Wayne McGlone Interview Transcript

Pat: Alright so Wayne what can you tell us about your experience at boot camp?

Wayne: (.06) Boot camp was very exciting, scary at first, when you first got to the reception center they’d pile 15 to 75 guys on a cattle truck and you’d have all your equipment and gear and you just drove this cattle truck out to the middle of the night, not knowing where you were going, people yelling and screaming at ya and as soon you got to your unit there was more drill sergeants just yelling and screaming at ya as soon as you got off the bus and there whole intention was to terrify you which they were very successful.

Umm and then my boot camp 7 weeks long if I can remember correctly and we did everything from physical training for the first couple weeks to hand to hand combat. Umm shooting ranges, driving Hum V’s. We had two 17 mile hikes. It was tough, it was grueling, but looking back at it I’m glad I did it and I was pretty proud at the fact that I made it through because I was a fat little kid when I first started, so haha.

Pat: (1:01) Hahaha, alright ummm can you tell us how you first felt about getting shipped out?

Wayne: (1:10) Umm, when I first got the news that my unit, uhh I was in the 3rd Infantry Division stationed in Germany and we were broken 7 platoons and each platoon was in a different uhh city our platoon hadn’t been uhhm assigned to go anywhere yet, I was back in Massachusetts on leave for 30 days and I was actually at a friends house when I got the call from my unit back in Germany saying you had to return and that we were deploying, umm, and it was a sinking feeling in my stomach, umm, you know we had heard previous to the war uhh that there were chemical weapons and we had heard all different kinds of things that if chemical were used that the first 24 hours that there’d be more loss of life then the entire vietnam war. So, again my, my initial reaction was was umm was fear and um but I knew that you know thats what we were called to do and thats what we had to do.

Pat: (2:13) What your uh parents think about you enlisting?

Wayne: (2:16) My parents were proud umm my adopted father served in the navy my biological father served in the army. Uhh, so its kind of a family tradition, they were very proud, they thought that it was a uhh a great thing and I kinda had uhhh wild youth growing up a wild teenager so uhhm they thought that the army would give me the discipline and and uhh the responsibility that I needed and the growth that I needed to mature.

Pat: (2:44) Hummm um alright (sigh) sorry some of these questions are really bad haha.

Wayne: (2:55) It’s quite alright haha.

Chad:(2:56) Let me ask one.

Pat: (2:58) Yea.

Chad: (3:03) How did war change you?

Wayne: (3:05) Umm the biggest thing I got out of the gulf war and which I served and the current wars that were fighting now is that umm when I first joined the army I was like a lot of guys you were young and you thought that you were indestructible and uhh nothing could happen and you quickly realized when you start seeing um you know flag draped coffins coming off of planes um or you hear of friends of yours getting injured umm you realize quickly how valuable life is and um that you really need to take uhh and appreciate every every minute that you have uhh I really, again I was young and I never thought of the future and seeing war first hand really made me think about where I wanted to go what I wanted to do and uh really made me think or feel that I would hope that something that my children would never have to deal with in their lives but you know unfortunately that wasn’t the case um but as a soldier I feel that it was my job to go wherever our government told us to go fight wherever we were told to fight kill who ever we had to kill and uhh the honor that I feel and the pride and um all that far aways anything else that I ever went through as far as fear or umm any of that and to have a daughter that is serving in the army that’s you know umm again it’s a pride and a sense of umm country beliefs and values that you just can’t explain to anyone else unless you served umm its probably the greatest thing that I’ve done single handedly you know single handedly in my life umm for that umm I’m always thankful for what I got out of the service.

Chad: (5:06) How did you like where you were stationed?

Wayne: (5:11) My full time permanent uhh duty assignment was in Kitzingen, Germany. Umm, we had the longest and most active air field in Germany so a lot of the troop transports as reserves and um national guardsmen we were called up they would fly into Frankfurt then they would dispatch to our base and then they were shipped out from there umm on c130’s or c5a galaxies and uhh so I was very fortunate to be permanently stationed over seas and that anything that we did from there we flew out of umm Frankfurt but where I lived and uhh spent my time during the war when you couldn’t ask for anything better you know we were out of harms way umm we didn’t have to deal with the heat and every single day the way that a fellow soldier did so you know it was definitely if you have to fight in a war that’s the way you wanted to fight in a war would be assigned like that so um but you know there were people that had it a lot worse.

Chad: (6:20) Can you describe a typical meal in the military?

Wayne: (6:24) Umm well ya in boot camp umm again when I went through I was over- weight so they had this specific diet. You would go into the chow hall and for those people that weren’t overweight you would get in one line and then for the fat people you would get, haha that’s what they had, you would get in another line umm and the food wasn’t good to be honest with you it really wasn’t good no matter where you were eating umm but if you were in the fat line they really, eat vegetables and portions the size of you know that wouldn’t feed a mouse in my opinion. Umm and I remember one of the first meals that I got in when I was in Fort McClellan in Alabama walking through the chow line you could see were cockroaches running on the back of the wall you know obviously you kinda started thinking that it wasn't gonna be that good um but you kinda got use to it. When we were in the fields or whether its a basic training or in my permanent duty station we got uhh MRE’s which are meals ready to eat and umm those actually weren't that bad and you got use to those and you'd look forward to uh eating those and um one meal a day they would set up a uhmmmm a meal hut and you would get one hut meal while you were in the field and that was usually slop that was, it was just horrible umm so needless to say you’ll loose a lot of weight and you’ll get fit by eating the army.. their food. And once I was in my regular unit back in Germany, umm, as military police officers we didn't have um our own chow hall and we really didn't eat with the infantry managers because it did create some tensions so we were given separate pay to uh buy groceries on our own and so once you were at your permanent duty station you kind of, you could eat how you wanted to you know we had the kitchen we had all that so it really was, wasn’t too bad.

Chad: (8:21) Alright now going back you said that they might use gas in the war? Did you ever see that in the war?

Wayne: (8:28) No we were um we were very very fortunate um uhh there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere uhh at that point and um we had trained even since before basic training we knew that we had too be somewhere. Umm, that was one of the first and most important things that they tell you is how to put on and take off your your protective mask uh in basic training you went to a small hut I’m gonna say probably 60 by 40 it’s dark their playing some creepy music there’s some camouflage nets hanging everywhere and you stand in a big circle and u have your protective mask on and you uh can’t see two feet in front of your face and then all of a sudden all the drill sergeants will will start yelling and screaming at ya and asking ya questions and ya have to answer them and before you know it they’ll rip off your protective mask and all of a sudden you’ll start to smell the gas and your eyes start tearing up you think your choking,um it was the worst feeling that I think I’ve ever felt in my life. You didn’t think you could breath um but the whole time they’re asking these questions, how many brothers and sisters do u have? Where do you live? And they wanted to see how long you could withstand the gas and uh wanted to permanently be imbedded into your mind what that feeling was like and how important it was to be able to respond to a chemical attack. Then once they let you out you got some fresh air you’d start rubbing your eyes which was one of the worst things you could do. Um, it just made it worse but it did it did umm like I said it did imbed into your mind that when you heard the alarm for a chemical attack that you were in and out of that um that protective gear as quick as could be uh and fortunately it was never brought into the umm theater of war. So, we were extremely lucky for that and we just hoped that we never be an issue that nobody will have to see that but at that time you know it was known that Saddam had used chemical agents against his own people so it was uhh it was a real threat that we faced in every soldier that was in that war faced.

Pat: (10:42) So um as an mp would you guys have daily routines or would you have something different to do every day?

Wayne: (10:49) Ummm no our routine was fairly standard we had a couple of different missions in a wartime situation umm we would act and it depends on what, what your job assignment was for the day. I, we would act as advance scouts we would send out three man teams uhh ahead of any units to track the area or to scout the area or to see if there was any enemy in the area umm we provided security for the arriving troops or departing troops again whether you were stationed at the shipping or receiving end of troop placement. Umm and we provided security for the areas that we were, that we were already stationed in. Umm so depending on what job assignment you got the routine was fairly standard. Umm not much changed and again we’re were our world is fairly quick you didn’t have a lot of the surprises that the troops and soldiers are dealing with now. Umm so its kinda of it it could get monotonous if they didn’t change it up it’s uh a boring routine after a while (laughter).

Pat: (12:02) Umm, did you bring anything with you from home, while you were on duty?

Wayne: (12:08) Umm, no as a matter of fact you did when you first got there. They would give you a list of things to, that you could bring and that you couldn’t bring. And it started back in even basic training as soon as you got to basic training even though they gave you this list a recruiter would give you this list of things to bring. Um, as soon as you got that list and as soon as soon as you filed into the reception building they have what they called the amnesty bin and they told you at that time that if you had toothpaste, shampoo, anything that you would of thought of bringing from home that the recruiter told you had to throw away and throw into this bin and um so uh when I left basic training I went right over seas I didn’t come right home first so I didn’t have time to grab any personal belongings. Uhh so I flew right over to Germany and while I was there uhh you kinda uh pick and choose and get knickknacks that are special to that area more of what I brought home then took to any of the places that I was stationed at. Um, but there were people that you know I had friends that would bring pictures or um you know certain memorabilia that would remind them of home or something that they could keep close you know. Or one of the big things is when you are in combat situation you really can’t be toting around anything you know you have enough gear and equipment in your rough sack that you didn’t really have a lot of room to carry much of anything so pictures were probably the biggest things that uh people chose to bring with them.

Pat: (13.41) Um, could you describe us the darkest time of war for you?

Wayne: (13.48) Um, the darkest time for me was when we had a soldier from our unit uhh, I hadn’t even of been shipped out anywhere I was actually back on my post in Germany and uh we had a soldier killed. He was uh in a squad of about 4 or 5 people and they were pinned down by enemy fire. Um, he ran across a field during you know taking fire, ran into a apc which is an armored personal carrier attacked the turret that was um that was holding them down. He ended up by killing the enemy. In the process, he was killed um and he was shot up really bad so when it was time for the very first funeral to see the coffin and then a flag folded across it, then is boots on top of that um that was really that was the hardest thing that hit me. Unfortunately being an mp we did see a lot of death and um all that just on a normal basis we uh but to see somebody that gave their lives uh and to see like I said the flag and the boots just standing there and really that all that’s left uh of somebody that everybody knew uh I’ll never forget that as long as I live.

Pat: (15.14) Did you have any times of glory or you felt proud of what you were doing?

Wayne: (15.18) Um, not any one particular event. Um but I, I think the biggest thing at first was when I graduated basic training. Um, to know that I did it when a lot of other people didn’t do it or chose not to do it that was probably one of my proudest moments. Um and then ever day since then looking back more so now then I was in at the time when I was serving I knew it was what I chose to do and I did feel pride about being a soldier. Um, but looking back now, 20 years later I have even more pride in and um feel more of those are the glory days, use to be every day that I was able to serve this country was really was my proudest moment.

Pat: (16.15) When you uh got home from the war what was the first thing that you did?

His Wife in the background: (16.21) Drink beer

(laughter)

Wayne:(16.24) No uhh jeeze I honestly, I think probably one of the first and foremost uh was I hugged my family and spent a lot of time with them. Um, I finished in Germany as well so I didn’t come straight back to the states. Umm, so I spent time with my family and friends probably my first good month home I did nothing but visit people and see people that I hadn’t seen in a long time and there was some people that I hadn’t seen the whole time I was gone you know from the time that I left my my home town to the time I came back. Um and it was pretty a pretty big reception. It was um you know people obviously no matter what capacity you served in, um people were glad that some of our soldiers that were coming home so it was really it was a good time.

Pat: (17.24) Uh for someone that wanted to join the army today what advise would you give them?

Wayne: (17.30) Don’t, no uh hahaha no no really uhh its my personal opinion that uh I feel that every American uhh should serve their country. I understand that people do it in different capacities but um but I feel that for the freedoms that the soldiers before me um or we the freedoms that we have because of soldiers that have that gave their lives in sacrifice before me that we owe it to them, that we owe it to the country. And I believe that everybody regards to their situation can get something from serving in the military. Whether its discipline, uh a sense of pride, a sense of belonging, you saw a lot of people that came from different backgrounds um like I said for myself I was a wild teenager that once you got into the army it it really gave you structure and um I think that a lot of our youth today could do that. And it’s just a um a part of being an American in my opinion. That we owe it to this country that every person should serve the country in one way or another. So I would highly recommend it to everybody. Um, even in a time of war, um you know its a hard decision to make again I would strongly recommend it to anybody that was even thinking about it .

Pat: (18.54) Uh while you were enlisted did you have any near death experiences?

Wayne: (18.59) Um, the closest really that uh that we ever came to was uh wasn’t in any um combat situation or anything like that was was that we were performing regular mp duties back in Kitzingen the town in which I lived. Um and we responded to um a gentleman that had uh assaulted his wife, beat her up pretty good um and taken their baby and he had the baby cradled up in his arms and he had a loaded weapon under the baby. And um to me when when the person that was with us got the baby and then there was a you know somebody right in front of you with a weapon maybe 6-7 feet away aimed at you and they’re not in their state of mind uh I really thought that that was gonna be that somebody of the group of the four of us that were there uh I thought that our time was up. Um so ya that was it was unfortunately it was another soldier that uh brought me to that point and something that I, that I never want to deal with again.

Pat: (20.20) Do you miss anything about being in the military?

Wayne: (20.23) Yes um I wouldn’t change anything for the world right now I have a great family, a great wife, great children. Uh, I love my job but I do miss um I I miss the army life. You really um get used to it after a while if you are willing to kind of to go along with the um the routine . Um, that sense of pride when you put on the uniform. I do remember when um we used to have these simulated war games and they would um be throughout the entire country of Germany. Basically they were called reforger and you would bring in Italian troops, Canadian troops, um all nato troops and we would do this mock war throughout this entire countryside of Germany. And, and I’ll never forget one time I was out on a, I was assigned to a traffic post to direct tanks and you know that was more of the exciting things we got to do as mp’s was direct traffic. Um, you know it was a small little village I don’t even remember the name of it now. Um, and I was on this traffic post and I was there for 24 hrs. and some of the people in the town had never seen American soldiers since World War II, so it was really incredible to have that experience where they would come out and kinda look at ya and uh they were just amazed that you were there and they thought that it was the greatest thing ever and they wanted to give you stuff. And um when you would come home on leave to walk through an airport in your uniform and see other veterans or have other veterans thank you or the look of a little kid um thats nothing that can be replaced especially in the civilian life. Um, and then I think just the action of the position that I was in the in the service um you know it was constant all the time weekends were extremely busy. Um, it was just go go go and I really enjoyed that. I miss being out in the field doing training exercises. Um, we were fortunate as mp’s again that when we go out into the field we would be able to hook up with ah an artillery unit and get to fire some of the big cannons or we were able to drive tanks. Or um, so I had a lot of fun so um ya I do miss it at times.

Pat: (22.48) Was there their like any specific jobs that you liked to do as an mp?

Wayne: (22.53) Um, ya my favorite job believe it or not and it’s kinda lame was we had this road that cut through the center of our post and it was out in the woods and people loved to uh to drag race down there and speed down there. Uh so we used to come up with all different kinds of ways that we could hide our radar unit. And uh I loved writing speeding tickets it was a great thing uh so we would come up with all different ways to kinda put up our speed trap there um so that was I I enjoyed that the most. Um, I enjoyed whenever we got to go to the range and we got to fire our weapons. Um, I love shooting that was a great part of it. Um, there was so much the job itself was just so diverse that you had to do so much that there were times when we had um in Kitzingen there was two army posts Harvy barracks and Larson barracks. I was stationed on Harvy but we patrolled the whole area. Um, I remember one time we got um a bomb threat over at Larson barracks and you know we were dispatched over there and all of a sudden you’ll be at a scene and now you were the person in charge and your responsible for all the people that work there in that office building and doing evacuation and sweeping the buildings. Um, that was, that was really fun at the time it was really nerve racking but looking back on it, it really got your adrenaline going and like I said it was such a variety of things that I love the job I thought that it was the best job you could do in the army.

Pat: (24.26) How often would you uhh get calls for bomb threats and things like that?

Wayne: (24.30) Um, bomb threats in the whole time I was in Germany uh for four and a half years I think probably had maybe a dozen true bomb threats. One of our posts uh was a a nuclear missile site so uh that one more so then others very rare for them to turn out to be anything else. Um our biggest calls were drunk soldiers, uh domestic disturbance and we had um a lot of murder unfortunately, a lot of suicides, um a lot of rapes. So there’s a whole, being a military police officer you got to see a whole side of people you knew it existed but you’ve never been faced with them or confronted with um so that was that was tough. You know everybody thinks that you’re all in the army and life and everybody is the perfect soldier and its real life, its real people, and it didn’t matter if we were stationed in Germany or you know Kuwait anywhere around the world, people are people there gonna do the things that they’re gonna do and its tough when you have a bunch of you have most of the people were single, young single, young single males, and that this is their first time away from home and then they’re thrown into a country where you can drink you know at the age of 16 with no limits. They tend to get in a lot of trouble, so it really forced me to grow up and there were some you know some fights that being young and stupid I didn’t do the right things. I ran into a bar fight one time thinking I was the big cop and the next thing you know I get a broken glass right across my nose. Um, so it’s ah like I said it’s a great job but you had to be able to deal with ah people that were ah going through some issues I guess is the best way to say it.

Pat: (26.28) How would you guys punish um like drunken soldiers and things like that?

Wayne: (26.32) Well it is um there are a couple of different things when you got arrested in the military um it’s the same as being arrested in civilian life. We had a police station, we had jail cells, we had um a prison. A bunch were convicted and they’d go to trial that you would serve time in a prison. But for the typical drunk and disorderly um the person was arrested and brought into the mp station put into a cell. We had a one we called it the pink room, it was a cell that was just all pink and uh people were forced to you know if you were drunk and out of control you were sent into the pink room in nothing but your underwear and you were forced there until you sobered up. Um and then people would get what they called an article 15 it’s a punishment through the service so they would get reduced down in rank or things like that but um different units had different ways of punishing their soldiers and usually at night or early early in the mornings we would arrest somebody. And whatever unit he was from the commander would call back all 2-300 people of that unit. Uh, some lived on post some lived off post, they would get into formation and they would march from their unit over to the mp station and the person who was arrested was brought out in front of the entire company and he was forced to lead the march back to their unit and if you were on Harvy barracks it wasn’t to bad it was to bad our barracks was only a mile and a half approximately in length. Um, but if you were stationed on Harvy then um,I’m sorry, on Larson barracks it was about 7 or 8 miles. So at 2-3 o’clock in the morning the company being rousted up marched over. Um so a um by that time they weren’t to happy with the person so it would kind of tend to take care of itself but there were a lot of people, like I said we go through um the whole arrest procedure, the booking procedure to go to trial and then they were found guilty and then punished accordingly. So it was really just our job to um to apprehend to detain, investigate, and um to give testimony at trials so we really didn’t get into the whole punishment part. We didn’t drag people behind trucks or anything like that so that’s all we had to do.

Pat: (28.52) Did you yourself have to deal with any serious crimes like murder or rape?

Wayne: (28.57) Yes, um, I think anyone most mp’s in Germany had to deal with it um because we had two posts that we were responsible for. We had twice as many people as most posts. Um, there were times I remember, my very first case um was a murder think it was a traffic accident but it was uh a soldier that um was riding a motorcycle on the Autobahn where there is no speed limit. And he was driving down the Autobahn and we don’t know how fast he was going but he hit the back of a duce and a half which is an army truck and its elevated up and his head hit just about caught the bumper of the truck well it severed the head and the helmet from the rest of the body and uh my training sergeant at the time threw me the helmet and said here bag this. And I got pretty sick with that and uh ya kinda realized quickly that it was a common thing that a um captain um his wife was having an affair she was at the local Mcdonalds and uh he walked in and stabbed her to death um again there was unfortunately a lot of suicides. Um, so in the four years, four and a half years that I was actually stationed in Germany, I’m gonna say that we probably had 25 maybe 30 actual murders. Um and then of course a bunch of assaults and in things like that or attempted murders. Um, so ya it’s something that we had to deal with at least a couple times a month on a regular basis.

Pat: (30.38) Did you have to deal with the German residents there?

Wayne: (30.41) We didn’t have any um we had German civilians that worked on the post they came under our jurisdiction. As far as the army’s laws, uh for speeding or any of that, uh if they committed any crimes we would apprehend them but then they were turned over to the poliside which is the German police. Huh we were very fortunate on thursday, friday, and saturday night we would take two poliside officers to the from the local station, they would ride with one of our patrols and the two of us would go and ride with the polisides so we got to work hand and hand with them and uh see how they do things. Um, but that’s all we were responsible for the civilians that were on post or and really they never committed any crimes it might of been speeding or typical traffic stuff. But all in all the civilians um where I were, were great it was a really good relationship that we had with the community and the community had with us so.

Pat: (31.43) Did you ah teach yourself German or did the army teach you German?

Wayne: They have when you first got to Germany you have a class uh that you go to it’s a couple days and they teach you basic you know wo ist om comhoff- where is the train station, was is das and things like that but ah I learned German the best through assimulating with the people I dated a German girl. I had German friends and a lot of the time they would just speak in German so you kind of had to start learning what everything was and I constantly had to ask what this how do you say this. And uh so by the time I left I was more then fairly fluent in German. Um, I maintained it for several years after I got home but more and more as the years go by you find less people who speak German. I don”t speak it that much anymore I can say little things here and there and I can understand it a little bit but I don’t really talk it or speak it as much as I used to.

Pat: (32.44)Ah well thank you for this interview Wayne.

Wayne: (32.47) My pleasure Patrick, how many minutes did you get?

Pat: (31.51) Thirty...