed the visit. They gave us the "run of the mill" in the camp and everywhere we intruded we were treated with military courtesy.
We particularly enjoyed the flight home . . . we flew above the storm that later brought a needed shower to this area.