BASIC TRAINING

BASIC TRAINING

Army basic training took me from December 31, 1965 until March 2,1966. It was a very cold Winter at Fort Knox, Kentucky. It was so cold that the trainees were limited in the amount of time we were allowed outside. It made for a rather easy schedule, as best I could tell, compared to what it would have been at other times of the year.

There were about 250 guys in my company divided into 5 platoons of fifty each separated by last name. My platoon sergeant was staff sergeant Hensley. He was an American Indian looking guy with a pencil thin mustache. He was a little older than most of the drill sergeants and a little easier to handle, it seemed to me. He had a penchant for saying "god damn". More than a penchant, he used it in about every sentence that came out of his mouth. Sometimes it was an adjective, sometimes it was an adverb and sometimes just an expletive. It didn't take long before you didn't notice it all.

Each platoon sergeant eventually picked his top trainee to be a temporary sergeant. In our platoon it was a guy named Tom Michaels who happened to be from Cincinnati. We became good friends and he was the best man at my wedding.

Our last day of training was an all day proficiency test. All the Officers and NCOs expected one of the temporary sergeants to come out with the best score. We were all lining up with our individual platoons as we finished the test. A murmur could be heard among the leaders. The first thing I heard was "god damn who? You're god damn kidding me" Hensley walked up to me and said I had the best 'god damn' score in the whole company and would get a 'god damn' award at the closing ceremony. Shortly, he was called aside. He came back and said they told him a guy named Bever, the temporary sergeant from 1st platoon, had the same score as me. Further, he said they had decided to give Bever the award since only one could get it. Nobody ever heard of me. It was a crock but I really didn't care. It was meaningless and I was determined to get through without making waves or being noticed, for that matter.