When Paige Sawyer put out the first request for inputs to this project, Jerry Adams of the 3rd Platoon wrote to him, saying, “Good to see that you and Jim are doing this, and like always the former members of the 2nd Platoon are leading the way. The 2nd Platoon obviously had a more positive environment than the others as demonstrated by the repeated times you and others have had reunions and remain connected to each other. These qualities may have not existed in the other Platoons so naturally they are absent today.”
Having never served with the other platoons of the 101st, I cannot really speak about their relationships. I did spend fourteen months with the 328th, though, and there is little contact among those men today. I feel closer to the guys I served with in the 2nd Platoon than I do any other group from my past, except for some members of my immediate family. I share a bond, too, with the many who preceded me in the Snake Platoon and the few who followed. I know I am not alone in this. Perhaps that explains why so many of us extended our tours. My mother gave me a very odd look as it neared the time for my fourth trip over when I mentioned that I would be “going home” in a few days.
At the COMSEC Reunion in Kansas City in 2000, the first big one, I believe, everybody picked up with each other right where they had left off thirty-odd years before. As old as we have become, there are still plenty of us who look forward to getting together by email, on-line or in person. I don’t ever hear from anyone I went to high school or college with and seldom the people I have worked with, and that’s okay. It’s just not the same thing. The men of the Snake Platoon, though, will always be my brothers.
Return to the History Page.