Page 43 - The History of Veterans at Highland Springs

LEONARD B. CLEGG
HIGHLAND SPRINGS RESIDENT, ARMY
I had never given any thought to writing about my military service. I was drafted in January 1952. Since I have no usable vision in my left eye, I was sent off to Medical Basic Training at Camp Picket in Blackstone, VA. The Camp had just been activated and was short on staff, so I was recruited to teach many of the courses and in exchange I didn’t participate in the 5 mile walks. I read the material the night before and taught it the next day to my fellow draftees.
Upon finishing Medic training I was sent to Ft. Bliss in El Paso and worked in Personal for the Artillery School. That lasted 4 weeks and then I was sent to the 101st Medical Battalion (Sep) in Wertheim, Germany. We had very little to do in garrison. Our work was to service Ambulance Companies, that were attached to us when we were in the field, with equipment, fuel and food.
I bought a car and traveled over much of Europe using up all my leave time because the other 5 enlisted men in the unit had no interest in using their leave time. They were all from New York City. None had graduated from high school and they wanted to be paid at the end of their service for their unused leave time.
As the end of my 2 years of service approached, I was sent home and discharged at Ft. Sheridan at 4:00 PM on Christmas eve in 1953. I have looked upon my service as a very interesting period of my young life and of course have no regrets about my two years of service. There was very little military or risk of life about it.
Above is a photo of me at my Medical Corp Headquarters in Wertheim, Germany and a more recent one here at HSD. My rank at discharge was Corporal. Being in the Medical Core was just a job I did for 2 years. There never was any risk or health concerns. In the Army I never had or handled any type of weapon, so as I have noted, I never felt like a soldier or faced the stress that those fighting in Korea faced.
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