SP 4 Johnny Conroy, U.S. Army (1967-1970)

Like many veterans on this site, I had several PMOSs assigned to me. In the Navy, it was Boatswain’s Mate and Aviation Ordnanceman. In the Army, I was a Guided Missile Technician, Infantryman, and Infantry Instructor. I learned a lot from each of these, except the Army missile tech, which I never worked in. The Navy taught me essential military skills and something about becoming a small unit leader. 18 months supporting the war from an aircraft carrier offshore whetted my desire to become more personally involved in Vietnam. Working with ordnance that others would use in combat was not enough for me.

So, after my enlistment was up, I enlisted in the Army.

The Army was big on training. Basic Training, Infantry Advanced, leadership school, and then I was sent to be a trainer rather than a trainee. I was inexplicably given a guided missile MOS after AIT and sent to the Infantry School to become an infantry instructor. I had signed up for infantry and was demanding either to get a PMOS of infantry or a discharge. I do not believe my vociferous protestations held any sway, but after six months of paperwork, I received my PMOS change to infantry. In the interim, I had been assigned to the Weapons Subcommittee of the Weapons Committee, Company E of the Infantry School Battalion, Infantry School Brigade, where I had learned to be an enlisted instructor on the M-60 and M2 machine guns. My promotion and award of enlisted instructor as my PMOS were quick to follow. But I wasn’t happy with the career path I was on anyway. I submitted a request for jump school, and it was denied. I submitted a request for a transfer to Vietnam but have heard nothing. The senior NCOs were telling me to just do my year as an instructor, go to jump school later, and get my next assignment, likely to Nam. Further, they said that this assignment was a real plum that not many people got and would look good on my record as my Army career advanced. So, I bore down and concentrated on the tasks at hand.

I did enjoy teaching the officer candidates and a few special officer classes that we taught. I loved the firing I got to do as a demonstrator/instructor, including shooting 5000 rounds in a Final Protective Fire Demonstration each Friday night. After a year of working there, I was given orders to visit Vietnam. My first assignment was to the 101st Airborne’s Combat Leaders Course, then on to my assigned infantry unit. I spent about 4 months in Viet Nam before being medevaced out of the country to Japan. I returned to Nam for 2 or 3 weeks and was transferred to Fort Benning again to become a member of the 197th Infantry Brigade. I had some problems with performing some functions due to my thigh injuries and was placed on a medical profile. The last year I volunteered to attend weapons qualifications each Friday in spite of my profile, and became a TOW Guided Missile Instructor. I attended a management and leadership course, too. Near the end of my enlistment, I received a warning order that I was to return to Vietnam, but I was through with the Army and declined to go (by regulation) since I had less than 3 months left in service.

I became a civilian, unprepared for civilian life with no recognizable skills, but I really had two that would come in handy later.

The first was leadership, and that one first came into play when I worked for the USPS as a letter carrier for 9 years. I became a union shop steward and developed trust in my members and management by being honest. Everything was black and white to me. A grievance was pushed every bit I could for my members. However, management also saw that, unlike many of my peers, I would not come to them with a grievance that had no foundation.

But I burned out on the USPS and the union, So I went into law enforcement. It was not long before I was teaching firearms again, rifles and pistols. And my penchant for officer safety placed me in the Field Training Officer and investigator leadership roles. After a few years in the country (Central Texas), I worked for a suburban Houston Department. I was again placed in charge of all firearms issues. I got NRA certified as a Police shotgun and pistol instructor and expanded my instruction to an even larger suburban department. My leadership skills placed me in slots as an FTO and patrol sergeant. I received State certification as a licensed police instructor and occasionally taught a State-approved course to officers in the area.

Then I went to Harris County Sheriff’s Department, the largest east of the Mississippi except for California. I refused to be involved in firearms instruction, the result of an accident in which I suffered severe gunshot wounds right after I had been hired there. I worked in the jail and the hospitals and was an informal trainer of new hires in the jail.

Later, I attended the Texas Highway Patrol Instructor course for teaching the concealed carry pistol course for civilians and instructed them on a minor scale, as I did for deputies who could not pass their firearms qualifications through the Academy’s yearly instruction and were in danger of losing their commissions. That task gave me a lot of pleasure.

So, it seems that I had two significant skills that I had developed in the military.

Read the Military Memories of our Runner-Ups.