Veterans History Project

The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

David Dellatto was looking at different options in life from the time he graduated from high school. He knew going to college at that time wasn't for him, and at age twenty-two, he worked at a store offering all things for house improvement. A customer who shopped at the store turned out to be a local Army Recruiter. A conversation was struck up and soon David was in her office, asking a lot more questions. In a fairly short time, he was on his way to Fort Knox, KY.

Fort Knox is an historic place where some treasure is stored. It was the Home of Armor and a site of One Station Unit Training (OSUT). The feature of this education puts new recruits into a single track of fifteen weeks where the basic and advanced individual training is combined. There is no break between basic and advanced cycles, nor does the new soldier have to change locations. He was in one of the last OSUT groups to go through Fort Knox. David arrived there in January and quickly learned to go where the heat was!

Two Drill Sergeants met the bus as it arrived on Fort Knox. In a very short time, the list of things to do came out. Lets get the haircuts and uniforms; they'll need some shots from the medics; show them where to eat and live, etc. As the training began and progressed, the young men (men only, it was combat arms at the time) learned the steps of drill and ceremonies, first aid, ruck marches, customs and courtesies of the Army, physical readiness training, and weapons qualification. With OSUT, they would also begin training in their military occupational specialty.

Within days, road marching started to show up on the training schedule. The terrain immediately close to Fort Knox recruit dormitories has some steep places. The roads seem to have been placed there to challenge those in training. Named: "Agony" "Misery" and "Heartbreak" hills were the main ones to contend with. When the troopers got to the bottom of "Misery", they came to an intersection, took a left and marched up "Agony".

Usually this happened before breakfast!

David got into the training and made a commitment to himself to "be all he could be"! He became most enthusiastic about physical fitness. At that time, there were three events to the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). One had to achieve a minimum number of 60 points to pass each event; situps, pushups, and the two-mile run. Maximum scores of 100 in each event brought commendations! Throughout his career, David's scores were in the 290 plus range.

There was competition in the training company as to who the top recruits/performers were. David was in the elite group of these young men as well. When his parents went to observe the graduation exercises, David made them proud! In military terms, David was now a 19K10 Armor Crewman.

Fort Hood, Texas was the next destination for this soldier. Although it was a long drive from Loveland, Colorado to the site near Killeen, Texas, David was set to fit in and get on with his new situation. He was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, 2nd Brigade, 1st of the 8th Battalion Armor. When one is a hard-charger like David, one makes the most of it! He was selected as the guidon bearer right away. Because of his fitness, he would carry the unit colors (flag) in all company formations.

At Fort Hood, his unit was preparing for deployment to the Middle East. The orders hadn't appeared yet, but they were sure it was going to happen. Work now involved learning the missions, the dis-mounted patrols, critical first aid, real time communications, and orientation. A period of time was spent at Fort Polk, LA, at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) learning platoon tactics, tank protocol, and humvee operations. All this suited David just fine.

At deployment time, the unit flew the arching route into Germany then on to Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq. After re-assembling, the unit went on to the Diyala Province north of Baqubah, Iraq (East of Baghdad). From here, a smaller group went on to the Forward Operating Base (FOB) Cruz Morris.

This base is quite small, holding less than 200 men. The equipment needed to do their job was still on hand from the previous unit. Their work involved presence patrols, clearing routes of Improvised Explosive Devices, kicking doors, and making the area safer for civilians and soldiers.

While checking for explosives, a hidden, buried bomb went off. The explosion rocked the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle and destroyed it. The troopers inside it survived.

Another of their assignments was to secure the Consolidated Contractors Company site in the area. As the name implies, this place has people working there from different places in the area. They also brought their strongly held beliefs and ways with them. Troopers were there to just keep the peace among the workers in and around the building.

Another assignment came about requiring the men to shut down the Forward Operating Base. In that the facility was no longer needed, the work began to physically dismantle the place. All the property had to be loaded and moved away. The men had their normal military assignments to do, plus complete the shut-down operations and move to another FOB.

A close call happened when one soldier stepped on a buried steel plate. Pressure on the place put contact to the firing pin of a bomb and death and injuries resulted. Somehow, the bomb did not go off.

David got the chance for a ten day leave for rest and relaxation. He found this to be quite an adventure. While in uniform, his route took him from airport to airport until he finally reached the US. In actual time, he spent about 8 days with family and friends then headed back to the FOB. (The military stopped allowing soldiers to go on leave in this manner. It became too difficult on the soldiers and their families.) David stayed in touch with home by using computers and the available applications like "Skype".

Rocket attacks came into their area frequently at night. As David's unit was moving out for a presence patrol, the route of travel involved a very narrow road which had a steep declination off to the side. The driver of the MRAP they were in allowed the vehicle to go off the road very slightly, and the vehicle rolled over and over. There were many injuries including David's shoulder. Because of his physical conditioning, the injuries could have been much worse.

The unit completed this 10 month deployment without loss of life on the Cavalry Brigade's part. Once back at Fort Hood, TX, life returned to some form of normal. Here, living continues with the men soldiers have come to trust with their lives. As a promising junior Non-commissioned Officer, David was selected for Warrior Leader Course at Fort Sill, OK.

When the course ended, the First Sergeant asked David if he was interested in becoming a life-guard at one of the swimming pools on Fort Hood. Well then, yes First Sgt, sign me up !

David served for three years in the US Army. He wanted to see what else was "out there" in the world so he took the option to leave active duty.

Specialist David Dellatto, when your Country called, you served and served well. Thank you for that service!