Dublin Core
Title
Interview of Robert Kelsey
Description
Robert Kelsey is a man who shared his experiences in The NY Army National Guard Armory in Geneseo. The oral interview was taken and transcribed by Kristen Druse, and it was later revised by Jordan Keane.
Date
2015-11-09
Contributor
Kelsey, Robert; Keane, Jordan
Format
doc, 28.1 KB
Type
Interview
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
[The location that the story relates to for the map is the NY Army National Guard Armory.]<br />
<br />
ROBERT: Well, I had a lot of experience with the armory, as a kid my father was the superintendent of the village there for about 35 years, so I spent a lot of time at the armory. Consequently, I ended up joining the National Guard when I was 17 at the end of my high school senior year. And I went to officer's candidate school and came out as a second lieutenant and eventually had command of the unit in Geneseo here for five years.<br />
<br />
KRISTEN: No way!<br />
<br />
ROBERT: The last year I was there they built the new armory which has been there for a long time now. The armory used to be an old farmhouse in the same location and they just used the rooms for officers and things like that and built a drill hall on the back of it which was a good sized building. Then the new building was a cavalry unit so they had 72 horses there at one time. Right there in the village. And that stable is now used by the present guard unit and what they did was build on the end of that and connect it to the riding hall with the sawdust tarmac in there and they put concrete floor in and it was an armory unit when I was there. And now they're an infantry unit and they've been called up three times since 9/11. <br />
<br />
KRISTEN: I did not know that! So are you still involved?<br />
<br />
ROBERT: No, they let go of me after a while. I'm in my 80s now so I can't really do much with it.