Barbara Petereit

Glad you were able to comment on Barb. I’ve wondered off and on over the years how you were doing. After I left Redstone I went to Fort Gordon where I was chief. I had to get out of active duty after Fort Gordon and stayed in Augusta for a year. Then moved to Quincy, Illinois. I found out about a reserve unit General Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. I called them they wanted me to come down right away. I joined the unit and over the years I became the commander of the HUM. Had a lot of interesting annual training. Two annual training that really stood out were Landstuhl, Germany, on the weekend I had a chance to travel to Paris for 190 dollars. Had breakfast, toured perfume factory, and toured Norte Dame. We went to the Eiffel Tower, we also parked on the Champs delyse, did not have time to stop and eat at a nice place. So we had breakfast st Burger King. We did a boat trip Seine River down to Notre Dame and back, then we were taken to our hotel. That night we went out for a 7 course meal, took a bus trip around the Arcde Tromphe. There are many lanes of traffic around that monument. The next morning I have opted to spend time at The Palace of Versilles. Which wAs King Louis the 14th summer home, the art and opulence was amazing. From there our hus took us to the louver King Louis main place, out guide took us down to the bottom, not through the glass priamid like most people. He took us up to the Winged Serpin directed us how to get to the Mona Lisa. In the way back huge beautiful paints and artwork, the Mona Lisa is a small painting enclosed in glass, kind of a let down after all the big beautiful art seen in the other places. We then went Frankfort. My last annual training was to Paraguay. Our plane was late getting out of Dallas, so when got to Sao Palo our plane to Paraguay had left. We did not have visas so were unable to leave anywhere but the airport and hotels. I stayed in a very nice hotel and they fed us nice food. That night they flew us to Asuncion, Paraguay. They put us up in a very night hotel and we had a magnificent breakfast. I cashed $20 in for Paragyaian money. I had to go buy film for camera and I bought a thing to drink mate a metal straw to drink that. I had drinken that in Argentina. They took us to Concepcion by bus to Army Base. The Air Force was there putting in water wells. They had very nice setups in tents for us and very nice meals. We had computers and Internet, our first day there we met with Paragyaian doctors and dentists. We had doctors from our unit doctors, nurses, dental assistants, and dentists. One of the Paragyaian doctors was reading a Tom Clancy Novel, he spoke excellent English. One of our dental techs new him from Washington DC, where his dad was working in the diplomatic service. Also, there was an Argentine doctor and we spoke about the 2 yrs I spent in Argentina. The patients we saw, I had to act as the translator because I spoke fluent Spanish from when I lived in Argentina. Some of the people we saw didn’t speak Spanish, the spoke a native Paragyaian language called Guarany. So I asked a Paragyaian soldier to ask the patient, in Guarany and translate back to me. Our first location that we went to, we traveled there by Chinook in helicopter, it got a little foggy, so they set down in a field, it looked like we were in Vietnam. All of our other places we went to, we went by bus. Some of us ate food at local places where we were. We also had MRE’S. We saw several thousand people, the dentist pulled out several thousand teeth. When we were done, the Air Force flew us back to Asucion in a Chinook. We left Asucion to Sao Palo. Then we flew home. So after 28 yrs, I had to get out because there were no positions available for full Colonel. Overall, with active duty and reserve time, I had a wonderful time and I miss the Army. I also, broke my elbow at my reserve unit, doing physical training, doing relay races, when I fell down out running this young kid, I thought I had hurt another part of my arm. But I could tell I had broken my right elbow. I began to go south, they gad intended to take to Scott Air Force Base Hospital, an ambulance happened to he coming by the unit at that time, so they took me up the street to Barnes Jewish Hospital. I read the X-rays, and they wanted to know how I knew how to read X-rays. I told them I learned in the Army. I came back a week later and had a plate and 5 screws put in my elbow. They gave me what is known as Scalene Block, so I was awake for the hole procedure. I spoke with a nurse anesthetist that was going to be joining our unit, they put me in a splint and I had to go back and get sutures removed. I did therapy at the hospital in Taylorville, IL. So it wasn’t long after that I had to get out of the military. So I’m fully retired LTC the money I get from my 28yrs goes into a joint checking account. When you retire after over 20yrs you collect 50% of your highest salary. Since that was not my case, my salary is based on 5he points I accumulated over the time, that was active duty 1 pt a day for 12 yrs, 4 pts for each weekend deal, and 14 pts for annual training. I really enjoyed my military career, we have 5 children, one of whom lives with me and is typing us this message. She and 2 sons live with me. My oldest son is an attorney in Dallas, TX and currently works for Liberty Mutual. He went to Law School at Baylor, which is where I have my master degree from. My younger son works in Quincy, Il at a sand and gravel company that is owned by a church member. Oldest daughter is a manager for Life Vest by Zoll. She was a pharmaceutical rep after graduating from college. The daughter that is writing this is acl receptionist at a dental clinic. Youngest daughter, who was born at Redstone, lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. She works for Vantage which is a loan company and has several people under her. Hope all is well with you and yours, glad you reached out.