Remembering Baltimore and Fort Holabird

As the wife and I sit in California awaiting the start of the Preakness, my thoughts drift back to 1969 and those days when I first entered the Army. After finishing basic training at Ft Dix in New Jersey that March, I reported to Ft Holabird, the US Army's Military Intelligence School located in the gritty Dundalk area of Baltimore.

I was at Ft Holabird that spring from the end of March to the end of May taking an Intelligence Analyst course. We had some great Marines in our class as well, and one weekend we got into a brawl on the softball field playing members of another class. I remember the gritty sports bars in the area, Colgate Creek, going to Pimlico and the Preakness, seeing the Orioles and many wonderful ballplayers they had (including Brooks Robinson), going to a Jimi Hendrix concert, the EM club and the famous pig sisters.

Next stop: Vietnam.

The Prekness always brings these memories back, every year.