I entered the U.S. Army thirty-seven years ago today. My first duty station was Ft. Eustis, Virginia. I had left my hometown of Noel, Missouri, two days earlier. I remember pulling into Don Davis's Phillips 66 station and filling up as I was leaving town. Don was an institution in Noel, and his wife, Boonetta, had been my fifth grade teacher. He had served in World War II in Europe and had been personally decorated by Charles DeGaulle, yet that was an achievement that he never bragged, or even talked, about. When I told Don that I was leaving for the Army, he pulled me aside and told me how proud he was of me. He said that I would make friends in the Army that I would know for the rest of my life.
During the following four years I would be stationed on three continents, get married and become a father, and meet people from all over the United States and the world. And, yes, I still have good friends that I met while serving in the Army.
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