I was supposed to go to Fort Benning, but for some reason, they closed it down at that time, so they sent all of the Warrant Officer flight candidates to different posts until they opened the fort. They happened to send me to Berlin. I found myself inside the Wall when Berlin was West Berlin and we were surrounded by East Berlin and the Russians. I did two years in Berlin and ended up ETSing, which means getting out of the military, while in Berlin. I attended university in Berlin and studied music.

While in Berlin, I was in the infantry in the beginning and then I decided that I could use my musical skills, so I got a job playing saxophone and flute with the Army Band in Berlin. My first two years in the Military were very fulfilling, but when I got out, I decided that I wanted to stay out for a while. I got out in ’69. I finished college, taught music, and played in bands, but then I thought I wanted to be a policeman.

I went to California and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). My buddy, who was my training officer, came up to me and said, “Hey, Wally. You were in the Army and I’m the platoon sergeant down at this Military Police (MP) Detachment. Would you like to go down there?” I didn’t want to go back in the Military, but I said, “Sure, I’ll come down and I’ll help you out.”

Back in those days in Berlin, there were three countries inside the wall: England, France, and the United States. In ‘68, the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia and they also put a brigade of tanks all around Berlin. At that point, they had given us 16 or 24 hours of life, and then we would be taken out. You never knew what was happening in Berlin. I saw people trying to escape from the East and they got killed trying to jump over the Wall. They never made it to the Wall though because the East side had a big area that was barren and they had machine gunners in the towers.

Berlin was beautiful on the inside. Unfortunately, the United States got taken on that deal because we got the old part of Berlin that had been bombed out, so the United States, France, and England had to rebuild all of that. The Russians had the nice parts. After I got out of the Army, I stayed in Berlin as a student and it was quite interesting. I worked as a bartender in a German pub and as a waiter in the Army officers’ club.

Teamwork is the number one thing I learned. Everybody wants to do everything on their own. They think they’re bad dudes. But when you need the team, you have to retrain yourself and that’s what they did in the Military in those days. When I went to Warrant Officer school, it was very team-oriented in a sense and it was quite good. It helped me later on in life because when I became a policeman, I had to work in a team. You could see the difference between the Military guys and people who weren’t. They didn’t have that Military philosophy.

I went to the urologist and he said, “Let’s set you up for surgery and we’ll reduce that again.” Before going to the hospital, he went up with a scope and told me that I had a huge tumor in my bladder. He described it as gargantuan, so that was not good. They decided to operate on me two weeks later. That was how I found out that I had cancer.

I went to City of Hope. I had no idea what I was doing, but I just went there. They had a urologist there, so I went to see him first and then he said, “We’re going to have to connect you with an oncologist.”

If you sit and talk about it all day and think, “poor me,” all you do is dig a hole and I don’t want to dig one for myself, so I moved on. Now, that doesn’t mean I feel good every day. That doesn’t mean I have all the strength. I can’t tell the difference between being old and having a sickness, so I’m going through two changes in life.

I tell everybody about being old. Every 10 years, your body changes and it starts at 40. I think it waits until you turn that age on your birthday and then it hits you and takes a little bit of something away. You can’t stretch as much. You can’t run as fast. You can’t lift as much. It’s a combination though when you have cancer and you’re getting older. In my case, it’s difficult.

The Cancer Came Back

I was in remission for a couple of years and while I was in remission, they would have me come in to do a scan. I wasn’t taking any medication then.

City of Hope has a website where you can go in and read your reports. I didn’t know what I was reading, but I understand increased, decreased, stayed the same, or first observed. I realized that I had something negative that my doctor was going to tell me.

When I went in to see him, he told me that I had a tumor at the base of my spine and, because of its position, he couldn’t operate. I said, “I’ll tell you what, doc. You do anything you need to do, but don’t give me chemo because I don’t like chemo.”

The Importance of Receiving Great Cancer Care

City of Hope had great service. The care there was great. The institution itself is a good institution. They recently opened a new parking lot, so that’s better. I had to always look for parking, but now I’m happy.

I’ve never had any other cancer treatments. Somebody asked me if I had checked other places. I don’t remember how exactly I picked the City of Hope; maybe I Googled cancer and they came up, but I found out that they’re one of the best in the world. I lucked out and I’ve had some very good doctors. Overall, City of Hope has been great.

When you’re going through cancer, the medical side is very important. Either they do the right stuff and it works or you don’t make it.

What Cancer Has Taught Me

I have my Army friends and my Gamma Phi Fraternity buddies in Pittsburgh. Every year, we get together at my friend’s mansion on a lake in West Virginia. We sit on the lake, drink beer, and talk about how things used to be. You see the guys falling out of the picture, so you start to have more appreciation for every single day and every single moment. You laugh as much as you can. You don’t worry about the small things because you may not have anything if you don’t make it.

Getting old is the other thing. I tried several times in my life to get younger and it doesn’t work. If I go out and run too hard, instead of getting in shape, I start to hurt my heart. I used to be a runner, but age takes its toll.

You have to know what is bothering you at the moment. Is it your age, the cancer, or the medicine? Right now, I’m not taking any meds. I don’t take blood pressure meds or cancer meds. I take vitamins and that’s all.

The doctor said to do it and I did it. That’s the soldier in me. You keep soldiering. That’s what happened. I didn’t have any second thoughts about it. I just went and did it.