Vnuchka Memoirs, Part VI

A Leap Forward in Russian Language

I spent 4 years in the US Air Force, completely out of place as an electronics technician. I managed to finish my BA in English with a second major in Speech Communications before I served my 4-year term. I headed back to Houston and started graduate school. While managing to finish one semester toward a Master’s in English Literature, I met and fell in love with Vanessa. More details on that in another thread. I decided to move in another direction. While I was in the Air Force, I learned about the Defense Language Institute for Foreign Language. I wanted to go there. I was barred from rejoining the Air Force, so I went to the Army recruiter. I said if they would guarantee that I could go to DLI and study Russian, I would enlist. This was right at the end of the Vietnam War, so the Army would basically take anyone. The recruiter said I would have to take the Defense Language Aptitude Battery and make the minimum score. This is where studying all those languages, seemingly at random, came in handy. The test was basically an artificial language. Basic vocabulary and grammar were presented, then you had to remember what they presented and project and create with the language as the test progressed. I aced it! Next step, the recruiter said, “Well, we can guarantee that you can go to DLI, but we can’t guarantee the language you study.” I told him thank you very much, gave him my phone number, and told him to call me back when he could put me into a Russian class. He called back in less than a week. I was sworn into the Army in Houston, then flew to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, for a modified form of basic training, then flew to Monterey, California. I flew in at night, so I had no idea I would be spending the next year in paradise, studying a language I would grow to love.

I will always remember that first morning. I woke up 2 hours early, so I put on my Class B uniform and walked outside. My barracks was high on a hill overlooking Monterey Bay. The sun was just coming up, and I decided to head down the hill toward the bay and loud and continuous braying. I got down to a bank at the water’s edge. I could see Fisherman’s Wharf, private boats floating in the still water, sea lions lying on outer piers, barking at each other, at the few people moving about so early in the morning, and maybe at the rising sun. I was transfixed. The Monterey Bay area is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I didn’t really want to go back to the Army yet, but my in-processing would be starting in an hour, and I still had to eat breakfast. I was absolutely elated as I walked up that steep hill. I didn’t know it yet, but I would walk up and down that same hill a thousand times or more in the next year, since my barracks were at the top of the hill and my classroom was near the bottom. That transitional year was a turning point in my life. Until then, I had no commitment, no direction. Studying Russian would define my life for the next 18 years.