Photo By Chuck Cannon | The Thomas family visits with Fort Polk command after a tour of Fort Polk.... read more read more
FORT POLK, La. — An old adage, adopted from the title of a 1940 Thomas Wolfe novel states, “You can never go home again.”
The statement supposes that nostalgia causes most people to view the past in an overly positive light, when in reality that is often not the case.
Bill Thomas might not have been able to go “home again,” but he was able to return to the place he trained to be an Army infantry Soldier from May until August of 1963.
Thomas, whose son Matthew Thomas is a contractor on Fort Polk, received a tour from his son and Lt. Col. Patrick Murphy, commander, 519th Military Police Battalion, on May 10. Murphy and Matthew Thomas are friends from a previous assignment.
Thomas attended Basic Training in Kentucky before heading to Fort Polk for Infantry Advanced Individual Training. On his first trip back to Fort Polk in 59 years, Thomas said the installation was hardly recognizable.
“When we took the tour, I think there were only about four buildings still standing from when I was here before,” he said. “Those were the old World War II two-story wooden barracks.”
The differences in the physical makeup of the installation were not the only items Thomas said he noticed.
“Everything is so dramatically different, I don’t know that you could compare things,” he said. “Especially the Soldiers; we had a lot of draftees then and that I see as a major change.”
Thomas said when he served in the mid-60s most Soldiers were in the Army for their three-year tour and then left. Now, he said it seems most Soldiers are planning to make the Army a career.
“When I joined, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I used the Army as a place holder until I decided,” he said.
Another positive change Thomas said he noted was the amenities provided to Soldiers and their Families.
“That is vital, because most of the Soldiers have Families with children,” he said. “Back then most of us didn’t. We were a completely different breed of cat. These are changing times.”
Thomas said that in his opinion, not all changes have been for good.
“The Army was larger back then, and the downside today is that too much is asked of too few,” he said.
Thomas is a Gold Star orphan: His father was killed in a training accident during World War II while flying a Martin B-26 Marauder in Kansas, leaving a 19-year-old wife and a four-month-old son. In addition to his father, Thomas said he had several relatives — all citizen Soldiers — who served during World War II, and previous U.S. conflicts.
“I had uncles who served in World War II — two jumped into France with the 82nd Airborne on D-Day, one landed in a glider on D-Day, and another went through the Battle of the Bulge,” he said. “Our family goes clear back to the Revolution, and all citizen Soldiers. They came up when they were needed, and went home when they were done.”
When Thomas finished his AIT training, he headed to Fort Hood, Texas, and later served in Germany and Korea, before heading to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he ended his service. Although there were Soldiers in Vietnam when Thomas entered the Army, he said they were all “advisors.”
“The famous Fort Polk Tigerland was not being used at that time,” he said. “I read about it after I got out of the service. Vietnam was kept quiet from the American public.”
When he thinks on the three years he served in the Army, Thomas said he has come to appreciate it more every year that passes.
“To look back, there’s a lot of pride,” he said. “I had two great grandfathers who fought in the American Revolution. I had relatives that fought in the Civil War, Spanish American War and World War I.
“I’m very proud of my Family. I am not important, but it is important that people like me served. I did my three years, to the best of my ability, and did everything they asked, and then went home when I was through. You need professional Soldiers, but when push comes to shove, you need citizen Soldiers also and being a Soldier is a great way to serve this country.”
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2022 09:58 |
| Story ID: | 422471 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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