Fort Riley

Custer Home, Fort Riley, KS

My nephew, Connor, took a time-honored path to pay for college and signed up for the Army ROTC program. They kept their part of the deal, and are paying for his education. He is six months into keeping his part of the deal, and is on active duty.

When he was getting ready to be an active officer, they gave him a list of bases, and asked him to pick his top choices. When the duty roster came out, he'd predictably (given Army ways) been assigned to none of the above - they sent him to Fort Riley, just down the road a piece from me.

I know he wasn't initially thrilled with the assignment, but I thought it was nice that at least he'd be able to stop by once in a while for a weekend break. Little did I know about the life of a modern Army officer - they've kept him busy with training exercises almost all of the time since he got here last spring.

Finally, last weekend, his unit was given a break from the too-many-hour days they've been working to get ready for deployment later this year, and he was able to get a four-day pass. It was supposed to be Thursday through Sunday, but they didn't finish their work on time, so it got shifted to Saturday through Tuesday. (guess they figure their soldiers should get used to not making plans...)  Undaunted, his sister, Juliann, came on down from Minneapolis on Thursday as originally planned. I took Friday off from work to spend some time with her, and we left Kansas City mid-day to go to meet up with him on base.

It's just over two hours out there; the drive went quickly since she and I had much to catch up on. I'd never been on an Army base before - I was impressed. I've seen part of the base before - you can see a bunch of the equipment from the freeway - but didn't realize how far back into the surrounding area the grounds went.

It took very little time to get through at the Visitor Control Center - apparently Friday evenings are not prime time for visiting the base. From the size of the waiting room, I know we lucked out. You don't have four admitting stations and 40-50 chairs available if they're not usually going to be in use.

The base was established in 1852, and some of the original officer's quarters are still around. Most are actually in use, but they've set aside one of the oldest buildings as a museum.  We went over there on Saturday to see what we could see; were pleasantly surprised to find the building open for guided tours.

I was unprepared for the sense of age and history permeating the building.  We were the only ones there for our tour, and the guide was kind enough to let me behind the guide ropes for a closer look as long as I didn't touch anything. They've done a good job recreating the look and feel of the home as it was back when. I'm a sucker for old buildings in general; this one had me feeling as if someone would be back shortly to invite us to sit on the porch for a spell while dinner was being prepared in the detached kitchen.

Connor says he works with good people. He has a sense of belonging, of service, of duty. While my heart aches when I think of war, I'm glad we have good people like him willing and prepared to protect their country, their families. The Army's 1st Infantry Division takes good care of their historical home. I hope this means they will also take good care of the treasure entrusted to them in the form of my nephew.