On to Richmond

This week Carol and I are off to Richmond, Virginia for an all day Civil War conference sponsored by the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. Not surprisingly Virginia is well out in front of all states on their observation and commemoration of the 150th anniversary. Besides economic reasons, they have good historical reason to be starting now since the 150th anniversary of the John Brown raid takes place this year. I decided to go to this conference because I think it is important to show the New Jersey flag and demonstrate by our presence that New Jersey is at work on this as well. As far as I can tell from the Internet, we are ahead of all other northern states.

I am sure that I will write at some length about this after we get back, but the trip is also spurring memories of a different time in my life, May of 1970 probably because the time of year and the destination are roughly the same. Some 39 years ago on May 18th, I left my parents home in Wayne, New Jersey to go on active duty as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army (2nd Lt's bars above right). As I think about that now, I realize how poorly prepared I was to make that trip and start a journey that would last for the next 20 months passing through Ft. Carson, Colorado and Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.

For example, I fairly sure that day marked the first time that I had ever driven outside of the state of New Jersey, in fact, it may have been the first time that I had ever driven on the New Jersey Turnpike - if it wasn't the first time it was pretty close. After leaving New Jersey, I drove through Maryland, around Washington, D. C. on the way to Ft. Lee, Virginia in Peters burg, Virginia, the home of the Quartermaster School (about 20 miles south of Richmond). Other than a college basketball trip to Florida, it was the first time I had ever been in the south. Ironically those of us from the north were unhappy because we were in the south, while the guys from the south were unhappy because they were in north. Actually that's a pretty good metaphor for Petersburg, I never knew anyone who like it there.

There is another even greater irony to my military service. As I said, I was unprepared for the experience of just being on my own so far away from home, but at least at Ft. Lee, I was just going to school - can't do too much damage there. Later that summer, I took an even longer trip, driving from New Jersey to Colorado Springs, Colorado to join what would become the 4th Infantry Division. Quartermaster School helped me adjust to some degree to army life, but the real army was a different story, once you had those bars on your shoulder, you were expected to do what was necessary without excuses or explanations. Probably like most 2nd Lieutenants, one time, I tried the "I wasn't that kind of officer" excuse and got the response, "You are now, figure it out." Trust me, I never tried that excuse again.

The irony is that for 20 month period in the army, I had more responsibility and authority than I would have again for years in civilian life, at a time when I was especially unprepared for it. I remember how frustrating it was in my early days in banking where you couldn't even make the most basic decisions by yourself - things that you wouldn't think about asking someone permission for in the army.

I have been back in the Richmond area once before, on a Civil War trip with Carol and Paul when Paul was in middle school - long before I thought about writing a book about the Civil War. For some reason that trip didn't prompt these kind of memories, even though we did visit Ft. Lee which we most likely won't be doing this time. Based on what has happened so far this trip will be different, leading to more memories and most likely even more reflections.