July. 25th

Another nice day. Got some shrubs trimmed up and clippings bagged. Had a much needed haircut. Men's bowling in pm then got the draw and teams organized for International Day tournament on Saturday.

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wo days later I boarded an army bus that had started at Klamath Falls and was working its way south to San Francisco. When I got on there were half a dozen other recruits on board. By the time we got to ‘Frisco the bus was full and we were being followed by a second bus also full.  That evening we were all loaded on a couple of train day coaches and pulled out about midnight. Two days later we were off loaded in Columbus Georgia, then transported by truck to Fort Benning.

  It must have been close to midnight when we arrived and were escorted to some barracks. At five the next morning we were rousted out of bed, herded to a large shower room, after a luke warm shower and dressed only in our underwear, we were herded again to a large hall where one by one in alphabetical order were issued khaki underwear shirts, pants, socks and boots. We were directed to strip down and dress in the army issue. There were about sixty of us but three barbers were able to shear all our heads down to the scalp in under an hour. Once again in sheep like manner we were lead and pushed to a mess hall and were given forty five minutes to  load tin plates, eat, attend to calls of nature and then be at the parade square a few yards from the mess hall.

  This was the first day of what was known as Hell Week.

  In the first couple days I regretted my decision to join up almost more than anything that happened for the rest of my life. But I was lucky, I guess. Because of my size I had always tried harder than most others, my months of damn tough working in the logging camp had left me harder and tougher than most of the other guys.  Through my teens I had never avoided fights and had learned that if you’re a small guy yuh gotta fight dirty or you’ll always be on the receiving end. So the muscle wrenching, body tearing things we were put through while not a breeze, weren’t really that bad.  The screaming and yelling by those big ugly drill sergeants didn’t seem to phase on me like it did on some of the others and when some of the other recruits looked for someone to take their frustrations and anger out on and they thought I would be an easy mark, I took them out quickly – first using my own past experiences , then combining my primitive abilities with the stuff we were being exposed to.

  Up to this point in my life I had never worried to much about personal appearances, I had got by when I was a kid ‘cause I was cute and later I didn’t give a damn. But the day our drill clothes were supplemented by a real uniform and we were given our first three hour break off base, something kinda got to me. I remember pulling on that uniform and checking myself out in a mirror. By God I looked pretty good! I looked older than I remembered, I looked bigger, and I wasn’t cute anymore. I – well I just looked pretty good and I liked it.