9th Ward Veteran Interviews - Dave Porter

Spotlight on Brother Dave Porter

Brother Dave Porter gave many years of service. Dave decided to enlist into the Army Reserve in 1961 before they had a chance to draft him. He was seventeen years old at the time. He went to join right after he graduated from high school but when he went into the office to sign up, after filling out all the information he was asked to weigh in; he was so small that the officer told him he had to gain weight to before he could join. He went home and ate as much as he could and in June he was able to join. He went to basic training and then served from June 1961-1968 with a mission from 1963-1965. Dave joined basic training with his cousin. They were able to bunk together. His cousin, Lynn Porter, had the top bunk and Dave had the bottom bunk. They were known throughout the camp as “The Porter Sisters”. Over half of the platoon was LDS young men so it made it easy to return home when he turned 19 to serve a mission to the North Central States Mission which included Minnesota and the Dakotas.

He returned to the International Guard in 1972 after his mission. One of Dave’s most memorable experiences was when he had come back from basic training and he was put in charge of the supply room. Dave and his partner had worked really hard to get it organized before inspection. Then Sergeant Reynolds came to Dave and his partner and told them he thought the room was a mess and asked how could they let it go like that? Dave and his partner went quickly back to the supply room to see what had happened. As they returned the found out the sergeant had been joking with them the whole time. The sergeant was actually very impressed with how they had been running the supply room.

Dave retired as an E8 as a senior master sergeant in 2001. Most of Dave’s service was in the finance department with responsibilities of accounting, payroll and any other jobs working in finance. Along with his finance training, he feels that he received lessons in working hard, following instructions, patriotism, and loving and honoring the flag. (However, Dave feels that his best teacher in budgeting was not in the military but from his wonderful wife, Rhonda!) During his service he was able to visit many parts of the country and the world including Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Hawaii. Traveling was one of Dave’s favorite parts of his service.