I read somewhere that the Composite Building is dormant, but a smaller dorm-type building contains some occupants. This Dorm was not yet built in the late '60s when I was there. The old flag-pole and Composite Building entrance is guarded by the grave of Boozer, memories lost but not forgotten! When the day comes for me to meet my maker, I would truly consider it an honor if I could be buried up on Shemya to keep Boozer company for all of eternity!
Ghosts of former personnel who served on the "ROCK” over the years still haunt the place. I hope my ghost lives on there forever!
I went back to Fort Devens again in 1983 for “Duffy” school (05D), and again for my final Warrant Officer phase in late 1991. Devens was a "sight for sore eyes" to me, making a lot of my 1966 - 67 memories come alive again.
Up on the hill by the PX, by the early 80s, the old 1940-60s era First Army “Splinter-Village” was down and replaced by nice, brick, three-story billets. Actually, there were two separate blocks of them, each surrounding their own "Quads." Down the hill, my old 1966 barracks, building T-1628, was still standing, nicely re-sided and containing administration offices. The 1950 to '60s-era “Ditty-City” building complex was still there as well, the Morse-school part having moved up to Revere Hall (“Bird-Cage”) sometime in the 1970s. When I saw it again in November 1991, these old “Splinter-Village” buildings contained for one, a Boy Scout troop, and in another, an impressive model-train club set-up.
"AWOL-Trail" was long gone, a worn path leading under the Fort's back-fence, which handily lead to Ayer. The Con-4 mess-hall was gone as well. I heard it was razed and burned in the mid-70s, and rats poured out of it by the hundreds!
The asphalt roadway was still there. The one that led from T-1628 to “Ditty-City.” In late 1991, walking this road for nostalgia one evening, something caught my eye that was wedged in a crack in the asphalt. It was just opposite the little PX-Annex (now called AAFES Snack-Bar). I reached down but had to pry it out with my knife. Low and behold, it was a penny that had the mint-date of 1959 on it. This penny represented a time before I was initially at Devens, but to me, it was the start of my "era!" The penny has a slight blemish on it, but I couldn’t believe it! I still have it, kept safe in my strong-box!
Again in 1991, I was in a restaurant in Concord, and overheard a gentlemen complaining to the waitress that his property-taxes had just gone up to over $5,000 a year, on his old house in near-by Lincoln. Same with the Army in Massachusetts. I remember Senator Kennedy fighting to keep the post open to save the approximately 1,000 civilian jobs provided there. Must have been a grave impact initially on the local schools and businesses when Devens closed up! Funny how some civilians hate the military but like the jobs it creates in their area!
Most of the Intelligence schools are now located “under one roof,” so-to-speak, at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. This makes sense. Better coordination and better year-round climate as well. Has to be much cheaper to run than in Massachusetts! But, Devens still has a MI-JRIC site (Joint Reserve Intelligence Center) located at the DRFTA (Devens Reserve Forces Training Area) on old North Fort. Many Army Reserve units train here during the year.
Vint Hill is gone as well, meeting its end in October, 1997. Like most BRAC (Base Re-alignment and Closure) closed bases, it ended up for “mixed-use commercial and residential development.” This is a "primo" real estate area in Virginia!
Kagnew Station [now called Den Den Camp] is forever burned into my memory. I recently stumbled upon a web-site by John Harris and Rick Fortney at: http://www.kagnewstation.com/
A good Fort Devens Website to visit is: http://simons_c.tripod.com/devens.htm (Copyright © William W. Simons, 1998-2003. All Rights Reserved.) which gives information and old nostalgic photos of the place. This convinced me that I am going to take my own trip back up there in 2005 and get some more pictures of present-day Fort Devens. I'll put them in this section then.
Well, two divorces later (the "Good Witch" and the "Bad Witch") and sitting in my BOQ room - on the eve of my retirement from the Army. Yes, performing duty for Operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle while some of my fellow “brothers and sisters” are sitting in the cold and muck of Afghanistan and Iraq.
I'm now around mid-fifties, a CW3 (Chief Warrant Officer-Three). I always seem to reflect back on how much the Army has changed, the world, everything! For one, DFAC no longer means Direction-Finding And Collection, but Dining Facility. What happened to good old mess-hall? There is one thing though that remains constant in my life. Even though it is hard to remember some names from just a couple of years ago, I can sure remember those names and events from my first four years in the Army Security Agency - just as if 1966 - 1970 were only yesterday. Lest we Forget!
I highly recommend this beauty! I didn't know it existed and finding this page really meant a lot to me. It is a “one-stop-shop” for every type of information you might want to see about Kagnew and the surrounding area. Creating and maintaining this MONSTER must be a night-mare, but “hats off” to Rick and John on this one! It is truly a work of love, and loved by many! I got in touch with some of my old and dear friends via this web-page, which I never could have done without it.
