1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Cold War Warrior Page 3

We would go down range and we had a pot belly stove called Geraldine. We put a GP-medium tent over the back of a Deuce and a half
and were tooling down the back trails. The CG was flying around in an OH-58 helicopter and put it down on the road ahead of us.
He wanted to see just what the hell was driving down the road with black smoke rolling out the back of it. We fed the stoves with the coal they had.
I told my wife about Geraldine keeping us warm down range and she want to know who the Bitch was. Long story...

When we went down range or the field we usually hooked up with the cooks. We would help haul their equipment down range
and we had our own GP-medium tent just for the mechanics and me. In return we got extra chow, milk and C's. We worked all night
on the tracks sometimes, so the brass left us alone and we sometimes slept until noon.

One winter it snowed so hard that every vehicle was stranded except one...the Gamagoat. That killer would travel like no other.
I remember jamming my butt inside one of those with a half dozen others and we made it back to base. I went straight home
and the wife wasn't expecting me home at that hour and in those conditions so she was waiting for me at the top of the stair with a shotgun.
Welcome home, honey...

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle was just being introduced during my last few months at Carson. I remember (as best I can) that the fort got
only two vehicles for evaluation and I never saw one fire, but did see them on the range. I never even saw inside one, even to today.
We were chosen to test the vehicle at the 4th ID and I am not sure if we were the only one or what. I do not remember the unit that did the testing.

Waffle stompers were jump boot modifications and the name is as it sounds. The tread would sometimes look like that of a waffle pancake,
or at least that was similar to it in nature. The regular 'rock boot' that we were given had a composite sole that was formed with the leather sides,
whereas the jump boots had a leather sole. Once the leather wore out, and sometimes they would do it to new boots, they would take the boots
to a saddlery shop or a shoe repair shop and have the really aggressive and sometime really thick waffle treads put on the boots.
Most of the guys that I saw with the original ones were those that served in Korea and possibly Germany. They were cooool!
Some of the commanders didn't allow them, but usually they were worn in the duty station area. If you wore them down range
they were a pain to clean. Imagine the most aggressive mud and snow tread on a truck tire and that is what they looked like.
Eventually, they came up with a sole especially made for the boots and then you could add build-up layers to make them from 1/2 to 2
(or more) inches thick. They reminded me of Frankenstein boots when the soles were really thick.

I hear about the PT uniforms that the troops have today and I wished we had them back then. We did everyhing in combat boots.
You only got to wear sneakers if you were on "Profile" and everyone knew not to get a profile because that singled you out as a bad troop or a slacker.
The boots hurt your ankles when running, gave you extreme blisters at first (especially during Basic Training), but we were bulletproof
and blew it off. Now I wished we hadn't had to wear them.

The first weeks in Carson running PT I thought my lungs were going to explode. The atmosphere was thinner and you didn't get as much oxygen
as you did at lower elevations. You got light headed at first and it felt like someone was sitting on your chest while you were trying to breathe.
I remember my wife baking a cake in Colorado for the first time and not knowing that you had to add more water to the mix, produced a really,
I mean really dry cake. Unfortunately for her, I had invited Davidshofer, Fessler and Hansen over for dinner. Needless to say the cake was a lot like
the C-ration Pound Cake in consistency. It required additional milk to get it down. After running PT at that altitude, I remember running forever
at sea level while training with the German Airborne in Calw, FRG. What a difference it made.

The Division put on a track meet event that allowed everyone to participate if they wanted to and I remember throwing the discus
and getting like 3rd place in it. I think they also had a weird event like the softball throw, so I don't really recall what the scope of the event was,
other than to have some fun.

Motor Pool Fort Carson, possibly another Company in 1/22 Infantry
"After looking at this picture, this has to be another motor pool. Our bays were exactly the opposite of those in the pic.
I got this pic from Kenny Davidshofer, so I didn't take this particular pic."

The post had an equipment rental place where you could rent skis, campers, boats, hiking gear and pretty much anything you needed
to go camping with for a weekend. I and another guy rented a canoe and went up on what we thought was a trout lake. I remember it being really hot
and we thought we would be smart and just wear our shorts to get a "little tan". Funny thing about the altitude at Carson, almost a mile up in the mountains
you don't realize that you burn a little faster than normal. We didn't put on any SPF 2000 or anything, so we naturally got a little over done.
We didn't realize how bad it was until we got back home and the redness was really prominent. I bet you could have put a bing cherry next to us
and it would have gotten lost next to our skin. I remember telling the wife not to touch me...anywhere. It was a miserable night, but it was also
an Article-15 for damaging government property, so we suffered through the next few days without anyone asking too many questions.
We sure were hurting and to top it all off...we didn't catch a single trout.

Skagway Reservoir was up in the mountains past Cripple Creek, CO. You had to drive along a narrow winding road to get there
and the turn off is poorly marked, but the trout fishing was tops. On one occasion, I had purchased a $64 rod and reel combination to try my luck
with the trout. The wife wanted to try her luck as well and I got an $8 Snoopy Zebco pole for her. I had all my expensive gear
and her with her Snoopy were fishing in pretty much the same location, using the same rig, because I had to set it up, but I was 'out fished" 8 to 0.
I still haven't lived that annilation down even today. I am reminded of how money can't really buy success when I see her Snoopy stashed
in the corner of the closet. I think some day, Snoopy just might make a trip and never come back.

Another time at Skagway, I and my brother were way at the North end of the lake where the spring water would come off the mountain side
and feed it with really cold water. It was in November, the sun was shining brightly and we were just enjoying the fishing.
Over the next couple of hours the clouds rolled in and the sky got really gray. We wondered if we were in for some bad weather
but didn't think about it that much. Finally it started to slightly rain and we thought about leaving, but didn't. Then the rain turned to large snow flakes.
The snow was hitting the lake and disappearing and the accumulation on the ground was nothing, so we fought on because the fishing was excellent.
Finally, the snow was really coming down and we were over a half mile from the parking area. We decided that fun was fun, but this wasn't fun anymore,
so we packed up and started for the parking lot. By the time we got there, the snow was over a foot deep. We loaded up and everyone on the lake
was heading out. We had to drive a fair distance along a winding dirt road laden with metal cattle gates to get back to the main highway.
We made it about two-thirds of the way out and got high centered on the snow drifts. We were in the middle of a really big snow storm,
poorly equipped and stuck solid. Fortunately, one of the remaining fishermen happened to be driving a 4-wheel drive truck with a tow chain.
He literally drug us back to the main road where the snow wasn't even noticeable along the road. We thanked him and thought how lucky we were
about the timing of his arrival. In the Colorado mountains you never know what to expect, so we learned to plan for the worst on any trip.

Kenny liked to go into the mountains for a respite and Cripple Creek, CO was a ghost town when we were there. It is now a big 'casino' town
and it looks entirely different. One week end Kenny, and a couple of other guys were looking at some land, for who knows what reason,
probably gold prospecting or just enjoying nature. They had been on the land for some time and finally a sheriff's deputy stopped them
and told them they were trespassing. He hauled them into the hootchgow and their ride, who was not cited, left them. Captain Roger Hewitt
had to call the sheriff and get them released, but unfortunately it was about 1-2 in the morning. I guess they must have thought I was a likely candidate,
so they called me to pick them up. It was a long drive from the Springs to Gold Camp Road and finally to their position. I think by the time
I got back home, it was time to get dressed for formation. Ken said that there weren't any signs on the land, but the owner insists that there were.
When they went back to see the signs, they were mysteriously right where they were camping. Nothing came of it, but Captain Hewitt,
when I talked to him last year via "Together We Served" asked me if I was among the group that he had to bail out of jail. I told him I wasn't,
but I had to go get them. He indicated that of all the stations he commanded, A Co. 1/22 was his most enjoyable station.

Kenny and Roger liked to eat rabbit stew with cream of mushroom soup. They would always come up with lots of rabbits and since I liked to shoot
and hunt, I asked him to take me with him the next time he went shooting. I got a call early in the morning, while it was still dark and told to get ready.
I hopped into Roger's jet black Road Runner with the 50-style rear wheels. They were ‘slicks’ for the most part, bald racing tires.
It was November as I recall and it had been snowing. We drove south for a long time and finally Roger pulled off and we went up a ramp
and down a dirt road. We finally went to an area where there was a ton of concrete and dead trees. I thought what a great site for shooting rabbits.
We were shooting a few and suddeny we saw an MP jeep. I asked Roger, "What the hell are the MP's doing here?" He said that we were
on the southern end of the reservation. Oh, God I thought. Roger and I jumped into his Runner and took off. Roger was semi insane in the first place
and he was fishtailing all over the place to get back to the exit. Those slicks were just worthless on the Colorado gumbo clay roads,
especially after a fresh snow fall. Finally, he felt that they would radio ahead and we would really be in trouble then so we should just face the music
and let them stop us. I thought, Great that is all I needed right then. They stopped us, took our weapons and we ended up at the base MP station.
Since it was the weekend, Lt. Chung, a great LT., came to get us out. We learned after it was all over that the MP's had a brand new jeep
and didn't have a radio installed in it yet, so we stopped for nothing. Live and learn. I never went hunting with Roger again.

"Party" shirt of SGT Terry Kotschwar, with Combat Leader patch on right breast pocket
and unofficial A Company 1/22 Infantry patch on left breast pocket. The camo jacket
was not authorized for wear at that time.

"This is my 'rebellion' jacket. I felt that anything that was unauthorized, like the Combat Leader patch and the death card patch
were going on my jacket. I thought that the trends the guys set for us in Nam were pretty cool and shouldn't be swept under the carpet
or the closet. I remember being spit on and called a baby killer while walking down Academy Boulevard and it was intimidating.
I didn't even get to serve over there and I was still getting the backlash of hostility from the people that were anti-military and anti-war."

Pair of survival knives for Terry Kotschwar,

Company A 1/22 Infantry

Note 22nd INF DUI and dates 75 - 79

Close-up details
of above set of knives

Note 4th INF DIV
insignia on back
of belt loop