WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS BAND :Caissons- Fort McClellan Wac center and school

It was less time then she had planned on serving but then you heard the old phrase, the best laid plans. Connie was born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota and after working for almost three years she wanted something else in her life. she was bored with the same old thing day after day.

During an afternoon of shopping for a new outfit, a soldier walked by her and it dawned on her what could be more different then the US Army. So she inquired at the local Recruiting Station and got the literature and left for home and her Mom and Dad. To say the least, they were not happy.

it took some talking and a couple of days later she was back at the Recruiting Office, talking with the same soldier, a Sergeant Richard W. Krekelberg. He signed her up and the next thing she knew, she was on a bus headed to Minneapolis, for the physical and the official swearing in ceremony.

PVT Connie Kuschel was assigned to CO A 1st Wac Basic Tng BN, she graduated basic Feb 1968 and was promoted to PVT E2 and on to Advance Individual tng at the Clerical Tng school Ft McClellan Al, where she graduated in Apr 1968 . Connie served two years and was honorably discharged in Dec 1969 at the rank of SPEC E5

PATRICIA KEEFE

One Womans Military Story--WAC

she entered the military in August, 1967 from Chicago , She needed money for college and just go into the Army for four years and get out and have her education paid for by the Federal government, was she ever wrong!

she went to Basic Training, in august 1967 at Ft. McClellan, AL and graduated in late August 1967, Going on to advance training AIT (CTC) Clerical Training at Ft. McClellan, then on to Ft. Ord, CA, Beautiful duty station and was assigned to Forty First Infantry (EBI) (Experimental Battallian Infantry) she loved it there, and re-enlisted for a promised of $5,000 (got it) and a duty station in Germany.

But she was lied to because a few days later, she received her orders for: . . . Long Binh, Vietnam and that was in 1968, spent the next year until 1969 in Vietnam, she found out later that there was a push at that time to expand the number of female WAC in Vietnam, and ended up being one of those pushed where she didnt want to go. she left Vietnam in 1969 and was then assigned to Ft. Knox, KY, until 1970.

she felt she was drummed out of the army because she had already shown signs of PTSD, so the Army felt she was not military material, without finding out why her behavior and attitude were so erratic, was just thrown out of the Army with a General discharge.

When returning to the World, she found out there was a distinctive attitude about the Vietnam vets and was shown, oh so nicely by a very well-dressed dignified woman in her fifties or sixties how little was thought of the returning Vietnam vets, Her flight from Vietnam was delayed because they were hit on the tarmac of the airport--Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam, with mortars, Her aircraft was wounded, so they all had to wait for repairs to be done on the tail assy, so they could fly out.

During the straifing, they all had to hit the ground which was muddy from a recent rain (so what's new in Vietnam), and were covered in mud, but that didn't deter them, in fact it made them even more determined to get out of that place. They sat in the airport waiting for the plane to be repaired , it took days to repair it, but they just waited, patiently, she added, mud and all, even in her hair and on her face, which she had wiped off, soon as she could.

When the flight was ready to load they just jumped up and orderly got on the flight, waiting impatiently for take-off, when they were on the gound, a loud shout of hooray rang out and tears of joy fell forth from even the most combat hardened men, it was a sight to behold, she was the only female on the flight, so they had her up in the First Class cabins, so the Stewardesses could keep an eye on her, the thinking was, she was in danger of rape, but what they didn't realize was that she was as well trained as the men were and could have killed any one of them with her bare hands, so she didn't need protection, at least not from a civilian who has not been trained to kill,

When they reached the shores of the US and the guys saw the Statue of Liberty, they all cheered and again tears fell, with the thoughts that they were finally "Back in the World".

They were all encrusted in dried mud when they entered the airport terminal and people were staring at them , so she went into the Ladies room to unencrust herself a bit, when the same woman walked up behind her and ask her if she was from Vietnam, She turned and proudly told her, "Yes Ma'am", she then proceed to draw up a good thick yellow Lugie and spit on her uniform and then called her a "Baby Killer", which was funny because women were not allowed to carry weapons in Vietnam, not only that she didn't, but weren't allowed to, Her trusty K-Bar was always on her hip along with her Bird knife (which was in her book ankle, you know, just in case, she lost her K-Bar and needed it, .

She restrained herself from killing the woman because she didn't think it appropriate to kill a Civilian, being they already hated tem and she didn;t understand why that was so, She was naive, coming home, but boy did she grow up fast that time, so she wondered why she had an attitude when she returned.

While at Ft. Knox,she met her future husband and followed him home to Hawaii where they spent the next 33 + years raising thier children and working as a paralegal, when there was work for her. She had two disadvantages: 1. she was a Vietnam vet, and 2. she was a Hauole (non-native) woman, so the prejudice was that she was not their type of person, so did not need a job in Hawaii.