What I learned after enlistment

[jnyork]

Having been raised in a small remote Wyoming ranch town in the pre-television days, there were a heckuva lot of things I never knew existed before I enlisted right after high school. Started noticing this the first day of basic training

grits
SOS
ketchup on eggs
drinking fountains for "blacks" and "white" off base.
hand jive
chittlins (sp?)


Must be others, the memories grow dim after almost 60 years.

Anybody want to add to this.?

[Pete44ru]

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My first lesson, when I enlisted, was: "NEVER volunteer for ANYTHING"..........

I loved midnight chow: SOS with a couple of fried eggs on top - it stayed with me throughout those cold winter nights, on the flight line.



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[Blaine]

For one thing, Racism.....Mostly from southern boys, and Blacks.....

[Mich Hunter]

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My first lesson, when I enlisted, was: "NEVER volunteer for ANYTHING"..........

I loved midnight chow: SOS with a couple of fried eggs on top - it stayed with me throughout those cold winter nights, on the flight line.



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So true to this day

[Griff]

Pick the times you volunteer with care. Got some of my duty that way... and also some of the hardest! But, for grunt work, I seemed to get passed by when it time to be "volunteered"... Guys than never volunteered for anything were the first one "volunteered"!

The 1st day of boot camp was an eye-opener. Having grown up in the "city", attended non-segregated schools, I found the amount of racism surprising... from all quarters. I'd always found my friends based on their character and numbered Hispanics and blacks amongst them... Part of being a "spotted", redhead, I was always the minority!

[Booger Bill]

In 1958 I went to enlist in the AF. At the center at Milwaukee they tested us for the physical. I flunked, too heavy and high BP. They put me up for the night in a hotel. The plan was to see if my BP would come down after a nights rest. Went back the next day and it was all draftee`s for their physical. The difference was bigger than day/night. Where all us volunteering were treated well the day before now everyone was hollered at and shoved around like Andersonville. I flunked out again and at that time I felt like the biggest failure on earth. I took the train home but didn't go home. I went and seen a Army recruiter. He lied and promised me somehow that I would get right in. Back to Milwaukee again and it was the same exact exam people that remembered me and gave me the bum`s rush again. Later during Vietnam I both tried to enlist and had physicals for the draft. I had to get my BP checked every 6 months for the draft all the way through the war. Flunked them all for the same reason. Then later I got in a terrible MC wreck. The nurse checked my BP and I said, off the chart, huh? On no sir, you have perfect blood pressure. Ever since I have had perfect BP. God didn't want me in the service.

[765x53]

SOS was always there.
I don't remember ever seeing anyone eat it.

My first rule of not volunteering was, don't enlist!
A lot of good that did.

[JohndeFresno]

Learned a trick from a clever draftee or enlistee, probably because he came from an Army family. It worked very well for me all during the time I had KP in Basic Training and some advanced training, as well.

Grab a cloth, head to the coffee urns and other stuff made out of brass or stainless steel, and start polishing like crazy, before anybody asks. It kept me away from all the other stuff, like peeling spuds, serving and cleaning, cleaning up and sweeping the floor. And the Mess Sergeant liked it - all gleaming stuff!

It doesn't work at home.

[Washita]

For one thing, Racism.....Mostly from southern boys, and Blacks.....

You gotta be kidding. I was born in Kansas (1938), raised in California (1943-1969) and for the last 46 years have lived in Arkansas. Trust me on this...I didn't have to move to the south to learn about racism. I'll concede that maybe in CA they did a better job about hiding it in public.

[spaceman spiff]

I found out what happened on day one after calling an NCO "sir" .......

good for me that pushups were a breeze



spaceman

[jeepnik]

I found out what happened on day one after calling an NCO "sir" .......

good for me that pushups were a breeze



spaceman

Long story short, I was called into the NCOIC's office and ask "Who is Col. XXXX?" My response was nobody (heck I grew up around him and let's just say it was a good thing he didn't have a shotgun handy when he and the wife came home early one night ). I found our very quickly that a Col. in the USAF was somebody.

[Pete44ru]

.

I'll say one thing further, about K.P. - you soon learn (or, had better learn) how to catnap/sleep anywhere/anytime.

To this day, I can still drop to any kind of hard flooring or dirt, and be asleep within a minute or so - which came in handy during the exotic Southeast Asian vacation tours that my Uncle gave, back in the mid-60's.



.

[Blaine]

For one thing, Racism.....Mostly from southern boys, and Blacks.....

You gotta be kidding. I was born in Kansas (1938), raised in California (1943-1969) and for the last 46 years have lived in Arkansas. Trust me on this...I didn't have to move to the south to learn about racism. I'll concede that maybe in CA they did a better job about hiding it in public.

Sir: I didn't go to the south, the south always came to me...

[missionary5155]

Greetings
What I learned ...
To do exactly what I was told to do... Nothing more, nothing less.
At basic I was one of 9 in Alpha Company who were not draftees. We 9 were treated vastly different.
Then I was high firer in BRM ( Basic Rifle Marksmanship ) for the whole Brigade of 1000. DI took me aside and said " Fester you just made me look good". Never had "extra duty" again. CO during inspection stopped in front of me and said in a very load voice "Fester your rifle is the only clean rifle I have seen". Then much quieter he said " You made me look good with the Coronel. I will remember you". I was a PFC coming out of basic. Bottom line.. do your best. It makes the chain of command look good and generally the higher ups will take notice and remember.
Mike in Peru Armor 1971-74

[Daisyman]

A good friend of mine I have breakfast with in the mornings, said when he got drafted, they asked him, "What do you like to do? "Well sir, I really like camping, hunting and fishing!!!" The guy says " Have I got a job for you!!!!". Handed him a rifle and sent him to Nam where he got to camp out and hunt a LOT!! He says, " What on earth was I thinkin!!!!"?

[firefuzz]

First thing I remember REALLY learning after enlistment was that standing in line at the receiving station next to an idiot that got drunker than Cooter Brown's dog on the flight down, who in a very loud and clear voice commented on the size of the chest of the female DI walking in front of us and what he would like to do to the same items, can be a very DANGEROUS place to be.

Rob

[kfarm]

Sometimes volunteering is good. While in basic at Fort Polk in 68 they had us sitting in a circle explaining about the next day and night activities which was the night fire and obstacle course. One guy laughed and the drill sgt said in a fearful voice " the next one of you talks your on KP. Well I did it, I said some smart remark and was told I was on KP the next day. No KP wasn't fun but crawling in the mud wasn't either. Sometimes you gotta play your cards. By the way I don't think I ever volunteered again. Not bad for a dumb boy from Arkansas

[jeepnik]

A good friend of mine I have breakfast with in the mornings, said when he got drafted, they asked him, "What do you like to do? "Well sir, I really like camping, hunting and fishing!!!" The guy says " Have I got a job for you!!!!". Handed him a rifle and sent him to Nam where he got to camp out and hunt a LOT!! He says, " What on earth was I thinkin!!!!"?

Ah youth! If only we had learned to engage the brain before the mouth life would have been much simpler. Maybe not as much fun, but certainly less painful.

[Ben_Rumson]

A soldier I was stationed with after getting back from the vacation beat the system by doing what he was told to do, which was (as AFVN radio would remind us) "Take your malaria pill every day"...Which he did... Lots of us didn't because you got the runs if you did... He got sent home early because he always had the runs!!

[Blaine]

I did really well on that battery of tests they give the recruits. Right off the bat, they tried their damdust to get me in OCS. They got mean when I wouldn't accept the honor.

[boolitshooter]

Now that I think about it, seems like yesterday.
18-1/2 YO upon being inducted. Apparently did well on the tests like Blain. A captain along with a Major rode me very hard to sign NOW for OCS. I refused countless times, finally saying who is going to respect a 19 YO officer going to Nam? This was at FT. Lewis. The DI's then rode me harder for a couple of weeks and it was mostly over. They promoted me to acting corporal for the rest of basic.
I never did KP or have to stand a fire watch in Basic.
My uncle a Lt. Col. in the AF advised me not to go to OCS unless I had a death wish. Glad I listened to him. The rest is history.

[Old Ironsights]

Like all horror stories of old (does ANYONE fine Lovecraft even vaguely unsettling? I sure never did... and I was reading him at 7... as well as Poe...) I found Reality nowhere nearly as bad as projected by Coots and Never-Beens.

Simply, I LOVED every minute of Basic/Advanced Training - much to the chagrin of the DIs.

Basic (Ft. Sill, '85) was simply hot and muggy. I was assigned to KP ONCE before the Mess Sergeant kicked me out at about 1500 on my first day... because, having done a quick systems analysis, I reorganized the (apparently intentionally) inefficient KP crew into something that actually not only kept up with the incoming trays and flatware, but gave us non-shoutable downtime. Not allowed.

He'd have had me shot if it was up to him, but since I had been a paid student "volunteer" in my HS Mess Hall... err... "Lunch room", I already had BTDT... and that was unacceptable... and I whas henceforth never "allowed"/"volunteered" to do KP ever again - for my entire time in Service.

Then, because of a quirk of my enlistment (I had time off between Basic and Advanced school), I neglected to show up at AIT on the cattle car, but rather drove in in my POV (parked it and turned in the keys to the CO) and had the temerity to actually wear Medical Issue sunglasses in formation, I was granted the singular honor of being the FIRST "Named" grunt of my class - (They couldn't pronounce my name anyway, so I got called either POV or "Hollywood") - and as such spent the rest of my Training Cycle on orders of Mandatory Exercise upon encountering ANY of the Company NCOs.

(That got particularly humorous when we were assigned a couple of Cadidiots finishing their summer break and we would get into exercising/shouting matches about who who would win the next Army/Navy game... I would declare "Navy" just to see how foaming they would get...)

Then there was the incident where the DIs were getting nasty and screwing up Marches by using D&C calls (then making whole platoons/companys exercise for the ensuing CF) I took a holiday weekend (no DIs) to teach all comers the Exhibition D&C I had learned in JROTC & ROTC.

That one landed me 3 hours of grass drills (DIs hate a smart-butt) but my troops could Drill. I was happy - and as I had already been Exercising from Day 1, the "punishment" was only a minor annoyance. (ahhh, youth)

Still, I was called on by the XO to demonstrate proper ALICE pack loadout (I had been hiking up in the Wind Rivers for several years as a yoot using ALICE gear), and the Senior DI (whose parking spot I had unknowingly stolen with my locked POV) colluded with me on a couple of really nasty, but effective, atypical training programs that kept our Company in the top ranking of the Cycle.

All in all, I loved every minute.

[Booger Bill]

As said I never was in the military but I do have a KP story. In 1960 I was a fire fighter in Yosemite NP. A large lighting storm hit and we had some spot fires by lighting strikes to take care of. Several of us were flew into one by a chopper, we got it out and had to walk out. By that time there was a huge fire going on up above Hetch Hatchy. They soon had about a thousand Indians from AZ and NM and Red Hot`s on the fire. I got commandeered to wash pots and pans for the cook. Soon most of the Indians got the whistling runs. The cook bawled me out and said I had to do a better job. As I recall I was on that detail about 16 hours a day for over two weeks, maybe three. It`s all a blur now.
One of the Indians somehow got a hold of a bottle. His chief or fire boss read him the riot act. The guy couldn't speak a word of English and the chief turned him loose to find his own way home to AZ drunk and broke!

[Neil Casper]

One of the things I learned was the meaning of "The Needs of the Service." It didn't matter what they promised, either verbally or in writing, the needs of the service ALWAYS comes first. If you were an air conditioning/refrigeration tech and they needed a truck driver, you were shifting gears baby!

[jeepnik]

Folks, looking back, except for the hospital time and the events leading up to it, I must admit I had a blast (though one of those did cost a hospital stay) in the service. All but one of my duty stations were in great places, and the one that wasn't was for a youngster full of testosterone and adrenalin.

Some scary times, sure. Some times off duty I don't fully remember, certainly (I think). I took full advantage of my youth, location, and the available distractions. I came out pretty much unscathed (except for now some of it is catching up with me).

Are there things I would change? Yes! But they would be the things that lead up to the aforementioned hospital time.

[rodeo kid]

I remember my first day in the Army very well. First off I was five minutes late getting to the induction station. A Ssg read me the riot act, and after listening, reminded him I was not in the Army yet as I had not taken one step forward and said the Oath so he should treat a civilian with respect. Needless to say he became somewhat unhappy at that point. ( Yes, I was a smart aleck 20 yr old who knew everything) Later in the day he asked if I was in the Army now. I replied "yes Sgt I am at your disposal".
He disposed me to do 50 pushups, and splendid specimen that I was I completed 21 and gave out. We then took a Greyhound bus from Detroit to Ft Knox, Kentucky. We arrived at 10 Pm. I must back up and say it was 65 Degrees when we left Detroit and 33 degrees at Ft Knox. And I thought we went South. After some paperwork we went to the supply room where we received one blanket each. A Sp4 took us to the barracks(wooden wwII built, you could almost see through the walls) and there was no heat! When I dared to asked about the heat it was Oct 4th and the heat did not get turned on until Oct 10th. I knew then I was going to love the Army and was Glad I was drafted. No one had a coat and we were freezing under the thin blanket, finally a kid had a bright idea, we laid head to foot on the bottom bunk, and covered up with the blanket and the mattress from the top bunk.
Eventually I did adjust and came out a E-5, but that first day was quite an eye opener. God Bless. I forgot to mention this was October of 1964, a very good year to be drafted!

[Blaine]

Now that I think about it, seems like yesterday.
18-1/2 YO upon being inducted. Apparently did well on the tests like Blain. A captain along with a Major rode me very hard to sign NOW for OCS. I refused countless times, finally saying who is going to respect a 19 YO officer going to Nam? This was at FT. Lewis. The DI's then rode me harder for a couple of weeks and it was mostly over. They promoted me to acting corporal for the rest of basic.
I never did KP or have to stand a fire watch in Basic.
My uncle a Lt. Col. in the AF advised me not to go to OCS unless I had a death wish. Glad I listened to him. The rest is history.

Before I enlisted (not drafted) I was working with the son of the owner. He did OCS, made Captain pretty quick, got good medals, and citations in Nam, and was one of the first that got RIFed in 1970 when they started to realize that they had too many Captains. They needed expendable 2nd, and 1st LTs, not valuable Captains.....Miss promotion to Major twice, and yer outta there. Bastards...

[Ysabel Kid]

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My first lesson, when I enlisted, was: "NEVER volunteer for ANYTHING"..........

I loved midnight chow: SOS with a couple of fried eggs on top - it stayed with me throughout those cold winter nights, on the flight line.



.

So true to this day

I beg to differ - on the first part. I'm from "up north", and I can tell you I saw more racism from Yankees than anything down here. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist; just that I saw more of it up north.

That being said, I see more racism from minorities than any other group - by far...

[donw]

during a 'deployment' to sunny, s/e asia, I was told to sit in as right door gunner, a regular gunner was sick...to which I replied: "But sir, I'm not on flight status..."...to which he cheerfully replied: "So? what's the problem? here's your flight helmet, check the ammo...let's go."

I still wonder how someone with my MOS got into an aviation unit??? my MOS was infantry/arty/armor voice radio operator...I found out that the army puts you where they need bodies most.

[spaceman spiff]

I remember my first day in the Army very well. First off I was five minutes late getting to the induction station. A Ssg read me the riot act, and after listening, reminded him I was not in the Army yet as I had not taken one step forward and said the Oath so he should treat a civilian with respect. Needless to say he became somewhat unhappy at that point. ( Yes, I was a smart aleck 20 yr old who knew everything) Later in the day he asked if I was in the Army now. I replied "yes Sgt I am at your disposal".
He disposed me to do 50 pushups, and splendid specimen that I was I completed 21 and gave out. We then took a Greyhound bus from Detroit to Ft Knox, Kentucky. We arrived at 10 Pm. I must back up and say it was 65 Degrees when we left Detroit and 33 degrees at Ft Knox. And I thought we went South. After some paperwork we went to the supply room where we received one blanket each. A Sp4 took us to the barracks(wooden wwII built, you could almost see through the walls) and there was no heat! When I dared to asked about the heat it was Oct 4th and the heat did not get turned on until Oct 10th. I knew then I was going to love the Army and was Glad I was drafted. No one had a coat and we were freezing under the thin blanket, finally a kid had a bright idea, we laid head to foot on the bottom bunk, and covered up with the blanket and the mattress from the top bunk.
Eventually I did adjust and came out a E-5, but that first day was quite an eye opener. God Bless. I forgot to mention this was October of 1964, a very good year to be drafted!

And so you must remember "Agony" and "Misery" ?


spaceman

[Blaine]

I remember my first day in the Army very well. First off I was five minutes late getting to the induction station. A Ssg read me the riot act, and after listening, reminded him I was not in the Army yet as I had not taken one step forward and said the Oath so he should treat a civilian with respect. Needless to say he became somewhat unhappy at that point. ( Yes, I was a smart aleck 20 yr old who knew everything) Later in the day he asked if I was in the Army now. I replied "yes Sgt I am at your disposal".
He disposed me to do 50 pushups, and splendid specimen that I was I completed 21 and gave out. We then took a Greyhound bus from Detroit to Ft Knox, Kentucky. We arrived at 10 Pm. I must back up and say it was 65 Degrees when we left Detroit and 33 degrees at Ft Knox. And I thought we went South. After some paperwork we went to the supply room where we received one blanket each. A Sp4 took us to the barracks(wooden wwII built, you could almost see through the walls) and there was no heat! When I dared to asked about the heat it was Oct 4th and the heat did not get turned on until Oct 10th. I knew then I was going to love the Army and was Glad I was drafted. No one had a coat and we were freezing under the thin blanket, finally a kid had a bright idea, we laid head to foot on the bottom bunk, and covered up with the blanket and the mattress from the top bunk.
Eventually I did adjust and came out a E-5, but that first day was quite an eye opener. God Bless. I forgot to mention this was October of 1964, a very good year to be drafted!

B-12-5 Ft Knox.....I remember the heck out of them...

And so you must remember "Agony" and "Misery" ?


spaceman