Fort Lost in the Woods!

I still had over a year to serve after leaving Vietnam and I was assigned to the Preventive Medicine Section, General Leonard Wood Army Hospital, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. On my leave from Vietnam I had visited Janet Clark, a Walton girl, whose family had owned the Clark Funeral Home on Townsend Street. Her dad had died in 1965 and she and her mom, Francis Clark, had moved to Winter Haven, Florida. Janet had corresponded with me while I was in Vietnam and sent me lots of invidually wrapped chocolate chip cookies. You know the old saying,"the way to a man's heart..."? I arrived at FLW in April, 1970 and was soon placed in charge of the epidemiology section, better known as the VD lab! We diagnosed cases of gonnorhea mostly, with some syphilis and chancroid thrown in for good measure. About twice a month, myself and a gentleman named Joe Fusie from the Missouri Health Department would go to the local towns, St. Robert and Waynesville, to find the ladies of the evening responsible for the infection and make sure that they sought treatment. The stories that I heard from the soldiers of how that acquired their infection were both fantastic and fantasy!



I was realy enjoying life again, lots of sports to play, the almost nightly comraderie with my buddies who included Bill Boyce, Gary Gilmore (no not the one executed in Utah), Joe Peters, Ernie Johnson and others. Our Commanding Officer was LTC Karel Runcik, a Czech who escaped the Nazis during WWII. Colonel Runcik was still very rough around the edges and was a chain smoker. He was ferociously devoted his men and God help anyone else who messed with any of us!



On October 10, 1970, Janet and I were married in the Lake Alfred, Florida, Presbyterian Church. We had to get right back to Fort Leonard Wood where we soon had our own house at 17 Immell Street. We had a good marriage and we entertained the guys from the office a lot. I remember after Thanksgiving dinner that Joe Peters said that the meal tasted good, or maybe it was just because he was hungry: oops!! Ernie and Belinda Johnson became good friends and we visited a lot. I loved going to Lake of the Ozarks about once a month to collect water samples. We would take a boat out and enjoy fishing or just exploring the many caves around the lake.



Early in 1971 we found out that Janet was pregnant! The feeling of becoming a dad was so awesome! We went to Florida in April, stopped at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and found out that there was an Ag teacher opening in Manatee County. We went to Bradenton where I talked to Ruth Leeth, the personnel director and Charles Williams, the Ag supervisor. I was hired immediately! Because of this, I was able to get out of the Army early. So on June 21, 1971, I was discharged from active duty, and moved to 5002A- 20th Street West, Bradenton. I started my teaching job on July 1, 1971.