FORT SAM HOUSTON August - November 1966

The U.S. Army does things right! In Basic they test you for three days, get your intellectual profiles and act accordingly. My GT Score is 131. I am bright, brash, and Bobby!

A flight to San Antonio was truncated in The Big Apple by an airline  strike

I flew to NYC from Worcester, called the Sergeant of the Day in San Antonio then boarded a Greyhound.I loved it. My route was through the Deep South. I recall asking a passenger "where are we?' She responded "Selma." She didn't sound happy.

We rode and we rode and we rode. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, me and this Lifer got a six-pack of beer. We became loud and the bus driver became pissed as empty cans rolled down the aisle. "You guys have to cool it" of you'll be hitchhiking. We got the message. But I was young and took things lightly... lightly until we enter hell.. another word for the intense heat of Texas. 108 degrees.

Austin I recall seeing the tower where Whitman-The-Sniper maybe killing a dozen or so several weeks before. I was in Dallas earlier and had a run over to the Book Depository. Amazing. Jeff  Edison recently gave me a sampling of dirt and grass from the Grassy Knoll! Texas beckoned me as I passed through the gates of Fort Sam. ...college personified..

Over 80 Army-types were forming for training in radiology. Men and women. intelligent, brash and hardly having boots on the ground! We wore "whites" and were quasi-doctors. We were instructed in physics and anatomy & physiology. Classmate were great as was an instructor! (none of your business!) We traveled to Johnson City, drank Pearl Beer and......(none of your business.)

Tom Donolly ( AKA Tom Cleveland) and I went on the town.. A.W.O.L one night and I was saved by the bell...a letter from A .O. Connor Major General. See an earlier blog entry on "Lyndon B. Johnson"...for details.

I sincerely and unequivocally  loved being stationed in Texas. James D. Rawlins, DMD, a wildman took me for a ride in his VW Beetle... through Big Bend National Park towards Bouquillas, Mexico by way of the Rio Grande River. Jim rode a horse and I rode a jackass through the murky waters of time. We bought suede jackets shirts and a bottle of rum. a gallon. Talk about exciting! You can not find this adventure on the streets of San Francisco bare-ass...Free Love. bullshit.

Hinckley and Blair B. Bryant were our civilian instructors. Phase Two of Bob Potvin's Army days came to an end with a flight to Atlanta then onto Boston. I smuggled a bottle of tequila in my bags and it broke and stunk to high heavens.. Jack Swedis (from Worcester, Mass) and I hit it off and became friends and brothers for life. Jack passed on last February.

Military life gives folks friendships for life: Thom Cox, Mike Flanagan, Larry Bauml, "Poole" and other great Americans across the Land. You just cannot buy these kinds of comrade associations.

"Bartender.. Kiss my Glass!"

Fort Dix Next