Fort Leonard Wood

It's funny because we started our... program, I think in basic training with about 60 dive candidates.

You go through phase one there at Fort Leonard Wood, you take about 12 from there.

And by the time you graduate dive school, almost a year later in Panama City, Florida, you graduate, we graduate with seven.

So quite an attrition rate, but that's what a cool job and got to do several deployments, obviously right after graduating dive school, 9-11 happened and found ourself in the Iraq invasion in 2003 and got to do four other deployments after that before going to PA school.

Kelly halted in the road with his rifle pointed at the ground, listening.

The speakers had read a name he knew, Foley, a drill sergeant from his training cycle assigned to Fort Leonard Wood.

According to the broadcast, Foley had been in Colburn for six years, living on Cambria Lane and working in the settlement's machine shop.

He had eaten meals across from Foley nine months ago and been smoked by him during PT.

Once a week.

And they had classes at Jeff City and over on base at Fort Leonard Wood.

Okay.

So they, I was thinking about going to Fort Leonard Wood myself, but when they said classes, they, and the classes were gonna be held either in the morning or at 5:00, starting at 5:00 in the afternoon.

And when he said in the morning, I said, "I want in the morning." [laughs]

[laughs]

We're in 260 centers across the world, but the most important thing today is we're right in the Missouri backyard.

Special delivery is an incredible time where we are going to host an amazing baby shower for our military spouses and active duty moms living and serving at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

This is a time where they are not connected.

Most of us that are having babies have sisters and moms and cousins and friends to host that beautiful milestone.

And just because we're serving doesn't mean that those milestones don't still count.

So the USO is going to host an amazing shower for up to 100 women on November 7th at the USO on Fort Leonard Wood.

And we are, you know, we work close with our community partners to make that happen and give these women the very special moment they deserve.

We're speaking with Elizabeth Brown, the USO director for Missouri and Kansas, and putting together something meaningful like this for these moms to be is so incredible.

Yeah, please.

When I was down in combat engineer school at Fort Leonard Wood, I joined the RIP program.

It's called Ranger and Prep Program.

And I had no chance of being a ranger because I was a reservist.

It was October ninth, 1976, in South Central Missouri, and just before midnight, the temperature hovered around forty degrees Fahrenheit.

Two teenagers, seventeen-year-old Teresa Joanne Gossage, also known as T.C., and seventeen-year-old Alfred Elmer Hoffman Marshall, were out on a date cruising the back roads of rural Missouri near Fort Leonard Wood.

Mm-hmm.

Teresa was a petite five two and one hundred and five pounds, a typical small town beauty with hazel eyes.

Do, do, do, do, do.

And they were probably making plans for the week.

They both attended Waynesville High School and were children of military men who worked on base at Fort Leonard Wood.

Al and his dad had a hunting trip planned for later that month, and the family was even planning a trip to Germany for Christmas, which is my dream trip, by the way.