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Veteran Report
By: Mario
1-4-06
Gregory F. York was a Captain in the Army Corps of
Engineers. He served in the Gulf War from August 1990 to April 1991. His
main job was an Engineer.
PREWAR:
Greg York was born in Glens Falls, New York on June
23, 1965.
Greg’s
parents were Fred and Frances York. Greg’s Father served in World War II in
the U.S. Navy. His parents met at
the University of Maine after the war and were
married in 1950. Greg was an only child.
Greg grew up in the Albany, NY area and moved to the Detroit area (Farmington Hills, Michigan) when he was five years old.
In high school, he played three sports: basketball, football, and track. In
his youth Greg liked playing sports and being outside. Greg graduated from
the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987 with an Engineering
Management degree. He also received a Masters in Business Administration
from Villanova University (Villanova, Pennsylvania) in 1999. Greg’s first year
at West
Point
was difficult and not very enjoyable. There were a lot of things that first
year students (“plebes”) had to do for the upperclassmen (deliver laundry,
mail, ect.). West Point also had a strict disciplinary
system that plebes had to adhere to. Most of his close friends are from West Point. At West Point Greg and his friends developed
especially close relationships that will last a lifetime.
MILITARY:
Greg volunteered to be in the Army. It was the best
experience of his life and he will always be grateful for that experience.
Greg served from May 1987 to September 1992. He was the first member of his
family to attend the Military Academy. When he was a junior in high
school, a friend of his family was a retired Colonel who asked if Greg
would be interested in applying to West Point. He never thought about the
military until then. Greg applied to the United States Naval Academy and West Point and was accepted to both.
Greg chose West Point, as he really couldn’t see himself being on the ocean
for extended periods of time. Greg is very proud to have served in the
Army. The men and women in the army were all volunteers. He saw first hand
the professionalism of this fine group of people, even during stressful and
difficult times such as the 1st Gulf War. While in the Army,
Greg had the opportunity to participate in the 1989 Hurricane Hugo relief
efforts in South Carolina. He trained in the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin, CA. He also attended Jungle Warfare School in Panama and Parachute Jump School in Fort Benning, GA as well as other military
schools. C-rations (cans that you opened with a small can opener) were
being replaced with MRE’s (meal-ready to eat)
when Greg entered the Army in 1983 as a cadet. He didn’t particularly care
for the C-rations but he liked the MRE’s. MRE’s contained a maintain meal (chicken loaf, ham,
etc.), a dried fruit that was vacuum packed, and a dessert such as
M&M’s. They were full of calories, so you didn’t want to eat a lot of
them each day.
WARTIME MILITARY EXPERIENCE:
Greg arrived in Saudi Arabia (Dahrain)
on August 22, 1990. When he stepped off the plane near to the Persian Gulf, the temperature was 120 degrees!
The humidity near to the Gulf and the extreme temperature made it very
difficult for Greg to function. His company’s equipment was still enroute via ship, so they were vulnerable to an Iraqi
offensive for the first month. After the tanks and other heavy equipment
arrived, the 24th I.D. (Infantry Division) spread out into the Saudi Desert and took up positions a few
hours south of the Iraqi/Saudi border. Greg’s company located itself just
outside the Saudi town of As Sarrar, a small camel town of about
100 people. They attacked into Iraq in March 1991. The 24th
I.D. was the “point of the spear,” where they attacked into the Euphrates River Valley to cut off the Iraqi
Republican Guard. Greg’s company used its bulldozers to destroy roads so
that the Iraqi’s could not flee from Kuwait back to Baghdad. His company also used C-4
explosives to destroy various Iraqi equipment and communications
facilities. For several days they were responsible for clearing a large
Iraqi airfield (Jalibah Airfield) and processing
large numbers of Prisoners of War (POW). Fortunately, Greg did not have to
fire his weapon (a 9mm Beretta) during his time in Iraq. The infantry battalion
Greg’s company supported did have large battles with the Iraqi Republican
Guards. While at Jalibah, they had some close
calls when the Iraqi artillery bombed the airfield and some rounds came
close to his armored personnel carrier.
POST WAR MILITARY EXPERIENCE
After the war, Greg spent several months at Fort Stewart, GA getting his company’s equipment
back in shape. Greg then went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri where he attended the Officer
Advanced Courser of Engineers. Greg then trained new 2nd
Lieutenants before deciding to leave the Army. Greg left the Army with a
rank of Captain. He served three additional years in the U.S. Army Reserve
in the Philadelphia, PA area. Greg’s first civilian
job was with Merck & Co., a large pharmaceutical company. Greg now has
eight children, two of whom were born while he was in the military (one in Hinesville, GA and one in Fort Leonard Wood,
MO).
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