Posted on 03/16/2022 11:43:35 AM PDT by nickcarraway
We did most of Europe then when I enlisted I did the southeast Asia tour before settling down to CONUS assignments doing Minuteman missile work.
I lived on Ord for a bit in 1985 while attending the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey.
Oh, also tore up some major divots on Hole 1 at the Naval Postgraduate school golf course early one Saturday. At least till they kicked us out :)
Possibly. I was young and he has passed so can’t ask. Does ring a bell though.
“consulting firm to prepare demolition bids”
Translation - somebody’s relative needs money and no work will actually get done.
My dad attended DLI 69-70. I was in 10th grade at Seaside High. We lived on Ft. Ord. Interestingly, the show MythBusters did an experiment a few years ago on my street (Salerno Dr.) (Taking advantage of the abandonment to blow stuff up.)
89-90
My first military assignment. Was there during the transition to a light infantry division. 107th MI (CEWI) and 3/17th Infantry (the Bulls)
I did my basic at Ord. There was tremendous activity there in 53-54, as the United States began to prepare the support for France in Indo-China. Then from 13 March thru 7 May 1954 they fought the battle of Dien Bien Phu. With that loss any thought Eisenhower may have had to support the French was ended. Trainees were held in barracks while it was decided what to do next. The score of locomotive engineers, most from the Mountain states and drafter to run the railroads in Viet Nam were sent back home (poor bastids were old, out of shape). Some draftees were discharged. The units which were to be infantry trained at Hunter Ligget were given new assignments, and many were trained as postal agents at fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Man, those were chaotic times.
“The city of Marina plans to tear down dozens of old military barracks and buildings that are no longer in use in Fort Ord and turn them into spaces that people and families will use. “
Oh, crap! This is a major Hillary Clinton concentration camp. All the survivalist squirrels have told us that this is where a million patriots will be taken to and get their heads cut off by an army veg-o-matic machine. This is so sad.
Oops, I mis-remembered the dates of my attendance. After checking my diploma, I graduated in Sep 1982. Yes, I still have my diploma. Surviving the DLI is an achievement worth remembering.
I was Chinese-Mandarin.
Yeah, Chinese-Mandarin was quite a bit more daunting than Russian. But Russian was bad enough. I still use it and am pretty good.
But DLI back then was epic. My wife loved the Clam chowder places down on the boardwalk and the restaurants overlooking the ocean.
Yeah, Chinese was great fun. I kept up with it until I discovered that all I learned was military-speak, and was quite disrespectful in conversation.
Monterey was great. The big downside of the USAF barracks was that from my top floor dorm room the seals barking seemed quite loud and could keep me awake on otherwise quiet nights.
After service life I got a job and career in the Sunnyvale area, and was able to visit Monterey often, until I moved for my company to Maryland. Now I am retired and back home in Oregon, which isn’t the same place I grew up in.
I recently corresponded with a fellow freeper about Monterey, and he said it isn’t what it used to be, having gone the way of much of California, and is no longer worth visiting.
“Just turn it all over to private enterprise, they’ll turn it into East Garrison and more businesses like Joby will locate at the airport industrial area.”
There is a relatively new couple in our neighborhood, and his job is doing what you cited and I posted above re rehabbing or whatever to convert old military bases into current and usable commercial properties, not rehabbed military barracks.
He has convinced his company that he can live anywhere and there are a lot of former bases in California waiting to be rehabbed.
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