I interviewed Geri Bass, who served in the army in the 1980’s. Mrs. Bass was kind enough to share her military experiences with me. As a result of her and her husband’s time in the service, she got to travel to Korea and Germany, where she learned about new cultures and made international friendships. Though she may not have seen an actual battle, she did have plenty of interesting stories to tell me about her time in the service.

I was born in Boulder, Colorado. I have …let’s see, there’s seven of us [siblings]*. I have, uh, two older sisters, and two younger sisters, and a younger brother. [I joined the military because] I had, uh, mixed ideas of what I wanted to do with my life; and I had an uncle who kind of suggested that I join the service to at least get some money for college. So I could figure out what I wanted to do.

Mrs. Bass at the time of her enlistment

[I was] nineteen [when I joined]. My dad was all for it. Now my mom was a little nervous and hesitant, but she went ahead and went along with it. So, I did.

[The best part of service was] the excitement, the traveling, and meeting all kinds of people. [The worst part of service was] the times of not being able to see my family, being secluded, and…it was sometimes a little lonely. Probably [the hardest part of training was] the mind-games that you have to deal with when they train you, especially in basic training. You have to handle, be able to handle, a lot of things mentally; so they, they are hard on you. Being a female, I mean, they couldn’t quite be as rough as to a male; but they screamed a lot at ya, and because we were female. I had a male instructor that was-- he was tough. He wanted to toughen us women up; and if you didn’t make it, I mean, you were out of there.

Mrs. Bass’ diploma from basic training

The work that I did in the service? Well, y’know, it falls into so many categories, in the supply field; but, there’s a lot of things for that, but, um, as far as the benefit it was…good training.

To be honest, I was treated great [by men]. Especially in Korea, I had an NCO instructor at the place that I was working, I was one of the few females that got selected to work at the section that I was at; and my instructor, he treated me like I was his daughter. And the workers, they were more like brothers, and they watched after me.

I was what they call Supply Tech; the actual term is material handling supply specialist, 76^th Vector. I was first stationed, for basic training, here in Missouri at, uh, Ft. Leonardwood; and then I went to Ft. Lee, Virginia for my training in supply. Then my very first duty station was, um, Camp Caroll in-- what do you call it-- Waygon, Korea. I was with a unit called H8CMSCKCC at Camp Caroll in Waygon, Korea.

I went to Korea about the fifth of July of 1981; and then, I left there in May of 1982-- oh, no! That’d be June, excuse me, June 1982. Oh, [Korea] was awesome. Although, when I first arrived there, it was still classified as a third-world nation before the Olympics took place there. So I had a culture shock there. When I first went in [to the service], my monthly pay was only like four hundred and one dollars a month. It was the same [as men]. All E1’s were treated-- had the same equal pay. The most memorable [moment in the military]? Well, uh, I would say my experience-- meeting my husband. Being overseas was awesome, too. Y’know, I got to meet all kinds of foreigners and see things.

Yeah, there was [one particular memory of Korea]. Even though I might not have actually saw a battle; there was an incident that took place in the village where-- at the base that I was at-- and I happened to be in town with some friends at what they call the local clubs. In Korea, they had the Katusas, which they worked with the American soldiers; and then they also had the rock soldiers, which were actually the Korean soldiers. But there was actually a lot of conflict between both of them. They didn’t like us Americans too well, or the Katusas, because the Katusas were treated very well. They had a nice place to sleep, and good food just like us Americans. And those rock soldiers had to sleep in tents, and they were rough. And so there was a lot conflict. And, there happened to be an incident where one of our U.S. soldiers stabbed one of them in the area where this club that I was at. It was Friday evening; and after the stabbing had taken place, I was already walking towards the base. One of [my] friends, I guess, had heard about the stabbing told me “Get outta here! Get outta here!” So they were all running back towards the camp; and so naturally I’m not gonna stick around. So I started running too. There was a storm of village people coming after us. So we ran onto the post, and they literally, um, attacked two of the guards and took their guns. One of ‘em did, and there was some shooting taking place; and of course, I was already on the post safe at the time. It was a kinda scary thing because these villagers had all kinds of weapons on them, and they looked like they were out to hurt us. I don’t know what would’ve taken place if I woulda stuck around there.

Mrs. Bass in uniform

Oh, I went to movies [for fun].’Course I had a little bit of a wild life. I went to clubs and went dancing and had friends, and we played games and did…various things. I went bowling [in Korea]. Bowling was one of my favorite sports.

I have the good conduct medal from my time in service, and I’m tryin’ to think, as far as I know, I came close to getting an R-Comm. But that got turned down. It’s an award for where you go above and beyond, basically above your duties and responsibilities.

Actually, during basic training [the food] wasn’t too bad. To me it was a little bit greasier than what we liked. When I was in Korea, I wasn’t as crazy about the food over there ‘cause those Koreans, the Katusas, as I told you before, they ate with us; and a lot of them. What they liked a lot was, um…Kim Chi. And the next morning, they STINK! Oh man, are they foul! I did a lot of running. We had to run every morning; and, I tell you I fell out many a time because the odor of their breath was so powering. It made me back off. Well, like I said, the post’s food, when I was in basic, was pretty good; but, when I got to my duty station in Korea-- wasn’t as great because of the Katusas, what they ate around us. I had the opportunity to go to an Air Force base over there in Korea, and they had better food than we did. They actually had a line; you could basically pick what you wanted. They even had more variety of drinks; but overall food wasn’t bad.

The barracks in Korea were cement buildings, and of course, hard floors. Kind of cold in the wintertime, but during the summer months it wasn’t quite as bad because we didn’t have normal air conditioning. We had to get by with fans. Oh, yeah [summers were] very hot. And humid! Oh, man did I sweat!

[I] wrote letters and telephoned [to stay in touch with family]. [I couldn’t visit family for holidays in Korea]. While I was in Korea, I never got to leave, y’know, go anywhere; except, I did go to Japan and see my uncle a little bit. He was a major stationed in Yakota, Japan; and he flew me over there. I got to ride in a helicopter; it was awesome.

[When I met my husband], I was in the service at Ft. Hood, Texas. When my husband was in the army, Pitt State University was the best college that offered him what he wanted. So that’s why we moved here. [He was studying] to be a teacher. [I left the military] due to the fact that my husband was stationed as a recruiter, and there was no way for us to be together. I just had to make a judgment call, and decided that it was best to get out.

[The military helped me] due to the fact that you’re sometimes put in situations where you have to make decisions, as far as leadership. You’re put in positions where you have to sometimes make decisions on the spot, and they force you to think quickly. Those were good things. Plus, y’know, you meet all kinds of different people from other nations and…and because of that I applied that in my life today.

I was in Wyrms in-- we went in January of 1987 and we came back in the latter part of 1989. I wasn’t actually physically stationed [in Germany] while I was in the service, but my husband was. So I was a dependent over there. Oh, [Germany] was wonderful. Um, it was really neat. We got to travel over there and do a lot of the Volksmarches, and meet a lot of Germans. Over there for their activities, the Germans are big into walking and good health, and what they would do is, every weekend, different cities would put on these Volksmarches. And you would walk, pay a small fee and walk for a price. You saw their beautiful terrain and their sites and different areas and sometimes some of it was going to see castles or their mountains. It was beautiful. My husband was stationed in Wyrms, Germany. I got a job as a Supply Tech with the motor pool over there in Wyrms, Germany. I worked with all Germans. As a matter of fact, I was the only American in that section. It was really neat. I got to learn a little bit of German, and they treated my very well.

One thing that I did regret about Germany, while we were there, we were going to go to Berlin-- and it happened to be the weekend the wall came down; and, um, unfortunately, my husband got called on duty. Our neighbors, because his wife was from Berlin, she was asking us to go with them. We regret that because we could’ve got a piece of the wall. Yeah, that was so disappointing.

Well, after I finished my time in service at Ft. Hood, [I] moved to Wichita, Kansas where my husband was an army recruiter. I was still wanting to do something, you know, so I joined the local reserve unit, with 89^th R-Comm. There-- which happened to be across the street from the apartments where we were living. It was great. I was enjoying that, I was assigned to a unit out of Wellington, Kansas, and I was the supply sergeant in that section. I was the sergeant of the material handling supply section. And we were a deployable unit-- that if war would’ve broke out, we would’ve went. No, we did not [see any action].

I really wanted to stay[in the military], but my husband and I had to go to Germany, and then when we came back from Germany, we got sent to Ft. Wachuka, and I tried to go back into the reserves. I don’t know if my paperwork got shuffled or something, and it didn’t go through. Just as I got my release from the service, that’s when, y’know, that’s when the conflict over there in the Gulf took place. So, that was in October 31 of 1991, that was when that conflict took off and, but if I would’ve stayed in, I know I would’ve been sent over there..

[I joined the Betty Lou Vilmer post because] I had seen an article some time back, several years ago actually, that they had this post for women; and I was very interested, but I guess I just didn’t push it until recently. Then I found out that one of the ladies that’s in the unit, I always had seen her at the Y [YMCA] and talked to her all the time. Then when I saw the article in the local newspaper about her background, I contacted her, and that’s…she kinda pushed me to join the legion with the women.

Well [I was changed by the service], for one thing, because I was only nineteen years old. The first time leaving home, and being out on my own, it helped me mature and become a young woman to the point where I could be independent. I am very glad [that I served in the military]. I don’t have one regret. It was an awesome opportunity, I mean, I sometimes wonder if I’d stayed where I would’ve been, [if] I would’ve made it to retirement.

Mrs. Bass today

*[ ] indicates words added by the interviewer

This interview was conducted by Abby Olcese in December of 2006.