Milsurp After Hours

Yup, I remember those days. The guy on the left has a rocker under the chevron on his hat as a PFC. That
rocker happened after I was already a SGT in 1968, so I was a PFC with a single stripe back then. In basic the Drill
SGTs sometimes picked on the RAs and NGs a little more than the USs because "we asked for it".
Men had a 6 year obligation of active duty and reserves in any combination if they joined or were drafted.
IIRC.. If you were active duty for 3 years or served in a combat zone, you didn't have to do any reserve meetings or
anything when you were no longer active duty and at the end of your 6 year obligation they just sent your Honorable
Discharge in the email.
Some were drafted and ended up in the Marines, not sure if Navy and Air Force drafted, I doubt it as many joined them
in order to avoid drafted into Army and sent to Nam. My buddy and I went to local recruiter to join Air Force and
were told it was an 8 month waiting list to join, so we walked over and enlisted in the Army.

RA = Regular Army (enlisted for 3 years active duty)
NG = National Guard (enlisted for 6 years off and on)
US = Drafted (2 years active duty)

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You enlisted? I didn't know that...or remembered that from whenever you probably mentioned it years ago on an old type chat. Did you enlist to go into the artillery? I knew guys they pushed off into infantry who thought they were enlisting for all sorts of jobs that might teach them some skill useful in civilian life. The Army didn't give a crap about that promise from recruiters as we know.

I was drafted and offered OCS but, maybe stupidly, turned it down. But they only had me in a green suit for two years. And I came back to the world alive and without any more holes in my skin than I was born with. That was the only thing I wanted out of the Army anyway.

That cartoon was right on as far as basic in those days was a mixed bag of National Guard along with regular Army and a lot of drafted.... "selected" by local draft boards. The Army or jail option was true too. I remember two guys in particular from my basic training days. God knows what their rap sheets looked like but couldn't have been too awful.

When I was at the sorting out place and last chance to fail the physical where draftees were funneled to whatever service.... Army or Marines only were drafted that I know of... there were a few guys down on the list before they got to me that went to the Marines. Looking back on it the Marines might have been a safer landing spot. Might have been put on a ship to police sailors or guarding embassies or something.

The only Marines I ran into in Vietnam were running a radar station on an otherwise Army firebase on a mountain in the 101st AO. They had lights, an electric fridge, A/C, and a TV. I went to their bunker to see if they had any flashlight batteries because our battalion HQ bunker lost it's lights when a generator went down. Good thing the radios had batteries. They gave me some batteries and a box of candles.

The Army or jail option was rumoured in Australia and I served with a bloke who had been caught for cattle rustling, the Judge had no power to order him to join the Army but did suggest to him that if he showed the Court proof of enlistment the charges MIGHT be dropped.
So he became a soldier and a good one.
The gang, of which he was a minor member, had stolen a lot of cattle in far North Queensland but their greatest claim to fame, while they were out on bail, was ‘lifting’ the bovine evidence from the police compound.
Maybe the Judge was a bit amused.

No, I didn't enlist for the artillery. My buddy and I went through the list of MOSs we could sign up for and picked
FADAC repair as we had heard about computers. After basic we went to AIT in Redstone Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
I was not as good at electronics as my buddy, so the 2 of us at the bottom of the class went to Ft. Sill. My buddy said none of the
guys in the whole class ever touched a FADAC after the school. I was a PFC already when I got to Sill and 1st SGT asked if I could drive.
So I became the Battery Commander's driver, even though I was supposed to be a student. Spent most of the time driving him around
in a new Dodge pickup and seldom went to any classes. Since I knew almost nothing about artillery by now, they asked me if I
wanted to go to Shake-n-Bake school. Got along well with Btry CO and I think he had something to do with it. So I figured
I would rather go to Nam a SGT than a PFC. And that's how I ended up in the artillery. Our main goal when enlisting was to not end
up in the infantry in Nam, but that's where I ended up on the FO team. That went full circle. ....
The S-n-B school wasn't very easy, in my class 40 started and 27 graduated, so about 1/3 didn't make it. I did better at that school. ....

I look back on it as 2 years in the Army and 1 year on vacation in Hawaii with my new wife. ...
You were probably better off not being in Marines. My wife's cousin did 2 tours as a Marine and he had it a lot worse than what we did.


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I remember you telling about the FADAC school on here before. Somehow the joined up for a burst of three slipped my mind for some reason. I'm old you know. I may or may not be able to remember what I ate for lunch yesterday.

Yes... I remember it well. It wasn't Santa that smelled that way... but me.

In 1980 I smelled like bourbon and Marlboro Menthols, smoked them until I quit. ....

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