Posted on 07/31/2005 7:02:02 AM PDT by kellynla
That's not bitchin' - you're just telling it like it is.
When I enlisted (61) there really were brown boots to go along with the M1s for BCT (got my M1 thumb on the last day of basic as we were preparing for the graduation parade). Depending on foot size about half of the guys got brown boots along with a bottle of black dye. I got black boots.
I entered in 1965, the conversion was complete – but already “Brown Shoe” referred to the old timers – mostly RAs versus our mostly USs.
As I remember there were still some of those dyed brown boot in 65. They lasted forever. I had gotten out and went back in in late 65 to go to flight school. You probably went to Nam with white name tags and got jungle fatigues after you got incountry? We switched to subdued stuff at Lewis in 66 but didn't get jungle fatigues until we got there. Didn't get Nomex until I was about ready to DEROS in Jan 68.
Couple questions: Did you enlist and what did you think of the draftees, in general, you served with during that period?
Let me propose a real crazy idea.
"it's getting harder to find the sorts of instances of hazing and intimidation that have become legendary in military life" --- Was written in the article.
A soldier has a job very UNlike that of an IT specialist. Maybe, the hazing is a good thing?
Can it just possibly be that things are sometimes done a certain way for a reason? Or can EVERYTHING in life be explained away using some "conflict theory".
Hazing weeds out those who don't want to be there. It weeds out those who are weak and are better left on mommas tit. By not hazing you might get a physically fit guy who has a good ASVAB score, high school grades and looks great on paper, but is a 200 pound wimp.
What do you think Ranger school is all about? Weed them out. Separate the boys from the girls, and this frankly should be done in Basic as well. Hazing is part of the game. “How bad do you really want it”, “What are you made of” are two questions that are best answered by hazing, not an interview or a letter of recommendation, which means just about nothing in reality.
Red6
lead,
Same for the AF in 67. Went in with stateside utilities (heavy and hot) and eventually issued jungles in country. Nomex in '68? Wow you Army guys got all the good stuff. LOL. I was still a K2B warrior until my second tour.
Actually, it was late 67 for the Nomex. The best thing the Army ever did for me was to switch our D model Hueys to H models, seemingly, out of thin air for ops in the Highlands. In an instant we went from worrying about running out of power, rotor rpm and ideas to worrying about over-torquing the transmission. It was a godsend.
Now, I know what a P-38 is and probably should know what a K2B is, but I don't? Is it a knife? Bigger than a breadbox? :)
Well, at least Infantry training isn't really like this. This is mostly at Relaxin' Jackson, which has been a joke for as long as I've been in at least (they were the testing ground for the miserable failure known as "stress cards").
I like reading from the "old timers"...thanks...
lead,
K2B was the nomenclature of the non-nomex flight suits we wore. I thought it was a service-wide term. My unit had a few H models but I crewed primarily on HH-3 and HH-53s. Not a driver.
Thanks, I think I know what they are. Were you at Marble Mountain? I was there on my 2nd tour in 69/70.
Remember what Henry Fonda said in "On Goldon Pond" as he was getting ready to blow out all those candles; "How'd it get here so fast?"
Now if only they could get the bad guys to stop abusing and mistreating our troops-- SInc eI was honorably discharged back in 1977 I have come to appreciate that
the USMC seems less adversly affected by the feminization of our Military than most. And I do like their rifle training.
Don't know how reliable my source was -but I understand some of the new kids tend to freeze when they go into combat sim.DO recall that DI boot standing on my butt when we were being taught to low crawl Iworry such might be misunderstood as "Abuse" by todays standards.
VOLAR did go a bit overboard. In regular units, soldiers were allowed to paint wall lockers how ever they wanted to. Haircuts almost went away. etc. Of course, you were still with the draftees. I didn't take a BCT company until Mar of 73 and my first cycle was the only one that had draftees. Maybe it was a fluke but it was one of my best. Things under the volunteer Army took a while to overcome the effects of VOLAR.
Yeah, looks like I'm near the finish line...
not to deman your sir Eric--But how much of that came OJT ina combat zone-and how much was training -that may have saved a few-if they had recieved such?
No I wasn't at the mountain but at main base DaNang flying SAR in the south. Attended Recondo at Nha Trang and then sent to NE Thailand working with the SOG and running deep SAR in Laos/Cambodia and the North. Much of the time was spent forward-deployed in Laos to cutdown the flying time to the AO where we would rendezvous with the Sandys.
Thanks for your service
-Given how markets operate, why shouldn't the Army be sensitive to concerns...-
I'd agree, except that civilian markets and military ones are so...different. It takes a special person to sign up, not a sop who's easily influenced by the latest pretty marketing or advertising campaign.
Though, some of those commercials they make are pretty dang cool! Oh, to be young and arch supportless!
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