Hi ya'll!
Posted on 04/04/2007 6:28:48 PM PDT by snippy_about_it
I did mean to do it! Sometimes fotki goes down in pieces temporarily, I was hoping it would come back. :-(
He’s a slacker. :-)
He has be hooked on a sub sim and between work and playing the game to relax and the fact that we have dial up and can only be on one at a time limits our time on the internet.
I was going to send you a freepmail. Thanks for reminding me.
(((Hugs)))
Snow! It was 90 here Wednesday. Then a cold front moved in. Today it was only 75 and it’s going to only be 65 and 66 on Saturday and Sunday. It’s going to get down in the low 40’s at night. Brrrr. :-)
Yes, snippy as I write there is snow on the cars!
And it is downright cold. Never got to 30F today.
We are in for a snowy and cold Easter weekend. What can I do? Move?? I don’t know about that. LOL
Well, I’ll admit when it’s hot down here it not very pleasant, however, I wouldn’t trade it for the cold.
LOL. That’s a mouthful!
LOL I could not resist. ;)
I was the Ft Knox project officer for the M1 Tank Driver Trainer (TDT) in Pool Hall. I was the one who walked out into the middle of a vacant lot with the architect, the project engineer from PM TRADE (Program Manager, Training Devices) the Project Director from PM TRADE and a handful of others and decided there was sufficient room there to build a 43,000 sq ft building for the M1 TDT.
I walked the M1TDT program through the entire acquisition process from design to prototype to testing to fielding. In addition I helped to “find” funding for the building in a congressional insert.
I don’t remember the exact cost savings data, but the initial cost of the M1TDT and the building was somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000,000.00. The savings in OPTEMPO costs allowed the M1 TDT to run in the black after about 6 years. This program was one of the largest cost savings/avoidance programs the Army has had.
When it was time to name the building a coworker who had heard of SSG Lafayette Pool mentioned his name and the fact that nothing was named after this great American hero. That ended up being another part of the job as we had to go through the Army Heraldry Office to research the name and then contact the family for permission. As a final salute to this hero the building name was approved. SSG Pool's family attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Kudos to you! Nicely done, honoring a great American.
Wonderful. Thanks for tooting! You should be proud of your work.
Hi folks.
We have the funeral tomorrow. Afterward we’ll pile into the car and get a start on the trip back.
My grandma got to meet the greatgrandkids and thorughly enjoyed the visit.
Msdrby and the kids also got the chance to see the biggest living things on Earth. Also known as giant sequoia. They were appropriatley impressed.
Hi folks!
Good to hear from you. Have a safe trip home.
“Toot” away, SLB! That building is sure a fitting tribute to a great tanker - what an inspiration for the trainees using the facility. I don’t recall hearing “Pool Hall” but I believe the Gunny filmed a segment of his recent Mail Call episode on Fort Knox there.
There's a little more to that story....
Tank Hero of World War II, Minus A Leg, Returns to Duty With 3rd Armored"
By Marion Porter
Louisville Courier-Jounrnal
[Primary newspaper for Ft. Knox, KY, area]
September 25, 1949
Five years ago to the day he was "knocked out" of the Third Armored Division, Sgt. Lafayette G. Pool, 30, wearing his battle decorations, his battle scars, and a wooden leg, returned to the Third Armored Division.
There was sound and fury when he was knocked out of his tank by a direct hit from an enemy gun, September 19, 1944, near Stolberg, Germany. And there was pomp and circumstance recently when the 6-foot-2 Texan was welcomed home by the Third's honor guard at Fort Knox and a handclasp from Maj. Gen. Roderick R. Allen, commanding officer. (Pool's re-enlistment is part of an Army program to utilize wounded combat veterans in exceptional instances.)
"They shouldn't 'a' gone to all that trouble, but it was mighty nice," said Sergeant Pool, who was THE outstanding tank commander of World War II. Official records show that as the point of the spearhead he led 21 full-scale engagements. He is credited with 1,000 dead Germans, 250 prisoners and 250 enemy vehicles. Twelve of the vehicles destroyed were tanks.
Four tanks had been shot out from under Sergeant Pool. Asked to account for the amazing record made while spearheading attacks from Isigny, France, to Stolberg before he was wounded, he said: "Well, I prayed an awful lot and my wife at home was praying too."He recalled the amazement of the doctor who promised to discharge him "as soon as you walk down to my office on that leg." Pool did walk down to the office just four days after being issued his wooden leg. What the doctor didn't know was that Pool had been practicing on a buddy's wooden leg. The man next to him in the hospital had two artificial legs. Taking surreptitious walks. Pool used one of the borrowed legs while his buddy used the other and a crutch.
After his discharge. Pool opened a filling station and garage at his home in Sinton, Texas. He didn't like it, nor did he like several other businesses he started. He enlisted in the Army and was sent into the Transportation Corps, but finally managed, with the intervention of General Allen, to "come home" to the Third Armored Division where he will be an instructor in automotive mechanics.
"But I'd like to get back into tanks," he said wistfully. He has three sons, aged 5, 3, and 1, all destined to be tankers.
Sergeant Pool wears the Belgian and French Fourragère, the Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Merit, Silver Star, and Purple Heart -- as well as 17 bits of shrapnel in his neck, and the artificial leg.
"It's all right," he said, giving the leg a resounding smack. "Creaks a little today. I went fishing and overturned the boat and got it wet. Just needs a little oiling."
No member of his crew was injured. He had the same crew all through, the crew he trained as recruits at Camp Polk, La.
"They prayed good, too," grinned Pool, "but they could cuss even better. I'd say, 'Boys, come on, we're leading this one.' And they'd say, 'Why, you blankety blank so-and-so of a so-and-so, you're going to get us all killed.' "
Pool always rode in his tank with the turret open and the upper part of his body out of the tank.
"I like to see where I'm going and who's shooting at me," he explained. "Kinda gave me claustrophobia to be all closed in. If I had been down in the tank like I should have, I would have been killed sure nuff."
(Incidentally, Pool's twin brother was in the Navy and in every naval battle in the Far East as well as the Pearl Harbor bombing and came through unscratched.)
Injured in the neck and leg, Pool spent 22 months in hospitals before he was discharged. A Golden Gloves champ and winner of 41 out of 41 boxing matches in the Army, he described his 42d fight, "the fight for my life - the toughest."
-30-
WOW! Wonderful “more to the story”. How cool is that. I’m glad they took him back into the 3rd.
Thanks so much this archy.
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