In looking back, it seems that many of the important decisions we made were made while we were traveling across the country.  When traveling long distances, there are few distractions and time to give serious discussion to the issue at hand.  There used to be portions of our country where you couldn’t even find a decent radio station.  I’m afraid XM Radio may have ruined our decision-making process.

In the Spring of 1965, Carole and I took a vacation down into Mexico.  We were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas and Carole’s dad lived in Rosenberg, Texas, just south of Houston.  We dropped Becky (age 3) and Missy (three months) off at her dad’s and headed South.  It was during that trip that we decided that I would become a career Army JAG.

With that decision behind us, we enjoyed a beautiful little resort, south of Monterey.  I think it was our third and last day there when we figured out that this quaint little resort had a bit of a flea problem.  Adios Mexico!  We left Mexico, but Mexico refused to leave me.  Three months later, I was twenty pounds lighter and wondering if I would ever be free from the curse.  Then, as suddenly as it came, it went away.

Shortly after I returned from Mexico, I received a phone call from the JAG Career Management Office in the Pentagon.  “Paul?”  Paul is my first name, but only telemarketers call me Paul.  I responded with “Yes?”  He was a JAG major whom I don’t remember, but he told me that The Judge Advocate General had asked him to call and let me know that he was aware of the good work I was doing at Fort Hood.  There were some many funny responses I thought about saying, but I played it straight. 

He asked me if I had given any thought to a career in the Army.  I told him I had.  I mentioned that a friend of mine was able to attend the language school to study German and then be assigned to Germany.  I told him that I thought that sounded exciting.  He told me that he thought that could be arranged.  I told him to put the offer in writing and I would accept it.  He then said something strange.  He said he could make it happen, but he couldn’t put it in writing.  I figured he must have been speaking Pentagonese, because I had never heard anything like that before.  But, I wanted what he said he was going to “make happen.”  I said, “OK,” and, in fact, it all worked out as promised.

The last thing I needed to do was pass a simple language aptitude test.  They sent me over to the Fort Hood test center.  I sat down with an NCO and he explained the test.  I would be dealing with a made-up language and I was to answer a number of multiple choice questions.  I needed a score of 18 to pass.  In order to discourage people from guessing, each wrong answer subtracted one-half point.

I was the only one taking the test and we were alone in the room.  He took out a large test clock and wound it.  He said I had twenty minutes, set the clock down right in front of me and left the room.  I started in on the test and the first few questions seemed easy.  Then, I looked at the clock.  It was like an oversize old-time alarm clock, but I couldn’t read it.  It looked like it ran backwards, but I just couldn’t figure out how it worked, what it meant or how much time I had left.  I began to panic.  I had a wristwatch on, but I hadn’t bothered to look at it when I started the test.  I went out into the hall and looked for the NCO.  The building seemed empty.  I went back to my desk and tried to answer more questions, but the ticking seemed to be getting louder.  It was maddening.  I spent more time trying to compose myself than answering questions.  Somehow, I needed to answer 18 questions and get them all right.  Tick, tick, tick.

I had just finished my 21st question when the alarm went off and the NCO reappeared.  I tried to explain to him about the clock, but “concern” was not in his job description.  He just said, “Let’s see how you did.”  It turned out I missed only one, which gave me a score of 19 and one half.  I was embarrassed, but I had passed and I just wanted to escape from the clock and the building.  I determined that my aptitude for languages was a lot better than for time keeping.