CHAPTER 1
MY TIME INBASIC TRAINING
MY INDUCTION INTO THE ARMY
There were many things that contributed to getting me into the U.S. Army Flight School and thus my year in Vietnam.
First of all I was a student in college and had a "2S" deferment thatkept me out of the draft. But sometime, I am not sure of even themonth, in 1967 the Army started drafting college students if theirgrades were not above 2.5, mine was just below. One day, three busloads of Gannon College students were "shipped" to Buffalo, NewYork for their pre-induction physical. Guess what ... I passed thephysical.
I had figured that I would be going to Vietnam, but I had hopedto join the military after I received my degree. The following year(1968) I received a phone call from the secretary of the Erie draftboard whom I had known for a couple of years. She told me thatmy name had appeared on the new list of draftees and that shecould delay my induction letter for a couple days but no longer, itwould have to be mailed. That would give me the opportinity toeither move to Canada to avoid the draft or to enlist and possiblyreceive any training that I would want to be trained.
That day I went down to the Army recruiter and signed upfor helicopter flight training school, but I would have to goback to Buffalo to take and pass the F.A.S.T. (Flight AptitudeStandardization Test). The test was scheduled for a couple dayslater. I was told, I would have to pass the F.A.S.T. test and a flightphysical before I would be officially admitted to the flight trainingprogram.
Three days later I received my draft notice. My induction/draftwould be superseded by the contract I signed with the recruiter, butif I failed to get into flight school or if I failed to complete flightschool the Army would have the option to place me wherever theyneeded me. Because of the Vietnam War, it was almost guaranteedthat it would be in the Infantry! One thing that I knew was that ifI went to Vietnam for a year it would be a great deal easier sittingand flying above the mud than trudging through it!
I passed the F.A.S.T. test and I left for basic training at Fort Polk,Louisianna the week after Thanksgiving 1968.
BASIC TRAINING—JUSTTHE BEGINNING OF IT ALL
After enlisting in the Army and passing the F.A.S.T. test; I wasintroduced to Army life at Fort Polk, Louisiana late in November1968, North Fort Polk to be exact. To get to basic training, I flewout of Erie and into Shreeveport, Louisana and took a bus to FortPolk. There at the airport in Shreveport, I learned my first goodlesson, `never dare anyone anything or bet anyone anything whilein the Army'. You will LOSE.
I was sitting at a small four stool counter at the ShreeveportAirport having breakfast. A kid sat down beside me who wasalso heading to basic training. While waiting for his breakfast tobe served, a cockroach ran across the counter. "Swoosh" went hisarm as he caught the quickly scurrying insect. He said, holding it'ssquiggling body between his thumb and index finger, "Give mefive bucks if I eat `im?", in his slow southern drawl. "Sure", I said,knowing he wouldn't.
Gulp! Crunch! It was gone and I was five dollars lighter as hecrunched and chewed. That five dollar bill saved me a great dealof money throughout my stint in the Army. That was quite a bitof money to me at that moment. I knew then, that there wouldalways be somebody who would be willing to do almost anythingfor a little money. I was not in the Army yet and had alreadylearned something valuable that morning.
The first thing I learned from the induction cadre at Fort Polk,was that if the world ever needed an enema, it would be insertedat Fort Polk. I never learned anything while I was at the Fort thatchanged my mind. Most of the basic training was done at "SouthFort", only two basic training companies were located at NorthFort about seven miles away. All of the Advanced Infantry Trainingwas at "North Fort". I was sent to North Fort, for basic. I didn'tknow what it meant for me but a group of the guys really didn'tlike it. We were miles away from the main PX and movie theater.The meager "North" base had little amenities to offer, maybe thatwas it. It really didn't make a difference to me, we didn't have `baseprivileges' anyway.
I was assigned to Basic Training Company C-3-2 (Company C, 3rdBattalion, 2nd Training Brigade). It wasn't the most fun experienceto start my military career with but I did have a reasonably "good"time. At times I actually had fun. The first morning, I woke upand was officially welcomed into "Basic Training". I stood in thecompany area in formation at 5:00 AM. They began teaching usall of basic Army things, like: how to get into formation, when,where and how to stand, who to call what, how to salute and amillion other little things that would soon become automatic.You either did it or had a drill instructor "in your face". It wasn'tanything difficult, but I was amazed to see so many guys not ableor unwilling to follow simple instructions. Their failure madeit easier on me since the drill instructors were constantly busyelsewhere.
A few mornings later when we were in formation our senior drillinstructor, Sergent Brewton, yelled out to the whole company."Any one that knows how to drive a truck, fall out of formationand fall in, in front of me". I had driven trucks for United ParcelDelivery Service back in Erie, PA and before I knew it even thoughI was in the last rank, I was the second guy to fall in in front ofthe formation. I don't even remember making the decision to goup front but there I was. I had been told by everyone I had metin the Army, "Don't volunteer for anything". There I was at thefirst opportunity, volunteering. All I thought of was that if I wasdriving a truck, I was not walking or marching and that soundedgood to me.
A total of six of us volunteered, he selected five to go down to"South Fort Polk" to take their military drivers test, I was one. Hesaid they needed four drivers to take turns driving vehicles for thetraining company, that way no one individual would miss a greatdeal of training. We were shipped down to the drivers testing areato take our test. There was an eye test, a written test and a drivingtest. Not suprising to me, we all passed the eye and written test.Then we went outside to take our driving "skills test".
We started with jeeps. One of the guys ran over an orange coneand then flattened a stop sign and he quickly flunked the drivingtest. We were down to four. We then drove a pick-up truck, thoseof us that were left did fine. Now it was time for the "Deuce and aHalf" (2 ½ Ton) the diesel engined large utility truck. I had neverdriven a truck that large or anything with a diesel engine or airbrakes. I knew that they were different to start and shut down andyou had to let the engine warm up before driving. The air brakes? Ididn't know, but I didn't think they were a major problem, at leastI hoped they wouldn't be.
The one trainee of the four of us left was told to get into thetruck. The staff sergeant was firing questions about the truck anddriving situations at him rapid fire, I assumed just to pressure hima little. In his first turn he drove over an orange cone, a couple ofturns later he did it again to another, then he missed a stop signcompletely. He was done and he drove off the course withoutfinishing it.
The next trainee didn't do much better. They soon came backto the loading dock...
