Lost and Found!



Ft. Leonard Wood, Front Gate!

Well, we didn't get lost looking for Fort Leonard Wood, despite it's nickname of Fort Lost-in-the-Woods.  It got the nickname because of it's location in Clark National Forest.  But we did have to search around to find the location of the on-post housing that we occupied while there.  When we occupied 8D Pulaksi Ct. from 1972 to 1974, it was deemed sub-standard housing as it and the surrounding duplexes were 1940's vintage housing that had once been condemned.  It was saved from the bulldozer because of increased demand for housing during the rise in troop strength during the Viet Nam War.  Viet Nam was essentially over when I was honorably discharged in April of 1974, and shortly after we left that substandard housing was finally demolished.

Our Garmin GPS was of no use on the post as military installations are not mapped.  That demolished housing has since been replaced, and a new series of streets constructed.  After following our instincts for a few minutes we first came up with a new Pulaski Ct., and when we reversed our course and drove to the other end of it we amazingly found an apron of pavement, complete with the re-rod anchored parking curb, both still in place where Pulaski Ct. formerly came to an end in front of the housing we had occupied.



Pulaski Ct., Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo.

We were also able to visit the former Forney Army Airfield on Fort Wood.  It now is known as Waynesville Regional Airport and run by the city of Waynesville and Pulaski County.  The weather station I used to man is still there, and is now manned by meteorologists from the National Weather Service.  The weather and flight operations building is still configured as I remembered it, though the teletype machines and two-foot wide black and white weather map plotters and manual instruments have been replaced with modern computerized systems.  Here are some photos showing how it looks today.

Forney Field, Ft. Leonard Wood

U.S. Weather Station, Forney Field

General Leonard Wood Army Hospital

We made one last find.  General Leonard Wood Army Hospital, which was where our oldest daughter, Sarah, was born about two weeks before my discharge in April, 1974.