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Jim Trotter is shown here in Korea in 1988.
Frankclay resident and veteran James “Jim” Trotter joined the U.S. Army in June 1985 as a way to pay for college.
He took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test in high school and received a high score.
“At that point, the only thing I had ever worked on was bicycles,” said Trotter, “and I knew I wanted to learn skills to have a successful career.”
He left for the Army in October 1985 and completed basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
“The physical part of basic training wasn’t bad because I was just out of high school,” said Trotter, “but the mental part was tough because they try to make you quit. They try to break you down.”
Pictured is Jim Trotter in November 1985 at basic training.
He was a squad leader for six of the eight weeks of basic training. Trotter trained to become a heavy wheel vehicle mechanic.
He was the first in his mechanics class to receive orders to go to Fort Ord, California, where he was stationed at the 7th Infantry Division for 26 months.
This photograph shows Jim Trotter in 1987 at Fort Ord, California.
After that, Trotter was then sent to the U.S. Army Garrison-Humphreys, also called Camp Humphreys, located in South Korea. Camp Humphreys is home to one of the busiest U.S. Army airfields in Asia.
Trotter served as a mechanic in a transportation unit in Korea for a year. He worked on military trucks and also drove a five-ton wrecker.
Trotter recalled a few situations from Korea which involved one of his least favorite things … snakes.
One time he was servicing an M915, a regular road tractor used to haul missions by the Army.
“I had just gone underneath it on a Creeper [a frame on wheels which slides under a vehicle] and came out to get a wrench to adjust the brakes,” he said. “Suddenly I saw a white snake coiled up staring right at me, and it was in the spot where I had just been.”
Trotter said he grabbed the driveshaft and shoved himself out of that spot lightning fast. It was then when he was informed the snake is one of the most poisonous in the country.
While serving in Korea, Trotter injured his knee and required surgery. He shared a hospital room with four other soldiers while he recuperated. Each time the soldiers’ meals were delivered, Trotter was confused as to why his four roommates enjoyed things like hot dogs, hamburgers and other American food. But he was the only one who received Korean food for each meal.
So, each night Trotter snuck out of his hospital room and hobbled down the hallway to the vending machine.
“They were feeding me Kimchi and other Korean foods,” he said. “I was starving. I even lost weight while I was in the hospital.”
After two of his roommates were discharged and the third was getting ready to leave, he walked over to Trotter and said, “Man, it’s been a real blast trying to watch you eat all of that Korean food but I just can’t do it anymore.”
Confused, Trotter asked him what he meant. The soldier pointed out the menu that was located beneath Trotter’s tray.
“You could have been filling that menu out the whole time,” the soldier said.
To this day, Trotter still shakes his head at the fun the soldiers had at his expense.
“I could have been eating American food the whole time with them,” he said. “I just didn’t know because nobody bothered to tell me and I never looked under my tray.”
While Trotter was in Korea, he did enjoy authentic Korean food when they traveled to some of the nearby villages. He said vendors set up on the corners sold delicious foods like Yaki Mandu, a steamed or fried dumpling similar to a Chinese pot-sticker, or Korean bulgogi, thinly sliced tender barbecue beef.
This photograph shows Jim Trotter in Korea in 1988 with a wrecker with extended boom. He had just finished unloading and placing the generator on the ground behind the wrecker when he realized he was stuck in the ditch.
Trotter’s service in Korean ended in 1989 and he returned home to get married in July.
He was stationed for about a year at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the ammunition company as a forklift mechanic and assistant wrecker driver.
The U.S. invaded Panama starting in December 1989. Trotter was not deployed at this time, although half of his unit was.
Once soldiers returned from Panama, they resumed their on-base daily routines until the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait began. This was the beginning of Desert Shield, the initial troop buildup to Desert Storm. This took place from August to January.
On a Monday in 1990, Trotter went in at 5:30 a.m. for routine physical training. Instead of soldiers exercising and starting their day in a normal way, they were running around with their weapons and gathering their field gear. Apparently, an alert had been called at 3:30 that morning after Saddam Hussein had ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
“I had accidentally missed the alert call,” said Trotter, “so I had to go back home because I lived off-base and got all of my equipment and told my wife goodbye because I was leaving the country.”
He quickly packed his things and prepared to ship out of the country. His platoon was on alert status, and they were preparing all of their equipment to take with them. That included about 6,000-pound rough-terrain forklifts.
“I was a forklift mechanic and we were sending those one at a time with a mechanic,” he said, “because they were so old and required a lot of maintenance to get on a plane. The Air Force is pretty strict about no oil leaks, etc.”
The first alert was given in August, and Trotter left the U.S. in September. After a brief stop in Spain to refuel, he finally arrived in Saudi Arabia.
“I got there and was the only one from my unit, so I didn’t know if I was going to get attached to a different unit or see any of my friends from my unit,” he said.
Trotter said when they finally landed, the air conditioning on the plane was stuck at 42 degrees. He drove the fork lift straight off the plane onto the tarmac which was almost 130 degrees.
“Your first job in the Army is to be a soldier, and my second job was to be a mechanic,” he said. “That’s what basic training is for, to teach you how to become a soldier. So everything reverts back to the first basic training you receive in the Army when you go overseas.”
In January 1991, Trotter realized how volatile the current situation was when he and other soldiers were servicing their equipment in preparation to travel north. They were stationed at a Korean worker’s compound. It was an overcast day.
The air war had already started, but war on the ground had not yet began.
Trotter was working on a Chevy pickup and was covered with grease up to his elbows. All of a sudden they heard what sounded like fireworks. They looked to the south to see three yellow fireballs shooting into the sky. A few seconds later, just to the outside of the compound, a massive explosion erupted and the sky turned orange.
Immediately, all of the soldiers yelled, “Gas!” This initiated the gas warning. The soldiers knew that was their nuclear biological chemical warning and they had to immediately suit up in protective gear.
“We had to get our MOP suit on immediately, which was what we wore in case of nuclear or chemical weapons,” he said. “We were trained to put all our gear on in eight minutes, from insulated coveralls to rubber boots and everything.”
Trotter moved so rapidly that he had all of the grease wiped from his arms and was suited up in less than three minutes.
“That’s how scared I was,” he said.
Trotter completed his active-duty military service after six and a half years, in April 1992. He earned numerous awards and citations for his service, including the Army Commendation Medal, two Army Achievement Medals, two Good Conduct Medals, National Defense Ribbon, Southwest Asia Campaign Ribbon with both stars for Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon, Liberation of Kuwait Medal, Mechanic Badge, Driver Badge, Sharpshooter Badge, and two Presidential Unit Citations.
He said his military experience taught him a great deal about loyalty, seniority, teamwork and perseverance.
“Just when you think you’re done and you have nothing left to give, there’s still more to give,” he said.
Trotter also learned to pay attention to details, particularly in cleaning and preparing his uniform.
“If you’ve been in the military, you understand,” he said. “You do everything exactly. You abide by all the rules. You’re very disciplined.”
Trotter said when he returned from the Gulf War, people expressed their appreciation for his service.
“I was a veteran and had just returned from the war and people were appreciative of our service,” he said. “But my wife’s brother came back from Vietnam and it was completely different for him. He should have been treated like we were.”
Trotter said he’s grateful for his experience in the military.
“But it’s not a joke,” he said. “You have to be prepared to drop everything and say goodbye to your family at a moment’s notice.”
“When you tell your loved ones goodbye, you don’t know if you’re coming back. You don’t know what you’re going into.”
Pam Clifton is a contributing writer for the Daily Journal
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Jim Trotter is shown here in Korea in 1988.
Pictured is Jim Trotter in November 1985 at basic training.
This photograph shows Jim Trotter in Korea in 1988 with a wrecker with extended boom. He had just finished unloading and placing the generator on the ground behind the wrecker when he realized he was stuck in the ditch.
This photograph shows Jim Trotter in 1987 at Fort Ord, California.
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