CHAPTER FIVE
Basic Training/AIT – ‘You’re in the Army now, Private’
My personal theme song for this time period: Light My Fire (The Doors)
Lebanon Valley College’s 100th annual commencement was held June 1, 1969 and so I received my official degree. In just over two weeks, June 16, 1969, I reported for induction to the Lebanon, Pa (just a few miles from the LVC campus) recruiting station to be sworn into the United States Army.
Let me repeat that for emphasis: College graduate one day to raw Army private the next. This was real contrast.
NEWS BULLETIN: June 8, 1969 – President Nixon announces that US troop levels were to be sharply reduced. This was the very beginning of our “stand down”. Troop levels reached an incredible 536,100 in 1968 and were to drop to 475,200 in 1969.
After swearing in, we were loaded onto buses traveling to where I had no clue. Turned out to be we were headed to Ft. Dix, New Jersey. Now, as an Army brat, I had lived, all my life, on various Army bases all over the world so this wasn’t all that strange for me. I figured Basic Training would be “stressful” but not all that hard. I expected a whole lot of shouting and yelling at us new troops and they did not disappointment me. So I was really prepared for that mentally and, coming off my recent track season, I was in excellent physical condition. This proved to be really important as things played out.
Of course, as soon as we hopped out of our bus upon reaching Ft. Dix, N.J. a cadre of Drill Sergeants “welcomed” us.
“You eyeballing me, Private?” one Drill Sergeant asked a “lucky” recruit. “No, Sir”, he replied. Wrong answer. “Private, I work for a living”, proclaims the DI (Drill Instructor – a second name for Drill Sergeants). This is a backhanded putdown to officers meaning non-commissioned officers do the real work while the officers do not. “Get down and do me twenty!” (That would be twenty push-ups). Since I expected these guys to fall into this trap, I am having trouble not laughing. One DI spots me. “You laughing at me, Private?”, he yells. I reply, “No, Drill Sergeant”! “Drop down and give me twenty anyway, Private!” Caught red handed, I snap out my twenty.
This was Army Basic Training. The purpose of the eight week course was to whip the recruit into a soldier….an infantry soldier. The underlying truth: we were taught how to kill people and (hopefully) not get killed.
Everything started at the reception center where we all got nifty buzz cuts. Not a whole lot of “how would like your hair cut today, sir.” Everybody got the same lovely style. My hair was pretty short already so I didn’t care all that much, but some of those guys…well we are talking summer of 1969 and there was a whole lot of them with long hair (I’m thinking of the musical “Hair” -” long beautiful hair”). Other activities at the reception center consisted of paperwork – lots and lots of paperwork to include intelligence tests among others. One test was a written drivers test. I’ll come back to that later. We were issued our uniforms and a bunch of equipment. Lots of cool green stuff.
Soon, we were shown our new home – Army barracks. Rows of bunks. I got an end one, top bunk. There were footlockers there to store your stuff. Unfortunately, I had no lock to secure my stuff and was immediately robbed. I lost, among other things, my electric shaver which forced me to get a straight razor for the duration. Ouch!
I immediately got KP (that’s kitchen duty). This lovely duty occurred because I had the first bunk….luck of the draw. This was the first and last time I ever had KP my whole time in the Army. We soon learned that the top performers in the PT tests were exempted from KP. Here is where coming off a collegiate track season paid off. Man, could I blow them away on the “low crawl”, an agility drill where one gets down on one’s tummy and crawls forward as fast as possible.
One day I was pulled out of the ranks and taken for a special “look-see”. I had aced the written driving test so, along with a few others, I was picked to drive one of the army’s “Deuce and half trucks.” The drivers would not have to do all the marches but would drive the other troops everywhere. Easy duty. Just one problem. After driving a tiny Fiat which had a “three on a tree” gear shift & maybe we could squish 5 guys in it on a good day in college, I looked up at this monster truck like it was a two story building. They weigh in at about two and half tons (thus the name deuce and a half). The tires alone were as tall as my Fiat. So after I scrambled up into the cab and scoped out all the levers & gear shift, I tried to explain to the “nice” sergeant that just because I had aced the driver’s test did not mean I could actually drive this truck. The “nice” sergeant was not happy about this revelation and promptly kicked me out of the truck in disgrace. I reported back to my company.
U.S. rifle, caliber .30, M1
We were constantly being given written tests on the training we received. These were multiple choice tests. They gave us all the answers before we took the tests. Needless to say, I carried a high 90’s average overall. Now why, one could reasonably ask, would they give us all the answers before getting the tests? They did not want anyone to “flunk” basic training. Gotta have plenty of “grunts” to do the fighting.
We were very isolated during basic training. No outside contact with the exception of letters. No newspapers, magazines, radio, or TV. This was not good. The real crisis: No baseball news! During the summer of 1969 my Baltimore Orioles were blowing away the American League eventually winning 109 games. I wrote Mom for HELP. I got a letter every mail call with daily clippings from the paper. Of particular interest was tracking the Orioles ace lefthander, Dave McNally. He won his 1st 15 games that year (that would be 15-0) before he lost a game….that’s what Mom’s do, right?
M16 rifle
We were not issued the cool newer M-16 rifles. We had to lug around the ancient (WWII & Korea standard issue) M-1 rifles. They were a lot heavier than the M-16’s. Since we double-timed everywhere we marched, lugging these around was no picnic. Because I was found “lacking” in ability to drive the lovely “Deuce and a half trucks,” I usually got to be one of the “road guards.” This duty meant anytime the company came to a crossroad, I raced ahead to “guard” the crossing so nobody would run over the troops. Keep in mind, this was on an Army base where there was little real traffic. I was an excellent road guard.
There were a few interesting aspects of training worth remembering. One was “hand grenade” training. These were LIVE, for real, hand grenades! Let me tell you, the drill sergeants were especially particular about this training. This was close, hands on training. “You better not drop that grenade, Private!” the DI’s would yell. Nobody, but nobody was going to accidentally drop one of those things. Although I considered pulling out the pin with my teeth (that’s what they did in Hollywood war movies), I had second thoughts about that option and used my hands. I’m happy to say I passed my hand grenade throwing test without incident.
hand grenade training
Another fun day was the C.B.R. training. This was the gas chamber. Tear gas. We put on gas masks and were ushered into the gas chamber, about a dozen or so at a time. Then, on command “Take off your, masks” we ditched them. I cannot begin to describe how bad that experience felt. Let’s just say it was rather unpleasant.
Lastly, would be qualifying with your weapon. Don’t even think about calling it a “gun.” “This is your weapon, Private” we were constantly reminded. If you do forget, “Just get down and do twenty, Private.” I qualified with about an average score. This was on the M-1’s which I never saw again after basic training.
Towards the end of training, we got a day pass so most of us headed to the nearby NJ boardwalk. I made a beeline for the nearest ice cream stand. “Please give me a triple dip of black raspberry ice cream on a cone” I ordered. (My favorite). Upon my first big lick, the three dips toppled off onto the ground. Great tears ran down my cheeks. You see, we did not get a lot of sweets in basic training. This was the only time in my life, that I recall, actually dreaming about cakes, pies, ice cream and other sweets. Spoiled, I know. I made a second order, this time the three scoops were in a cup!
I managed to fit in a trip to fabled Yankee Stadium over the July 4th weekend. This was accomplished by catching a bus from Ft Dix to visit Bob Holbrook (football player who dated my sister Suzy @ LVC) who lived in Congers, NY. Bob took me on an eventful trip via the famous NY Subway to get to Yankee Stadium. He managed to get us off at the wrong stop – Harlem – not exactly a warm spot for a couple of white guys. We quickly jumped back on another train and made it to the Stadium in one piece. Here we saw the Yankees lose to the Cleveland Indians 4-2. This distressed Bob no end as this was a bad time for his favorite team. Very kindly, Bob drove me back to Ft Dix – a trip of somewhere from 2 to 3 hours one way.
NEWS BULLETIN: July 20, 1969 – the US Apollo mission lands on the moon. I had a weekend pass and was with my family in Washington to see it on live TV.
A word now about my Drill Sergeant. His name was SSG Robert Simmons. Everyone will remember the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman” starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger, and Louis Gossett, Jr. as the Drill Sergeant. Well, Sergeant Simmons was Louis Gossett, Jr. in the flesh. He could scare the life out of you but you grew to love him. When he said jump, you jumped. Certainly, SSG Simmons was my most memorable character from basic training.
Our graduation day from Basic Training was August 14, 1969. I was happy to be through BT, with a satisfactory end.
Me on the far left – Nice hat, graduate!
Excerpt from the book:
Chairborne! Being the Adventures and Misadventures of an Army Clerk in Vietnam and those events beforehand
by Alan Shenk
