K-1-2-2
DAVID RICHARD ROBERTS &
BONITA PICKETT ROBERTS &
Their Children

DAVID RICHARD, is the son of David Llewellyn & Mary E. Crittenden Roberts, born November 23, 1920 at Ogden, Utah. He was blessed January 27, 1921 at the home #2547 Coles’s Court by his Father, D.L. Roberts, assisted by the Bishopric of the 2nd Ward. He was very sick at the time.

Written by David Richard Roberts

Over a period of some years, I have been encouraged by my Father to write down some of the things that have happened to me and impressed me during my life. Finally, at the urging of my sister Maryloo, and to lend some semblance of cooperation to the project of completing a segment of the Family history, I will cease procrastinating and set down some of the things I remember. However, I must, for the benefit of Maryloo, state that this is much more than the 30 minute task she suggested it to be.

To prepare for this task, I again went through the “Book of Remembrance” of David and Catherine uch Thomas ap Richard Roberts. I have read this book many times and each time I gain a greater respect for my Grandfather Roberts, his Father and his Grandfather. To this I must add my ever increasing love and respect for my Mother and Father. Over the 29 years that I have been in the U.S. Army, they have always offered love, encouragement and wise council. I really regret that I have not saved all the many letters they have sent to me as those letters would be a valuable record to me now.

I note that my sister, Ruth, prepared the material that went into the 1940 edition of this Family history and the 1st entry of any importance was my ordination as an Elder on 11 December 1939. To simplify what follows I will categorize the information under different headings.

CHURCH ACTIVITIES:

For some period after my ordination as an Elder, there was nothing significant that I recall, except getting married, that involved the Church. On 7 June 1942, I received my Patriarchal Blessing from my Grandfather, David R. Roberts. This was the day before I entered the Army and that blessing has been a great comfort to me at all times. Because those of you who will read this, are sons, daughters, grandsons or granddaughters of the Patriarch, I will attach a copy of that blessing.

During World War II and the Korean War, the Church’s servicemen’s activities were not nearly as well organized as they are now. As a result, during the four years and nine months I spent in the Pacific and Korea in those two Wars, I was not in Church very often. As a matter of fact, as far as I know, I was the only ‘Mormon’ in the 102nd Infantry Regiment, where I was assigned from July 1943 until December 1945.

During the period 1955-57, while stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I served for a while in the Stake MIA Board and as a Ward Scout leader. Not much was accomplished in either calling.

In 1957, I was transferred to Germany and in 1958, I was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Frankfurt American Branch of the West German Mission. Later that same year I was called as Branch President of that Branch and served until a change in Military assignment, the following year required my release. During that service the Mission Presidents, Theodore M. Burton and Alvin Dyer, made very strong and lasting impressions on me.

From August 1960 until June 1961, I taught Sunday School at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Branch.

From the early fall of 1961 until April 1964, I was the Instructor for the Elders Group and an occasional Gospel Doctrine class Sunday School Teacher in the Newport News Ward in Hampton Virginia. By April 1964, I had been an Elder for 24 ½ years and thought I had found my permanent niche in the Church. On 12 April 1964 The Norfolk Stake was organized and I was called by President Harold B. Lee to be a Stake High Councilman. I was ordained a High Priest on 12 April 1964 by Brother Lee. The new Stake President of the Norfolk Stake, Walter H. Hick, was the best I’ve ever known and I enjoyed my work with him more than any other church work I have ever done.

In September 1965, the Army transferred me to Fort Riley, Kansas, and there I served as a Counselor in the Junction City Branch and also as the General Secretary, Aaronic Priesthood, Youth. Here too, Bonnie and Miriam served in Relief Society, YWMIA and Secretarial callings.

In November 1966, I departed for Viet Nam with the 9th Infantry Division. As soon as we arrived I contacted the Church authorities in Saigon and I was called, first as a group leader, and then as a District Councilman.

After Viet Nam, we lived in Fort Meade, Maryland where I was again a General Secretary in the Aaronic Priesthood, the Instructor for the High Priests Group, a Sunday School teacher for the Gospel Doctrine class and on the Building Committee. Thanks to Dad, I have been a good money raiser and that is what I did on this Committee.

From Fort Meade it was out to San Francisco, where we were in the Bay Ward and I am again instructing the High Priest. (By the time he left he was serving as the Second Councilor in the Stake Presidency.)

FAMILY:

In the fall of 1937, when I was a Senior in Pocatello High School, a new girl moved into the Pocatello Sixth Ward and into my High School class. She was Bonita Pickett, known as Bonnie to her friends, the daughter of Wade Hampton Pickett and Pearl Chugg Pickett, who were originally from Providence, Utah. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 10 November 1941. My Grandfather Roberts and Bonnie’s Grandmother Chugg, our only living Grandparents, attended the wedding and when they were introduced it didn’t take long for them to discover that they had known each other 50 or 60 years earlier in Logan. Bonnie and I were to spend only about seven months together, when I went into the Army, and except for a brief two months together in South Carolina in early 1943, we were apart until 14 January 1946, when I returned from a long 33 months in the Pacific.

I left the Army on 20 April 1946 and accepted employment as a Field Scout Executive in Chico, California. On 6 November 1946, out first child was born. We had ordered a red headed girl and that was exactly what we received. We named her Miriam Kathleen. She was baptized in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She attended first grade in Japan; the second and third grades in Augusta, Georgia; fourth and fifth in Albuquerque; sixth, seventh, and eight grades in Hanau, and Frankfurt, Germany; and the ninth grade at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and one year of college in Hampton, Virginia. In 1966 Miriam went to work for the Government at Fort Riley, Kansas, then at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, then Fort Meade, Maryland. She has made very rapid progress and has been cited each year for her outstanding performance at work. On 1 June 1971 she leaves for a 2 or 3 year assignment to work for the U.S. Government in Cheltanham, England.

In March 1948, after many disagreements with the Scout Executive in Chico, I resigned and entered the Army again. On 28 April 1949, while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas, out second girl arrived. She was bald and the best behaved baby we have ever seen. She was baptized in Albuquerque, too. Sandra Rebecca, attended the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade in Albuquerque and completed all three grades in two years. She attended the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades in Hanau and Frankfort, Germany; 7th grade at Fort Leavenworth; the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grades in Hampton, Virginia; and 12th grade in Junction City, Kansas. She then attended one summer semester at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and is now a Senior at the University of Utah. She has been employed part time for the past three and a half years at the Newspaper Agency Corporation in Salt Lake City.

On 10 September 1950, Wade Llewellyn Roberts was born, also at Fort Sam Houston. He was another red-head and his temperament matched his hair. He was ordained a Deacon in 1962; Teacher in 1964 in Hampton, Virginia; Priest in 1966 in Fort Riley, Kansas; and an Elder in 1970 in Fort Meade, Maryland, in each ordination his Father ordained him. Wade attended the first grade in Albuquerque; the second, third, and fourth in Hanau and Frankfort, Germany; the fifth in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth in Hampton, Virginia; and the tenth, eleventh and twelfth were completed in Junction City, Kansas, Bountiful, Utah and Anne Arundle County, Maryland. In 1968-69, Wade attended the University of Utah and then decided to join the Army to become a helicopter pilot. He was sworn into the Army on 22 January 1970 by his Father and subsequently failed to pass an eye test, so he became a Military Policeman. In Basic Combat Training, he was the outstanding Trainee in his Company (about 220 men). After a short leave he went to Viet Nam on 5 July 1970, where he remains as of this writing.

On 25 March 1954, Robert David, was born at Fort Gordon, Georgia. He was baptized in Hampton, Virginia. He was ordained Deacon in Fort Riley, Kansas; a Teacher and Priest at Fort Meade, Maryland. In each case he was ordained by his Father. He attended first grade at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; the second through the fifth at Hampton, Virginia; the sixth grade in Fort Riley, Kansas; the seventh and part of the eight in Bountiful Utah; the rest of the eight through tenth at Fort Meade, Maryland and is now in the eleventh grade in San Francisco. I’m sure it is apparent that our children have never stayed at one school long enough to become bored.

All of our four children and Bonnie have received their Patriarchal Blessings from Bonnie’s Father, Wade H. Pickett, Patriarch of the Bountiful South Stake. We value this very much and I recorded Bob’s on tape. Some day I hope he’ll value hearing his Grandfather on tape again.

MILITARY ASSIGNMENTS:

I joined the Army on 8 June 1942 and except for 23 months have been in it since that time. Listed below are the assignments I’ve had, places I’ve served and ranks I’ve held.

	June – October 1942 Camp Roberts, California	Company B   83rd Infantry Battalion Private & Corporal
	October 1942 – January 19 43 Fort Benning, Georgia	Infantry School Corporal
	January – March 1943 Camp Croft, South Carolina	Company A   39th Infantry Battalion 2nd Lieutenant
	April – May 1943 Hawaii	Schofield Barracks 2nd Lieutenant
	June 1943 New Calendonia	Replacement Center 2nd Lieutenant
	July 1943 Bora Bora	Company H   102nd Infantry Regiment 2nd Lieutenant
	August 1943 – March 1944 Efate Island, New Hebrides	Company E   102nd Infantry Regiment 2nd Lieutenant
	March – November 1944 Espiritu Santos, New Hebrides	Company G   102nd Infantry Regiment 2nd Lieutenant
	November 1944 – March 1945 Schofield Barracks, Hawaii	Company I   102nd Infantry Regiment 1st Lieutenant
	April - December 1945 Okinawa	Company C   52nd Military Police Battalion 1st Lieutenant
Buss, Dick, Jason	January – April 1946 Fort Douglas, Utah	Casual Captain
	May 1946 – February 1948 Chico, California	Not in the Army, worked as Field Scout Executive for Boy Scouts
	March – October 1948 Fort Ord, California	Headquarters Battery 44th Field Artillery Sergeant
	November 1948 – August 1950 Fort Sam Houston, Texas	259th Military Police Company 1st Lieutenant
	September – October 1950 Yokahama, Japan	Company B   728th Military Police Battalion 1st Lieutenant
	November – December 1950 Korea	Company C   728th MP Battalion 1st Lieutenant
	January – October 1951 Korea	Hq Company   728th MP Battalion Captain
	November 1951 – March 1953 Tokyo, Japan	Company C, D, & Hq   728th MP Battalion Captain
	April 1953 – May 1955 Fort Gordon, Georgia	Military Police School Captain
	June 1955 – August 1957 Sandia Base, New Mexico	Military Police Battalion Captain
	September 1957 - June 1958 Hanau, Germany	Company C   709th MP Battalion Captain
	July 1958 - June 1960 Frankfurt, Germany	Hq Company & Company A 709th MP Bn Captain
	July 1960 - June 1961 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas	Command & General Staff College Major
	July 1961 - September 1965 Fort Monroe, Virginia	Headquarters Continental Army Command Major & Lt. Colonel
	October 1965 - November 1966 Fort Riley, Kansas	9th Infantry Division - Provost Marshall Lt. Colonel
	December 1966 - November 1967 Viet Nam	9th Infantry Division - Provost Marshall Lt. Colonel
	December 1967 - March 1970 Fort George G Meade, Maryland	14th MP Group Colonel
	April 1970 to present (May 1972) Treasure Island, San Francisco, California	Armed Forces Police Colonel
	June 1972 - June 1975 Fort Riley, Kansas	Provost Marshall Colonel

My Family has been to Tokyo, Japan for one year and to Germany for three years with me. We have also lived in many parts of the United States. This has had both advantages and disadvantages, but on the balance, I think it has been good for them. I can stay in the Army until August 1, 1976, if I want to, however, it is unlikely that I’ll stay beyond the summer of 1972. We now feel strong desire to put down some roots soon. Before going on to another topic though, I must add that I have had some interesting and challenging jobs in the Army. There has been some exciting times and some boring times. I have managed to get from drafted Private to Colonel in the Regular Army and I have been decorated with a Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals, a Meritorious Service Medal, an Air Medal, and Army Commendation Medal, two Meritorious Unit Commendations, and a Republic of VietNam Cross of Gallantry with Palm. I have also managed to collect about 10 service ribbons for managing to be in a certain place at a certain time. I’ve been treated well and have no complaints.

EDUCATION:

The older members of the Family will recall that I was, at best, an indifferent student in High School and for two years at what is now Idaho State University. After I had been in the Army for about ten years, I started going to night school intermittently. I took classes from the University of California, University of New Mexico, university of Maryland and finally at George Washington University. I was awarded a B.A. in 1964 and an M.A. in 1965 in Personnel Administration by George Washington University. I actually did about two years of undergraduate work and sixteen months of graduate work at G.W.U. and was on the Dean’s List every Semester.

In the Army I have completed the Infantry Officer Candidate Course, (3 months long), at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1942-43; the advanced Military Police Officer Course (9 months), at Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 1954-55; and the Command and General Staff College Regular Course (10 months) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1960-61. When I retire from the Army, I hope to go to Law School, probably at the University of Utah.

HOBBIES:

Between work, Church and schooling I have not been much of a hobbiest or sportsman. I have taken up photography, mostly 35mm color slides, and have enjoyed it. I doubt if I have the patience to ever become a really good photographer. I have also been a competitive shooter, both rifle and pistol, but principally a pistol shooter. At one time, I was quite a good shooter and won a large number of trophies and medals. Now I only go out to practice often enough to make sure I can maintain a reasonable high degree of skill as a pistol shot. I’m basically a ‘cop’ in the Army and skill with a hand guns is like another life insurance policy to me. In the past year I have developed some interest and a little skill in making and refinishing furniture. Bonnie finds it useful, much more so than pistol shooting.

We find that our children have grown up rapidly and are moving out on their own. They are the greatest, we think, and Bonnie and I are very proud of them. We hope we have done as good a job in raising them as our parents did for us. We are grateful that they were entrusted to our care for the years they have been with us. Bonnie and I are now looking forward to my retirement from the Army and a chance to start a new phase of our lives.

P.S. 1973 Dick is now back at Fort Riley, Kansas, and hasn’t yet retired. Miriam is still working for the Government and is in Germany. Sandra was married in March 1973 to ROBERT ANDRUS of Salt Lake City. Wade will be married in January of 1974 Marsha Beverly Detriech of Manhattan, Kansas. Bob, the youngest, left in August 1973 to fulfill a mission in the England South Mission.