Louisiana, Katrina & the Red Cross, Page 12
Thursday,
October 6, 2005
Back to Jon Vermilye's Photo Page
Today we are heading to Leesville, LA in Vernon Parish. It brings back some interesting memories - I did my Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, LA just outside of Leesville in 1968. I vaguely remember a trip to a bar in Leesville on our one day off during training. Today we are at the Vernon Parish Fairgrounds. There were well over 1000 clients waiting, but the Parish did a good job of setting things up, including lunch for us! The room was large, they set up a bunch of chairs & let 75 at a time into the air conditioned space. They then called them by number to go to the intake tables. Anyone who had already done intake could check with us for cards. By 2:00 we had already handed out over 100 cards & filled out 1000 intakes. Again, everyone was calm & polite. It was interesting seeing the officers & NCO's from Fort Polk. A very different viewpoint from that of 1968!