After completing Advanced Individual Armor Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky in December 1955, Phil Shellabarger and I were assigned to Tank Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Initially, I was assigned as a gunner on an M48A1 medium tank (90mm gun). The motor sergeant asked me if I wanted to be the ordnance parts clerk, insinuating it would mean faster promotion. It didn’t but it kept me inside when the rest of the company were in the rain.
We were informed the regiment would be gyroscoping (deploying as a unit) to Alaska in July. We were then given five M41A1 light tanks (76mm gun) for familiarization as that would be what the company would have in Alaska.
We departed Fort Lewis in June 1956 following a regimental review. I am in the last rank and sixth file because troops are always ordered by height front to rear and then side to side. Shortly before departing for Alaska, Phil Shellabarger (enlisted with me from Coos Bay), Phil Dennis, & I managed to get to Seattle for a last fling. This picture was taken at my Cousin Ray’s.
We embarked to Alaska from Seattle via a troopship. My mother, Aunt Dolly, Cousin Ray, and sister Kathy came to wave goodbye to us. We never lost sight of land during the entire voyage from Seattle to Anchorage “Steerage Class.” We were packed in liked sardines but could go on deck for fresh air (if you didn’t mind the cold breeze). Although this was my first sea voyage, traveling via troopship isn’t really the same experience as a cruise ship. There wasn’t a lot to do except play cards.
The two-year tour in Alaska was mostly enjoyable and adventurous. There were lots of new experiences, such as having an icicle form in your mouth when yawning, continuous dark in the winter and continuous daylight in the summer. During the two years I was in Alaska, the Army reorganized, replacing regiments with battle groups and then into brigades. Our company became the 74th Tank Company (guidon) and finally A Company, 40th Armor (guidon).
I almost died from carbon monoxide poisoning being towed by cable to another tank following an aborted fording of the Tanana river. Then too, I got to go moose and caribou hunting, but never bagged any.
I have too many fond memories of my time in Alaska to recount here. I left Fairbanks the day Congress passed the statehood bill— everybody went wild. A slide show can be found here.