[rollei_list] Re: Comic art was Re: OT: Miscellany

  • From: Michael Eric Berube <pj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:49:47 -0400

After Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, in MO, I was assigned to the Army Detachment at Lowry AFB in Denver for 6 mo for AIT. At that time all branches except the Navy went to Lowry (which is a civilian business park now). We WERE trained to completely set up and operate the ES82A photo lab (fit on the back of a duece and a half!). This was a source of endless amusement to the Instructors because the ES82A that the school had was supposed to be one of the last of the labs in service! (I never saw another one.) I just did a web search and found that there is an ES82A on eBay for just a bit less than the new D3 will cost!:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Portable-Darkroom_W0QQitemZ260156112123QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
Hel, this could be the one I trained on. Tempted to get it to move my office into it! (I'm trying to explain to she-who-authorises-all-purchases just why this is a good idea!)
:)

From Lowry, I was assigned to Cold Regions Test Center in Ft. Greely AK for a year and then I finished up working with Land/Air Doc Photo in White Sands Missile Range, NM for the last 2.5 years of my Active Service. I got VERY lucky as a photographer and worked documentation of R&D Test and Development for the Army's (then) TECOM. (Test & Eval. Command.) The MOS was something like 700% over-strength when I went in and my contract promised only to TRAIN me as an 84B not that I'd get to actually work as a photographer. I knew way too many shooters who ended up on permanent 'litter detail', gofer at TMP or assigned to the dark room at the craft center because there were no real photography positions (or Gods forbid shooting nothing but grip and grins for the posts public affairs office!) The only downside to the MOS was that the promotion cut off score was 998 (out of a possible 1000) for my entire enlistment. I made E4 early in my second year and stayed there because I refused to cross train in a more promotable MOS. (I cross trained in video, but their cutoff score was the same as ours.)

The upside was that after training, I worked almost exclusively with a civilian contracting crew. (DOD civilians made a LOT more than my $700/mo, but did the same job and treated me like an equal, not like a grunt). The late 80s was also a great time for R&D in the USArmy. I worked on the initial tests that brought in the new uniforms/LBE systems, ECWECs, the new NBC gear (MOPs), the new MREs, the HUMVEE, SDI Laser (aka StarWars) and documented the very first Army Tactical Missile System being built and launched from its MLRS platform. Worked with a lot of REAL Rocket Scientists and Laser Geniuses and was fascinated by the tales they had to tell of WSMR in the infancy of the Space Missile Programs. Funny to think that most all of that cutting edge stuff from then has seen nearly 20 years of service now!

Carpe lumen,
Michael Eric Berube
GoodPhotos.com



Marc James Small wrote:
At 12:33 PM 9/10/2007, Michael Eric Berube wrote:
>I was an 84B10F (Still Photographic Specialist) Active 85-89. Reserves
>89-93.

Are you a DINFOS alumnus? I was in IOC 1-75 and served as an IO from 1975 to 1977.

Marc


msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!

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