First Vote

I remember my first vote. It was an absentee ballot as I was in the Army stationed in Germany. It was 1980. I had gone home on leave in October and had discussed the election with my father. I was undecided because I didn’t really know what to decide on. At the time I was actually leaning toward Carter. Hey, I was 18, what the hell did I know?

I was leaning toward Carter, until I spoke to my father. He asked me why. I was very surprised to find I had no real answer, and what’s worse, didn’t know why I didn’t have an answer. My Dad, though, wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, what he said was actually dead on: “That figures.” We had a pretty good laugh, then he explained some things to me. He asked me where my unit’s AR was. He already knew the answer, but used the info to make some points.

At the time I was stationed in Mainz, Germany at Lee Barracks. My unit was 2nd Bn, 87th Inf (Mech) of the fist Brigade, 8th Infantry Division. The 8th Division has stood down since then, the 87th Infantry are with the 10th Mountain now, but that’s not important. What is important is the answer to my father’s question: Smack in the middle of the Fulda Gap.

I had only actually been out to the AR once, which is an indictment of the Army’s priorities at the time, but that’s a different story. What my Dad told me was why my AR was where it was. I had been to the border, and I knew the Commies were over there looking for an opening, but it was an abstract kind of a thing to me at the time. That changed over the course of about half an hour.

All my Dad did was give me a run down of exactly why the Fulda Gap was important. He gave me a quick primer on the strategic situation, and the tactical importance of the particular area of central Germany. I learned a lot, and figured out even more. Why the hell didn’t I already know this? More importantly, why, after having been in Germany over a year and half by then had I only seen it once, and then only spent a couple of hours there? Easy, someone had no concept of the strategic importance of the place, or worse, didn’t care.

I think he saw the light go on in my head because he started giving me a quick summary of what I later realized was what we would call conservatism. Then he asked me if I had ever seen or listened to Ronald Reagan. I had, but I basically hadn’t paid that much attention. I remembered seeing and hearing him on the little 13 inch black and white TV we had in our barracks room.

I didn’t really remember what he had talked about, but I do remember having an impression. I remember sitting in the room drinking a beer and watching that TV with my roommate. I remember being impressed with Reagan, and at one point turning to my friend saying: “I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but you gotta love that guy.” At the time I didn’t put things together. After talking to my Dad that day, and remembering my impression of Reagan, it started to gel.

For the remainder of my leave I paid closer attention to what was going on. I also watched the news and read stuff. By the time I got back to Germany I had a bit of a different outlook. It eventually got me into trouble, but that’s another story. I got back about a week or so before election day and sent my absentee ballot in right away. I voted for Ronald Reagan.

It’s interesting. If you asked any of us about a week before the election what would happen if the Soviets cross the border we’d all give pretty much the same answer: “We’re here to hold the line until reinforcements can come in from the states.” In other words, we’d just give the official line we got from the orientation we got when we arrived at the unit.

If you ask us the same question a week after Reagan’s inauguration, you would get a much different answer. “We’ll kick their asses all the way back to Moscow.” That’s quite a difference, but caused by a very simple, uncomplicated factor. There is one thing a soldier requires more than anything else to be effective. More than training, ammo, equipment, even food. He needs leadership. That was the difference, and we could feel it.

Now it’s my daughter’s turn to make her first vote. I’m happy to report that she tends toward conservatism. This is probably due to the fact that she’s pretty level headed and sharp as hell. It might also have something to do with me and my family, including my late father, surrounding her with uncomplicated, simple common sense based views. So while it’s not surprising that she should vote republican, I think it is funny that my first vote was for the Gipper, and her first vote will be for the Gipperette!

Tags: Election, Palin, Politics, Reagan, Vote