Posted on 02/10/2018 6:26:58 AM PST by Strac6
73-75. Armor. Basic and AIT at Ft. Knox.
Our battery's (Chaparral/Vulcan) mission was airbase defense (Hahn AB), and we were housed on the base.
The typical spiel I gave an underperforming soldier was, "clean your act up, and continue to have your omelets made to order in the mess hall. Or, you can continue to act up, and I'll ship you down to our sister battalion in Mannheim. They're attached to the Big Red One, and spend 8 months out of the year in the mud at Grafenwoehr. It's your choice."
That usually did the trick.
Even had a young soldier, fresh out of the hood in Chicago. He was trouble until he was finally sent to my platoon. I gave him "the speech" on day one, while at the same time telling him he started with a clean slate.
He knew I didn't eff around. A few months back, he dropped his weapon in front of an evaluator during an alert. When the evaluator left the scene, I told him if I ever saw him do that again, I would personally shove that %#%^@ weapon up his @#%%%@ ass. He tried giving me a hard look, but I kind of shut that down quickly...lol.
Then my memory is bad. I went there as a teen to visit a friend in basic and I remember my uncle driving us to Fort Knox. My young mind remembers a short drive.
Is basic training at Fort Knox?
It’s about time now the Military can throw away their Stress Card.
I am sure they don’t do that there now. I was talking almost 40 years ago.
During the Vietnam War, it got to the point that troops were arriving in Vietnam so ill trained after completing Basic, AIT, and the SFQC, that in 1969 the 5th Special Forces Group found it necessary to send replacements through a Combat Orientation Course(COC) prior to assigning them to a field unit.
What they were training troops for in the U.S., I don’t know, but it sure wasn’t training for combat.
LOL. That's good.
They did, but I don't think the have basic training at Ft. Knox anymore.
Tardiness? Are you kidding me? We had a platoon miss their morning mission time in a battery level ARTEP, it almost failed us.
I had to play XO as well as my regular job (System Maintenance Officer), and I lit into the platoon leader whose platoon missed their time by nearly 30 minutes.
We had a new first sergeant who'd never been in an ADA unit, so he thought there was something he was missing. He came to me for guidance...imagine that, an Infantry First Sergeant with 3 tours in Nam, coming to me, a 24 YO 1st LT. I simply said, "Top, you know how to run a company CP? There's no difference. ADA's just a little more effed up than infantry."
His/our Battery Commander was no help at all. He was a good staff officer, though. While I was trying to figure out how to recoup from that one botched mission, he was encoding coordinates incorrectly for that same (argh) platoon's afternoon mission.
First time in military history a towed Vulcan platoon was given a ten click long route defense. Dumbazz platoon leader, recognizing the BC's voice, never questioned it.
Ah, the good old days. lol
One of the good things about RVN was that the knowledge of intimate death was an excellent focusing tool.
Friend had a leg infantry company at FSB St. Barbara, avout 30 klicks north of Tay Ninh, far northwest part of III Corps, very hear Cambode border.
One afternoon an inner city soldier told the First Sergeant he was fed up with the Army. No more!!!!! He considered hisself “Discharged, right here, right now.”
First Sergeant said fine, go to supply and turn in everything the Big Green Machine issued you. Soldier was delighted. Turned in his TA-50 gear, weapon, etc and reported back to 1SG.
1SG said, “No, everything the Army gave you” and had him strip naked. Then he told him, “Since you aren’t in the Army, you can’t be on any Army helicopter, in any Army vehicle, or even on this here Army installation.”
1SG then had some men push him outside the wire and told him to “walk back to Tay Ninh” (all this about 1700.)
The errant soldier in question promptly rejoined the Army!!!
Navy AOCS was a definite no snowflake area.
Because after they found a few who could figure out the top of the map they still had this problem, "Let's see, 100 meters to that farmhouse and the target is 200 meters beyond that, so that's...where the hell is my calculator?"
Brrrr....marching on icy grinders—not my idea of fun. Glad I didn’t go there for Basic. Hope those Navy years were good to/for you. Mine sure were.
In other words, they think they're in the Air Force.
Great story! Today, that First Sergeant would be court martialed.
“I do not (Navy boot camp 1975)”
All the old guys (WWII through 60’s)remember.
I read a book about the USS Arizona. In the 20’s they had a VD lecture on the deck and the need to have their penises painted with a blue medicine when they cam back from liberty if they had unprotected sex. They called two sailors to the front and had them drop their pants and underwear so everyone could see their deformed penises from syphilis.
I can’t imagine them doing that today.
Well, yeah, I joined the Air Force so I didn't have to be in the Army, but the Army never hesitated to call for air support.
LOL, but true.
An enduring memory of mine was recalling how the zoomies griped about 12 hour shifts during 4 day long tac evals.
Me? I was in the hole for every minute, as I was the only officer besides my CO that had a Top Secret clearance. I'd bring in a dop kit and a few extra sets of fatigues, and I'd catch a catnap after midnight. No big deal...I was 23-24 at the time.
Outside, my platoon didn't need me. My Platoon Sergeant had everything under control, and Air Force alerts were mostly a 4 day camping trip for my squads. Battalion HQ couldn't mess with us, we were under the operational authority of the Wing Commander. It was great!
My CC was a Vietnam PBR Boatswains Mate Chief. Blind in one eye from an RPG that hit the wheelhouse.
We were Joe Sh!t The Ragman or Sh!tbird to him. He was great.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.