Basic Training Unit Echo 18-5; Mid August of 1969 at Fort Knox, KY.

I had qualified for Warrant Officer Flight, but didn't want a four year commitment, so accepted my fate with the draft. On Monday I received my A.I.T. orders for 11 Bravo (Light Arms Infantry) in Fort Polk, LA. I called my mother and she cried. On Wednesday afternoon we were training for final P.T. Test when the Drill Instructor ordered, "Take five, smoke'em if you got 'em." I sat down cross-legged on the Kentucky grass and looked down between my legs. Bigger than life was a four leaf clover. I picked it and put it in my wallet.

Early the next morning I was summoned from the barracks and ordered to report to the Adjutant Generals Office. I arrived with five other trainees from various companies and we were marched in front of a Chief Warrant Officer behind a desk. He noted our current A.I.T. orders and asked if any of us would volunteer to change our M.O.S. and stay at Knox to train on the job as clerks (70 Alpha). All but one of us accepted. I served a year in Vietnam as a non-combatant and to this day I wonder who the Savior was that chose my file from among thousands and WHY?

Oh, the four leaf clover. As soon as I got state side to the love of my life, I let it go with the wind becaise it had served its purpose.

Sp5 Gary D. Lawrence
1st MI BN ARS
RVN 1970
Lewiston, MI 49756