My Old Stomping Grounds

I was stationed here in 1982-83, and I knew it had changed a lot over the years so I wanted to go take a walk around it again. It's not that big to begin with, and more than half of the acreage is a golf course, so you can basically walk around the entire post in less than an hour!

This used to be our parking lot for the Public Affairs Office, which was located on the first floor of the wing to the left. Now it's a nice little brick courtyard and the building houses various other offices along with the garrison headquarters.

My friend John was also stationed here in the early 1980s, so I had to get a photo of his old office in the Staff Judge Advocate building. This is prime real estate, right under the flag pole at the end of the parade field, and it appears the same offices are still housed there.

Here's the view from the other end of the parade field, where we used to have picnics and play frisbee when we weren't using it for our weekly physical training sessions. It was kind of a crappy day, with rain threatening the entire time we were there this time, but in the summer this is really gorgeous.

This is the view on the north side of the parade field, which is known as Officer's Row. Below is one of the largest houses with the most ornate trim. I always imagined that was where "The General" lived, but now this small post is home to two major headquarters so who knows where all the multiple generals are housed? Probably in Buckhead, haha!

Us peons lived across the field here on Troop Row, which was quite convenient because I only had to walk down the sidewalk about 100 meters from my barracks to my office. But even then the housing space for enlisted soldiers was very limited, so within six months I applied and was granted permission to move into an apartment off post.

Hey John, I just had to get a photo of this for the memories! I can't even remember now how many times around the parade field equaled our two-mile run, but I do remember running in that god-awful heat during the summer and how much I hated it!

This was the Main Gate when we were stationed there, but now I think they only open it when they have special convoys or something. We were there in the middle of the day on a Monday and it was deserted. The new Main Gate is at the far south end of the post, where the motor pool used to be.

This is the new headquarters building, where I almost got in trouble when some guy came out the front door and started yelling "no pictures!" as I was artfully framing up this shot from under the trees below! We were almost back to the gate anyway, so we high-tailed it outta there before anyone could come out and confiscate my camera.

Come to find out there was a huge sign right inside the gate that says photography is prohibited and you can be fined up to $10,000 if caught. The sign is very visible if you're driving in, but we came in through the walking gate so I honestly never saw it. Oops!