It had appeared to me that through all these 18 years of messing around, having fun getting into trouble had gotten me no where. I needed a good job. I can still remember all the famous words from my so called employers. “Your schooling stinks, you don’t have enough experience, take a hike!” “Just go away.” That last one was the best one yet, telling me that they didn’t need anybody, and the posting was right up on the wall.
My life had boiled down to two things; join the service or run to Canada. Like I said, we only live to 100 miles from Canada. The only minuscule problem was that I would never be able to come back home. On the other hand, the service and possibly Vietnam. But wait, maybe I would be stationed in America or Germany. They were good and Japan would be better.
I had to think about this. Well after much talking with my father and how proud he would be for not only himself but myself, I reluctantly said yes to the service. I will never forget that morning at the federal building. Five buses with people who had been drafted were all going to Buffalo. There were two Marines on each bus. The trip down was not bad as they gave us water and soda and some food. However, when we got to Buffalo things changed.
All you could hear out of their mouth was, “Do as I say!”
As we got off the bus, they were three lines to get in. One with fat kids, athletic kids and of course all the nerds. I was put in the athletic line. I went through lots of tests. Blood pressure, pulse, running in place, sit ups , eye tests, ear tests, my god they looked at the bottom of our feet!
The last part of the test they had everyone stand in line and if I had to guess, there must have been 60 kids. They made us all turnaround and drop our shorts then bend over. Two doctors were going down the line, checking out our butts.
I can remember one Marine who looked at me and said to me, “Six weeks and I’ll have you in Vietnam.” On the way back to Rochester, no one talked or did anything. All I kept saying in my head was that in six weeks, my ass was going to be in Vietnam. In Rochester, we walked past the Air Force and Navy recruitment centers and of course they were outside handing out leaflets. I got home and read the one from the Air Force. It did not sound bad. I did not want to be a ground pounder or a sailor on a boat in the ocean. I don’t know how it is today, but back in the days of the draft, these recruiters could sell painting lessons to the blind.
John was at my house and I was telling him about the trip to Buffalo then calling the Air Force. He was already thinking about the Air Force going in under what they called the buddy program. Sounded good to me! One week later, we enlisted.
There were 12 of us in the room and when the Sergeant finished, so help me god, they want from smiles to instant vampires. Talk about a mood swing!
Next thing I can remember was getting on a plane at Rochester, New York and going to Lackland, Texas.
I spent the next six weeks there. When we got off the bus at the airbase and were standing around smoking cigarettes, you could hear one person yelling, “Get off my sidewalk!” We jumped to the grass and he then yelled, “Get off my grass! Put out the cigarettes and give me five situps, then stand at attention!” Yes, this was our drill instructor. We were up half the night with him barking orders at us. What to do, what not to do, and how to do it. If your bed wasn’t made right, they ripped it apart. If you talked during phys ed class, it was two more times around the field. Eating was very special, you looked at the person sitting across from you and could not say a word. Had to eat as fast as you could. Cleaning the barracks was fun. Toothbrushes were used to clean tile on bathroom floors and god help you if you if you used your razor on your face. Our barracks and footlockers had to be spotless.
We were out the door for breakfast at 6 a.m. and ran everywhere singing cadences. While were getting food, phys ed track, rifle range and the obstacle course. Our D.I. would always get into your face. To hear him talk, he hated mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and cousins! He would have great sayings like, “The only thing that would come from Rochester, is steers and queers and I don’t see any horns on you.” There was one person from the South in our barracks who wanted to fly aircraft. Every time a plane went by he would watch it.
After about two weeks on the phys ed track, our DI had enough. He took all his clothes off and he put a broom in between his legs while yelling, “I am a airplane!” twice around the track. How embarrassing, but believe me none of us could laugh.
When we graduated, we had a big parade. Our DI was the happiest person on the field. He told us,”I had to do this you to make you mean. Don’t be a mommy’s boy!” Makes sense to us. After basic, I never saw John again. Some buddy system!
I was sent to CHANUTE Illinois air base. This was for my technical training on jet engines j57s,j79s and tf-33. Well at leaset one thing good happened in my life. If I could not fly the aircraft, I’ll would much rather work on them. Things were a lot better in tech school. First off, you could walk and eat like normal people but always had to look real good. I was a Barrick’s chief everyone got along. Near the end of training I was then asked if I would like to be a teacher and the bells in my head were ringing out loud that if I did this I won’t have to go to Vietnam.
I told our Master Sergeant in the loudest voice I could ( YES SIR ) now all I had to do was pass the final test. Well the bottom line was only the first three people at the top of the class got to be a teacher and guess who was number four? I missed it by SIX points. You know how much I hate THAT number? It was the same number that I got in the draft when I got my PCS orders. The permanent change station I had gotten was Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
I have never been to Arizona but then again had never been to Texas . I didn’t lose anything in Texas but went to Texas after all. Besides it can’t be any hotter than Texas or could it?
