European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. September 28, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 a my mib. A Mau Mitat Framm   Bumm Baa i had a lot to prove says sex con army rewards comeback go who beat the Odds b Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau ludwigs bling West Germany when Ronald m. Smith entered the military prison at fort la Vanworth. Kan., in 1977. His army career seemed destined for Brevity and disgrace. Only a year and a half after enlistment. Smith then in. Was behind bars for a mail theft conviction thai All but assured him of a dishonourable discharge upon his release. But. While in prison. Smith became obsessed with mastering an army that was about to give up on him. He earned trusty status quickly then Early release in june i 78. Along w Ith a bus ticket to seven weeks of sweat fatigue and intimidation with a retraining brigade at fort Kilcy Kan. Today the sex convict is improbable As it May sound the Headquarters platoon sergeant for the 226th Supply and service co at Wilkin Cavern in Ludwig Surg. Eleven years after the 4 . Runs countless inspections mud pit fights and push  with fort Riley Drill instructors treading on his fingertips. Smith is a sergeant first class supervising soldiers who do double takes when they see the plaque identifying him As a retraining graduate. But the plaque tells Only half the Story. It says nothing of the extra hours Smith worked to be first and Best at everything the extra training and correspondence courses he sought and his efforts to overcome the prejudice that an sex con faces in today s army. I had a Tot to prove. I guess to the army and myself. I wanted to show the army that whatever system you have i m not going to let it hold me  Smith said. Who wants to go Home with a dishonourable discharge the company s executive officer 1st it. Theresa a. Mines finds Smith s belated drive for excellence especially commendable because he tries to instill it in the soldiers he supervises. That is what makes him very special hell go out of his Way to take care of them hints said adding that it was Smith s leadership abilities that won him his current Job. She added that she admires Smith even though his firm convictions often have sparked a few conflicts since the two started working together in Early 1988. He can be very stubborn. He knows in his mind the Way he wants to do things and he does t Back Down. And i m the same Way mines said. He s very aggressive he s competitive and he wants to go  Smith grew up in Cleveland As the fourth of five children. Inspired by the old combat television series he joined the army three Days after graduating from John f. Kennedy senior High school in june 1976. He arrived in september at his first Long term duty station. Fort Gordon ga., where he worked As a mail clerk. The following Spring Smith said army investigators interrogated him about a missing piece of registered mail a package containing a Pearl ring. At the end of a six hour interrogation Smith signed a statement saying he had stolen the package. The army charged him with the theft in june convicted him in november and sentenced him to 18 months in prison. Smith said that he pleaded innocent to the charge from Start to finish and that he signed the statement Only to end the interrogation. He admits that he was extremely careless As a mail clerk having lost records accounting for a lot of registered mail including he package containing the ring. After the court martial. Smith s first sergeant tried to cheer Smith up and encouraged him to consider the retraining brigade advice that Smith remembered when he became eligible for parole in 1978. He said he applied for the retraining brigade then because among other reasons anything less would be an admission of guilt. At fort Riley the Drill sergeants made a living trying to make or break the stamina of the soldiers sent there but they saved their most exacting efforts for the detention Barracks do boys from fort la Vanworth Smith said describing the experience As seven weeks of  the retraining brigade was designed for Quality Supply 1j4s. Joseph Owen i wanted to show the army that whatever system you have i m not going to let it hold me Down. Who wants to go Home with a dishonourable discharge sgt. 1 St class Ronald m. Smith not Quantity. They put you under a maximum of stress Smith said. I you make it. You never do the same thing  Smith was one of seven sex convicts in training there. Three of them could t take the pressure and went Back to prison. Smith said he failed Only the survival course in which soldiers had to catch and Slaughter chickens. One trainee pulled out a Chicken s heart and ate it on the spot but Smith said he could t bring himself to kill his Bird. After fort i Ley Smith was assigned to furl Campbell. By. His dishonourable discharge was nullified but he still faced a bar to re enlistment As Well As the Bias of soldiers who knew where he d been and thought he did t belong in the army. Smith said that s when he became a self improvement locomotive working harder and longer to show his supervisors that he deserved to be promoted. I had to be the Light that shined on that  he said of his attempts to make supervisors Sec him As a positive addition to the team. When he reached the rank of e-4, he applied for a waiver of his re enlist mint bar and tracked Down former commanders and supervisors to seek support letters. He beat the Odds and won his waiver re enlisting in october 1979 in front of a Iso malformation. Smith went on to take every correspondence course he could find that would earn him promotion Points. He sewed on sergeant s stripes and became the training no before leaving fort Campbell. He was promoted to staff sergeant and regained his Security clearance at his next duty station in wet Ryburg West Germany. Smith said that when he failed to make sergeant first class in the secondary promotion zone my wife must have been just about ready to wish i was dead. I was so  he took More courses and sent a letter to the promotion Board then won his latest Stripe in april of this year. Smith s Story would have a different ending if he had been convicted in 1989 instead of in 1977. It. Col. Robert Ezcell Deputy commander of the . Army correctional activity at fort Riley said the rehabilitation oriented training brigade program ended there about seven years ago. The replacement program is geared mainly to confinement but a few soldiers get picked for rehabilitation. He said the correctional Center s focus changed because recruiting picked up tremendously in the Early 1980s. As Long As the recruiters arc meeting their goals the army can afford to be much More selective with people who have had their Chance and messed it up Ezcell said. Ezcell described the old program As an intensified Basic training environment for non discharged convicts with Short sentences. Their offences were mainly a vol disrespect to officers the administrative kinds of things rather than True criminal  now a Ell said the army selects about 65 to 70 prisoners annually at fort Riley for a 28-Day military instruction course. The candidates arc serving sentences from Bur to 24 months. The course has Many characteristics of the old retraining concept but also includes counselling and personal development skills. The prisoners must want to return to duty and their selection must be approved by every link in their Chain of command. Ezcell said 80 to 90 percent of those who go through the course stay clean after returning to duty. Reflecting on the big Detour his army career took Smith called fort Leavenworth a hell of an  although he spent years trying to live Down his prison Days the experience is valuable to him now. A Young Soldier in trouble Only has to look at the plaque from fort Riley to realize that Smith knows what he s talking about when he describes the possible consequences of irresponsibility. It s the first time i be Hung that he said looking at the plaque. I always kept it in a   15 would have been a More appropriate sentence for him in 1977, assuming he had stolen the package but he bears no grudge against the army. Instead he wishes he had been More disciplined. I regret that i was Here for fun he said reflecting on his service at fort Gordon. I could t Wail till i got off. Everything was Rush Rush Rush. Now i m very