Boot camp was to be at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, CA. At this time in 1972, the United States was still at war in Vietnam. President Richard Nixon was re-elected toward the end of the year, on the heals of promising peace negotiations and the statement by Henry Kissinger that "peace is at hand" the day before election day, 1972. However, negotiations soon collapsed and the 27,000 U.S. troops still stationed in Vietnam were given the orders tocarry out Operation Linebacker IIin December whichincluded large raids and a variety of bombings. In January 1973, peace negations resumed culminating in the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, officially ending the United States' direct involvement in the war. However it wouldn't be until 1975 while Allan was stationed in Europe that the Republic of Vietnam surrendered and U.S. troops were systematically withdrawn. So while Dad doesn't specifically mention Vietnam as part of his decision to join the military, it had to have been at least a consideration. Although the war was winding down there was still a very good chance Allan would be stationed in one of the most dangerous parts of the world where the U.S. military had a historically large presence.
Upon arriving at Camp Pendleton, Allan quickly learned that he would not be cut out for thephysical trials of the infantry. "When I got to bootcamp, basic training, I found that I had spaces in my neck, in my spine that were too narrow for the nerves. So, when I put heavy equipment on, it pulled downon those nervesandcaused irritations. I found out through doctors that I wasn't going to be able to carry thosehelmets and all that heavy stuff. And so my military occupational specialty (MOS) changed from infantry to medical health specialist."
"So, while I was in the military, I got to work a lot with doing metal health counseling. The thing I remember the most is that when everybody else was pulling guard duty and other special duties, my MOS protected me. I didn't have very much guard duty at all. It was kind of a nine to five job, while in the military, which was nice and made it a whole lot easier to get through."
Allan would then spend some time at Fort Huachuca , southeast of Tucson, AZ to receive some medic training. However, shortly after arriving, the rules were changed so that field mental health counselors were no longer required to have medic training. Allan remembers, "my whole experience in the military seemed to be quite light, when you think about it in terms of the way that other normal military people have to deal with things." While in Arizona, he remember getting numerous encouragements to apply to teach mental health classes and principles, however was not able to pass one of the tests required to be considered. "And so, as a consequence, that disqualified me from being a teacher, even though they thought that I had good quality and good potential... So I missed out on an opportunity." Allan even wondered if he had passed that test, if he would have stayed in the military longer, received his bachelors in mental health or other potential paths. But, it was not to be and so would be sent to Fort Sam Houston in Texas to receive more mental health training before being shipped overseas to Germany.
