After completing his Army training, Roy C. Raisor received orders for Bamberg, Germany, along with his friends Reed and Yackovich. They had met during boot camp and remained friends throughout AIT, so Roy was pleased that they would be going to Germany together. For Roy, arriving in Germany was significant because it was the first time he had ever stepped onto foreign soil.
He was assigned to the headquarters company of the Third Armor Division. There, he was given responsibility for a Scout high-speed armored car. The vehicle had a turret with a 50-caliber machine gun, bulletproof glass panels, and a rear hatch where two M-60 machine guns could be mounted. Roy was made the driver and placed in charge of the vehicle.
Learning His New Duties
The armored car required careful maintenance. Roy explained that there were fourteen plugs that had to be removed to grease the machine. After maintenance, the soldiers had to count them and make certain every plug was back in place.
The vehicle could cross rivers, and Roy and the others had the opportunity to do this two or three times. He understood that something as small as one missing plug could prevent the vehicle from making it across a river. The responsibility of caring for the vehicle became another part of his Army experience.
Field Maneuvers in Germany
Roy and the other soldiers regularly went on field maneuvers. They could spend two weeks at a time in the woods, where their mission was to set up and camouflage their camp.
A helicopter carrying a high-ranking officer would fly over the area to inspect the camp. If the officer could see anything from the air, the soldiers failed the inspection. Failure meant spending additional days in the cold before another inspection.
Roy admitted that they failed a few times, although they never spent more than a couple of extra days on the maneuvers. These exercises gave him continued experience with Army discipline, field work, and following instructions.
Germany Was Good Duty
Roy remembered Germany as good duty. Even though the country was unbelievably cold, he and his friends had good times. When they were off base, they visited neighboring towns during carnivals and festivals.
There were also many courses available, so the time was not simply about recreation. Roy continued learning while serving in Germany. His life there gave him experiences that were very different from the farm in Ohio and the training he had just completed.
While Roy was in Germany, his mother and Earl also married. They moved to Owensville and bought a house. Roy received a short newspaper article announcing their marriage. He respected Earl and recognized that he was taking care of his mother and younger brothers.
A Change in Roy’s Thinking
As time passed, Germany began to affect Roy in another way. He and his friends started going out on weekends with an E5-ranked soldier who was a short timer there. Roy admitted that he began drinking heavily.
He also realized that moving up in rank would be difficult if he remained in Germany because much of the rank was being given to soldiers in the war zone. This caused him to think about why he had joined the Army in the first place. He had been taught about patriotism by his parents and at school and had previously considered making the military his career.
Roy began to feel that he was wasting his opportunity. He had not joined the Army simply to party and drink. His brother Elmer had also returned to the United States, which caused Roy to begin considering whether he should volunteer for Vietnam.
Preparing for What Came Next
During this period, Roy also worked toward improving his education. A soldier named Keller encouraged him to take the GED. Roy studied at night while Keller worked on his own correspondence course. With Keller’s help, Roy passed the test and received his GED, an accomplishment that made him proud.
Eventually, Roy’s thoughts about patriotism became stronger. Through radios, television, and theaters, he was seeing what was happening in Vietnam and knew that soldiers were being killed.
With Elmer back home, Roy felt that he now had the opportunity to do his duty. He went to headquarters, spoke with the Recruiting Officer who handled transfers, and asked to be transferred to Vietnam. About a week and a half later, his new orders arrived. He would go home for 30 days of leave and then head to Vietnam.
For Roy, his time in Germany became more than an overseas Army assignment. It was a period of learning, friendship, responsibility, reflection, and a growing sense that his path was leading somewhere else. His deployment to Vietnam would soon begin, changing his life in ways he could not yet understand.
For more about Roy’s story and latest updates, visit his official website: Roy C. Raisor.
Get your copy of his memoir here on Amazon: Boy to Man in 365 Days.
