Oh the horror of it all. Once at Officers Basic at Vandenberg AFB the bus we were riding in broke down and we had a walk a bit.
Oh the horror of it all. Once at Officers Basic at Vandenberg AFB the bus we were riding in broke down and we had a walk a bit.
To Error Is Human To Forgive Is Not SAC Policy
I went to FT. Dix,NJ for Basic in 1963. I remember a NY "tough guy" Had everybody snowed that he was a Golden Gloves Champ until a smaller,by 25-30 pounds,street smart black kid closed the door to their squad bay and showed mister "golden gloves" where the bear went in the buckwheat! Same idiot had a heavy beard but persisted in shaving at night. Needless to say the TAC NCOs were on him constantly about shaving.While on bivouac for range quals,mister smart a$$ was braced by the Field 1st. Sgt. about not shaving in the morning. About 4 words out of smart a$$es mouth and the meeting adjourned to behind a nearby bush where after "falling down" several times the miscreant was observed "shaving" with a rock!After several hours of rubbing his face with the rock he was thoroughly convinced that a morning shave with a blade was MUCH better! Was that brutality? I don't think so. I think it was the Military establishment re-establishing the "pecking order".I wonder if Mr.Ravis [not his REAL name] still has his shaving rock? Nick
I don't remember any brutality at all in going through Army ROTC advanced Camp at Fort Sill, 1970. I remember being very hot and thirsty and no water, and when we had water, it was often so over-chlorinated it burned when it went down. Loved that red Kool Aide made with that hyper chlorinated water. Burned so good!
We did almost have a big fight with the company one street over, Delta. They did not like some of our guys peeing in the alley between the two companies. E tools were unfolded and matters came to near boiling point. Strangely the Cadre was uninvolved no MP's either.
We got away with murder avoiding PT. Cadre didn't bother to watch us after the first few sessions. We'd double time around the corner and go to route step as soon as we were out of sight. Once that got going that was that.
I wish I could go back at age 21 and do it again... It would be a vacation... Fire those 105's, the 90 and 106 reckless, M-79, M-60, M-14, '16, .45... Toss Mike 26 hand frags....John Wayne around blazing away with blanks! I was too stressed back then to enjoy it; I thought it was all real important... Back then.
Last edited by Griff Murphey; 03-28-2013 at 07:48.
We were issued M-16's in basic and they were brand new. I was glad because there was no drills other than present arms and shoulder arms. We were told that if any weapon was found to have a scratch on it that the sh_t head that scratched it would buy it. This one guy figured if he had to buy it he could take it home. He scratched the finish all over with a coin. The DI's went ballistic and yelled at him until they tired out then formed a huddle with the Lt. and a few other DI's. We thought they had the brig in mind but they surprised everyone when they took his weapon away and gave him a rubber 'gun'. It was quite funny watching him try to qualify with two DI's standing over him while he pointed his rubber gun at the targets yelling Bang-Bang. In the end the poor fellow was cycled back through basic for another try. I wonder if he made it on the second try.
Last edited by Cecil; 06-04-2013 at 11:09.
Be glad it was a little guy. Did he snap at you?
Basic, Ft. Ord. Spent a lot of time on guard duty patroling the wall in Feb. Had a lil di@k head E-5 DI who thought he was god. Broke his leg in a traffic acct. 1st week of basic. Was replaced with a E-6 Dickenson who was set too retire.A real good D.I. We did a lot of duck walking an low crawling with our noses in the ground. The most brutal thing that I can remember was the rain an looking off toward the bay an seeing sail boats an sun. One time on the fireing range a kid had his bells rung when he fired out of turn an the DI's used a 2x4. Also spent my share of time on kp, an we would tell our buddies no too eat the scrambled eggs for breakfast that day=heeheehee.
AIM TRUE, YOU MIGHT HIT THE TARGET:
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.