There’s more to joining the military than just signing up. There’s a brotherhood among the men and women who’ve served that goes beyond what you’ll find as a civilian, and there’s a world of opportunity just waiting to be snatched.
Local Manuel “Manny” Lozano, retired U.S. Army First Sergeant, spent 21 years and said, “The military is a community of itself, you’ll make friends with other individuals from different parts of the country that can end up being your best friend.
“The other thing that I can see in the military is that we cover each other’s butts. We have your six as they would say.”
In addition, he said the military will teach folks a trade and discipline as well as set them up for a career within or outside the military through schooling.
Like many during that time, Lozano joined the military to beat the draft so that he could have a choice in the job he did.
“I loved it, so I decided to stay and make it a career,” he said.
Lozano underwent basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, AIT at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he became a chaplin’s assistant, and then served at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, as a chaplin’s assistant.
During his time, he handled a lot of administrative tasks.
“When I first went in, I became a chaplin’s assistant, then when I decided to make it a career, I knew that you couldn’t go very high as far as rank is concerned, so I kind of lateraled over to administration and became what they called at that time an administrative assistant,” he said.
He was later promoted to an administrative supervisor and also served as a drill sergeant, training NCO, recruiter, and operations NCO.
In 1966, Lozano made his way into Vietnam.
“When I got there, they needed a little help in the administration or in the replacement company,” he said. “The first division that I was with was the First Calvary Division Airmobile, the first of its kind.”
After 30 days, he was promoted to the assistant of the Adjutant General, who was a “full bird” colonel.
Feeling like he wasn’t doing enough, he volunteered as a helicopter gunner.
“There was one mission that we went out on,” he said. “When we came back from the mission, my copilot, when we stepped out of the helicopter, told me to take my helmet off, and when I took my helmet off, there was a bullet, a hole, a bullet hole in my helmet.
“I think what saved my life was not only the good Lord watching over me, but I had stuck my wife at that time’s letters in front of my helmet, and I think that’s what stopped the bullet.”
Thankfully, he was not wounded.
From Vietnam, he went to Fort Polk, Louisiana, where he was an administrative supervisor for a basic training brigade.
Adding to his repertoire, he became an administrative supervisor at the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base where foreign military personnel are taught English then sent to their specialty training.
From there, he went to the Panama Canal zone for five years, then came back as a recruiter in his hometown of Chicago.
It was from there that he was sent to Germany with a Pershing Missile Brigade.
“I had the best portion of my career, which I was tasked by a two star general and a lieutenant colonel to assist the lieutenant colonel to put a maintenance battalion together from scratch, which means that we had to write up what you might call SOP, standard operating procedure,” he said.
With that job, Lozano had to get together all the equipment, personnel and figure out the specialties needed.
“So we went from a five man little detail to a, I would say, almost 1,000 man battalion,” he said. “Now, what made that also the highlight of my career, I would venture to say, is that I became part of the headquarters of the battalion, but as an E7 which is one rank below this and not too many people in the military can have these positions.
“I was also first sergeant of the headquarters company plus the acting sergeant major of the battalion.”
He said that although there were a few E8’s, none wanted the job, so a letter went out saying they would now report to an E7.
Lozano believes that since he took that position, it aided him in being promoted to E8 prior to his twentieth year in the military.
Eventually, he made it to Fort McClellan, Alabama as a training NCO, and it was there that he became a drill sergeant and first sergeant.
For his service, Lozano was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal and Joint Commendation Medal.
Speaking of himself, his wife, an Air Force veteran, his son, who retired from the Marines, and his step daughter, who went into the Navy, he said, “Four out of the five services are represented in my family.”
Today, Lozano is a member of the VFW, American Legion, AMVETS and the DAV.
In the DAV, he is the chapter service officer in which he helps veterans apply for benefits. Lozano once worked for Veterans Affairs as a veterans benefits counselor.
Lozano encourages folks to join these organizations, especially the DAV.
Anyone interested may contact Ray Arthur at fanninveterans@yahoo.com.