₊˚⊹ 𐂯.ᐟ𖦹

Loop central

A soldier took this picture of Dahmer on his barracks bed in west Germany in 1979.  "Beginning Friday afternoon, he would drink, pass out, wake up, and start again" said the former Army barracks roommate. "He'd be in his own little world".

Joining the Army in 1979 after dropping out of Ohio State University, records show that his first year of serving was average or above average. Originally, he enlisted to serve with military police, however, got sent to medical training instead before being stationed in Baumholder, West Germany, as a combat medic.

“Dahmer decorated his room in Baumholder with a poster of the heavy-metal rock band Iron Maiden. He also spent hours poring over a children’s picture book about the troll and the billy goats Gruff and telling boozy W. C. Fields jokes,” The Times wrote. “Once he gave his bunkmate, Billy J. Capshaw, a birthday card with a beer mug on it and a Fields punchline. ‘To a fellow guzzler on his 19th birthday,’ he wrote on the card.”

Dahmer was honorably discharged in March 1981 due to his increasing alcohol abuse and deteriorating performance.