Read Online Abandoned in Hell : The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate (9780698144262) by Joseph L. (FRW) Marvin; Galloway William; Wolf Albracht - Free Book Online
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together in one place at the same time was at the very end of my tour, just before I left,â recalls Klaus Adam, then a captain. âWe were always split up. Most of the time I had four guns with me and the other platoon was out doing something else. We were always deployed as General Support Reinforcing [backing up artillery units that were in direct support of a particular infantry or armor unit].
âI canât even tell you how many men I had in the battery, because all the paperwork, the morning reports, were done in the rear,â says Adam. âI was almost always on a firebase with the guns. But I seem to recall that we were usually at about 95 percent strength.â
Adam was born in Saarbrücken, Germany, in 1942. The following year his father was killed, and Adam went to live with an aunt in southern Bavaria, which was then beyond the reach of Allied bombers. When the war ended, he was reunited with his mother, and they moved to Wiesbaden, where she found work as a translator for the Occupation forces. âShe met an alcoholic American Air Force sergeant, and in order to help her family and help him, she accepted his marriage proposal,â Adam explains.
The family came to the US in 1951; young Klaus suffered from the effects of his stepfatherâs alcoholism, and his parents divorced when he was in his early teens. âAs a result of a lack of parental control, I ended up on the streets, did a little gang runningâpetty theft,â Adam says. âI graduated to major theft. I got caught.â He was 17. A small-town judge offered him a choice of reform school until he was 21 or three years of military service. âWhen you get an honorable discharge, Iâll purge your records,â the judge promised.
Adam enlisted in the summer of 1960. After infantry training and jump school, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. During his in-processing, a personnel clerk learned that Adam had taken a high school typing class. Army typists are always in short supply; he was assigned to the division Military Intelligence Detachment. âThe top kick was an old airborne infantryman who would not have made it in todayâs Army,â Adam says. Short and fat, he looked like a bowling ball on toothpicks. âHe was the finest man I ever met,â Adam insists. âHe decided to make a human being out of me and sent me to get a high school GED; because my scores were so high, he sent me back to the Education Center to get a one-year college GED. Then he sent me to the Adjutant General school at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.â
There Adam met Ãrsula Viera-Vazquez, daughter of a master sergeant, and fell in love. The attraction was mutual. âClerk school was six weeks. I called my first sergeant to ask if I could stay a little longerâso he made mea personnel management specialist and gave me another six weeks of classes.â
Afterward, accompanied by his fiancée, Adam returned to the 101st Airborne. After their marriage, Ãrsula began to worry about the part of Adamâs job that involved jumping out of airplanes in flight. To placate her fears, in 1962 he reenlisted in return for an assignment to an air defense unit outside Austin, Texas.
As a battalion personnel specialist, Adam learned that his upward mobility was limited by his occupational specialty. The specialty with the highest possible rank in his air defense unit was fire control maintenance technician, so Adam requested training in that. The course was almost a year long and came with a one-grade promotion upon graduation; instead of returning to Austin, however, Sergeant Adam remained at Fort Bliss as an instructor. Less than a year later, he was again promoted. In that era, it was not unusual for a soldier to complete a twenty-year career and retire at the pay grade of E-6, but Adam was not satisfied with his status. âI thought,
Here I am, five years
âI canât even tell you how many men I had in the battery, because all the paperwork, the morning reports, were done in the rear,â says Adam. âI was almost always on a firebase with the guns. But I seem to recall that we were usually at about 95 percent strength.â
Adam was born in Saarbrücken, Germany, in 1942. The following year his father was killed, and Adam went to live with an aunt in southern Bavaria, which was then beyond the reach of Allied bombers. When the war ended, he was reunited with his mother, and they moved to Wiesbaden, where she found work as a translator for the Occupation forces. âShe met an alcoholic American Air Force sergeant, and in order to help her family and help him, she accepted his marriage proposal,â Adam explains.
The family came to the US in 1951; young Klaus suffered from the effects of his stepfatherâs alcoholism, and his parents divorced when he was in his early teens. âAs a result of a lack of parental control, I ended up on the streets, did a little gang runningâpetty theft,â Adam says. âI graduated to major theft. I got caught.â He was 17. A small-town judge offered him a choice of reform school until he was 21 or three years of military service. âWhen you get an honorable discharge, Iâll purge your records,â the judge promised.
Adam enlisted in the summer of 1960. After infantry training and jump school, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. During his in-processing, a personnel clerk learned that Adam had taken a high school typing class. Army typists are always in short supply; he was assigned to the division Military Intelligence Detachment. âThe top kick was an old airborne infantryman who would not have made it in todayâs Army,â Adam says. Short and fat, he looked like a bowling ball on toothpicks. âHe was the finest man I ever met,â Adam insists. âHe decided to make a human being out of me and sent me to get a high school GED; because my scores were so high, he sent me back to the Education Center to get a one-year college GED. Then he sent me to the Adjutant General school at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.â
There Adam met Ãrsula Viera-Vazquez, daughter of a master sergeant, and fell in love. The attraction was mutual. âClerk school was six weeks. I called my first sergeant to ask if I could stay a little longerâso he made mea personnel management specialist and gave me another six weeks of classes.â
Afterward, accompanied by his fiancée, Adam returned to the 101st Airborne. After their marriage, Ãrsula began to worry about the part of Adamâs job that involved jumping out of airplanes in flight. To placate her fears, in 1962 he reenlisted in return for an assignment to an air defense unit outside Austin, Texas.
As a battalion personnel specialist, Adam learned that his upward mobility was limited by his occupational specialty. The specialty with the highest possible rank in his air defense unit was fire control maintenance technician, so Adam requested training in that. The course was almost a year long and came with a one-grade promotion upon graduation; instead of returning to Austin, however, Sergeant Adam remained at Fort Bliss as an instructor. Less than a year later, he was again promoted. In that era, it was not unusual for a soldier to complete a twenty-year career and retire at the pay grade of E-6, but Adam was not satisfied with his status. âI thought,
Here I am, five years
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