Lima Charlie, Episode 24 with CSM (ret) Bob Van Pelt

Command Sgt. Maj. Robert W. Van Pelt, USA, Ret., served in the United States Army from 1969 to 2011.
Throughout his 42 years of service, he served in numerous assignments in the Army National Guard, Regular Army and Army Reserve.
Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt began his Army career as a draftee in March 1969 where he served as a Fixed Station Automatic Digital Network Technical Controller assigned to the First Signal Brigade in Phu Lam, Republic of Vietnam.
Following Vietnam, he was assigned to the United States Army Strategic Communications Command at Camp Darby, Coltano, Italy.
Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt then left active duty and joined the New York Army National Guard where he served with the 187th Signal Group.
Later in his career, job opportunities took him to Tennessee where he continued his Army career serving as the communications chief for Company A, 3/109 Armor, with the Tennessee Army National Guard.
While living in Tennessee, he was given the opportunity to serve as a construction chief with the 416th Facility Engineers, Fort Campbell Survey Team, U. S. Army Reserve.
Returning to his home state, Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt rejoined the New York Army National Guard.
While serving with the New York Guard, Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt rose through the ranks to sergeant major in March 1987 where he served as the operations sergeant major for the 187th Signal Brigade.
Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt is a 1991 graduate from the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy Class 37.
Appointed to command sergeant major in October 1991, he served as the command sergeant major for the 242nd Signal Battalion, 1-101st Cavalry, 187th Signal Brigade, 53rd Troop Command, and managed the Empire State Military Academy Signal School in Farmingdale, Long Island.
Throughout all these assignments, Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt’s leadership and duty performance resulted in his selection as the division command sergeant major for the historic 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division in 1998.
Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt’s Army career culminated in June 2001 with his appointment as the command sergeant major for the New York National Guard, a position he held until his retirement in June 2011.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I got no reason.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
The chief of a killing seating with a need to
blease you when the light goes, bring best believe them
and zoned to me from a yend of my yanko
a yange disease.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Good agree, I'm as say when you came.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
The MEAs because I'm weird.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm a one of a kind, and I'll bring death
to the glacier about to.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Meet another river of blood running under my feet causing
a fire.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Did long ago stand next to me? You'll never stand alone.
I'm last to leave, but the first to go. The Lord,
make me dead before you make me old A feet
on the fear of the devil inside of the enemy
faces in my sight, being with a andual shoe.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
With a mind, kill with a heart like our Kay, guys,
I am a worry and this is my song. They

(01:22):
race to the.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Ground of the enemy. I read you, Lima Charlie, loud
and clear. All right, everyone, Welcome to another episode twenty
four of Lima Charlie. Thank you so much for joining
me tonight and joining my good friend. I don't even
know how long I've known him, but I know it's

(01:44):
not as long as he spent in the Army, uh
State New York State Commands our Major retired, Bob van Pelt, Bob,
great to see you, buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Uh, same you, Troy.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's been I really I don't know when we first met,
but boy, it was a minute ago.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Uh. It's probably one of our state you know, uh
senior listed conferences around New York State. Matter of fact
that I say that it was probably Yellow Ribbons because
I remember you meet your wife for the first time
out in Buffalo.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Everyone remembers her. I'm just known as her husband.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
So or are we all?

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yes? Yeah, so but anyways, thank you so much for
joining me. You are the first you you check off
a few first force tonight on on Leama, Charlie, and
we'll get through that as we go through this. So
there's a few things that you're the first up we've
ever had. So I want to thank you for giving
me some of your Tuesday night and uh and and
joining us. Like say, commands are major retired. You got

(02:39):
the signal Brigade shirt on, so kind of stand out there.
Uh still it looked like you could still be in
You're still in great shape. You got the mustache and
military standard I mean a little bit better than me.
I kind of let mine go. I took advantage of that.
But the uh, yeah, you're all your I'm you could
probably get back in the uniform at any time and
it probably still fits.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I think I weighed less now when I retired eleven
years ago or fourteen years ago.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
It's all like good army chow at, nothing like that.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
But hey, I'm married to an Italian, so I good anyway.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah you do. I was gonna say, how is that possible?
It must be out that morning, Pete. But hey, so
yeah again, thank you so much for joining. You've got
a lot of years in it. We were talking right before
the show. What was a count you still remember, which
is twenty.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Three years, three months, twenty seven days.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
You like double retired. Essentially you more than you double
retired and knocked out a couple more years. So no,
that that's great. So why do you kind of give
our listeners and viewers a little bit about your the
interesting story and perspective you have of how you joined
and why you joined.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well, I always like to tell folks that my uncle
had me joined. My uncle Sam I was living in
Brooklyn at the time, and when you went for your
pre induction physical. I was back in nineteen sixty eight.
I went for pre induction and they sent you two
tokens to get the subway and then come home. Well
on March fourth, well actually probably around February twenty sixth,

(04:12):
twenty seventh, I got home. I was still living with
my parents and I got home from bowling one night
and on the table was my a letter with one token,
and you open it up. And I got drafted and
went to basic training. I was working for Connor Edison
at the time, and I called my boss up. I said,
I won't be into work tomorrow. Matter of fact, I
won't be in for two years. And he said, what's up?

(04:34):
I said, I got drafted. So on March fourth of
nineteen sixty nine, I went down to the Fort Hamilton
and they put me on a plane for the first
time my life ever flew and they sent me down
to Fort Jackson. Got down the basic training in Fort Jackson,
and luckily I took radio and TV repair in high

(04:55):
school for three years, so my electrical score and the
test was like in the high one thirties. So they
called me in when I was in basic and a
recruiter said, hey, you know with your scores, if you
sign there for another year, we'll let you pick your
school and you're or your MOS And I said, okay.
So I opened up a book he had to be
an MOS book, and in the book it had slide

(05:17):
and projectory pair. Eight weeks Fort Momoth, New Jersey, Well
being from Brooklyn, fourth moments only forty five minutes away. Yeah,
So I told him I take that. And the guy
looked at me and he said, well that school is
the start till August. Let me look. So he opens
up the MOS book and he finds thirty two Delta
fixed station tech Control Technical Controller, Fort Momoth, twenty three weeks. Hmmm.

(05:44):
So and he looked at me and he said, fixed station.
It's always big buildings. Twenty five to one shot. You
won't go to Vietnam. Okay, I'm not going to go
to Vietnam. I'm going to be a four month and
twenty three weeks. What do I sign? So I wound
up getting discharged after six days and re enlisted for
that extra year. And don't know how far you want
me to go with this. When I got down to
Fort Mommoth, here's a good story. Before I got drafted

(06:09):
I agreed to take a friend of mine to to
hi high school prom. Well, it just turned out where
the day I was supposed to report to ai T
of Fort Mormoth was the day that she was the
day of a prom. Well, when I called up Fort
Mommouth and said, hey, here's the situation. May seventh, I'm
supposed to be going, you know, taking a going to

(06:29):
a high school prom. And the first sargent said, well,
come on down, check in and we'll give you a pass.
So innocent do Pfc Bob Van Pelt goes down to
Fort Mommoth and I talked to the clerk down there
and he said, you can't have a pass for two weeks.
I said, well, you don't understand. I talked to the
first sergeant and at the same time, the first sergeant

(06:50):
came out of his office and the clerk called him
over and I explained to him. I said, well, you know,
first Sergeant, I spoke to you, you know, during the week,
and you said I can get a pass. I said, well,
you can't have the past for two weeks. So I
looked at me. I said, well, what do I put
my bags? And he said, what do you mean? I said,
I'm going awol talk about a set of chops. Well,

(07:13):
it turned out where there was one of the instructors
that was at Fort Momoth used to commute from Brooklyn,
so he the first start and hooked me up, drove
me back to Brooklyn with my little mesquite actually I
had a PB two because I had my little mosquito
wings in my uniform and I took her a prom
that night and the guy picked me up in the
morning about five am in the morning, drove me back

(07:34):
down to Fort Mama.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
So, uh did you go to prom?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Huh?

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Did you wear your uniform at the problem?

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yep, she wanted me. I gave her the option. She
said yes, So I went there, like I said, with
my mosquito wings on. Hey, you saved me the course
of the tuxedo.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
Yeah, and had to run the tucks.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Well, the good pot was. We started school on June
third of nineteen sixty nine. And remember I said about
ninety chance I won't go to Vietnam. There was thirteen
guys in the class and your instructor walked in and
I'll clean this one up. And he said, by the way,
you realize that ninety percent of you guys are going
to Vietnam, said the son of a God. And one

(08:13):
guy went to Ethiopia, one guy went to Germany, all
of love and the love and went to something in Vietnam.
Where I lucked out was because I did so well
in school. I got an eight week extension and worked
out of communications. And that's another whole story into itself.
So basically I was at four momentth for eight months
going to school.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
Wow, yeah, I got notified you were going to go
to Vietnam. You still had to go back and do schooling.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, what happened was when my initial course, they were
looking for the people to go to this eight week
extension and a good friend of mine who was still
matter of fact, I just saw him last week and
when I was in Nevata, he was on day shift.
I was on night shift and he saw me. He said,
by the way, the looking for volunteers. So I said,

(08:59):
help put my name in, so he did so. When
I went down to talk about this eight week extension,
the sergeant major operation Sergeant major said, you realize this
is the director assignment in the Vietnam. And I said, well,
Sergeant Major, I already have. I'm already on a Levey
to go to Vietnam. He said, oh, man, if you're
on Levey, I can't I can't put you in for it.

(09:19):
And he looked up at the clock and it was
like five o'clock in the afternoon, and he said, hell,
I have to have this name in by five point thirty.
I'll put you in. So lucked out it came home.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
I mean, it seems like you lucked out a lot
when you first came.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Oh, you don't know. I'm telling you, Troy, you don't know.
So it turned out where I did. The eight week
extension did pretty well. There was only eight guys in
the class, Me and my friend. Well, I was still
I would by that time I was a PFC. Mike
was in E four. Whenever I say Mike Ky, his
last name is actually Hey. There was three. We were
the two lowest ranking guys in the class. There was

(09:56):
a f boss guys in there. Blah blah blah. So
we got trained up on data communications. So I was
at school eight months going to school. Came home while
I was at Fort Mama w well, you know, my
wife wie W and I got engaged, but I wouldn't
get married until I came home from Vietnam. Because back then,
if you look at the papers back in sixty nine,

(10:19):
the chances of coming home were pretty slim or right,
you know, the odds they it wasn't that bad. But
so anyway, so I shipped over to Vietnam and this
is where it gets funny. We go to a REPO
depot in Menoir Airbase and what they would do is
they'd have two formations a day and they would call
out your name. They call out a pole that was

(10:40):
in the ground, a place, and a name. So now
my orders, after eight months of school, my orders said
full order didn't tech control. Well, here I am a PFC,
and after being there for three days, they called out
and I still remember poll India Camp Alpha van Pelt.
So I was looking around from guy named Van Pel

(11:02):
because my order said full m ordered, didn't tech control,
and to me Camp Alpha sounded like it was between
the DMZ and freakin' Onoi. So I'm trying to explain
to people, hey, you're sending me the wrong place. So
they put me on a bus with a Vietnamese bus
driver who don't speak English. I have no idea where
I'm going. Well, uh, Camp Alpha was a Tonsinu Dad

(11:22):
base in the middle of Saigon and that's where the
first single brigade headquarters was. So they broke me to
that and then they came over and picked me up.
Fullam was about seven miles south of Saigon. So I
had a pretty good time there when I first the
first day I was there. This is one of the bad,
you know, not bad stories, I guess over in Vietnam.

(11:42):
The mesquite was the side of parakeets. I mean they
were they were pretty big. So I got to the
base about I don't know, about five o'clock at night,
and I went into the audio room. They said, look,
it's too late process you now go find a bed.
And we had two story barracks on the on the
base I was at, So I will go from you know,
barracks to barracks. Look, I find a bed. While I

(12:04):
watched this guy get up from his you know, from
his bunk. He takes his boots and this is on
the second floor and he blocks open the screen door
and I'm saying, what the heck's going on here? There's
my first time in you know, getting to this place.
Well about five minutes later he gets up runs through
the door and dives off the porch onto the concrete.
And the last time I saw him was when they

(12:24):
were taking him away in an ambulance. What am I thinking?
What the hell am I getting into.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Your new roommate.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
You just he was in my room? No, no, this
was a forty man bay. No, no, no, this was
a forty man bay. Ironically, a couple of years ago,
I went to a full arm excuse me, a first
set of the raid reunion, and somebody there started telling
his story and he said, I'm still I'm looking for
witnesses and Troy, I'm talking maybe four years ago. And

(12:53):
I said, well, I was there, and I didn't know.
I didn't know the guy's name that jumped off the
porch or any of that stuff. But it's ironic how
things come back and haunt you. Good not a good stories,
not a good stories.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Was there any rumor control or find out why?

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why? No?

Speaker 3 (13:09):
No, he was just a little bit his bubble was
a little bit off center, you know. Bottom line. I
didn't like being in Vietnam. The base I was on
was out in the middle of rice patties. Luckily I
worked out of communications. The building I worked in was
that conditioned not for us, but for the for the computers,
so you know, for all disk drives and everything. And
we used to have to change from our boots into

(13:31):
sneakers before we walked in. Sneakers were stored in this
We called it the switch. They would be stored in
the switch and had a great time. I apologized to
Vietnam bets because every time I go to like a
fiftieth anniversary or something like that, I was lucky enough
never to have it. When I first got to Vietnam,

(13:52):
I zered my weapon and that was the last time
I fired it. Well, I was there, So I was there.
I mean I was there twelve months, and first three
months I used to go downtown a lot. We had
a bus that ran from our site right into town.
After three months, I just come back to base and
stayed on base, enjoyed my job.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
There was to see there wasn't what else to see
it downtown.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well, all you can do is get in trouble going downtown.
We very honest with you, So you know, I said,
what am I doing? This doesn't make sense.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
I've never been said by a Sar major.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Or Well, when I get to the sogeant major thing.
It's kind of funny with some of the people I
knew there good news story, but I was at full.
We used to pull God Duty about once every three weeks,
and I think I did God Mount fourteen or seventeen
times while I was there. Thirteen times. I was super
true starch, jungle fatigues, pit shine, jungle boots, and I

(14:50):
didn't do that. Mamisan did that. I used to pay
five he asked hera a month. She made my bed
and cleaned the clothes, and we were in a forty
man day. I mean, this wasn't no private stuff. And
we did a club on posting a swimming made up
swimming pool, a bunch of tires with a liner in it.
So it wasn't it wasn't bad. I don't know a
better way to say that. Matter of fact, my section

(15:12):
had a corner bunker, so we had responsibility for sixty
M sixty. I learned to load in M sixty when
I got to Italy after Vietnam, so if we got attacked,
I was gonna run around with a bunch of bullets saying, hey,
how do you load this sucker? Because I had no
and by the way, we had fifty cows around the perimeter.
If you were to tried to put a bullet or

(15:33):
around down one of them fifty cals, it would have
blew up in your face. These they weren't maintained. It
was amazing. So that was my introduction to the army.
And then luckily, one of the other funny stories, w
and I were getting married when I came back from Vietnam,
and our wedding was scheduled for May fourth, excuse me,

(15:54):
April fourth. Well, when I was in Vietnam, I found
out that I was going from there to Italy. There
was only seven places in the world to work by
my west, and I went only one in the United States,
and that's where I wanted to go. So when I
got my dest for Italy, it wasn't bad because I
took forty five days leave and had April tenth report

(16:15):
Daaly not leaf reridally, i should say. And we were getting,
like I said, married in April fourth, and I did
mention that my wife's Italian descent, So we had like
three hundred and fifty people at my wedding. Well, right
before I'm ready to come home, get on a plane
or the freedom Burgers we called them to come home.
I get called down to personnel and they said, listen,

(16:36):
we got a deal. Instead of flying into California, we're
going to fly you into four Dix. To McGuire, I said, great. Well,
they cut me in new said orders report dataly on
March thirtieth. I'm getting married in April fourth. Yeah, that's
this going to work. Well, it turns out when I
got back from this happened about a week before I

(16:58):
left there. When I got home, I was back in
Brooklyn with two sets orders. One said March thirtieth and
the other one said April tenth. Back then, we used
to carry on two or one files before computers. Right, well, oh,
I took I took them March thirtieth, daughters and put
them in the trash. Went through my two of one file.
Make sure there was nothing in there that said get

(17:20):
to Italy on March thirtieth. Everybody was happy to see
me when I got there in April tenth. They couldn't
do that today. You'd wind up in jail.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Now, you'd show up on a some kind of report
and the white one white seven something whatever, And yeah
they did.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mention I had a top secret clearance back then.
Oh yeah, even the building I worked at in Italy,
they we used to wear white cover rolls and white sneakers.
Thank god, in Vietnam they didn't make us wear white
cover rolls. So then we came over about about a
month and a half after I was there, and blah
blah blah. We stayed and uh came home. As a

(17:57):
matter of fact, I got a two month early out,
so I came home in and we came home in December.
We stayed in yeah, terrain in Italy cam Darby until
right after Christmas, and then we came home for New Years.
I actually got out of the Army on December thirty,
first off active duty. I shouldn't see out.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Of the army, right, Well, that's fine, just a touch
her dad, being from Italy was Did she have a
chance to find family there was there?

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah? No, her family's been here forever. It's like my family.
My family immigrated here back in sixteen sixty three to Brooklyn.
So I mean I'm Dutch background and nobody that I
could tell from any family members. Well, then you know
I got out. I was in active duty, in active reserve.
I was coaching youth football in Brooklyn and about nineteen

(18:51):
about two years later to maybe three years later, we
had I worked. Yeah, I coached for Knights of Columbus.
We coached. We had three different level age group football teams.
I coached in the middle and I wanted to put
together a first aid kid. Now, as you know, you

(19:12):
can't ask for a better water tight thing than an ammocan.
So I talked to one of the guys that was
a baseball coach and said he worked at the local
armory full time. And I said, hey, can you get
me a fifty cow box? And he said, yeah, stop
by the armory. So a couple of days later, I
walked in the Army and it was one of these
he was built in eighteen ninety eight, you know, twenty

(19:33):
five foot ceilings, the whole nine yards right. And I
walked in there and as soon as I walked in
the front door, there was a signal flag hanging outside
one of the offices. And I looked at Louis and said,
if I know that, maybe I would have joined. When
I got out of the Guard, I went off active duty.
The next day I joined the National Guard.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
Did they come after a year? You just think thought
about it.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
I walked in the door. And then when you say
how you lucked out? Back in nineteen seventy four, Vietnam
was over, the draft was over. So how do I
word this? A lot of guys are getting out of
the National Guard because one of the reasons they went
in was so they wouldn't have to do some of
the stupid stuff I did. Well, I walked in. I
was a thirty two delta and all signal and this

(20:19):
was a excuse me at the time. It was a
signal group headquarters. So I walked in. My MOS was fixedation,
it was all tactical. It turns out that my MOS
was directly relatable to an E seven that was at
the same it was getting out the same day I
was there. So the the as to Army support technician

(20:43):
turned around and said, well, hell, we're going to put
you in this slot. I was an E five. I
go into an E seven slot. Well, it turns out
where we used to go to Fort Bragg for R
A T. And we go down to Fort Bragg and
I'm working with these two E sevens down there, active
duty guys, and I had a good at They found
out I was technically you know, competent came back. I

(21:05):
made E six. Excuse me, yeah, I made the six
well before I go to camp. The second year down
to Fort Bragg with the same two E sevens. I'm
in the six well before we go to camp. The
third year to Fort Bragg, same two E seven's. I
have time and service Tom and Grade. I make E
seven and then two active duty guys looked at me
and said, if you come back, Nick years an E

(21:26):
eight wigan off active duty and were going into I
never used a wave it, which was like perfect timing.
And I knocked around there for a while. Then uh
w and I moved to Tennessee. I went to work
for Tennessee Valley author I worked for Connor Edison in
New York City. I went to work for Tennessee Valley
Authority with the thoughts of building a bowling alley in

(21:48):
Tennessee and Clocksville, Tennessee, which never came to fruition.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
Why don't you wanted to build and run a bowling alley?

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh yeah, well, I used to be a very avid bowlers.
Matter of fact, I bowled in Vietnam down at the
near the American Embassy in Saigon. They actually had a
bowling alley and I walked in there one day and
there was two story places and the guy says to me,
where do you want to bowl? I only did it once,
by the way, so I said, I said, what's the difference?
You will go. Look. So when I looked around the

(22:15):
corner at the bottom lanes, lanes one and two had
no approach. I mean, it was just dirt. So I
walked back to the guy said what happened here? Said, well,
somebody threw a bomb in the front front door. I said,
I'll bowl on the second floor. I mean, but I
used to. I was a very avid bowler.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
At one time, away from where the bombs happened.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Exactly exactly. So anyway, I went to Tennessee. Joined first,
I joined a Tennessee National Guard and I joined an
army unit and I was the como chief. I stayed
there for about two years until the until the company
commander called me up. I was going to school down
in Chattanooga, and he called me up and he says, uh,
just want to let can I take you out to dinner? Sure?

(22:56):
Well I got I got an outstanding performance plaque and
everything for him. Because I used to do all kinds
of crazy stuff and it turned out where we might.
After then he let me know that he was moving
up to battalion headquarters down in Nashville. The first girl
that he was gone. Me and the first sarjeant did
not get along. I don't know a better way to
say that. I was pretty aloof and back then, what

(23:18):
are you gonna do from me? Wait? What are you going?
You can't put send me to Viet Nom anymore? And
me and the first sargeant had some words. So the
next day I joined the USAR and a facility engineer unit.
And which is good because back if you remember, back then.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
You could just jump out of the Guard, You're right
into the reserves.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Everybody was out. Nobody wanted to join back then, we're
talking like, you know, nineteen eighty about nineteen eighty seventy nine,
eighty right, And I did that for a year and
a half, and then de Wie and I one day
decided why are we here? But the big line is
I mean, uh. In nineteen eighty one I became a contract,
an instrumentation controls contract in nuclear business. And that's one

(24:01):
of the reasons we came back to New York. I
went out and moved out to Long Island. So when
I came back, I went back in. Uh, back in
the signal Signal group I was in. I got promoted
to a master's sergeant as the operation sergeant and low
and behold. About a year later the signal group became
a signal brigade and e ate operation sergeant became a

(24:23):
E nine Operation Sergeant major. So in nineteen eighty seven
I had time and grade, time and service, it was
promoted to unine four years of doing that, still going
down to Fort Bragg or Fort Gordon for at.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
You've still seen the same I'm sorry, were you still
seeing those same E sevens?

Speaker 3 (24:42):
No, No, they were, they were already gone by then.
That that was too many year. If they were still
the sevens, they ought to be shot. So uh uh.
I spent a couple of well many years in the
one eighty seven single Brigade, and uh had the opportunity
to become a command sergeant major in nineteen ninety one,

(25:03):
and I went to a single battalion and took that over,
and two years later the division. At the time, the
whole forty second Division was within New York, but right
around nineteen ninety nineteen ninety one ninety two, the division
was broken up between nine states, so my single battalion
was going out of business. So then I wound up
being the CSM of an armored battalion. What do I

(25:26):
know about tanks? Not a lot. They have radios, yeah
they had, well, they had radios. But by then I
was so into all the regulations and everything. As I
walked in, I told the guys flat out, I'll clean
this up. I don't know a lot about tanks, but
I know how to take care of soldiers, So you

(25:47):
take care of me, I take care of you. And
I was there for a little over two years, and
lo and behold, the division sergeant major position came open.
I interviewed for it and became the division Sergeant major
for the forty second Division, one of eight divisions in
a National Guard. And I always used to wear my

(26:07):
signal crest very proudly, being the CSM of a mechanized
division at the time. Yeah, yeah, and I by then
I was working in nucle industry. I was contracting, and
I was doing pretty well for myself. And three years
after that, and June of two thousand and one, I
became the State Sergeant Majia for a three year tour

(26:28):
full time AGR and three months later, Yeah, three months
later the world changed. Yep. So in lieu of not
being I wasn't not only there three years, but I
was there a total of ten and he extended me
to age sixty two, which, as you know, being in
the Guard, that's unheard of for an enlisted guy. Yeah,

(26:49):
and to this day I still wonder I had four
ad in generals while I served as a State Sergeant major,
which again is an oddity because that normally doesn't happen.
When the new guy comes in, the usually bring their own,
you know, their own list of guys you went them
to this day, I have no idea what they kept me,
but it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah, there's some things we're going to rewind a little
bit there now. Somewhere along the way, you had a
couple of girls, so they were somewhere in the picture.
You kind of forgot that part, but.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Well, well, yeah I did. H nineteen seventy six, my
older daughter was born, uh, and then three years later,
in seventy nine, my baby girl was born. Well, now
they're going to be forty nine and forty six.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
In full circle. They both live in Tennessee. How does that?

Speaker 3 (27:39):
And they both live in Tennessee and I'm still inn
upstate New York, and I have no idea. My younger
daughter's only living about thirty five miles from where she
was born in Tennessee. And as you know, because you
know my family pretty well, my older daughter, Mandy decided
or Stephanie Amanda, if you want to get technical, Mandy,
when she was seventeen she decided to join the guard

(28:02):
I try to stay out of her career, believe it
or not. And uh, twenty nine years later she retired
as a CW four. So she's doing pretty well. Her
husband's retired E nine and you know Ron really well
and h yeah, And my mother's son in law was
a pilot for the UH one sixty of special Ops.

(28:23):
He retired, he's now flying for Frontier Airlines. And my
younger daughter said, no way, I'm ever going in the army.
And thank god, I don't think the army could have
put up with a brownish with you.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
But he was as closest. He's surrounded by it, that's
for sure. And but you know it's it's uh. So
you went in the guard. Now you've it's ironic, right,
just put some perspective in there. You joined the army
before I was born, and and you pinned on E
nine the year I came in the army. Uh so,

(28:58):
just and I remember one time weal when I was
right at about twenty You're just over and you were like,
you're only halfway there. And I'm like, what You're like,
do forty years? You know, you've only hit the twenty.
I'm like, I don't see that happening. I'm like, no,
You're like, you're you got another twenty to go, and uh.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Well, I try one of the things I do like
to when I get around ack to duty guys, you
always get to, well, how long are you end? I
said twenty four and they said twenty four years. No,
twenty four years is in n E nine, which is
again unheard of. Yeah, I said, but the first four
years was operations. The other twenty was h you know
csm right. Yeah, And as you know, one of the

(29:34):
things that really worked out nice. Uh well, I got
to watch how I tempered this h on nine to eleven.
Uh you're being from the city. Actually w used to
work in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
She left, you know, she stopped working there in seventy eight.
I spent a lot of time in Ground Zero. I
got to see, you know, Mandy was living in Battery Park.

(29:57):
I used to go down there quite. I just get
my car up here in Albany and drive down the
city for the day and then drive back. And if
any any important enlisted people are coming up, like f
m MGB or for First Army, my task was to
go down and basically escort them around around the Ground
zero area. I got a great picture of me and Mandy.

(30:18):
Somebody don't even know who took it at Ground Zero.
And the best one, as you know, is when she
was deployed with the forty second in two thousand and five.
I got to actually go visit her in to cit
I was gonna say Vietnam to cret Iraq. And I
always get around with folks and said, you know, dads
sometimes get to see their sons in the war zone.

(30:41):
Not many get to see their daughter in a war zone.
And as you know, it was only a three day trip.
I only spent actually I only spent overnight at her
cycles I had to go to visit other soldiers and
as a matter of fact, I think I said this
to you already. I actually spent four time I was
in the Middle East, four times, three days at a time.
That's all they let leadership stay. You have seventy two

(31:04):
hours and get the hell out because we're such a distraction.
Good part is where Mandy was stationed into crint w
and I used to send a lot of cat packages
over and I get over there they have a burger Burger,
not a burger King of Pizza hut. They got a
Why are we spending fifty something dollars of package to
send you package? You go down to bizarre and buy
whatever you want. Now, we still did.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
That I got. I got packages from Van Pelts too
when I was in a I won't talk about what
was in them, but we knew with that name on
there that nobody was going to check them. So I
don't know if you know all the stories, have to
tell you them sometime if you never heard them.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Well, a funny story is when I when I was
over and now, my mother in law sent me a
package and I always giggle every time I talk about this.
In the package was a canned ham which was excellent
hot chocolate and the jar of pimentos. To this day,
I have no idea what I was supposed to do
with that jar of piment But she's Italian.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
I got. I don't know where that goes in with
hot chocolate or ham. The Yeah, I'm not sure what
recipe that was. Maybe something was left out, but no,
I mean so you I mean, you know you did.
You did a tour, not definitely a much different you know,
tour than probably many people would expect. And and you
know you've but but you went and did that, and

(32:26):
you came back and you still served, and you had to.
You served in a time that was not easy in
the military much I had to. In no way it
had to be worse than the Nashville Like you said,
a lot of guys were getting out. The rosters and
rolls must have been empty. The ones that stayed I
mean not. I mean there are probably some great soldiers
and there are probably a lot of a lot of
not great soldiers. How do you how did that shape

(32:47):
you as you went on to take you know, be
in command positions for so long to see the army,
would it be safe to say one of its lowest
points in the seventies seventies.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Would I would definitely say that was one of the
lowest points. Like I said, people that were in the
guard didn't want to be there. They were kind of
forced into it because of the situation, and they had
the opportunity. As matter of fact, right before I got drafted.
Me and when I say, I used to bowl a lot.
We hung out at the bowling alley and two of
my friends said, Hey, we're going to go down and

(33:18):
talk to a reserve recruit. You want to go with us?
I said, nah, Well both of them went into reserves.
I didn't like, I said. I got home, I had
that draft notice. The good putt Well, the good part
of that story is the night the night I got
my draft notice, I had just come back from from
bowling two guys that worked at the stock market in Manhattan,

(33:41):
me and my friend. They were some of his work buddies,
and I won one hundred and twenty five bucks that
night bowling, and back then I was a week's pay,
and I was real happy until I got home.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
Sixties early seventies, you either had a rabbit's foot or
a four leaf clover or both in your pocket.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Well, I don't want to say, it was all who
knew what you were getting into. I mean, you know
how to Yami is. It's like now being very involved
in the local chapter of AU Association United States Army.
We do fiftieth anniversary commemorations and it's anybody that served
between nineteen fifty five and nineteen seventy five, and I

(34:24):
feel very honored to be the one that actually presents
the pen. But when you ask them to say something,
a lot of them apologize for not going to Vietnam.
And I said, guys, not many people were raising their
hand saying send me to Vietnam. It was the only
pulling out cards saying you're going. So don't feel bad
that you went to Germany or you stayed state side.

(34:44):
You still serve. That was the whole thing, you know.
That's how I always felt. And like I said, in
my position, I wasn't in combat or anything. I mean,
it was in a combat zone, but that was it.
The one good thing I can tell you is that
I mentioned before about having a topsycre urns through our site,
went all the h B fifty two strike infos, all

(35:08):
all the messages, so I can take claim to that,
you know. But other than that, don't shoot me, don't
shoot at me, and I will shoot at you. Is
that kind of thing. So, and we had we had
the Vietnamese worked right on post, and you know, they
cleaned up and everything else. A lot of them were
probably taking taking steps to make sure how far we
can go. But they knew we were in a threat.

(35:28):
To be very honest with you, I don't know a
better way to say that. They said even in ten
to sixty eight, when the Via Cong and the North region,
well via Con came out of si came out of Saigon,
they they went around our base. They didn't try to
go through it and anything else. I think one mortar
might have hit the building I worked at long before
I got there, but that was it. I mean, they
spent weeks picking up the brass from the helicopters flying over.

(35:51):
But other than that, you know, it was we were
always we were always told that we had four big
billboard antennas. And when I say big, they're they're And
that the Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese, used to use our antenna,
you know, beam off our antennas to send signals out.
And that's one of the reasons why we never were attacked.
We part of that communication system.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
Did you guys carry weapons on base at all?

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah, yeah, we had. Well, it was funny when I
first got there. They used to have footlockers of magazines,
loaded magazines in the barracks and you'd have your own
M sixteen at the time. And after people's too many
people came back from the club shooting holes in the
ceiling and stuff, they moved the bunkers the excuse me,
the magazine into the bunkers. So we still had our weapons,

(36:39):
we didn't have any any rounds to put in them.
So specifically, the bunker that we had control of for
our section was completely on the other side of post,
so I would have to run between all these one
story buildings to get probably about three hundred yards. And
I said, if we get attacked, I'm going at the
back door and I'm getting to the nearest bunker I
can get to to get some bullets instead of running

(37:02):
around with no bullets in there. But luckily Knockwood, that
never happened.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yeah, yeah, that's uh I mean, and again that's that's
a perspective of people think of Vietnam. They don't think
of that. They don't think of those, you know, whether
it be retrans relay stations, you know, the support side
of the logistics.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
OS was the largest signal base in Vietnam. When I
say lodge communication wise, we uh, the first single Brigade
was falling back I want to say, in nineteen sixty
five or sixty six to put control on all the
all the signal assets they are in Vietnam. And that's
the show to have on. I'm the membership chamber for

(37:38):
the first single Brigade Association.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah, you keep yourself.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Another funny story, and uh, where I was, I was
a place called Fool. The guys used to get together
every once in a while. And in two thousand and
nine they decided they were going to go on a cruise.
You would think the Bahamas. No, they went to Canada.
They went to New flo and all that stuff. Well,
I was supposed to retire in June of two thousand

(38:04):
and nine, and this cruise is going to be in
two thousand in September. I'm sorry, and I said, hell,
I'll be retired, let's go. I've never been on a
cruise in my life. So we signed up for the
cruise and then General Fluto came to me and said,
would you consider staying for another year? And I said, well, general,
if I'm going to stay for one, im I was
gonna stay for two and go out of sixty two
go on social security. And he said, okay, Well, so

(38:28):
now when I went on the cruise, I'm still in
I'm still in the Guard. When the guys I was
stationed with at Ful found out I was a command
Sergeer Majia, they couldn't believe it. I was one of
the biggest rebels. And as I mentioned before about hey,
I'm going a well, I was a rebel and always
I don't want to say a rule breaker, but I

(38:49):
had my own way of doing things. And I think
you've known me enough that they could not believe I
was a command serger major. They still laugh about it.
What are we talking about fifteen years later? So that's
my claim.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
Are you from at that perspective in that time, and
they probably were surprised you even you know, enlisted to
anything once your time was up, you.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Know, absolutely, because I definitely wasn't gonna do it. When
I was overseas. Natalie was a little different. Like I said,
Italy was very controlled I do have a funny story
about my friend Mike. I thought, we've been friends now
since May seventh and nineteen sixty nine. We did thirty
two weeks of school at Fort Mamath, we went to
Vietnam together, and we went to Italy together. The only

(39:34):
reason we're still friends we never worked together because I
would have killed him. I walked into work one night
in Italy and as I mentioned, it's not the installation
itself wasn't top secret, but what we had there was.
And I walked in. I was walking into after going
through all the god shacks, I mean god gates. I'm
walking up to the building and I look over in
the grass and there's a peace sign mode in the grass,

(39:57):
probably about forty foot across. Guess peace sign. So I
walk in, I put my coverrolls on, put my sneakers on,
walked up to my friend Mike, went into our section.
Walked up to my friend Mike and said, why did
you do that? He said, who told you? I said,
nobody had to tell me. He said, well, you know
I have the cutting the grass and Lieutenant said leave
it there. I like it. Well, in the next week,

(40:18):
you name a free letter acronym CIA. I. Yes, they
were at the site trying to find out why there
was a peace sign. And this was in nineteen seventy one,
while there was a peace sign in the grass at
a top secret.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
Graded. Yes, they didn't catch him.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
That was a good part. He's still alive.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
Now. Let me let me ask you, had you not
been and I know this is you know, hindsight, and
you know, kind of looking back, do you think you
would have ever went in if you hadn't been drafted?
Did you ever have a hankering for the military or
anything like that.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
I was in boy Scouts seven years before that. But no,
I just I you know, Troy, I sit back and
reflect on that now and how different my life would be.
To be very honest with you, you know, I'm seventy
six now and thinking back, I wouldn't I would have
never joined the army. I was working with con Edison,
was as happy as hell. Uh, you know, I would
have just stayed there for thirty forty years and you know,

(41:14):
retired from Edison, and you know, it just it's hard
to say what I would and did, but I could
almost say guarantee I would not have joined the army.
So my uncle Sam did me a good job.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yeah, he sure did. And that's that. It is interesting,
right because we don't all these things that happened in
our lives and through your entire career of just decisions
you made, assignments you got right, could have changed, you know,
you know your number came up for to get you know,
go to this look you know this duty station, or
get this job and go take this battalion or whatever

(41:48):
it may be, of the things that could have changed.
And so, I mean it's interesting, right. So you spent
you know, a few years active duty then the rest
of the time in the garden reserves. Yeah, you're still
very military family.

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Oh yeah, I'm still involved in a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
You're very, very involved in a lot of things. And
uh and uh did you ever uh So let me
ask you this. Knowing your families, I do, and I
have a lot of inside perspective. Did you ever think
your daughters would marry soldiers? And did you support that
encourage it? And I wish they hoped they never would.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Well, they took different paths. Both my son in laws,
this was their second marriage, okay, with with Sandra, my
my younger daughter. She met she met her current husband
when they went to school up and she was in
Potsdam and he was at the school next to it.

(42:45):
So they met there apart for years. You know, he
went out, he married his childhood sweetheart, high school sweetheart,
I should say, and they were divorced and they got married.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
You know.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Then Sandy and him, uh said hooked up. I don't
always use that word. It doesn't sound right that that.
Dads don't like to use them words. Uh. But they
met again. They met again years later, and UH.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
You know that that's gonna be great.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
And and Ron and Mandy met and I knew Ron
well before, way before. Mandy knew him because he was
my NC over the year for the for the state
a couple of years before that.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
They actually met uh when they were deployed in two
thousand and five with the division. You know, Ron, Ron
was in the r d F for the UH for
the tagers excuse me, for the division commander, and uh
Mandy was over there and she was the flight up
specialist around the l Z for the division. They came
back and UH started Dayton and the rest of the history.

(43:50):
Now they have their their two boys. UH, and you
know my younger daughter has a boy and a girl,
and the boy is going to be the death of
all of us four years old and he's a terror.
Uh but no, there's no When you think back in
how things you know came came about, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
Yeah, it's uh, like I say, paths could have taken.
It could have taken either one. I don't know. Mandy's
commenting in the chat. She said, daddy broke Troy. I
don't know what that meant. But I don't know. Hey,
he's not talking about me hooking up, so there we go.
But yeah, so when you when you've done these tours

(44:32):
over in Iraq, when you you've been a leader so
long and seen so many units out of New York
deploy and other places. Probably, But I mean, what does
it mean. I mean, just to give some people a
little bit inside baseball here, I mean, when I came
back to Afghanistan, you were there to greet us. You
were there when we got off the plane. I think
we flew back into Philadelphia or Jake, I don't where

(44:55):
I was outing.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
You only flew back into McGuire Air Force Base of
Fort Dicks.

Speaker 4 (45:00):
Yeah, it was blur, but the uh, I remember you
were there, had the buses and and and and you
were and and I know you made it a point
to try to be there for all the units come back.
It's like you made the point to try to get
over and see soldiers. But how was that? And and
as you know, even though you did you did one

(45:20):
tour in Vietnam, but you led soldiers so much, you
trained him, you shaped him to be successful and do
and then you know, obviously nine to eleven happened and
a lot of them had to you know, go do that.
How was that from a from a career perspective to
to to see the so many go, young young men
and women go over and come back, not even calling,

(45:40):
not encounting your daughter, but just young men and women
from New York right.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
Uh. I will tell you that if I found out
a plane was coming back to the Fort Drum or
the Fort Dix or McGuire, I would get in my
car and it's two hundred and thirty one miles to
uh McGuire. I would drive to McGuire, shake hands, get
back in the car and drive home. Be in a
Vietnam vet. We didn't get that. There's no way and Uh,

(46:10):
one of the trips down to Dick's. Matter of fact,
when Mandy was coming home, I always I love to
tell the story. Mandy was only a five, you know,
a E five sergeant over in Iraq, and she did
run the l Z for the for the division. And
we had a aviation unit out of California deploy with

(46:30):
the division. And when I went down there to divisit
to greet them, I had a chief four, a CW
four pilot walk up to me and said, by the way,
Sergeant Major, is that your kid? And I said yeah,
I said, well she was raised right, I said, what
do you mean? We knew that if we landed at

(46:52):
Interocrit that we were going to be on the ground,
loaded and in the air. There was no goofing around,
none of that. Just and she as inn E five.
She ran it. And one of the stories I love
to tell. One day she was I was told that
there was a full bird. Colonel went down to went
down to the l Z and said, listen, I got
to get out of here. So Mandy looked at the

(47:12):
paper work and said, I'll get you out of here.
At two o'clock. He said, no, I got to get
out of here, and he said, Colonel, I can't get
you out of here before two o'clock. So he went
into uh the I think it was anutennor colonel that
she worked for, and al theme matter of fact, I
still remember's name, walked in there and said, hey, you know,
I was I need to leave and I was told

(47:33):
I can't fly at two o'clock. And the lieutenant colonel
looked at the colonel and said, well, who told you that?
He said that female E five out at the l
Z and he said Sergeant van Pelt And colonel said yeah.
I said, well, sir, she telds you're gonna fly at
two o'clock. You're gonna fly at two o'clock. You keep
on breaking the shoes, you might not fly till tomorrow.

(47:55):
And no, my daughter, I said, I can see that happening. So, uh,
you know, I us from looking at you know, looking
at I guess the way I formulated my career. She
learned something. You know, if you have a job to do,
do it, do it right. And then nobody and backing
the lieutenant colonel that backed her up. That's the way
leadership is supposed to do it. So I was always

(48:16):
proud of that story. She did tell me one time
that they had an air raid and she jumped into
culvert that they had next to the air the flight facility. Uh,
she jumped into colvit and instead of bringing her weapon
out of a vehicle, she brought Harry Potter. She fessed up.
She took a book. She didn't take a weapon. She
did fess up about that, and you and you can

(48:38):
ask her about that the next time we talk to us.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Yeah, but I guess if you don't okay, I don't know.
I guess if you're jumping in the culvert because of
the incoming. Not sure what a weapon would really do either,
but maybe that could have helped. Yeah, but there was
no wind.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
She never told me that there was actually stuff coming in.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
But uh Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
The downside that'll thing after nine to eleven was the burials. Yeah,
you know, I've been I've been to a lot of
a lot of funerals. I think the count was I
buried thirty two soldiers from the New York National Guard.
That that was the bad side. Yeah, so and again again,
I would not miss a funeral. If if I had

(49:24):
to get in the car and drive buffalo, which I've
done many times, I would make sure I was there,
and I still did you know, I'm sitting here with
no notes Ben Schuster. I still remember when when Ben
Ben was buried, somebody in his family they sent they
sent them the gold star pins to the family and
the brother. The brother got a hold of them and
gave him out to all his friends. And I remember

(49:45):
a young lady out there came to me and said,
can you get me more, which is kind of, you know,
not the normal. And I went ahead and I got
ahold of for drum and they sent me into the
whole set, you know, so we can give back to
the family. But I still remember the names. That's the thing,
Like I said, Ben, that was probably I think, was
that before or after you deployed.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
No, it was so that that was while I was
at Shelby. We were up because as you know, my
my wonderful bride was handling all the f RG stuff.
And yeah, she gave me the she gave me the call.
So Ben had just got into country and then she
got the deal with all that too. But uh uh, yeah,
we we was we had a we had a Christmas

(50:27):
dining in or something like that for the unit, and
Ben was there and I think he shipped out two
days later to go get trained up and he had
just gotten in country. I was down in Shelby getting
ready to go to Afghanistan and when that happened, and uh, yeah,
so that was one I missed, but not one I
miss seeing him every every couple of times a year,
as he's just.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
I will I will. Do you remember when we sent
away the two platoons with the Union in the Oregon?

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Yeah, those are mine?

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Well you probably never heard this story, and I definitely
have to clean this one up. Uh. I wound up
calling up the brigade CSM. He picked up the phone.
I'm sorry from Oregon. Yeah, I know him from the
Holy Ground.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
Who I know very well, sadly, but yes.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
Oh so do I. I just saw him a couple
of days ago, matter of fact, and I called him.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Up and house one time when he was in DC
at MGB and I'm like, you really want me to
stay with you now? Like we did not get along
in Afghanistan, but.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Either well, I will tell you flat out that I
when they were ready to deploy, I didn't know him.
I never met him before in my life. And I'm
thinking about, let's see, you were sending two New York
platoon infantry platoons away with a unit that I know.
If I was at CSM and there was a lousy
mission coming up, I would kind of yeah. I mean

(51:47):
I actually call him up with the phone as this
was the whole This is the whole conversation. I said,
Sergeant Major, there is a Sergeant Major Vanpel from New York.
If you flick. I didn't say flick. I said if
you flick with my my shoulders, I'll kill you when
you get off the plane. And I hung up. I
mean that was the whole conversation. And that's how I felt,

(52:07):
bottom line, I mean, you know, take.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
It was.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
It was.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
It was a cruel thing when they when they came
to me and the commander and said pick two batoons
worth of guys. And we begged to take the whole company,
and they were like or like we know they need
a whole company, Like no, the tasking is for two batoons.
And I had to put together two batoons and uh
and then face their families and you know, and I
took and we took the brunt of it. We said, look,

(52:33):
you want to tell them I picked you and you
didn't have a choice, that's fine, but just to send that.
I used to tell people for a long time, up
until November two thousand and four, to be exact, the
worst thing in the Army he ever did was was
take my unit and not take you know, the whole unit,
not take the command, the tune until until we lost Dave.
And when we lost Dave, then I said, that's the

(52:53):
worst thing it's ever happened to me in the Army
because I couldn't be there. Not not that I would
have protected them, not that I could, but you know,
still it's one of my guys. And and and you know,
like you said, you know, if you get attached and
one of the batoons got attached to an Oregon battalion
attached to an Arkansas brigade, so they were like third
fourth down down the line, they were they were not

(53:14):
getting the primo duties. They were not getting, you know,
and it was it was gut wrenching to have them
take those those soldiers. And you know, we just sat
back here and to support the best we could, but
you know it, and then and then what right after
they get back, they yanked me in the O. They
yank hold on a second, they yanked me and the
commander for Afghanistan, so it was like you could have

(53:36):
taken us all at one time.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Well, yeah, that was one of the downsides of Vietnam.
It was constantly repos right, you know. It didn't go
over as a unit, went over as an individual. Yeah,
a lot of stuff.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
And you know you talk about that. That's how Ben
went right. Ben was an individual.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
Oh that's right, yep, he was individual Mantia.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
And I had a number of those of guys that
did not go h or before that, you know, raise
their hand. They wanted to do their part. And man,
you're really flapping out there in a breeze when you
go by yourself and you're a junior enlisted guy and
uh and you're just at the beck and call of
whatever someone wants to give you.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
You know, I agree, but that's a dangerous way to go.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
Yeah, yes, you know, I know everyone's chasing whatever they're chasing.
They want to be part of it. But you know,
you know, it's it's like I've told many folks bought
you know, guys that we know that have went back
over and over and over, and I've always told them,
you're chasing ghosts. You're you're never going to get what
you had that one time, because it's not about being
in the combat zone or being there. It's about the
people to your left and right and there those are

(54:37):
people are going to be there the second, third or
any other time. That was a one time deal. Yep,
you know, to have them in your left and right
and uh yeah. And then in some friendship says you
like you talked about Mike as you know, with me
and Ron and a whole bunch of us that went
to you know, those friendships last forever, and several guys
went back a couple of times. They they never found it.

(54:57):
You're not going to fight it, you know.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
No, I got you, like I said, we've been we've
been friends. Actually after we got back, we were we
got out of the Army together at Fort Mammoth excuse me,
at Fort Dix. Uh spent New Years here and then
he went home in March. Now we've only been out
in the army three months. In March he called me
up and said, so, what are you doing June third?

(55:19):
And I said, well, it's my birth my birthday, And
I said why He says, I'd like to be my
best man, I said, for what, We've only been home
three months and they've been married ever since, so it's
worked out pretty well.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
Did I meet I think I did I meet Mike?
You've met him at Manny's right, I think it was.
I feel like I know I've met him.

Speaker 5 (55:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, But now that's that's something it uh
when you look when you look back over forty two
years from the start of it, from getting your your
one token, which is hilarious that they gave you a
true story at least they did that.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
The uh, from that all the way through to when
you finally retired. Any anything that stands out that was
like just a shining moment or or the darkest moment
of that time of your career, not just in Vietnam,
but the whole thing. Like you talked about, you didn't
miss funerals, you didn't miss people.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
Well, like I said, there were thirty two dark moments
after nine eleven. Of course nine to eleven that that
topped everything. Who who would have thunk it? We're very
honest with you. Uh. One of one of the things
I'm really happy about. I remember when it came time
for my retirement and Mandy called me up and said, so, Dad,

(56:39):
do you want to be on the committee for your
for your retirement? And I said, well, you know, like
what kind of you know, what kind of decisions. She said, well,
whether we'd be in uniform or not. I said, well
there was not in uniform, I won't be there. And
she understood what I said, and she said, well, how
many people should we play for? I said one hundred.

(57:01):
She says, are you kidding? When I walked into my
retirement party, that's three hundred and fifty people. It means
I did my job. Yeah, yeah, so pardon me when
I get a little bit choked up here.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
It's animal, you know.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
That's that was probably the golden moment. I mean there's
other times, graduations from schools and stuff like that. Oh
not to not to believe it, because stories keep on
coming in. So when I when I went to the
Sergeant Major Academy, I was already in N nine. I
didn't have to go, but it was the right thing
to do. Well, already being in k E nine, they

(57:45):
the Academy's broken down to the groups of fifteen. Well, Troy,
I've never given blood in my life. Well this is
during this was in ninety one right before well there's
a shield was on that there's a storm, and they
walked into the classroom and they said, well, we anticipate
fate the ground war starting in the next twenty four hours.
We're looking for blood donors. Who wants to give blood. Well,

(58:06):
in a group of fifteen, I looked around, so eleven
guys that, well, eleven people because we had females in
the class, had their hands up. I said, the son
of a I remember, I remember going upstairs. My faculty
advisor was a soft Special Forces E nine and we
go upstairs that the Red Cross guy has an ear

(58:27):
ring on and he wasn't in the military. And Ricky Thompson,
that Sergeant Major Thompson says to him, you know this
is group thirteen. We're here to donate blood. And uh,
but after I donate, you have to give it back
to me for disposal. And a Red Cross guy says,
well what do you what do you mean? He said, well,

(58:47):
I've had hepatitis. Men, He's been in every little corner
in the world. And Red Cross guy said, well, then
why are you going to give blood? And he said,
this is my group. So we go in the room
and it was him and one of my classmates and me. Well,
they laid me on that table. There's three of us
at the time you get given blood. They laid me on
that table. And when they stuck that needle in my arm,

(59:08):
I was trying to think about everything else in the
world except that needle. Well, these two clowns, Bob, you
want to do this more often. Your blood's almost blue
and then, unbeknownst to me, when you give blood, you
get lightheaded. I was gone, smelling salts and every day,
I mean I was totally gone. And then the war
lasted forty eight hours. If I would have known that now,

(59:29):
I'm only kidding. So, I mean, that's it's it's items.
It's things like that that you remember right forever.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
You know, first time he gave when I was in
Ford Head, we gave. We volunteered as fast as we
could to give blood. Because if you gave blood and
you went in the morning, they take half the PETU
in the morning half day off. So when the petunc
hour come out and say you got donate buos give,
you raised your hand as fast as you could because
you got to go donate blood. You didn't go to
the motor pool and you got you got some orange

(59:55):
juice in the cookie, and you got the day off.
And man, if it was on a Friday, he just
scored a three day weekend. If you didn't do it
to the afternoon, you still had to go work in
the morning because half the tune's gone, and then you
got the day off. At the given blood was a highlight.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
It was not this, not in this boy's body. I
don't like to give blood.

Speaker 4 (01:00:13):
So and I had guys. I had guys I knew
that were so wanting money and broke so bad. They
would go downtown clean and give plasma after what yeah
and and yeah, but.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
I've remembering that broke in my life. I'm gonna get
away blood. I just have even being all I'm is,
I still have a fear you not anymore. But I
had a phobia. I just say to fear a phobia
of needles. You know, I lived my grandmother used to
take insulin when I was you know, when I was young,
and just got in the head that you don't need needles.
And look, I stayed in near me for forty years.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
I had a few physicals, I'm sure, and had a
few needles.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Well, and I will tell you in basic when they
were using the guns back then. Oh yeah, And I
remember walking between two guys and one one show I
got a plague shot and the other one that got
color shot. And I won't buy him. I said, that
wouldn't bad at all. And a couple of seconds later
when the when the the pain kicked in, I'm gone,

(01:01:10):
gone again, smell results again.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
I came in when you got promoted the E nine,
and uh, they were still using the guns, but it
wasn't as bad as till I went to Korea and
then went to Desert Storm, and then we got so
many weird shots and things, and the shots and the
butt cheeks and it's like it was it was getting
hit from all sides. It was uh yeah, it was.
It was something else. But they they've gotten better of
that now, I guess.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
I think eighty three. Uh, there was about six of
us that went to uh over to Manhattan, uh to
the arms, the big Armory in Manhattan, and we got
we were the first people in New York State in
the Guard I know, to get tested for AIDS because
we were going over to Germany. Oh and before you
you know they back then, so the six of us
went over there and blah blah blah. Just spend a

(01:01:52):
lot of time in Germany. Uh we used to do
to a t a year, used to go there twice
a year, uh are or what. I don't know what
it was called back then, but a wartime mission at
that time, during the eighties was to put communications in
the Netherlands from Germany, to get soldiers from Rotterdam into

(01:02:12):
the fold the gap. And then then eighty nine and
Russians gave up and did away with them great tours.
So it wasn't it's better than Fort Bragg. I'll tell
you that, going to going to the Netherlands.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
I know a lot of people would say that's better
than Fort Bragg. But well, hey, Bob, we've been going
for about an hour, a little over an hour. I
want to thank you so much for coming on man
and give me some of your Tuesday night. This was
this was great.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
I know a lot of people were watching listening. I
was watching, I was getting text and comments. It just
what an interesting career for forty two forty two years,
you know, it came in and in sixty eight, right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Sixty eight, Mancha sixty nine.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
A month before I was born a month before I
was born.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
Got promoted in March of eighty seventy nine.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
March of eighty seven. Uh yeah, yeah, that was a
few months before. It was about three months before I
came in the army and uh.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
Yeah, the rest of his history.

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
And you were there at my retirement party, and yes
I was and contributed a lot to my delinquency that night.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
Well you mean that little drink and stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:03:17):
Yeah, well that's all right. But hey, thank you so
much for coming on and your and your wonderful wife
and at the Angel to us all Ms Deb who
I heard laughing in the background earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
She left it a couple of stories.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
But so great to see you guys, and uh and
have you on and again, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
Man, no problem, Al troy An anytime you're anytime you
need anything, all you can do is ask.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
I knew you would have some stories, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Oh I got more.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
Anyways, everyone, thank you so much for watching a Lee
Ma Charlie. This was episode twenty four New York State
Commands our Major retired Bob man Pelt. Let me just
sink this in again. Forty two years, three months.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
Three months, twenty seven days.

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
Twenty seven days double retirement, but doesn't get double retirement.
That'd be nice if you did. Huh.

Speaker 3 (01:04:05):
I do pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:04:08):
But thank you so much, Bob. I appreciate our first
draft eh ever on this show, So yeah, there we go.
All right, thank you so much. Tune in on third
Thursday Night's take, follow us on the socials, and thank
you so much, followers, sponsors, and we'll wish everybody at
good night.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
All right, bye bye