STORY BEHIND THE PLAQUE
Service Reflections of CSM Michael Sweeney, U.S. Army (1969-1999)

When I turned 17 in October of 1969, I hadn’t much going for me. In fact, I had nothing going for me except trouble. I dropped out of high school in my junior year. I had not held any job longer than receiving my first paycheck. I had been arrested for grand larceny and was given the chance to leave home by joining the Army.

I was released to my father’s custody to make my decision. While talking about it with one of my friends, we decided to visit the recruiting station on our own. We signed right up for the prospect of leaving our hometown, getting away, and starting a life on our own.

We joined on the buddy basic program for training as Cooks. e enlisted on the very last day of the ’60s, 31 December 1969. It was a special ceremony, and we spent the next five days on administrative leave, then reported for basic training. I like the old cadence song I joined the Army to, “Go to war or go to jail.” Who influenced them? Well, the Judge, my friend Mike Hoyden, and my Father. Then my Dad dropped me off and told me, “This is not just another job you can quit.” I didn’t…. for 29 years and two months.

I enlisted in the Army Food Service. I only intended to serve the initial three years, so at first, I just did the job as well as I could. I stayed out of trouble, which was kind of hard to do in the Army of the ’70s. My wife, whom I met at my first duty assignment, kept me grounded and toeing the line.

After I reenlisted, I became an instructor at the Food Service Course at Ft Ord, California. There, I worked alongside some very professional senior NCOs who taught me the ropes. I also completed as much training as I could and graduated at the top of my courses. After only four years in the Army, I was promoted to Specialist 6th Class.

My career path was designed during those years, from my 4th to 6th years. I had intended to become a Warrant Officer, but before that could happen, I was promoted to SFC. I changed my career path and focused on becoming a Drill SGT, First Sergeant, and Sergeant Major. I didn’t envision an appointment as Command Sergeant Major in those early years.

However, as chance should have it, I was selected for SGM and CSM on the same list. I retired 10 months short of the mandatory 30-year retirement age to accept a position with the Army’s new Total Army Distance Learning Program.

As much as I wanted to make that 30-year mark, I had to take that government contractor job to stay working at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Ten months later, I was a Department of the Army Civilian (DAC) assigned to the Fort Polk Installation Food Service office of the Directorate of Logistics.

With nearly 30 years in uniform, from the Vietnam era to Desert Storm, I never served in combat. Not that I actively sought to avoid it. In fact, I was verbally reprimanded for demanding to be sent to Desert Shield/Storm as a First Sergeant of a TDA unit. No, it just was not to be.

However, I feel I was a member of a great Army that deterred major conflict by continuing training, including major training operations from Battalion to Division level. While assigned to Berlin from 1971 to 1972, our Infantry Battalion participated in three trips to “the zone” for 30 days each.

In 1986, while a 25th Infantry Division (L) G-4 Food Service Supervisor, I participated in Team Spirit 86 in South Korea. These training operations, besides ensuring the unit’s capabilities were high, helped to deter conflict and, in the case of the Soviet Union, helped to end the Cold War. I am proud to have been a member of a force that was fundamental in maintaining peace by a show of strength.

I spent twenty-nine years and two months on active duty for the US Army. In all those years, I did not serve a day in combat. In May 1993, I was appointed as the Command Sergeant Major for the 177th Forward Support Battalion at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. Well, on 27 October 1993, I came the closest to combat-like conditions that I could imagine. I am fuzzy in memories of my older years now, but that day is clear as a bell, as it was also my 41st birthday.

The day I typically started, I did physical training with one of our seven companies. Stepping into my office, I was alerted that one of our NCOs had his company commander and First Sergeant as hostages in his barracks room. He was holding them with a personally owned 9 MM pistol that he had checked out of the arms room that weekend and not returned. By the time I got to the floor, both hostages had been released. They informed me that the Sergeant had been shooting out the window and through the door, not wanting to hit anyone but hoping to be shot by the MPs or CID agents that were on the scene. I joined the CID agent in the empty room across from the SGT’s room. I was given a phone that was open to a phone that had been thrown into his room. I tried to convince him to stand down, but he would not pick up the phone. Instead, he shot through the door, and a round hit the concrete of the door frame and sent shrapnel flying everywhere. One piece of concrete hit the CID agent above the eye, and the bleeding looked worse than it was. Anyway, I swear I heard the whistle of the round when it went by my head.

It turned out that the Sergeant had been found to be a drug user and possibly a dealer. We were never able to find out. However, when the battalion commander administered Article 15 of the UCMJ, he told the Sergeant that he would also be discharged. Still, due to his thirteen years of service, he would keep an honorable character to his discharge and only flag him from any future service. That promise would be held as long as he remained drug-free while out processing. When part of the out-processing was to undergo an ETS physical that included providing a urine sample, the Sergeant must have thought that he would be found to be still using illegal drugs. His father was a retired senior NCO, and we guessed that he could not face going home disgraced; therefore, the wish for “suicide by cop.” He didn’t get that, as the law enforcement on the scene had not fired even one round. When a SWAT squad breached the room, he was found dead by his own hand. As for me, that day, my birthday, turned out to be the riskiest day of my career.

I have had many great assignments. My first assignment was at Ft Leavenworth in Kansas. There, I worked in the Officer’s Field Ration Mess. The best thing that happened to me there was I met and married my wife, Laurel. Her father was also assigned there.

We met at the post-swimming pool and dated by walking around, attending movies, and hanging out at the enlisted club, snack bar, and service club. After four months, we were married and have been married for nearly 42 years.

Hawaii was a great assignment. Professionally, I found myself as a Division Food Service Supervisor and was able to influence great “out-of-the-box” changes in how the Division Food Service Program operated. Personally, our family enjoyed the recreation available in Hawaii. We scuba-dived, sailed, camped, and did other fun things that provided balance from the stress of work. We also had many great friends, more non-work friends than any assignment we had.

With 29 years of active duty and 10 years as a civilian, I have many personal memories that had an impact on my career. On the top of the list is the marriage to Laurel, my wife of over 48 years. As an Army brat, she actually had a lot more experience with Army life than I did. Her father was an infantry senior NCO and a combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. More than that, though, she knew the hardships of multiple moves, minimal pay, and worry about soldier survival.

When the Army became my career, my wife was my biggest motivator and cheerleader and, frankly, the one to kick me in the ass when my mouth and actions put my career in jeopardy. I would not have lasted the first 3 years, let alone 30, without her.

I was the top graduate for each of the career progression NCO courses I took in the Food Service field. One even caused my command to award me an ARCOM because I was the top graduate in spite of being hospitalized for a week and missing critical classes and exams. When the course wanted to recycle me, I challenged them to give me the tests I had missed. When I maxed them all, I returned to my class in good standing. I went through my career telling the story of my receiving an ARCOM for having pneumonia.

All other awards were at the end of the tour or career except one. I did receive an Impact ARCOM as a Senior Drill SGT when I used the Heimlich maneuver to “save” a trainee choking on a piece of steak. My leadership thanked me with the ARCOM, but the trainee never did. In fact, she put in a complaint that we (the cadre) made them eat too fast. She ended up being discharged as unable to adapt. As for me, I felt great about being able to put training to real use. It also left an impact on the 50 trainees and 10 cadres that were in the Mess Hall at the time.

The Drill Sergeant Identification Badge. The toughest but most rewarding job I held was as a Basic Training Drill Sergeant. As a Food Service NCO, there were very few opportunities to volunteer for and be accepted into those additional tough and challenging duties. I had no desire to be a recruiter.

Special Forces and the like were out of the question. Besides my own basic training, I had three other assignments in the training environment where Drill Sergeants were a part of everyday life. Early on, as a cook, I was assigned to a basic training unit at Fort Lewis for six months. I knew then that once I achieved the rank, I would apply.

Later, after two tours as a Food Service Instructor, I knew that I had the drive and ability to be a Drill Sergeant. It would take me over 10 years to finally be accepted into the program. I had figured that as a Food Service NCO, I would be assigned as a Drill Sergeant in an AIT Brigade.

However, the wise command at Ft Jackson made it mandatory for Drill SGT school graduates to first be assigned to Basic Training units. I could not have been happier. Ever since my own Basic Training Drill SGT left such a positive impression on me, I wanted to be him. 20 years after hanging up my uniform, my Drill SGT hat and badge are the two items that hold the highest place of honor in my family display case.

SFC Andrew J. Shepherd. There were others, but he was the first professional NCO in the Food Service Field I had met outside of basic training. I met him just after my first reenlistment in 1972 when I was reassigned from Berlin to Ft Ord, CA. I was selected to become an instructor, and he was in the lab I was assigned to. I learned all about leadership in courses and teaching in the Instructor training course, but SFC Shepherd taught me the real ropes in the actual classroom with AIT Students.

I knew him later when he was a Drill Sgt, and I was an instructor at Ft Dix, NJ. We kept up with each other fairly well. I saw him as a Food Service Sergeant Major on the Food Management Assistance Team when I was a Drill SGT at Ft Jackson. Then again, he was an evaluator on the Philip A Connelly Awards team when I was assigned to the G-4 of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. We would occasionally lose touch, but even when we didn’t speak for years at a time, when we got back in touch, we instantly took up right where we left off.

He was my #1 mentor throughout my career, making sure I knew that no one could limit me based on their beliefs of limitations. He was one of the motivating people who knew that I could become a CSM out of the Food Service field. He passed away recently, and his funeral was attended by a multitude of like-minded soldiers he had impacted with his integrity and professionalism.

I had so many assignments in 29 years. Now, 20 years after retirement, there is one close friend and a few acquaintances that we have kept in touch with, mainly via Facebook. Most of the folks we were neighbors with or worked with broke that connection when either we or they PCS’d. It’s sort of sad in one way but understandable at the same time.

I did not serve in combat, so the bond made in that environment never presented itself. However, the assignment where we had the biggest group of friends who got together weekly for scuba diving and beach parties was while in the 25th Division in Hawaii. Kim Hake is the one close friend we still keep in close contact with 30 years later.

The statute of Limitations applies: Early during my first enlistment, while a cook in an infantry unit, I was serving some “Special” Brownies from under the serving line to specific soldiers who came through the line. The BN CSM just happened to see and stormed over to the line to demand he be given the brownies from under the line, believing we were saving the better ones for our friends.

He was right, but not for the reason he thought. He came back for seconds, then later came back to the mess hall, cracking up and wondering why he was so hungry. That was the only time that I ever witnessed a “Stoned CSM.”

After 6 years as a CSM, I retired and became a Department of the Army Civilian assigned to the Installation Food Service Office. I eventually became the Contract Food Program Manager after Ft Polk lost our positions to a whole base contractor.

I did that for two years (a total of 36 years directly to the Army). Then, after driving big rigs for a year with a short tour in Afghanistan, I went to work for a Defense Food Service Contractor for four years. I retired from that for two years due to bad health. I had surgery that brought me back to good health, went back to work for two years, and now I am retired for good, drawing Social Security, VA Disability pay, and my Army retirement.

Toward the end of my career (last 10 years), I was a member of the Association of the US Army (AUSA), the NCO Association (NCOA), the VFW, and the Sergeants Major Association of Korea and Ft Polk (Lifetime member). I held numerous positions in each of them, including Charter member of the CWO Humphreys Chapter of the VFW, Chairman of the NCOA Chapter and SMA Chapter of Ft Polk, and numerous positions on two AUSA chapters. I am no longer a member of any other than the Ft Polk Sergeants Major Association, which I am inactive, but a lifetime member.

My Army service became who I am. I was a high school dropout, a society dropout influenced by drugs and other illegal activity. I went from that to CSM of the largest Battalion, Group CSM, Post CSM of Camp Humphreys and Area III in Korea, NCO Academy Commandant, and Garrison CSM of Ft Polk, LA.

I have the highest moral values, including flawless integrity. My wife and I raised two great sons, one of which is a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force who just retired after 25 years and was a member of the US Air Force Thunderbirds. Service to the country via the military has shaped my political views as well. My life now is one of great pride in my country, my Army, and the role I was honored to play.

The servicemen and women have an entirely different environment than I had from 69 to 99. However different it is, my advice would be the same as the advice given to me when I was a young private and a senior NCO told me: “You can’t make changes as a protesting loudmouth private. Follow the rules, embrace the system, work hard, get promoted and become a leader in the system that can influence change”. I did, and of course, many of the things I thought were wrong were actually good military rules. However, I was able to become the leader I respected and have soldiers respect me.

As of 9 August 2018, I have been a member of ATWS for six years. I am a life member now. I sign in every day, even though I do not always post. I am a regular in the morning coffee group. That reminds me of my younger days as a cook in the old Army and the morning coffee calls that were the tradition for the NCOs of the day.

I do not have any acquaintances from my assignments, but as a cook, I served in many different types of units during the Cold War years and am able to relate to most of the regulars. I do live in the present. However, my present does have a healthy dose of remembering the great life I was blessed to have.