1SG (R) Will D. Howell

First Sergeant (Retired) Will D. Howell sat down with me for Heroes I Know.

He lives in Kentucky now. He joined at twenty-four. Late. His dad was a mechanic at Amoco in Tulsa. Will did a summer internship. They hired him through a temp service. Three or four years. Then the Army.

Aviation. Fort Bliss almost two years. The whole unit moved to Fort Carson. Almost two more. Four years in that unit. He made E5 right before Germany. About twenty-six. First marriage was ending. He got divorced. Then he went.

Germany was an engineer unit. Bamberg. Small post. Forty-five minutes to the big PX. Forty minutes to Schweinfurt for a Taco Bell. He emailed the S1 NCOIC before he got there. Twelve-mile rucks. PT average two-seventy. He told them he was going to bring those numbers down. He ran. He rucked. He got better.

He was in the field when 9/11 happened. They rushed back. Guarded the gates. Ration cards. Almost four years over there. Single. He made it to Paris. Mostly he stayed with the section.

Fort Hood. Six and a half years. First Cav. Third HBCT. First Iraq was the Green Zone. Little FOB. PT in the morning. Work. Back upstairs at night. Felt like garrison. Year and a half later they went to Baqubah. Off the helicopter. Pitch dark. No lights. The enemy would see them. Totally different war.

Adjutant General Corps. That is his badge. In basic a soldier played a Walkman and ate cookies from a care package. The sergeant major threw the Walkman across the room. Rolled their flag. Put them back in phase one. Years later at Hood Will moved up to brigade S1 NCOIC. First day. That same sergeant major walked out of the office. He had to report to him.

Company. Attention. First Sergeant Howell signing out. That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.