I arrived at Ft. Bliss  − 7 March, 1992

When I got to Ft. Bliss they took us by what they call a "Cattle Truck" (A small pickup with slat sides on it with a canopy). I'll never forget when I got out of the truck, the hot air of El Paso hit me in the face and I almost fainted from dehydration.

I stepped on the road and was told where to report. I walked in a huge barracks labeled K Troop 3/3 ACR and was greated by the CQ (Charge of Quarters) They took my name and told me who my roommate was. David Palmer, he scared the shit out of me at first, and he tried being a tough guy, he was the blackest black guy I had ever met, he was also 6'6. I found out very quickly that Dave was a sheep in wolf's clothing though and we remained very close friends for 3 years and he left K Troop two months before I got out and went on to Korea.

Dave introduced me to Curry and Ziegenfus and I was shotgunning Budweisers in their room 10 minutes after I met the CQ. I had never drank alcohol until that point. As a point of initiation, they asked me, "Hey, Zimmerfuck-you masterbate?" of course being a naive youngster I said, "Haha, fuck no, that's for fags who can't get anything."

They proceeded to laugh and call me a "fucking liar" and one guy actually excused himself from the get-together to wack it at that point. From that point on, I was never homophobic and I became confident in my own sexuality and learned that being confident about that and expressing it is not a bad thing.

Later in my enlistment, I began to despise Curry and Ziegenfus as they despised me as well. Curry actually complained to the Platoon Sergeant that I had more medals than him and he was in 3 years before me. The Platoon Sergeant told him, "If you want more medals, you should start soldiering and quit being such a whiner." The whoel medal thing was luck. I was a driver for a perfect Bradley gunnery crew three gunnery's in a row and I got 3 ARCOM's in 8 months. K Troop as a whole always had at least 3 perfect crews every gunnery back then and the ones that didn't get perfect (1000) got 950 or above.

That night, I also met Jeff Penrod. he was from Pa. too so we got along quickly. The only problem with him was that he thought he was the God of women. My first time in Mexico was with him and Brad Baker from L.A. I wasn't that impressed and soon had a list of women myself. Of course, The girls he brought back to the barracks were always better.

Late that first night, all of 3rd platoon thought they might welcome me with a slip and slide party. (Spraying the floor with water and slidding down the entire length of the hallway. But we decided against it since the fire extinguishers were just filled with water the week before and alot of people compained that everything in their rooms were soaked.

K Troop was alot of fun, so was Ft. Bliss. Definately culture shock from Basic Training. When you are training, you think the regular army is regimented, it surprises you when you get to your permanent duty station and you get to do pretty much whatever you want after 1630 (4:30 p.m.)

This night was just a sign of the times to come...