Just wait a minute! Uncle Sam wants to send ME to Vietnam for 12 months? I am the one who went to camp the summer after fourth grade and was so homesick that I actually ended up in the infirmary for a few days but was fine once I reached home. I was a “wall-hugger”, a “stay-at-homer”, college graduate, who was married about 20 months before being drafted. Oh, that’s right I was not an individual but just a number, one of over 2.7 million Americans who served in Vietnam (nationalvietnamveteransfoundation.org/statistics.htm).
Most people have read and enjoyed the comic strip character Beetle Bailey, which has run in newspapers since 1950. Beetle was known to be lazy, a goof-off, and one who loves to take naps and avoid work. After all these years, he has never seen combat. I don’t measure up to all of Beetle’s traits, but I could give him a run for his money during my Service experience in the Army.
I was naive, which contributed to my first training session for a Drill Sergeant (DS) in Basic Training, Fort Brag, North Carolina. Not long after we arrived, a DS took us all into the barracks to teach us how to keep our foot lockers. When he told us we should have two razors – one to use and one for inspection, I tried to explain to him that one razor should be good enough. One should just keep that one razor in perfect condition. I never did convince him! My second eye-opener was when a DS pulled up his car next to our barracks to dump all of our contraband into its trunk just before a white-glove inspection.
I became good friends with Rich, who was in the same platoon as I. Rich was a graduate of Syracuse University with a major in forestry. We did try to get out of some of the less desirable details by signaling to each other which details we should volunteer for. Sometimes it worked and other times we weren’t too pleased. However, we played it as a game to amuse ourselves. As we prepared for a bivouac that would last for a few days around Halloween, we both loaded up with candy. We ate so much before we left, we felt sick and ended up giving all the rest of our candy away.
The next new experience was going to the firing range to shoot pistols. I had never held a gun (sorry, I would have been reprimanded right there – the correct terminology is a weapon) before, so oh boy, this was going to be an experience. We had limited practice before we had to take our proficiency tests with the 45 caliber pistol. A large number of us came nowhere near passing. When tallying our scores, if we had not passed the test, DS Torres told us to add quite a number of points to our scores so it would appear we’d passed. Rich and I recorded our honest scores, after which we decided to “educate” DS Torres. We told him we knew we were being prepared to go to Vietnam and therefore we wanted to be quite proficient with our weapons by having more practice. Somehow DS Torres interpreted what we said giving it an entirely different meaning, lined the men up and told them that Hall and Lewis told him we did not have enough to do so everyone would receive more details to do! What??
Next we were trained using M14 rifles. This would have to be easier than shooting pistols. The shooting was done from a prone position. At first it was almost fun shooting at short range targets. Then, oh my, I was in trouble again. I could not see the targets several hundred yards away. I never wore glasses before but I was quick to get some for long distance sight. Now, back to the fun. As I took my position to shoot, it was pouring rain and there was no way to see through my glasses. All I could think was there should be some rule where the enemy could only stand 20 feet away from you in good weather (and unarmed)!
How am I doing so far Private Bailey?
Continued next issue.Jeff Hall, Honey Brook, contributes columns to Tri County Record.
