Enrique Trujillo’s decade in uniform

Enrique Trujillo was just 18 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army, following in the footsteps of his older brother, who had joined the Air Force six years earlier. It was January 1964, and Trujillo’s journey would span a decade, taking him from missile launch sites in Germany to the front lines of Vietnam. Trujillo now lives in Roswell.

He began his military career at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and was soon stationed in Erding, Germany, where he served as a launcher crewman for HAWK missiles. The unit patch read “Seven Steps to Hell,” a nod to the intensity of Cold War readiness. But when Trujillo arrived in Vietnam, the Army had no use for HAWKs; only the Navy did. So he was reassigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

“I didn’t even know how to get on

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