Upon arrival at Fort Hood from Germany, I went to the 1st Armored Division personnel office and requested assignment to an G2 or S2. I presented a letter recommending me for such. The best they could do was assign me to S3 of the 2nd Brigade.
Among my duties as assistant operations NCO was to oversee school applications from brigade soldiers, which was a wonderful opportunity to send myself to the Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, Maryland.
While the school application wound its way through channels the brigade held a promotion board for Platoon Sergeant E-7. The S3 officer found that he hadn’t been asked to submit a nominee. The board was held over and I was selected. 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 through. So, I wound up reporting in to A Company for about a week before departing to the Intelligence Analyst Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland.
Next: Military Intelligence Years.