July 26th

Sunny but in low 20's. m at home in prep for today's procedure. Doughnut day, bowled really way and happy to see one of last years novices who has really struggled is now starting to throw a lot of good bowls. Got in a few paragraphs on Forks in the Trail.

They had some point system to check on how good we were doing and we had to get sixty points on each thing before you could move on, I usually came in anywhere between sixty-five and eighty so that part was a bit of a breeze. We were there for just a shade under four months, well not all of us, some were gone in a few days, some made it to about the middle of the second month; after that I don’t remember anyone checking out.

  After basic we got split up a bit, I was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma with about ten others and were mixed in with other guys who had come from other basic locations, we now went into what years later they called the White Phase. Still lots of parade square stuff, but now real combat training began; rifles, bayonets, hand to hand, grenades, camouflage, working next to big guns and a hell of a lot of how to stay alive when somebody’s shooting at you. I got my first promotion – Lance Corporal and got the first taste of being responsible for somebody besides myself.

  After a couple of months of this we were sent out on bivouacs where we learned to work at night, practice infiltration and try and out smart drill sergeants and second lieutenants.

  We weren’t at war at that time so sometimes things got a little complacent, by this time we got at least a couple of weekends off every month and took turns hitting town and raising a bit of hell. I was now a full corporal and felt pretty full of myself.

  There was this one Drill Sergeant who was a real asshole, he didn’t go after me personally but he really liked giving a couple of guys in my platoon a hard time, some how I always felt it was me he was actually going after, it was his style.

One Saturday, a bunch of us were in one of our watering holes when he came in. I was talking to the old Master Sergeant who had sort of helped me along out in the field. The Drill Sarge shouldered me and spilt my drink, I just gave him a look then turned my back on him. He made a couple of remarks about pretty boy smart ass kids and as I turned back the old Master Sarge touched my sleeve, shook his head slightly and whispered, “Not here, not now.”

  About an hour later the drill Sarge, Bates was his name, started giving one of my guys a real hard time, he shoved him a couple times and when there was no response, threw a beer on the guy’s uniform. I’d had enough and stepped up to Bates and said, “I’m going outside you useless piece of shit, I won’t have my stripes on. You want it? Then come and get it.” I turned and walked out to the parking lot.