Page 78 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2023 - Online Magazine

Bob Stoll, Jr.
Like Father, Like Son

by Larry Williams

away. Shortly after, and only four went to Vietnam. I was
he returned with sent to the 69th Ordnance Company
what looked like a at site Pluto, which fell under the
glass of water and 559th Artillery Group. I was assigned
told Dad to drink as an MP security, controlling access
it slowly. When he to all the armaments. I found out
woke up the next from a buddy that nuclear warheads
morning, the pain were also stored there. I lived in the
was gone, and the barracks until I could bring Nancy
shrapnel had been over; then we lived in an apartment
removed from his off base.
ankle. He asked what
the miracle stuff “My last six months of enlistment,
was, and was told it I was sent to Advanced Infantry
was grain alcohol, Training in Fort Lewis, WA. I
Bob Stoll, Jr.
better known as remember one guy was on a training
moonshine.” patrol in the woods. He went over
obert Stoll, Jr. and his father to lob a grenade but accidentally
shared more than a name. Bob Jr. was born in Jackson, released the handle before he threw
RThey both served in Italy Wyoming in 1946. “I started it and blew himself up. I had to
during their time in the military. cowboying at an early age. At the go pick up his helmet. I cannot
age of eight, I learned to drive an old ever forget seeing that, and I think
Bob Sr. served in the Army during truck on our ranch. We moved to of all those vets in Vietnam who
WWII. Bob Jr. told this story about Kansas City and then to Dallas where experienced that over and over. I was
his father: “Dad was a part of the I graduated from Thomas Jefferson discharged at Fort Lewis on February
invasion of North Africa—Operation High School in 1964. I met my future 10, 1969.
Torch. His unit went into the country wife, Nancy Young, at the Texas State
of Algiers, and they worked their Fair on High School Day. “I bought a big, used 1955 Buick
way across Africa to Tunisia, where Super; it had a great engine. Nancy
they captured a German air strip. “After high school, Dad gave me and I drove back to Dallas. I was
The Germans destroyed much of the $5,000, dropped me off at Texas Tech, going to join the police force there
facility as they retreated, knocking and said, ‘Good luck’. I wasn’t quite but decided to go to Architecture
down all their communication poles ready for college, so I walked out my
and lines. Dad and some other second semester and went back to
soldiers were replacing the poles and cowboying in Wyoming for a while. I
lines for Allied use when a group went to work for the phone company
of German Messerschmidt fighter in Iowa for a while. Shortly after that,
planes came in to cover the German I was reclassified 1A, so knowing
retreat. Dad and the crew jumped I would be drafted soon, I went to
into a 2 ½ ton truck and took off Dallas to see Nancy. Sure enough,
toward a covered area, but a bomb Mom called and told me I had been
landed near the truck, flipping it drafted. I walked down to the Army
over, and they all ran for cover. Dad recruiting office in Dallas on Feb. 11,
was running alone, and suddenly, 1966, and picked the job I wanted—
just like in the movies, a row of Military Police. Five days after basic
bullets splattered dust up on either training at Ft. Polk, LA, Nancy and
side of him. He caught shrapnel in I got married, April 28, 1966. Two
his ankle and fell. When he woke up, weeks later, I was sent to Military
he was in horrible pain in the medic’s Police School in Ft. Gordon, Georgia.
shack and begged the medic to give
him morphine. The medic said he “Out of my class of 300, half were
was out of morphine and walked assigned to Alaska; the rest were sent Bob Stoll, Sr.
to Europe (seven of us went to Italy),

78 Lubbock Senior Link