Bruno Maselli's Tour That Started in the Original 14th Radio/Broadcast Activity at Fort Shafter Hawaii. 

I joined the Army in Jan 1957 for 3 years not long after finishing high school in Pittsfield Ma. At that time in our lives, the draft was mandatory.  Sooner or later one would have to serve. When you went for a job interview in those days, inevitably you would be asked, " have you fulfilled your military obligation yet".  If not,, at age 18-19 if was hard to get a job because the employer knew you would leave for duty when drafted.  Since I wasn't ready for college at that time, I chose to join the Army because it allowed me to have a choice of schools to attend after my basic training.  I chose the Army Information school because I had aspirations of becoming a radio announcer and the Army recruiter told me that's what I would learn in that school.  What he didn't tell me was that unless I had a college degree in broadcast journalism or minimum 2 years work experience in a radio station prior to joining, the Army would not  allow me to work in an Armed Forces Radio station even after attending that school.  So when the opportunity arose to be stationed with the 14th Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Battalion, well I thought maybe this would be second best. The rest is history of course. 

I was sent to Ft. Benning Georgia for my basic training.  After basic I went to the only school of it's kind in the entire military in Ft. Slocum NY which was on an island just off the coast of New Rochelle, NY.  The school was called Army Information School and the training was in journalism as well as radio/broadcasting and photography.  It was an intense 8 week course and was a one of a kind school.... besides Army, there were also Airmen and Navy personnel in my class as well.  How I got to be assigned to the 14th in Hawaii was most interesting story and probably hard to believe, but true.

The day after graduation those of us in the Army with the same MOS , and needing to be assigned to a permanent post were called into a meeting room. There were probably 12 or 14 of us in that room as I recall.  The first thing the officer in charge of the meeting said was, " we have 6 positions in Europe that you all qualify for since you all have the same MOS ( Information Specialist )..... so who wants to go to Europe"?  I think about 8 people raised their hand including myself. I thought wow, being stationed in Europe will give me a chance to see my close relatives living in Italy.  The officer said since there were more than 6 wanting to go, we woud draw cards...... yes that's true. He said, "the 6 highest cards drawn will get those assignments."  I drew a deuce,,, disgusted and feeling a bit depressed I sat back down mulling over what would happen next.  He then announced there were 3 positions open in Hawaii.  Well the entire remaining group all wanted Hawaii but I didn't move right away. Instead, I asked what would happen to those that didn't get Hawaii and he said, you'll be assigned somewhere in the US.  I finally thought, hmm maybe I better take a shot at Hawaii and went up front to draw my card.. I drew a King.  So now there were 3 of us all going to Hawaii but we didn't know what the jobs were going to be. We 3 were taken aside and the officer said, " I have 1 position at Trippler Army Hospital and 2 at the 14th R&BA".  One of the 3 asked, " whats the job at Trippler"?  Answer, " working in the in hospital radio bed side station" and before I could even think, he responded, " I'll take that one"!!  So that was that,, me and the other soldier,  Don Langley, were going to the 14th R&BL.  Believe it or not, that's exactly how I got there.

I arrived at Ft. Shafter along with Don in June of 1957.  Don was immediately assigned to a desk ( Yale grad ), but I was told I could not enter the building because my security clearance was not yet approved.  Because of my relatives living in Italy it took about a month to get my clearance since the communist influence was prevalent throughout Europe at the time.  I stayed in the foyer of the building reading lots of magazines for that month. Finally I secured my clearance and was assigned to the operations group under Capt. Higgenbotham.  He didn't know exactly what to do with me as I had no art talent so I mostly worked in the building next door which housed a small radio station.  I did some voice overs on military training films as well as "trailers" for documentaries aired on Honolulu TV.  I also filmed those clips we often see each year on local TV at Christmas time of a GI stationed somewhere in the world sending a greeting to his family at home.  I worked the sound device and another Signal Corp guy worked the camera.  That was fun and it often took a couple of months to do what we did 3 times a week mostly at Schofield Barracks. Of course every weekend was spent on the beach at Waikkee like all the rest of the soldiers on the Island.

 A funny story that occurred while stationed in Honolulu.  Funny now, not so funny then.  Capt Michael Angelo was the company commander and he was a fussy sort of old soldier with some quirks.  I.E. on the day of an inspection when a Col or Gen was visiting he would put his dress pants on while standing on a chair in his office so as to not have the pants bend for fear the crease might show a wrinkle.....  Quirky for sure.  But the other story;  I volunteered for permanent off duty hours driver to avoid KP duty which I hated as I seemed to always get stuck cleaning out the grease trap in the back sink.  The gig was easy and only a few times did I have to leave the beach to get dressed in military uniform to go to the airport to pick up a visiting dignitary or an officer being shipped in.  Well, Capt Angelo was going into Trippler for some medical procedure and was to be admitted on a Sunday morning.  I was to pick him up at this home and have him at the hospital by 8 am on that Sunday.  I went to the beach as usual the day before and some how got invited to a party that Saturday evening.  Well the booze flowed and this 19 year old young man was not used to the amount of vodka I consumed. I just got the bus back to Shafter, set the alarm next to my bunk for 6am and passed out.  At 8:30 am, I awoke to the normal Sunday morning barracks noise.  I jumped up and said, " oh my God , what did I do,, I was supposed to pick up Capt Angelo and overslept.  I was one worried PFC for sure.  One of the guys stationed with me, Sandy Macone offered to go visit Angelo in the hospital to explain that the clock never went off ( not that it would be a usable excuse in the Army but worth a shot).  Sandy was pretty close to Angelo so he figured his influence would help me.  Well it turned out that Angelo gave me an Article 15 and confined me to the barracks for 15 days as a result.   Not too bad considering.  I had to wait at least 2 weeks to find out my fate due to Capt Angelo's recovery time etc.  A long 2 weeks of wondering.

The entire 14th moved to Okinawa in Jan of 1958 joining up with our compliment from Japan.  All of us with 6 months or more to serve went.  Those who had less were reassigned to Schofield Barracks to serve out their remaining time. I stayed in Operations in Okinawa reporting directly to a Master Sgt by the name of Pavlov.  Pav, as he was called, was born in Russia but was an American citizen and a career soldier.  Eccentric would be a way to describe him but very fair.

I remember the day we arrived at our barracks by bus from Kadena Air Force base in Sukiran.  There must have been 30 or 40 Okinawans waiting on the grass for us to arrive looking for jobs as; houseboys, cooks, waitresses ( there were some women as well ).    I think we ended up hiring at least 6 house boys, several kitchen helpers and a couple of waitresses who actually waited on any officer who ate in the mess hall.  My house boy's name was Tana.  I guess you can say that B&VA moving to Okinawa stimulated the economy as well employing those folks.   As time went on, my Japanese improved quite a bit as I took evening classes in conversational Japanese.  Well after a year, I became the " designated house boy problem solver" .  If one quit or got fired it was me who explained why he got fired and I usually also hired the new one.  Because the house boys realized my authority relative to their future with the guys in the barracks,  I hardly ever had to provide soap or shoe polish to Tana.  He used the soap and shoe polish from the other guys to take care of me. When I was leaving the island, Tana invited me to his home for dinner to meet his family.  I don't think that happened very often between a GI and a house boy.  He cried the day I said good bye.  That's the truth.

 I worked testing loudspeakers and many other jobs handed to the Operations department. Many days brought  a new adventure without any regulated duties like those working on the desks.  It seemed each day was different and I loved it.  I flew in helicopters (Bell and Sikorsky) and dropped leaflets informing Okinawan's of military activities to be held as well as water shortages on the island..  I also went to the other Islands in the Ryukyu chain by helicopter every quarter to distribute magazines I handed directly to the school principles on these islands.  The magazines were printed in the US and contained articles about Democracy and always featured a story about an American city.  These stories were written by the guys assigned to the " desks" as we called them.  The chopper would land in the school yard and I would be greeted by the school principle along with a bunch of young school children who hadn't seen many Americans.  The staring was unbelievable along with comments and lots of giggling.  I remember offering candy and gum and most of the time the older kids would push the youngest up to take it from my hands.  It was more or less " snatching " it out of my hands and they would jump back quickly as if I would hurt them if they got too close.  They were extremely cautious of me. However, they really appreciated the magazines and the kids took them home to their parents. Our office building house a radio station where Korean and Chinese civilians recorded tapes translated from English by them ( written by the desk guys ) and those tapes were broadcast to the Chinese mainland and Korea from Japan I believe.  Of course they were always about the values of Democracy over Communism.

We shared the barracks with the 1st Special Forces Group who went on to become famous in Vietnam as the " Green Berets".  They also shared our mess hall.  Our two companies complimented each others goals in some ways which is why they were assigned to our barracks.  I spent the remaining 2 years I had left to serve on Okinawa and had lots of wonderful experiences. I was promoted to Spec 4 while on Okinawa and that was my rank the day of my discharge.  Although my date of discharge was Jan 17, 1960, I was shipped home in December (59) on what they called,  " Operation Santa Clause " so I could be home for Christmas.  Never forget the plane I flew to home on and sitting on the Tarmac I wondered if I should get on it because it was called, " Slick Airways"... Not especially a comforting name to fly across the vast Pacific on as you can imagine.  I spent the next year on inactive reserve and was given a full discharge in 1961.

I moved to Cherry Hill NJ from Ma in 1971 due to job related transfer and have lived here ever since.

Bruno Maselli