Basic Training

Taking 150 young men off the street and making soldiers out of them in 6 weeks is at tough job. My hats off to all you drill sargents out there. They got me into the best physical shape of my life and made me a soldier out of me.

Basic Training

 

When I got drafted into the army, I had a couple of months before I had to be inducted. I knew I would be 6 to 7 years older than most of the other guys since I was already 25 years old. So I started running 3 miles every day to try to get shaped up a little. Guys I knew that had been in the army earlier told me to follow two basic rules and I would be fine. The first was …Never drop out of any of the physical activities or marches….. Once you drop out, you become a target because they believe you need additional physical training and they will give you extra work and keep after you all the time. I followed this advice and never dropped out of anything no matter how bad I was hurting. I never had to do any extra work. If fact one of the drill sergeants asked me if I had previously played professional football. The other thing the guys told me was…..Never volunteer for anything…. Which was very easy to adhere to.

 

I loaded on a bus in Amarillo, Texas and they hauled me to Fort Bliss at El Paso, Texas. They ran us through a shower and put all our civvies in a plastic bag and lined us up for shots which they gave us shots from both sides of the line. Then they gave us our dog tags. Then they gave us 3 complete sets of fatigues, one belt with brass buckle, one hat, one jacket, and one pair of boots and a duffle bag with our name on it, next came the dreaded burr haircuts. We then got helmets and our M-14 rifles and took a long march with all our gear to our new barracks living quarters. We became Company E, first battalion, 26th Brigade of the United States Army Training Center of Fort Bliss, Texas.

 

We learned how to polish our brass, spit shine our boots, blouse out pants, make our beds tight enough to bounce a quarter off of them, keep our foot locker neat and clean. polish and wax the floors, and polish the urinals and crappers. We got up at 4 AM and went to bed at 9 PM and ate all our meals at the mess hall. We took our turn at KP and barracks guard, marched, exercised, and took all kinds of classes. We became expert marksmen, and trained to learn how how to kill and to protect ourselves.

 

If you made the mistake of calling you rifle a gun, you had to stand in front of the Company, and touch your rifle, then your groin area saying….” this is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for killing, this is for fun.” over and over.

 

We marched for miles and miles and miles and learned marching songs such as this:

 

” I got a gal and her name is Sue,
She always knows just what to do.
When I get horny and want some fun,
I call her up and get me some.”

 

The worst part of the basic training was the class room classes that were geared for a sixth grade education. This was extremely boring for me. We went on a forced march in the deep sand in the desert which was very painful on the legs. There was an old colonel that was about 60 years old leading us and I figured if that old fart could do it, so could I. About 40 guys dropped out of that one and they worked them a full two hours after we stopped. The belly crawling under barbed wire with live fire overhead was pretty tough too, but we all got through that. On another occasion, I got a fat kid as a partner for the fireman’s carry that about did me in, but we both made it under the time limit. We did the Tarzon thing swinging on ropes over the river and a lot of the guys fell 40 feet into the water but again I managed to beat my chest on the other side of the river. One of the worst exercises we did was the duck walk. Squatting with your knees bent and your butt nearly touching your heals, we had to walk in circles and quack like a duck.

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Overall my buddies gave me some good advice and I made it through Basic Training with flying colors. When I got out after 6 weeks, I had lost about 40 pounds and was in the best physical condition of my life, so I guess the drill sargents did their job.

 

Fort Bliss Army Training and Air Defense Center at El Paso, Texas.

My picture after a rough six weeks of Basic Training.

The dreaded duck walk during a physical training session.

Some of the miles and miles and miles of marching during basic training.

Thanks for reading Basic Training,
Hawg Jaw Bill