All the Wrong Moves by Merline Lovelace

Author:Merline Lovelace [Lovelace, Merline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101151235
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2009-11-03T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

I rolled out of bed, pulled on my uniform and departed my apartment at the unheard of hour of six A.M. Monday morning. I wanted to beat the traffic and have time to look over my report one last time before zinging it off to my boss.

I wasn’t consciously attempting to demonstrate my thoroughness and dedication to duty. Still, I did nourish a secret hope Dr. J would note the time of dispatch and be suitably impressed.

The sun was just beginning to bathe the Franklin Mountains in soft dawn light when I drove through the main gate of Fort Bliss. Did I mention that FST-3’s suite of offices is located in the historic section of the post?

The original garrison was established in 1848 to protect settlers from marauding Comanches and Apaches. General Black Jack Pershing launched his raid on Pancho Villa from here in 1916. He’s the guy the Pershing Missile System was named for, in case you didn’t know. I didn’t, until I toured the post museum on a slow afternoon.

Here’s another bit of trivia I picked up at the museum. Fort Bliss is named for Lieutenant Colonel William Wal lace Smith Bliss. A West Point grad and veteran of the Mexican-American War, W.W. married Miss Betty, the daughter of Major General and later President Zachary Taylor. What’s interesting is that W.W. never set foot on this particular patch of Texas dirt. Guess if you marry the boss’s daughter you don’t have to be present to have a military installation named after you.

Fort Bliss has always been predominantly army but does have ties to my branch of the service. Briggs Airfield, one of the very first flying fields, was established here in 1919. Back in the day, Briggs handled blimps, B- 17s, B-29s, B-36s, B-47s, and B-52s. For those of you not familiar with military prefixes and numerology, “B” stands for bomber. Don’t be embarrassed. The prefix didn’t register with me, either, until months after I’d donned an air force uniform.

Following WWII, German scientists dubbed “the prisoners of peace” began arriving at Fort Bliss to work on American missile development. Coming from a country where it rains more often than not, I can only guess what they must have thought of our searing blue skies and sun-scorched desert topography.

Since those early days, Bliss has grown into the army’s premier missile training center . . . and the home of FST-3. We’re housed in a thirties-era building that’s been renovated at least a dozen times over the decades.

Renovation dollars come out of Operations and Maintenance funds, you see. O&M is a different pot from New Construction, which requires congressional approval. Thus, it’s easier to gut a facility and rebuild it from the inside out than construct a new one. The problem is, you’re still left with the same exterior shell and limited square footage. All this was explained to me by a rather exasperated deputy post commander when I voiced a number of complaints about our cramped quarters.

After my

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.