tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542127097868858234.post8180739076272392775..comments2011-10-17T09:53:03.501-05:00Comments on The Great War Comes to Kansas: Letter 34 ~ October 4, 1918Ward Clarke Griffinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06010828665483669226noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542127097868858234.post-15633585906222173412009-02-05T22:35:00.000-06:002009-02-05T22:35:00.000-06:00I guess that by the fall of 1971, Uncle Sam was in...I guess that by the fall of 1971, Uncle Sam was in no mood to grant any more college deferments. He cooked my goose when he drew my birth date out of the hopper after only three attempts. I served six years with the USARNG; took my basic and AIT at FLW and then returned home to go to college. I was lucky to hook up with a unit that had just returned from V. Nam and so we were never activated again before the war closed. By the way, I was a cook, so we'll hear no more complaints about army grub! -- wgWard Clarke Griffinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06010828665483669226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542127097868858234.post-88440548579280140452009-02-05T21:59:00.000-06:002009-02-05T21:59:00.000-06:00In what capacity did you spend the winter of 1971-...In what capacity did you spend the winter of 1971-72 at Ft. Leonard Wood? This was during the latter part of the Vietnam War era. I spent the War as a college student with a 2-S Deferment. In my junior year they conducted a draft lottery. I was number 328 so my draft worries were over. My brother was number 26. Several days after the drawing he joined the Air Force.<BR/> <BR/> I remember the spinal meningitis outbreak. As is so often the case these infectious disease epidemics hit hardest in military camps and bases where young men are in close proximity.Greg Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01409962933357676885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542127097868858234.post-72749793641471995382009-02-05T20:35:00.000-06:002009-02-05T20:35:00.000-06:00I had the "pleasure" of experiencing life at Fort ...I had the "pleasure" of experiencing life at Fort Leonard Wood during the winter of 1971-72 when there was an outbreak of spinal meningitis. We didn't have to sleep with the windows open in our barracks (though it isn't really fair to claim they were ever really closed either). They did make us put up "sneeze sheets" all around the perimeter of our individual bunks, however. This apparently was a common practice during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 too as I have seen some archive photos showing soldiers in quarantine cots fitted up in a similar way. -- wgWard Clarke Griffinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06010828665483669226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542127097868858234.post-35944595059484185302009-02-05T16:32:00.000-06:002009-02-05T16:32:00.000-06:00Ward's account of having to sleep with the tent si...Ward's account of having to sleep with the tent sides rolled up in October reminds me of the U.S. Army of the 1960s. At Fort Lewis (and elsewhere I think) there was a meningitis outbreak. The public health geeks dictated that all the barracks windows remain up all year round. Those years saw some record low temperatures and snows. I don't know if this measure controlled influenza at all, but when winter hits Kansas I'm sure Ward will tell us about it.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09885277626153324891noreply@blogger.com