Baker Was A Clerk For Military Police
Pictured: Duane and Carol Baker were married after Duane’s basic training. They lived in the D.C. area while Duane served at Ft. Meyer, Virginia.
By Jill Fennema –
In the summer of 1970, Duane Baker was working at the Nicollet County Bank in St. Peter. He was dating a young girl named Carol Kuhlman from Lake Benton and they were thinking about getting married by the end of that year.
The United States military was still drafting soldiers for the Vietnam War, although anti-war sentiments were high and there were demonstrations happening all over the country.
Duane had a low draft number, so he thought he would have been drafted pretty quick. He decided to enlist in the Army, in the area of finance.
He and Jerry Blom, who would later become a pastor, went to Sioux Falls together for their physicals, which they passed. A few days later they boarded a bus in Pipestone, headed for St. Paul. From there he flew to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, for his basic training.
That was the first time Duane had ever been on an airplane. When they arrived at their destination, they were given some food, clothes, and a place to sleep. But information and instructions were hard to come by. “It was organized,” Duane recalls. “But they did not tell you anything other than, ‘Stay in line’.”
Of course, they all were issued military haircuts. Duane said that was not much different than what he was used to back home. But there was one young soldier who had his hair longer over his ears. After his haircut, his ears got so sunburned – that soldier was miserable.
Throughout basic training and advanced training, Duane and Carol wrote letters to each other. There were a couple of phones available so the waiting lines were long and it cost a lot. Carol recalls that there was a bad snowstorm that October and she wrote to Duane all about it.
“We knew then we had it pretty good,” Duane said.
Another memory that stuck with Duane was going to church each Sunday. The first Sunday they were there, the church was full. Soldiers missed home and family. “There was a lot of sniffeling going on,” he said. But the next week, there were fewer who went to church and by the end of eight weeks, there were only a few guys there.
As for the food, Duane said it was good, but there was just never enough! There was also a pull-up bar at the entrance to the mess hall. Each soldier had to do a certain number of pull-ups on that bar before they could eat. There were a couple of guys who could never do it – which made the line take a long time.
Duane didn’t mind pulling “KP” duty because that meant he could eat when he was done working, which meant there was no rush to eat and he could have more! This Minnesota farm boy was accustomed to plenty of good food.
At the end of basic training, Duane’s parents – Harold and Bertha – his fiancé, Carol, and his brother Verlyn, came out to visit him and take him home for a Christmas leave.
Duane had a few weeks off between basic training and advanced training, which fell over Christmas. He and Carol got married on December 26, 1970. After their wedding, they drove back to Ft. Knox together. They could not live on the base together, so Carol stayed with a Baptist pastor and his wife during Duane’s training.
Duane outside Walter Reed Medical Center with his first son, Jeff.
Carol outside the Christian Reformed Church in Washington, D.C. with their son, Jeff.
The Baker family was able to come to the D.C. area to see Duane and Carol. While there they visited the White House.
