Seated: Terry Haggerty, Mick Moore, Tom Keffer

Standing: Ralph Burson, Bernie Ike, Todd Hovermale, Dave Handel, Dan Winters

Todd Hovermale remembers:

I am thinking it was real early in our military stint. Those uniforms look new and there are no name tags or qualification badges worn by anyone.

Our experience with the United States Army was definitely not typical of what most young men went through. An Army Reserve Major had come to school

to explain the new reserve program the army had to offer. He was wanting to fill vacancies in his reserve company at Ft. Hayes.

It was a company that supported a group headquarters which contained several majors and a couple colonels. They didn’t want just any riffraff

so he came to GHHS to find some outstanding young men, ha. Not only did we all serve in the same reserve company many of us

were in the same Basic Training Platoon and some even in the same Squad. Things are done alphabetically so Haggery, Handel, Hovermale

were in the same squad and Ike was just on the other side of the room. When you think of all the young fellows going to basic training

our being together was highly unusual and may I add very comforting to us. After basic training we all went to different specialty training schools

around the country but eventually when our active duty was over we were all back together at Ft. Hayes.

The introduction to the Army involved a day of testing at Ft. Hayes to determine our aptitude to the many specialties that the Army requires.

This was my first indication that my high school education was not typical of what most received. After the testing sessions everyone was released but us.

A nasty old Sargent comes in front of us with hands on his hips wanting to know how we did “IT”. We didn’t know what “IT” was.

Turns out our collective scores on the various tests were so high above the norm that they figured we had somehow cheated.

I am sure that Major back at the Reserve Company was real pleased with his efforts to recruit some people to fill his vacancies.

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