It all started in January 1971 when Peterson, of Gowrie, was drafted.

“It was me and a few other guys from Fort Dodge,” Peterson said.

After he was drafted, Peterson completed both his basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Once his training was completed, Peterson said he was sent to West Germany, specifically a town called Bad Hersfeld.

“I was assigned to Company D, 54th Engineer Battalion,” he said. “We were in support of the 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. We did border operations between the East and West German border.”

While in West Germany, Peterson said he became involved in a German-American friendship project, which included building a soccer field for the village of Dammersbach.

“We had to work on our own time instead,” he said. “We had to work after our duty day and on weekends. They were very appreciative of it and I’m still in contact with family and friends that I developed there. I’ve been there several times to stay there and visit.”

Peterson said he still remembers what he saw when he looked through the spotter’s scope into East Germany. Because East Germany was controlled by a Communist government, it wasn’t uncommon to see armed officials among the citizens.

He recalled that one time he saw two elderly women picking some kind of bulb out of the ground. Next to them was an armed guard with a sub-machine gun.

“On the border, there was what they called the plowed strip and on the other side of that was the death strip,” Peterson said.

The plowed strip was where the East Germans would patrol to see if there were any footprints leading up to the fence.

“After the plowed strip was the death strip,” Peterson said. “That was the mine fields. Those people that were out there, if they were going to go try to escape to West Germany, they would have to negotiate and hope to get through the mine fields.”

Some people did end up escaping the mine fields.

“Some people did escape by hiding underneath the trains,” he said. “And when the trains stopped in Bad Hersfeld or the village that was close, they’d drop out.”

Peterson remained stationed in West Germany until January of 1973 when he left the United States Army.

But upon his discharge, he joined the Iowa Army National Guard in Fort Dodge, which was the 3695th Ordnance Co.

That unit was disbanded in 1975, so from there, Peterson transferred to Camp Dodge, in Johnston, where he served with the 3657th Heavy Equipment Maintenance Co.

“And I stayed there ’til 1989,” Peterson said. “I transferred to the United States Army Reserve in Fort Dodge, the 875th Replacement Co.”

It was while he was in the 875th that Peterson was activated for Operation: Desert Shield and was deployed to Saudi Arabia.

“When we left Wisconsin (in January 1991) it was 30 below zero,” Peterson said. “When we arrived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, it was 70 degrees.”

While in Saudi Arabia, Peterson said his unit and others were part of 40,000 replacement troops that Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf had wanted in the country before he started the war.

“And we found out that that was because he expected 10 percent casualties at the start of the war if they used gas, if they used chemicals,” he said. “And we had 400,000 troops over there. He wanted 40,000 replacements in country. That’s why we were sent over there.”

Peterson said their job was to get the troops off the planes, get them processed and assigned to one of three corps.

“We had trained to handle 400 people a day,” he said. “That’s what the Army had always planned for us to do. Well, we were doing over 2,000 a day.”

His unit ended up receiving a citation for going above and beyond what the Army had expected of it for all the soldiers’ extra work.

Peterson added he believes his unit may have had something to do with the start of the war.

As they got closer to 40,000 troops, Peterson said they had to report their numbers to headquarters every four to five hours.

“We got to 37,000, he (Schwartzkopf) said ‘I can start the war now, because we’ll have another 3,000 in a day or two,'” Peterson said.

While in Saudi Arabia, Peterson got to meet Schwarzkopf personally.

He said one day, the general visited the unit and decided that he wanted to have his picture taken with each soldier individually. Peterson volunteered to take all the pictures.

At the end of the day, Peterson asked Schwartzkopf if the two could take a picture together, and the general agreed.

Peterson still has the photo in his living room.

He spent six months in Saudi Arabia, returning to Iowa in July 1991.

Peterson spent 10 more years in the Army before retiring in 2001 with 30 years of service.

He said the Army taught him a variety of skills.

“I enjoyed Europe,” he said. “We did a lot of training with the British and Canadians and the French and the Germans. I was a combat engineer when I was over there and I ended up being the unit mail clerk, but it was fun to go out.”

He added that, while in Europe, he learned how to build bridges for all the countries.

“We’d go out for a week and we’d work on the French bridge,” he said. “And the next one, the Germans would show us how they’d build their bridge.”