A big change in the air

Something was starting to change and I wasn't quite sure why it felt wrong.

What I did know is what I didn't know was making me feel very close to falling off my high horse.

And I had already been warned by some senior non-commissioned officers that the meat grinder was waiting for me should that happen. I no longer had John Michael Coleman. I was doing things way above my pay grade. I had to fill out my own award recommendation -- singular, not plural.

And a had to put up with a performance assessment by LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe which, basically, spoke volumes about being thrown under the bus because, suddenly, it was much better to have done nothing and specialized on soldiering than it was to have significant impact through public affairs efforts on our unit's identity and awareness.


LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe had a few months to go on his 18 month cycle of  job titles. It was like everyone was disappearing  and I was left with a no promotion or advancement check.

I even had LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe's replacement call me up. How many enlisted men have their new Battalion CO call them up three months before they take over?

But the real clincher that convinced me it was time to move on?

When we took David Burnett over to take pictures of General Alexander Haig and LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe stopped me from going with him to take pictures of him.

Citing my being overweight as a public sore eye for the Army.

What LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe didn't know was I was also in contact with the editor of Newsweek and was told afterward that had I been able to have been able to take a picture of General Alexander Haig, they would have used my images.


Bottom line, it was time to move on.

But where?

NO LONGER A STRINGER

The Army made that decision for me.

As far as I can tell, this was also a first for the Army: a soldier, a 76Y20 Cobra Mechanic in a critical shortage MOS, was assigned on orders to the 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs Office directly from USAREUR and 7th Army.

So, in light of what was just said about the job conditions at the 3rd CAB, there were certain people who saw the accomplishments and not the man as his true worth and potential.

LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and I put this montage of images together and it was published in Army Aviation Magazine before. I left Europe I have no idea why the montage included the 101st Airborne patch as, clearly, the 3rd Infantry patch is on the shoulders of the soldiers photographed.

IN CONCLUSION

The worst was the best and the best, was impossible for anyone to believe.

A battalion level stringer who paid for his one camera equipment, film and photographic papers.out of his own pocket, worked with Hilary Brown, David Burnett, had 27 articles accepted by EurArmy Magazine, 2 by Soldiers Magazine, pictures published in FrontLine, Pillars and Posts, The Fort Campbell Courier, Army, Army Times, Army Aviation Digest, Army Aviation Magazine, AARES (A Holland Publication), worked with Diana Dannis of AFN TV, the AV team from USAREUR and 7th Army and Stars and Stripes.

I was also asked to take images at the Army Aviation Association of America convention in 1978

All in 9 months.

Despite my dyslexia and my weight issues and my weaknesses in writing, I still managed to prove Major Shielly wrong. I did get my unit published but that wouldn't have happened without LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and John Michael Coleman edging me on and honing my writing skills.