Marco Zecchin's series 'Fort Ord (ret.)' consists of images from the decommissioned Army post near Monterey, California. I'd like to thank him for sharing this story.

"...driving past Fort Ord army base along the Monterey Bay in the late 50's and 60's, I was fascinated by the soldiers moving in convoys, marching in formation, and practicing shooting their rifles along the road we traveled.

In the late '60s and early '70s, approaching draft age, I found this fascination in conflict with my feelings about the Vietnam War and the men who trained there. The protests I witnessed as we drove by... along with the news of the war, confused me. My fascination with the military was confronted with the realities of war.

In the fall of 2005, during an annual reunion of photographic friends of Morley Baer's in Monterey, some of us wandered onto the now decommissioned Fort Ord army base. Walking around the base, my youthful fascination and the stories of military duty and war shared with me by my veteran friends, opened me to the energy of this place: the energy of men training and preparing for war lingers in these barracks."