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We have arrived at Fort Benning. I will find out that it will be referred to as “the SUCK”. I guess because most of the people ending up here thinks their life sucks because of the perceived hell they are experiencing. We caught hell as soon as the bus arrived at zero dark 30 in the morning. A burly Drill Instructor hopped on the bus as soon as the doors opened and started screaming at us at the top of his lungs. The other recruits started jumping like their asses were on fire. I had an inkling of the procedure and was expecting something like this. Guys were grabbing their bags and falling over one another to get off that bus. I had no desire to get trampled so I waited a tad until it thinned out. I knew that no matter what, we’d get straight to pushing on the pavement as soon as the DI could get us unloaded. Welcome to the Suck.

The Drill Instructor herded us into the nearby building and we commenced to fill out paperwork. One was a post card to our wives/sweethearts/families letting them know that we made it OK and we’d be letting them know how to get in touch with us later. Seemed like a good thing to do. After we had finished the paperwork, they grouped us up into a rag tag band of “brothers” and marched us to a barracks area where we’d spend the night. It was your typical transient barracks as I would find out later. We all staked out a bunk and flopped down to catch a little sleep. And it was ONLY a little. The next morning we got roused up and marched off to breakfast. Real eggs this time. We were told that from there we’d be going to a semi-permanent billet where we’d stay until we were completely processed in and assigned to a training company. At that time there were two training battalions at Fort Benning for basic training. One at Sand Hill and the other at Harmony Church. Most of us ended up at Harmony Church.

The next few days saw us getting tested, inoculated, indoctrinated, and generally harrased by the cadre of Drill Instructors. It was like how you’d picture purgatory. It wasn’t quite as bad as hell, but you knew you were just a bus ride away from it. We also got our basic issue of uniforms and such. We had to send home our civies. I guess it was a little insurance that we wouldn’t bolt out of there and catch the next ride home. Most of us had heard about the basic training units at Sand Hill and Harmony Church. The Sand Hill battalion didn’t have a friendly rep. Neither did Harmony Church but at least it sounded homier. To our suprise we, as a group, got sent to Harmony Church. Thank God for Small favors…. I guess.

The Drill Instructors from our new home away from home appeared, harassed us minimally, and loaded us up with all our gear. We headed off by bus to C Company. This time they were nice enought to let us travel in daylight. Harmony Church was just off a Limited Access road that ran through Fort Benning. It could have be I-85, but who knows. It’s been too long ago and I really couldn’t care, then and now. We got there just before the noon chow time. They off loaded us and split us up into platoons. We dropped our gear in the old wooden barracks that would be our home for the next 8 weeks and were trouped off to the Mess Hall to eat. The food wasn’t bad.

From now on out we’d be going to classes, learning to shoot and maintain a rifle, and generally get brainwashed into the Army lifestyle. Which at that time sucked really big.

So I’m going to the Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Station again. The first time was in November of 1966 for the initial physical. Now that I am considered fit to serve in the Armed Forces, they are hauling me back there for another physical and induction into the Army. If you remember from last time, I joined the Army to dodge the Draft. So I was going down there in the RA Unassigned status. RA meaning Regular Army, unassigned meaning I didn’t have a particular job assigned yet. I could be an Infantryman. Cook, or Electronics Technician. The first two would probably land me in Viet Nam. The last one held promise.

I did have a guarantee that I would be able to audition for the 3rd Army Band, since I was a Music Major in college. I was trying to be optimistic as I waited at the local Greyhound Bus Station. They were picking up the inductees in a chartered bus to go to Montgomery. They had given us a list of things we would be allowed to bring along with us. It wasn’t much. Just a change of clothing and toilet articles, mostly. They even suggested that we only bring $20 in cash. Since they were going to feed and clothe us, that kind of made sense. I was beginning to doubt the sanity of my situation as I waited for the bus to arrive. As my mother would say, I felt like a lost ball in high weeds. The future seemed so uncertain.

The bus ride is a blur now. I don’t remember much, except that I slept quite a bit. I couldn’t tell you just how long the ride was. It was a long one though. We were traveling from the Muscle Shoals area in Northwest Alabama to Montgomery. The C was on the Air Force Base there. I was told by the Recruiter that we would spend a couple of days there and then move on to our Basic Training Units. Since I was RA Unassigned I knew that I was probably going to Ft. Benning. Some of the Draftees had no clue as to which service they would end up joining. They could wind up as Marines or Navy. The Air Force seemed to get enough volunteers so they didn’t draft too many folks. Better them than me, as far as the Marines are concerned.

We got to the Afees and they unloaded us from the bus. We got a little briefing and were taken to the bunk area. It was a huge room with the green Army bunks. We were told to drop our stuff on a bunk and they formed us up to go eat. We trailed down the chow line like a bunch of good little recruits and when we were finished we were clued in on our schedule for the next day or two.

We had to get another physical. Once we passed that, we would be sworn in. Since we had gotten there late in the afternoon. It was about time for lights out. So we bedded down. There must have been at least a hundred or more men in the Examination Station. Some of the guys were taking in pretty well. Some of them hadn’t been away from home a day in their life, previously. Of course there were the usual noisemakers and assholes who wouldn’t settle down. I just wanted to get to sleep and start getting this thing over with.

They got us up early the next day and formed us up for breakfast. It was my first encounter with powdered eggs. An acquired taste, those eggs were. But the rest of the meal was OK. Once everyone had eaten, we were split into groups for the physical. One bunch went one direction, the other bunches went in other directions. All I remember is that we got to make the rounds to all the stops for the exam. After the physical, which took most of the day, they fed us supper and had us settle in for the night. Tomorrow we would, (1) find out which service the draftees would be assigned to and, (2) be sworn into our respective services.

Today was the day. I knew which service I was headed for. The rest of the guys got their assignments. Some did draw the Marines. None got the Navy. Most were Army bound. There was some activity in the morning. I don’t remember just what it was, some testing I think. In the afternoon the gave us a short class in Drill and Ceremonies for the swearing in ceremony. I had spent the last two years in ROTC in college so it wasn’t anything new to me.

When the time came, they lined us up into at least 4 lines. When the officer told us to take one step forward. We raised our hands and took the OATH. Now we were working for our Uncle Sam as Private E-1’s. They gave us a short briefing about what was coming up next. They had us get our stuff together and wait. It seems that those of us going to Ft. Benning, GA, would be leaving late in the evening. Later I realized that this was Standard Operating Procedure. They intended for us to get into Benning early in the AM. And we did…..

So it seems that I’ve got a problem. I’ve got two weeks, more or less, to figure out just how I going to keep my 19 year old butt out of Viet Nam. My reporting date was 10 January 1967. I need to figure out just how to dodge the bullet. I was in great physical shape. I wasn’t homosexual. I was married for God’s sake! Even if I wanted to try that scheme I knew I couldn’t pull it off. There had to be other alternatives.

I have to admit that, upon looking back at the situation, I did at least one smart thing. I may at times be ignorant but you could never say that I was ever really stupid. I knew that in my senior year of High School I had taken a battery of tests that the Air Force had given. I also knew that I had scored pretty well on all of them. Since I hadn’t heard of any Airmen getting blown away overseas I figured that maybe, just maybe, I could get into the Air Force. My electronics aptitude was really high on the tests. Maybe I could get a tech job way in the rear.

So I went to visit my Air Force Recruiter. He was a really nice guy and he gave me some good advice that took me aback, at first. He told me that he wouldn’t have a slot available to enlist me for another six months. He also told me that he would love to be able to sign me up, but, I would get drafted way before he could get me into the program. This is the advice that didn’t seem quite so good at the time. He told me to ENLIST in Uncle Sam’s Army. Enlist? Hell I was doing my best, I told him, to avoid the Army as much as possible. Did I look like I wanted to go to Viet Nam?

Well, he said, if I enlist I would have a better chance of getting a job that wasn’t cannon fodder. If I got drafted my chances for going Infantry were pretty good. Infantry grunts had a short life expectancy somewhat similar to chopper pilots. If I enlisted I could get a slot in an Army band or some other non-combat role. Okay, I thought, maybe he’s got something here. So after a little more conversation with the Air Force sergeant, I trundled myself down to the Army Recruiter.

The Army guy told me the same thing that the Air Force guy did. I had a better shot at not getting shot if I enlisted. Still feeling like someone was blowing smoke up my butt I pumped him for the details.

I could go into the Army as an RA Unassigned recruit. This means that I would be a Regular Army recruit with no job (MOS) assignment. He didn’t have the time to do the testing on me and the Air Force tests didn’t count with the Army. So I rolled the dice and took my chances. Anything was worth a shot if it didn’t include getting me shot. I’m not a coward, mind you, just a pragmatic son of a bitch.

The only downside was that I had to be sworn in before my draft date. He made the arrangements and I left the Recruiters office to get my life in order. Needless to say that the wife wasn’t too happy. It took a while to explain how joining the Army for three years was better than getting drafted for two. She wasn’t always very swift. She took it on faith, I think, and I got myself together for the journey. I didn’t know at the time that I would find a home in the Army. But that story comes later. Now, I’m going to get mustered in at the AFEES in Montgomery.

It seems like these events didn’t really happen to me. I know they did. Time has a way of fogging the lense of remembrance. Most folks today can’t relate to getting that letter from the President. “Greetings from the President of the United States” was the lead line of the letter. It might have just as well have said, “Bubba, your ass is ours”. And it was…… You got your instructions to report for induction and generally you had about 2 weeks to put your life in order.

Remember that this is 1966. I got this letter from the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson just about a week before Christmas. I had to report on the 10th of January 1967. I had already made the trip to the AFEES (Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Station) about a month prior. So, this notice wasn’t a complete surprise. At least not as much a surprise as the first notification. It came from the Draft Board instead of the President.

I had gotten married just a few months before I had to go to the AFEES the first time. I had skipped a semester at college to try to make a little money. I was a professional musician at the time and our band was busy on the road all summer. So as soon as they realized I hadn’t enrolled for the Fall Semester the Draft Board snatched me up. Married or not. From 2S to 1A almost overnight. 2S was the classification for a student. Just like 4F was the classification for someone who couldn’t make the induction physical or was otherwise handicapped. So now I was 1A which related to dead meat at far as I was concerned.

It was the buildup period for Viet Nam. So, anyone who got drafted was almost certain to get a free trip to Southeast Asia. The only problem was that the trip was a one way fare for a goodly number of draftees. So I had a small problem. I had to figure out how to keep my butt from being blown off by some Commie in Asia. I’ll let you know how I managed to solve the problem the next time we get together.