I never saw combat, either. Closest I got to it was as an Augmentation Reserve Force commander for a local Nike Hercules site. Basically, it consisted of taking 40 air defenders who hadn't undertaken small arms tactics since Basic Training, issuing live ammo to them, and conducting an exercise inside the security perimeter where nuclear weapons were stored.
In addition to that, it was observed by evaluation teams from USAREUR or Department of the Army.
During my last of 6, I got into it with the team chief, a Lt Colonel. Once notified, we had four hours to assemble, train, and move the 40 men with two towed Vulcans to the site. I felt pretty good, we got there 30 minutes early. The team chief disagreed with me, and I was incredulous. He didn't like my explanation, that I held them back for extra training. I think my reasoning was logical and understandable.
At the outbriefing for this nuclear surety inspection, the Nike Herc battery's entire chain of command was there, all the way to the Deputy CG of 32nd AADCOM. The team chief made one last comment about my ARF's "late" arrival, which elicited muffled laughter from the officers of the NH battery: i.e. if that's all he had, everything was golden...for them.
When the team left, BG Archie Cannon went up to the podium, looked directly at me and said, "Lieutenant, I'll take that hit for you. Anytime you want to give your soldiers extra training, you have my permission."
That made everything...golden...lol.
Recalling all the things that could have gone wrong during those six missions, I'm exceedingly grateful, no one was ever injured, nor was a round ever discharged.
I can tell stories about my stint in the Army but they’re not about heroics. I remember when drunken roommates in the old brick barracks at the Presidio of San Francisco (6th Amy HQ) held one of the guys upside down out of out the two-story window. I remember others setting their gas discharges on fire. They also hooted at and called out to women soldiers who marched by beneath our windows—something I disapproved of and with which I did not join.