… Or learning to hurry up and wait.
Brian’s foster parent, Alex, served in the Navy during the Korean and Vietnam wars. From the day Brian came to the group home, Alex encouraged him to serve as well. But the idea of being roped into active service somewhere in Bumfuck, Egypt, was not something Brian was willing to consider. So, as a compromise, Brian joined the New York State National Guard in 1981.
Brian (front row, far right in the image left) completed his one-station-unit training (OSUT) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (a.k.a. Fort Lost-In-The-Woods, Misery) as a combat engineer specializing in explosives. He then went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for air assault training; to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for airborne training; and finally returned home to NYC to serve with the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion in Manhattan.
In December 1982, Brian received orders to report to the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom, South Korea, as part of the United Nations Command (UNC) for an advanced training session to support the armistice and the military patrol of the demilitarized zone. In other words, he did a lot of guard duty and got to blow up the occasional mine.
In 1983, Brian moved to Nashville to serve as a reservist with the 1st Battalion, 100th Regiment. He was barely settled in when he received orders to report to the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters in North Carolina in preparation for the assault on Geneda (Operation Urgent Fury). A few days later, he was part of the low-altitude assault team that landed at Point Salines Airport on the island’s southern end.
In early 1985, Brian moved to Austin, Texas, to serve with the 980th Engineer Battalion. About halfway through the year, he reverted to active-duty service and reported to his primary duty station with the 547th Engineer Battalion, Company C, at Kelly Barracks in Darmstadt, Germany.
During his time in Germany, Brian was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia, to support the military effort. There, he was injured in a helicopter-repelling accident, falling about 20 feet after his line snapped, which nearly destroyed his legs. Returning to Germany for treatment, Brian underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries, but ultimately, the doctors told him he would likely never regain full use of his legs.
With the prospect that he would likely never repel or jump again, and since his unit had an opening, Brian opted to cross-train as a Heavy Vehicle Operator (64C20 – Heavy Junk) and spend the remainder of his tour quartered in the motorpool. Or so he thought…
Exercise Reforger (return of forces to Germany) was an annual military exercise and campaign conducted by NATO from 1969 until 1993 during the Cold War. The exercise was intended to ensure NATO could quickly deploy forces to West Germany in the event of a conflict with the Warsaw Pact and involved substantial numbers of troops from other NATO countries, including Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
In preparation for Reforger 85 (Central Guardian), Brian, one of the few soldiers with combat experience in his company, along with his company commander and first sergeant, was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division as part of the Orange task force to conduct assault training operations. Brian thought he’d just spend his time off-roading in military vehicles, but his first sergeant had other ideas…
His special forces first sergeant volunteered himself and a handpicked crew, including Brian, to conduct night assaults. During one such operation, the ragtag squad of roughly 6 soldiers defeated an entire company by overwhelming the headquarters and capturing the commander. The effort was deemed so successful by NATO leadership that the entire squad was nominated for the Army Superior Unit Award, which they received from NATO Commander General Bernard W. Rogers himself. But Brian didn’t walk away unscathed…
It was the final days of Reforger, and Brian was walking to the mess tent for breakfast when a jeep that had been blocked up for repairs somehow broke loose and ran into the group he was walking with. As a result, three soldiers were severely injured, including Brian, who was still on the mend from his previous injury and was reinjured. Brian was immediately flown to Frankfurt to undergo surgery and recover.
A few weeks later, while on crutches, Brian returned to the motorpool to sit around and do essentially nothing when he learned that his biological father had died of cancer. Brian had been offered a medical discharge with full honors when he was first injured. Now burdened with figuring out his father’s estate and facing the prospect of spending the rest of his military career stuck behind a desk, he accepted the discharge and left active-duty military service in late 1985.
Since then, Brian has been an active member of the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). He now works at the Veterans Administration, advocating for veterans’ rights and helping disabled veterans access the care they need.