James "Jim" Albro |
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| My name is Jim Albro. I was part of the Army detachment in CSE. I joined the Army in January of 1961 in Kansas City, Mo. and was sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas for basic training. We were on a place called "Custer Hill", probably the coldest place in Kansas in January. I survived, and they sent me to Ft. Gordon, Ga. to Army Signal School. This was almost 48 years ago, so It's kind of hard to remember exactly, but, I think I was there about 10 weeks. Some of the class, including me, got orders to the 232 Signal Co., Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Back then, Ft. Huachuca was a bit different than other posts. If a person lost their pass to go off post, they couldn't even go to the service club, because it was off post. When I first arrived there, I was told by an old sargent, "Don't ever think of going AWOL. There is only two ways to go, one is the mountains, and we'll just send a chopper up to pick you up, and the other way is the desert, and we can still see you three days later." He was exactly right. At night, bitter cold and in the day, temperatures well above 110 degrees in the shade. I was there about 6 months, and in December of 1962, about 6 of us got orders sending us to MacDill AFB, Tampa, Fl. It certainly was a big change. We arrived there the week before Christmas. It was a very dismal Christmas, but we made the best of it and it turned out very good. MacDill is a very pretty base, and a good duty station. I spent the rest of my 3 year enlistment there. I checked out the 31st of January 1964, and went home to my native New York State. Many years later I moved back to Florida and still live there. Until I retired almost 5 years ago, I worked for the Navy, as a machinist, first in Pensacola, and then in Jacksonville. |
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