Again Andrew, you have done a remarkable job on this site. So here goes with some longish remembrance of my duty at Fort Jay. As a draftee I had “chance not choice” for military duty. So the Army trained me at Fort Sam Houston down in San Antonio Texas to be a dental assistant. I recall getting my orders for my duty station at an esoteric “Fort Jay.” And a fellow soldier from New Jersey told me I had “hit the jackpot” because I mentioned I hoped the Army would send me to New York. So yes, dreams do come true! :)

I recall trying to find the right subway to get to Governors Island and while maintaining a casual air about me as if I were a New Yorker. But that rouse was hard to maintain because I had a huge duffel bag to schlep around. So I left the heavy bag in what I figured was a dark corner of Grand Central Station and walk about. What a fool I was. I came back and the bag was gone! Then an MP stopped me and summoned me to follow him to an office. I was told to look in a room in back of the office. There was my duffel bag!

I was told to take the “1 train” to South Ferry and take the ferry to the island. And then I checked into LIggett Hall. Having checked into the medic barracks section, which was between the MP section and the long building’s admin section, I had the weekend to myself, thanks to having in-processed on a Friday. So then began my first my New York adventure, where I got lost!

More later. Stay tuned! :)

Sometime around midsummer that year we were told that an Argentine training ship was coming to port and we were to answer her 21 gun salute. Our proud new SFC acquired three 105mm howitzers and then set into motion a very complicated drill for firing those guns 7 times each for the magic 21. We practiced on the grassy airfield facing the Statue of Liberty. Stopwatch in-hand, the good sergeant ran us through his precisely timed drill, over an over. Unfortunately we never fired one shot, not wanting to “spend” the precious blank rounds. Well, the day of the ships arrival dawned and we lined up facing the Narrows, 3 men to a gun, blank shells stacked alongside. Wow! The Argentinians sailed by, guns blazing 21 times, an impressive sight. Then it was our turn, “Number one, FIRE!”, the Sgt yelled proudly, bang; “number 2 FIRE!” clank; “number 3 FIRE!”, clank. And so it went, misfires and bangs in an eclectic mix of carefully timed chaos. Everytime there was a misfire the gunners would eject the shell casing and reload. There was such a melange of misfires, the Sgt. and his still-running stopwatch lost count of how many shots really rang out. For sure it wasn’t 21. A few of us thought we saw Lady Liberty smirk. We heard the next day that the abortive salute was a serious breach of military protocol and the Argentine Embassy was sent a formal apology. We smirked. The good sergeant’s days were numbered and he was quickly sent elsewhere…..to the great delight and relief of all who remained on glorious Governor’s Island. Good duty!
Dave Schmitt

>>>>Still, once can imagine the State doing something terrible to mess up the island like putting some ugly new ‘signature’ buildings designed by the latest star-chitects (Foster, Liebeskind, Gehry, and the rest of the talentless hack school of architecture)< HAHAHAHA

Good one Andrew...

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