Bob Warner grateful for military service

Sometime in the early 20th century, Nicholas and Beatrice Warner relocated from their home in Pennsylvania to Pleasant Valley Road here in Groton.

Nicholas and Beatrice raised their eight boys and five girls in that home, with no indoor plumbing and no electricity, and one of their sons, Bob, still remembers how life was back then — including his trips to the outhouse.

Bob attended Groton Central School and would have graduated in 1964, but he was drafted into the United States Army before he could do so. He did obtain his GED later in life but is grateful for the life lessons he learned while serving as an E6 staff sergeant in the 196th Light Infantry Brigade.

“I think everyone should join the military,” Bob said. “They teach you responsibility and structure. I was just a kid when I went in, but I was an adult when I came out.”

Bob headed to Fort Dix, New Jersey, expecting to receive basic training there, but he explained that they ended up sending his entire brigade to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, two weeks into it, where they completed basic and advanced infantry training.

“They sent us up to Fort Drum in Watertown for our jungle training after that,” Bob said. “Instead of walking through a swamp like most jungle training, we had ours on ice! They were training us to head to South America to protect a dictator down there, but the dictator was overthrown by the people, so they sent us to Vietnam instead.”

Bob’s brigade was sent back to Fort Devens, and two months later, they boarded two old liberty ships that had been built for WWII, on which they traveled down the east coast, around Cuba, through the Panama Canal and up to Long Beach, California. They refueled the ships, loaded up with ammunition and boarded two WWII landing crafts — finally arriving in Búng Tàu, Vietnam, around 30 days after leaving Fort Devens.

“It was very unusual for an entire brigade to go as a group and stay together like we did,” Bob said. “They used to do that in WWII, but everyone else who went to Vietnam was sent by plane individually as replacements for wounded soldiers or enlistments that ended. They were trying something new with us, but they realized all our tours would end at the same time, so after seven months, they split us up and sent us to different units.”

Bob got to stay with his original unit, which he described as a “search and destroy” unit, meaning they were to search for enemy soldiers and supply storages and destroy any and all by whatever means necessary.

“One time, we found about 260 tons of rice out in the jungle in little grass huts,” he said. “We couldn’t burn it, so we would spread it out all over the ground.”

Bob also spoke about the difficulties of sleeping at night during the rainy season. It would rain about 2 inches in 30 minutes around 2 p.m. in the afternoons, then the sun would come out and keep the temperature around 95 degrees for the rest of the day, and then rain again all night long.

“We’d have to sleep in a foxhole or on the ground at night,” Bob said. “But it was safer to stay in the hole. That meant you would sleep in 2 or 3 feet of water, and it was very cold.”

During the rainy season, it was also impossible for helicopters to land to drop troops off, so they would have to jump out into water that was at least 4 feet deep and very muddy on the bottom.

“We had some short guys, and we’d have to carry them so they wouldn’t drown,” Bob said. “Even when they could land us in open fields, there would be enemy troops in the woods shooting at us, and we’d have to run to the tree line. Some were wounded or killed.”

Bob was fortunately never wounded but said he did lose most of his hearing due to a grenade exploding very close to him. He said his ears rang for two weeks straight.

“Unless you couldn’t walk or something like that, it wasn’t considered serious enough to go for treatment,” Bob said. “I got out in 1967, but I just got hearing aids about 10 years ago. I couldn’t hear until then.”

Bob saw a lot of things and met a lot of people. He said, “A lot of guys there should never have been drafted. One guy couldn’t even read or write, and another soldier, Pete Fabro, was teaching him how to set up a Claymore mine.”

Bob explained that a Claymore mine had about 800 steel ball bearings that would shoot out when the mine was detonated.

“Well, just as Pete was placing the detonator in the mine, the trainee detonated it by accident,” Bob said. “Pete lost both his legs and his left arm that day, but he survived, and quite a few others were injured when the ball bearings hit them.”

Despite all that, Bob came back, got married, raised three children (Dan, Dennis and Kimberly) and built two houses from the ground up single-handedly on Pleasant Valley Road. He also worked as a toolmaker for 31 years at Smith-Corona, 10 at Cooper Tools and eight as a custodian at Tompkins Cortland Community College before finally retiring in 2014.

Bob is a member of the Groton American Legion, the Moravia VFW and the 196th Light Infantry Brigade Association, and he still loves to hunt and fish!

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com or text or call Linda at (607) 227-4922.  

In brief: 
 
Takeout pulled pork dinner 

The McLean Community Church, 50 Church St., is holding a takeout pulled pork dinner from 4 to 6 p.m. June 18. The dinner includes a pulled-pork sandwich, salt potatoes, coleslaw and homemade chocolate chip cookie for $13 per dinner. Please enter through the parking lot.

Groton alumni annual reunion 

Save the date and make plans now to attend the 25th year of Groton High School’s annual All-Class Reunion on Aug. 6 at the Groton Rod and Gun Club.

Check-in is at noon, with fun and events happening all day until 7 p.m. Water, soda, beer, veggies and dip, cheese, pepperoni and crackers will be available, and a meal will be served at 2 p.m. consisting of chicken barbecue, salt potatoes, macaroni salad, baked beans, Hoffman white hots, cookies and brownies. Cost is $25 per person if preregistered by July 15. Otherwise, cost is $30 per person at the event.

For more information about how to register or other inquiries, contact any Groton Alumni Association officer:

• President Betty (Tompkins) Conger, Class of 1960, conger.betty@gmail.com or (607) 898-3990.
• Vice President Phyllis (King) Boyden, Class of 1968, randpboyden@gmail.com or (607) 838-3410.
• Co-treasurers Mary Meeker, Class of 1975, hiker5741@gmail.com or Nanette (Metzgar) Farkas, Class of 1975, nan.farkas1@gmail.com.
• Secretary Rosemarie (Palmer) Tucker, Class of 1966, roseingroton@gmail.com or (607) 280-3322.

Everybody into the pool! 

The Groton Memorial Park Pool will open the week after Father’s Day. The exact date will be posted after seasonal maintenance, inspections and staff trainings are complete. Visit grotonny.org/copy-of-park-pool-pavilions for more information, including hours of operation, swim lessons and membership details.

Swim lessons are available! Register at tshq.bluesombrero.com/grotonrecreation. Adult (18+) lessons are free. Ask for details at the pool.