In 1976 I started my journey with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Command  

I transferred from the U.S. Army Military Police (MP) Corps 42^nd MP Group Customs unit at Stuttgart Germany (Robinson Barracks) to the U.S. Army CID with duty at the Stuttgart CID office located on Robinson Barracks.

In previous stories I mentioned how I became interested in CID and why I applied for CID leaving the MPs which I enjoyed as a career from 1970 until my acceptance into the CID in 1976.

My two years at Stuttgart as a MP Customs Investigator (MPI) did not bring me into contact with CID but one of my criminology courses with Central Texas College on Engineer Kaserne allowed me to interact with a CID Special Agent (SA) Reid Chave who was teaching the investigative course.

Once I had completed the CTC criminology course I was impressed with Army CID and thought becoming a CID SA would be a good career move, so with the assistance of SA Chave I applied for CID. This application process was not easy, but since I kept everything involving my Army life I had all the hundreds of documents needed for the application and in a week my application was off to CID.

Several months later when I had forgotten all about CID and was entrenched with my work with German Customs and dealing with all the mounds of paper work that accompanied MPI Customs work, I got a call from SA Chave telling me I had been accepted into the CID program as an apprentice and would be getting official notification soon.

I was excited but when the official notification came later that week my application for the special Warrant Officer Program was denied but I would be accepted as an enlisted Specialist Six (SP6) apprentice SA if I accepted the move to CID. Apparently at that time the then CID Commander Brigadier General Escola wanted all CID SA Warrant Officer’s to have at least a two year college degree and even thought I had my two year diploma with CTC I was not given the opportunity to go Warrant at that time.

Over the years from 1970 to the present the procedures for Warrant Office changed and changed and changed and at times it was hard to keep up with what it took to be a Warrant Officer, that is another story I have written about and yall will just have to locate it for the fun of it.

Strangely enough other than the rank of Specialist Four (SP4) which I held when in Vietnam as an MP I had not heard or seen other specialist ranks such as this SP6 CID was talking about, apparently I was giving up my hard stripes as a Staff Sergeant (SSG) and becoming a SP6, same money just seemed weird.

Took several months for me to get my official assignment to CID since 42^nd MP Gp did not want to lose me and fought my transfer, but in the end CID won out and I was getting ready to become an apprentice CID SA whatever the heck that meant.

My time with the MPs was very involved and I worked strange hours all the time, not good for home life, but I was young and enjoyed the job, but my wife at the time did not share my love of the job and over time I would learn many MPs and CID folks ended up as single folks due to the job, some managed to make both worlds work, but most did not from what I saw.

On my arrival at the Stuttgart CID Office just blocks from my MP unit I was greeted and thrown right into the fray of being a CID Apprentice SA, no badge, and nothing to identify myself as a CID Apprentice SA but I would get use to the change. My first day at the CID office I was in my MP uniform and was told immediately to go home and change into civilian clothes, CID did not wear uniforms!

The CID Operations Office Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Four Smith met at the moment met be once I was in civilian clothing and gave me a tour of the CID office and introduced me to the few SAs who were in the office, the rest were out working criminal investigations. I did not meet the CID Commander for some reason, but that was not an issued for me.

A  SP5 whose name is lost to me now who was working in the mail room got me situated with all the changes needed for my military records and my upcoming trip to The U.S. Army CID School which had just moved from Fort Gordon, GA to Fort McClellan, AL.

After a month of watching and soaking in all that was going on at the Stuttgart CID Office I was off to Fort McClellan, AL for the CID Basic course. This was kind of strange since all the MP training I had received in the past was at the Fort Gordon, GA MP School.

As mentioned all the work the Army had me doing as an MP and now as a CID Apprentice kept me away from my family for days at a time and that was not going well with my then wife who was not happy about being in Germany and not happy at all about my work hours. My going off to CID school was all it took for my then wife to decide Army life was not for her and for her to make plans to head home to Texas.

Sadly I did not realize my home life had gotten so bad but life and work tend to get in the way of each other at times and I was on my way to be divorced and single and was not aware of it. Guess that was a good thing since I needed to be on top of my training at CID school and do my best in order to get ahead in the Army.

There are several stories about the life and times of me during this time frame going in to more detail and they are an interesting read as I remember those times prior to, during, and just after my entry to CID.

My CID Basic Course was held at Fort McClellan, AL from 29 March 1976 to 19 June 1976, I was in Class Number Six  and let me tell you, learning how to become a CID SA was not easy, training was long and we had material to read every day and night as well as practical exercises and written exams. 

If you did not pass an exam or exercise you got one more chance and then you were removed from the class if you did not pass the exercise or exam the second time. If you failed you were reassigned by the Army where the Army wanted you, you did not get assigned back to the unit you came from in most cases.

Not sure but think we lost two folks who were not MPs before CID training and were sent to the Infantry and they had not been Infantry, not a good thing.

My CID Class graduated seventeen folks and we were all considered CID Apprentice SAs, however there was a twist to our graduating class, we all received CID Badges and Credentials, prior to our class, apprentice SAs got apprentice credentials and no badge.

Once an apprentice SA completed a year in the field with a CID SA senior partner and passed all the tasked assigned him or her, then they got the SA Credential and a Badge. Other stories I have written talk in more detail about what happened when the folks at Stuttgart CID found out I had the real deal CID SA credential and badge, but that is another story for yall to find if you can, smiles.

On completion of my CID Apprentice Training I returned to the CID Office at Stuttgart Germany where I was interviewed by the then Operations Officer CW4 Less Dink and the CID Commander LTC Berry and briefed on what I would be doing for the next year to get through my apprentice field training. The Operations Office then took me down the hall and I met my CID senior SA who would be teaching me how to be a REAL CID SA, my first CID SA partner was none other than SA Jim Pace!

On my return to Stuttgart I realized I was no longer a married soldier, my wife had packed up and left for Texas leaving me single, the life and times of an Army Soldier and Family was not easy and relationships could end quickly with both individuals trying to figure out what happened.

Cutting to the chase, Jim and I were a team, he advised and I did the work, when I arrived he had twenty open investigations and all of a sudden I had twenty investigations we worked together. On our second week SA Pace realized I had real CID credentials and a CID badge and the next day those twenty open investigations were worked by me with SA Pace checking on me every now and then, since I had a badge and credentials I was on my own with some over sight.

The Important folks in CID were on the second floor of the MP station at the Stuttgart District CID Office while those of us other folks were in the attic of the building in the workers area and that was the way it was way back when.

Remember folks, these are my memories of life a long long time ago in another life time, if you remember those times differently write your memories about those times and we can compare notes

Waco Police – Waco, Texas (1970s)

In the 1970s I came back from Vietnam to my hometown of Waco, Texas where I previously worked as a Police Cadet for a whopping $340.00 a month while attending McLennan Community College until I was drafted into the U.S. Army.

On my return to Waco, I applied for a job as a police patrol officer at the Waco Police Department which had moved from the basement of the City Hall - where I had worked as a Police Cadet - to a brand new Police building at the corner of 4th and Waco Drive.

The Police Department was looking to start hiring as many police officers as they needed to allow the department to grow with the expanding city of Waco.

Once my three months 600-hour police academy conducted at the Waco police department was completed me and the other police recruits got our certificates and started our three-month ride along to see if we could apply what we learned in the police academy to real world police operations.

At the end of my three month ride along practicing what I learned in the police academy me and the rest of the police recruit class were still working and learning even more from our senior police partners but we could not stay in ride along mode forever and on the fourth month my police recruit class became fully fledged police officers and began our life as Waco Police Officers making $529.00 a month.

My time with the Waco Police was short since I was in the Texas National Guard on a break from the regular Army and after only year of excitement as a Waco Police officer I was back in the U.S. Army as a Military Policemen where I would spend the rest of my life working for the Army and the Department of Defense.

When I left the Waco Police department I was making $595.00 a month so I was happy to get back to the regular Army where I made more money and had a better chance for promotions – Crazy.

As my Waco Police memories come to me I will jot them down and see if they make sense and if I can even write about them, it was a scary time every now and then back then, and once my memories can be posted I will do so.