After I was engaged to Nancy, I was about to be drafted, and I knew when my number was coming up, so I did the reserves, which I thought was a six-month program. That unit I joined got activated during the Berlin crisis. So, I did a little over a year of active duty.

I was replacement troops at Fort Ord, and then Fort Louis in Yakima. I was replacement for troops that went to Berlin. There was a signal construction unit, and I was going to be the company clerk, but I ended up climbing telephone polls and driving trucks and things. I would drive some officers around the field and that was great because we would talk about books we had read and things.

As soon as we got with the other men, it was the officer command mentality and they couldn’t talk to me. And then I would go to PFs and I would be in uniform and the officer’s wife would pull rank on me, and I thought that was terrible.

I think everyone should serve in the military, but I don’t like the caste system. I was rebellious until I was thirty, and even to this day, I don’t like authority. I want to be independent. Even through my working career, I rebelled against authority. I always did everything myself and when they wanted something done, I would get it done, but I don’t like supervision. I became in a position where I was supervising people. If people wanted to be put in a pressure cooker, I would put them in a pressure cooker, but it was their choice. I tried to be independent.