In the summer of 1966, I was approaching the last semester of my college career and doing a lot of thinking and worrying about my future.

The war in Vietnam was heating up and, after my graduation in January of  '67, I was going to be prime draft bait. Time was running short, but I began looking around for an Army Reserve or National Guard unit to join. So was everyone else of draft age.

I had begun to accept the fact that I would get that dreaded letter from my draft board and possibly end up slogging through Southeast Asian rice paddies with a helmet and a rifle, when I got an unexpected tip.

Arriving at my parents' home one afternoon after class, I found my sister Judy hanging out with one of her high school friends. I had gone to school with her brother and I asked how he was doing. She told me he had just finished his six months of active duty with the Army Reserve and was back home.

I said, "Lucky guy. I've been trying to find a Reserve unit to join."

That's when she got my heart pounding, saying, "He says his unit is losing a lot of guys who just finished their six years."

Turns out his Reserve unit was in Dodgeville, WI, about 40 miles from Madison. I was on the phone to the Reserve Center within minutes.

The civilian clerk said, "Yes, we have openings. And we have a meeting tonight, if you'd like to come and sign up."

I actually got a speeding ticket driving to the meeting.

Back then, you could tell the Army when you wanted to begin your active duty. I told them I wanted to go as soon after graduation as possible. My orders came through quickly and I found myself on a train headed to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., two weeks after the cap and gown ceremony.

In the couple of months between enlisting and leaving for basic training, I was able to apply for newspaper jobs, telling them that I would be available no later than Sept. 1, 1967 and that my Reserve status meant one weekend meeting a month and a two-week summer camp for about five years.

I picked up a copy of Editor & Publisher and wrote letters to about 30 newspapers all over the country. I had written recommendations from Glenn Miller, the sports editor at the Wisconsin State Journal and also from the head of the UW journalism school, who happened to be my parents' neighbor. I got six interview requests.

I interviewed in Rockford, IL, Dubuque, IA and Green Bay, WI. They all offered a reporting position.

The Washington Post, one of my "reach'' papers, also wrote back, offering to interview me for their scholastic (high school sports) editor. But the letter said that it was not a steppingstone position. They wanted somebody to take the job and keep it. I said, "Thanks, but no thanks."

In the end, I took the job with the Rockford Morning Star and Register-Republic. It was a very good family-owned newspaper and located just 60 miles from Madison, where my family still lived and where Judy, now my fiance, was still going to school.

I had never been away from home on my own, not even sleep-away camp. It was terrifying lying in a berth on the overnight train from Chicago to Fort Leonard Wood, wondering what it would be like and how I would handle the rigors upcoming.

The first two weeks of basic training were just as bad as I feared. We were the objects of scorn and ridicule, pushed hard physically and mentally. Worse, I was unlucky and drew KP two times in the first week, 12 hard hours at a crack. At least I didn't have to peel potatoes or wash garbage cans. I cleaned tables and chairs and washed and waxed the mess hall floor over and over for those two days.

In order to eat, you had to swing across a set of overhead bars - like on a kids' playground. I had trouble figuring out the secret (momentum) and had raw and bloody hands after the first few days. And I got my ears burned by the scary drill sergeant each time I fell off.

I wrote to Judy a few times during the first couple of weeks and, apparently, I sounded so wimpy in those letters that she wondered if she should really marry me. Worse, one of her old boyfriends, who had been wounded in Vietnam and, who my sisters said, was much better looking than me, came home and asked her to drop me and marry him.

Thankfully, she turned him down. And, by the third week of basic, I was getting into the training and the letters turned positive.

Among the enlisted men in my training company, I was the only college graduate. I was also, at 24, the oldest enlisted man in the company. A few of the guys in my unit were ninth-grade dropouts. My peers called me "Pop," NCOs and officers soon began treating me like a person instead of a recruit, making me acting corporal and giving me more and more responsibility for my unit. My company commander, who loved the fact that I could type, even tried to talk me into becoming an officer.

It was an eye-opener, the first time in my life I realized I could be a leader. It was very heady stuff.

After graduation from basic, I remained at Leonard Wood for Engineer School _ my unit in Dodgeville was an engineer company. It was like a regular school week and we had weekends off. I asked Judy to come for a visit and, much to my amazement, her parents allowed her to come.

I was having trouble finding a place for her to stay until I mentioned it to my company commander, a very kind Captain. He arranged for a room in the Bachelor Officers' Quarters, right across from my barracks. It was much nicer than any motel room in the area, and a lot cheaper.
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When Judy arrived, I met her at the bus stop and we began walking toward the BOQ. I was carrying a suitcase in one hand and a duffel in the other when the base commander's car drove past. I saw the flag with the one star on it (signifying he was a one-star general) and I panicked. Instead of dropping a bag and saluting or simply walking on without saluting, I tried to salute with the hand carrying the suitcase, nearly knocking my glasses off. We made eye contact and my last view of the general was of a man howling with laughter as they drove out of sight.

The rest of the weekend went much better, although my ``buddies'' tried hard to talk Judy out of marrying me and running away with them.

The rest of my schooling went fast and, after being released from active duty at the beginning of August, I was confident, in the best physical shape of my life and ready to tackle my new job.

It was time to get started on my career.