GUARDIANS OF FREEDOM
Saluting Those Who Served in the U.S. Army
Pat Holdwick, Part 3
by Janis Stein

Join in the continuation as Pat Holdwick recalls his Army days at Fort Rucker.

Pat’s first day at Fort Rucker proved to be an embarrassing one. As the new soldier in the company, he was called to the front for a formal introduction. Putting Pat on the spot, the first sergeant asked Pat what he hoped to accomplish at Fort Rucker. Pat had never had the life experience of standing in front of 180 people, and as a private in a company who hadn’t even been told what the goals of his battalion were, Pat was at a loss. An answer was expected, though, and Pat shouted, “I want to be an engineer!”

Pat immediately realized those words sounded better in his head, and after a brief pause followed by the general laughter of his fellow soldiers, he knew without a doubt it had not been the right answer. The memory would be short-lived, at least in the minds of his comrades, for in the Army, countless opportunities presented themselves every day for soldiers to embarrass themselves. Tomorrow it would likely be someone else’s turn!

The 46th Engineer Battalion looked and operated like a giant construction company, and when Pat arrived at Fort Rucker, the battalion was already in the process of building an equestrian center. When the last nail was pounded, the facility would house 60 horses in 30 stables, an office, a riding ring and what seemed like an infinite amount of obstacles.

During his 13-month stay at Fort Rucker, Pat spent nine months just working on the equestrian center. Other projects included building an aircraft hangar, which was a repair/maintenance facility for helicopter mechanics, and remodeling an old barracks that looked as if it had seen its heyday during World War II.

Pat and his comrades also traveled to Fort Benning, Georgia, where they built an obstacle course to include a rope bridge; the course would be used in the training of Army Rangers, an elite task force. At every turn, Pat could sometimes learn lessons by simply watching. One soldier, who had needed to wear spikes to climb a tree, realized by the end of the day something was dreadfully wrong. While straddling the tree, poison ivy sap leached through his camouflage pants – needless to say Pat didn’t see him for a long time after while he recovered!

Southern Alabama’s summer sun drove the temperature to 110 degrees – in the shade. The barracks, though, were equipped with air conditioning; when the soldiers weren’t working, they sought the comfort of their rooms. After lunch, they had a bit of time to relax, lying on their beds in 60-degree comfort!

Life at Fort Rucker proved to be a pretty good experience. Pat had the same roommate for most of his stay; they kept their room clean and had no problems. Along with two beds, the room contained a few chairs, a couch and a most necessary coffee pot.

During the time that Pat was working on the equestrian center, he learned a great deal about the differences in people. By this time, the officers yelled little, unless of course, a soldier was really causing problems. On one occasion, Pat had been nailing a piece of trim on the top of a door. To give him a little extra height, he turned a concrete block on end and stood atop it. A sergeant nearby couldn’t resist the temptation of harassing Pat, and started poking him in the back. Pat, his balance already a bit unsteady on the block, turned around; in the process the block tipped over, smashing the sergeant’s toe. Though the sergeant dealt very well with this unexpected development, he never let Pat forget it!

When Pat wasn’t building, his battalion drove five miles away from the barracks, still within the Fort Rucker compound, where they performed any number of field exercises.

The men set up their perimeter, dug fox holes and practiced rigging up dummy land mines. Two men shared a pup tent, measuring approximately three feet high and five feet long. While one soldier slept, the other stood guard. Sleep came in minimal fragments.

While Pat was working with his squad on field operations, tragedy struck the platoon in the form of a car accident, the car driven by the wife of a fellow soldier. The wife of Pat’s comrade had been driving her vehicle on a dark, foggy night and ran directly into the path of one of Fort Rucker’s Army trucks: The crash resulted in her death.

Consumed with grief over the loss of his wife, the soldier, who was in his late 20s – an age quite old compared to the rest of the battalion’s soldiers – called upon Pat, rather than his family, to come to his aid. Soldiers became brothers.

Pat, who had been in the field for six days, was allowed to travel off premises to his friend’s home to offer his friend comfort. Pat, though, had been awake day and night for almost a week; exhaustion consumed him, and he couldn’t stay awake. Pat soon gave in to his weakness and slept. When he awoke, Pat - now all of 19 - thought perhaps he knew a bit how the apostles felt when Jesus asked them to stay awake to stand guard, prior to Jesus being handed over. His betrayal had been great and would haunt him all his days.

And, while Pat knew he had failed in comforting his friend, he also knew he could help in another way: Pat had the financial wherewithal to loan his friend the money necessary to provide a decent burial. And so he did.

Twenty-one years later, Pat still has a two-dollar bill tucked in the corner of his dresser drawer; the bill had belonged to his friend’s wife and will always serve as a reminder.

When December 1986 rolled around, Pat returned to Huron County to celebrate Christmas with his family. The time at home would pass quickly, and soon Pat was en route to his next assignment, which would take him to Germany.

In January 1987, Pat’s plane landed on an Air Force base in Germany. When he walked off the plane, his mind tried to process what his eyes were seeing. Libyian leader Omar Khadafi had been on the minds of several U.S. troops; tanks with 50 caliber machine guns and armored personnel carriers dotted the runway. American soldiers, with machine guns at the ready, waited for orders.

As Pat surveyed his new surroundings, he knew in the event of war he would do what needed to be done. And yet he couldn’t help but ponder what role he might play in all of this; after all, he was a soldier who built horse stables…

Pat was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany, which was about 15 miles south of Frankfurt. About two weeks after his arrival, Pat’s squad went on a three-week field exercise. The men herded onto the back of a truck and, for the next eight hours, they would travel onward at 30 miles per hour. Though Pat knew his time belonged to the Army, he couldn’t help but wonder why they traveled so slowly. What would happen if they increased their speed to 45?

It didn’t take long for Pat to learn how cold Germany could be in February. The freezing temperatures proved tedious for the field exercises, but Pat’s company pressed on with business. Pat belonged in the Headquarters Company, and his group supplied the rest of the battalion with all things necessary for a smooth operation.

The tent Pat’s company would now call home was a GP Medium, measuring 30 by 50 feet, and had the capacity to hold 30 sleeping soldiers. The soldiers took turns being fire guard to ensure the tent containing all the supplies did not burn to the ground. Another guard pulled duty at the front gate with shifts lasting only 15 minutes, due to the 30 below windchill factor. Pat wasn’t entirely sure why it was even necessary to guard the front gate; he was pretty sure the enemy wouldn’t be coming – it was too cold!

The soldiers pulled a few shenanigans from time to time when they pulled the fire guard duty inside the tent. One soldier stood guard for an hour, while the other 15 soldiers slept. The tent was not insulated but the stove stocked with fuel warmed the space sufficiently. If the fuel ran out during a soldier’s shift, it was his responsibility to replenish the supply.

The goal of every soldier was to make sure that extra detail would be fulfilled during someone else’s shift. A soldier on fire guard could stay sitting in the comfort of his sleeping bag and even read a book. The fuel cans, though, were outside, and if the stove ran out of fuel, the soldier would have to put on his boots and outdoor gear to brave the 30-below temperatures. As soon as a soldier started his hour-long shift, he turned the stove way down, conserving the fuel in the process. Ten minutes before the end of a soldier’s shift – the danger of using up all the fuel on his shift had passed – the soldier on fire guard cranked up the heat. When it was time to awake the next soldier on duty, the tent was a toasty 65 degrees!

Pat soon learned the importance of always wearing a watch. Though the fire guard shift was supposed to last an hour, after just ten minutes, the soldier on duty might awaken the next guy – who didn’t have a watch – and let him know it was time for his shift. This would escalate if three or four people in a row didn’t have watches. Finally, a soldier would be awakened for his 3 a.m. shift, but when he checked his watch it might only be 1 a.m. In that case, the soldier scheduled for duty at 3 a.m. would simply roll over and tell the guard to wake him up in two hours!

Be sure to look for the continuation next month as Holdwick recalls his battalion’s mission during the days of the Cold War.

© 2008 Stein Expressions, LLC