For Lewis Tingle, joining the military wasn’t a choice; it was a tradition.

“I’m one of nine brothers who served in the military,” he said. “Between us we have a total of 150 years military service in my family in the Navy, Army, Air Force, Army Reserve and the National Guard. I have a nephew who’s a Marine.

“My older brothers were in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. One was wounded in the hip, and my other brother slept all night under his ambulance hiding from the Germans by hiding under an ambulance.”

Tingle joined the National Guard in 1960 and served six years before leaving and eventually joining the 412th Theater Engineer Command in Vicksburg, where he was the command’s administrative sergeant, retiring 25 years later as a master sergeant. His brothers, he said, served as the incentive to enlist.

“All my brothers were in the military, and I didn’t want to be the one that didn’t go; didn’t serve,” he said. “Loyalty.”

At the 412th, Tingle was responsible for maintaining the records of the unit’s 100 officers and 168 enlisted men — a job that was the result of one class he took in high school.

“I was the only boy in the typing class in high school, and that qualified me to be company clerk with the 168th engineer group in Vicksburg,” he said.

“I did my basic (training) at Fort Jackson S.C. When I got to the training unit, they didn’t have a company clerk, so the captain reviewed some of the records, and he knew my job specialty was company clerk. The first day I was there, they called my name and told me to report to the orderly room, which was the commander’s office, and I never did qualify with a weapon.”

The whole time he was at basic training, he said, he served as company clerk and rarely went through weapons training.

“When the inspectors came around to the company, I was sent to the library to read books and listen to music,” he said. “I wasn’t supposed to be in the company area because I hadn’t gone through training. I had three and a half years of college so I went in as a Pfc. (private first class). I went to the rifle range one time. Other times I qualified, they drove me out there in a Jeep and back.”

Despite his time as clerk, he said, he passed his proficiency test at the close of basic training.

His duties as administrative sergeant required Tingle to keep his hands on several departments, and deal with a lot of responsibilities.

“I had the responsibility for weapons, ammunition, food service, transportation, supply and payroll,” he said. “I wore four or five hats.”

And he kept those responsibilities during tours of duty in Germany, where the 412th participated in training during the Cold War for a potential attack by Russian troops.

“I made three trips to Germany with the 412th,” he said. “We were training for the possible invasion by Russia into Germany. I was a cold warrior; all cold, thank goodness.

“My first tour was in Manheim, and the two other tours were in Karlsruhe. We did planning statistics and we were worrying about the Russians coming through the Fulger Gap in eastern Germany — that was the only place they could move their armor.”

The first year the unit went to training in Germany, Tingle said, they wore their uniforms.

“I had so much stuff on my uniform, I couldn’t get past the metal detector,” he said, adding while they traveled as a unit, the soldiers wore civilian clothing on subsequent trips as a precaution against terrorist attacks after two U.S. sailors in uniform were killed by terrorists during a hijacking.

“The one thing I enjoyed about Germany was being able to go into the mountains to sky and to ride the cable cars and the cog trains,” he said. “One weekend, I went into France and went on a mountain where you could see France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.”

Besides his work in administration, Tingle also served as the 412th’s recruiting sergeant in Vicksburg for five years. He called the job “Rewarding to see them (recruits) come in and grow.

“I was the first one to recruit females into the army reserve in Vicksburg,” he said.

“My time with the 412th was enjoyable,” he said. “I liked going to the rifle range. I never did fire above marksman, but that was good, since I never did deer hunt and wasn’t around weapons that much. (But) The best thing about the Army was they served me potatoes three times a day, any way you wanted ‘em fixed.”