THE ARMY YEARS 3

I'm not going to give a minute by minute account of three years in the army but I will tell about things that stand out in my memory. As I go on with this I will make fun of the army and some of the guys that I served with but I will tell you that I believe in universal military service and the draft.  They say that only 8% of the population are veterans of any branch and I think the nation suffers because of it.  Okay, enough. 

We stayed at Jackson for two or three days for processing and then on to Fort Knox, KY for Basic training.  As usual the army timed it so that the bus arrived at Fort Knox in the middle of the night.  We had been in the army for a few days but they still treated us like we were outsiders by yelling and cussing at us to get off the bus faster and fall in.  Same thing.  Make up the bunks and they kept tearing them up and telling us to make them up again till they were pleased enough with them.

I had Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) in high school and knew how to march and the manual of arms, etc. so they made me a squad leader.  No more rank or no more money, I just got yelled at if anyone in my squad screwed up, and when they didn't.  Oh yes, I did get to march in the front.  We learned helpful things like which end of the rifle the bullet came out of and how to strip down an M1 rifle and drilling, drilling, drilling.  (Drilling is marching) 

Every morning the CQ (Charge of Quarters) would turn the lights on and scream and blow his whistle.  One morning he walked in and stood by this one guys top bunk and blew the whistle right in his ears.  The guy, in one beautiful motion rolled over and slugged him.  The CQ went down like a rock and we all thought that there would be hell to pay.  Guess what, the army says that you are not responsible for what you do being woke up like that and there was no action taken on anybody.  Good thing the guy didn't have a gun.  After that they would still wake us up by blowing the whistle and yelling but they did it from the doorway for a few seconds.

They told us to start with that any theft would not be tolerated.  We found out that they were serious because there was a thief in the company and things and money would be missing.  Finally one night they caught him.  The MP's (Military Police) were called along with an ambulance.  The story was that the thief tried to steal a footlocker and fell down the stairs with the locker on top of him.  No investigation and we never saw him again.  No more theft either and I believe that after that you could have left a few hundred dollars on your bunk and it would have been there when you came back.  Actually, when they caught the guy a bunch of guys had beat him with their boots and threw him down the stairs.


Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.
George Washington 
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