Upon arrival at Fort Hood from Germany, I went to the 1st Armored Division personnel office and requested assignment to G2 or an S2 (Intelligence). I presented a letter recommending me for such. The best they could do was assign me to S3 (Operations) of the 2nd Brigade.
Among my duties as assistant operations sergeant was to oversee school applications from the brigade’s soldiers. That gave me a wonderful opportunity to send in my application to the Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, Maryland. I took the opportunity and sent my application in.
While the school application wound its way through channels the brigade held a promotion board for Platoon Sergeant E-7. I was selected which was unexpected, as I had only 10 years in the Army. The normal time in service to make E7 was 14 years. The platoon sergeant assignment was to Company A, 1/81st Armor but because a big field training exercise was coming up the S3 kept me until after it was over. In the meantime, my school application had come back approved. I wound up reporting into Company A, 81st Armor as a platoon sergeant for about a week before departing to the Intelligence Analyst Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland.