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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1968)
Boot: The Making of a Soldier, 1968 By CRAIG E. MCKERN Of I hr Emerald The private E-l. his girl fol lowing. stepped out from behind the fetid latrine's combination windbreaiter-door and faced the young second lieutenant square ly The officer had noticed their semi-hidden, kissing embrace and stopped to investigate—do ing his regulatory duty • What company you from, sol dier-’" he asked, notarizing the private's name. ' A-5-2. sir," answered the 17 vear-old volunteer. "You graduate today?” "You’re damn right, sir.” The gold bar smiled under standing^' and drove off. leav ing the slick-sleeve and the girl to complete the long walk from his company area to the frame building for relatives and friends visiting the 200 just graduated green suits of Com pany A. 5th Battalion. 2nd Training Brigade i Basic) at North Fort Lewis. Wash He and his buddies had fin ished their eight-week funda mental course in applied war fare—the notorious introduction to the military' way known as Basic or Boot to millions of Americans who know of it from highiy-active participation. The troops t as soldiers are collectively known), receive identical training whether they are regular enlistees, draftees or Reservists and usually have identical low opinions of the Army’s methods of mental prep aration for combat. These methods include in struction and practice in marks manship. tactics, bayonet, hand to-hand. first aid. escape and survival (if captured by the enemy.’' not from the Army*, land navigation and a variety of other soldier skills. "Just like the Boy Scouts but with M-14s instead of B B guns, is a sample comment The young trooper who offered it forgot— perhaps because of the approach of his platoon sergeant — to add that the Boy Scouts were never quite as demanding as a sergeant in the L.S. Army “What is the spirit of the bav onel? KILL! Basic training is an experi ence that must be lived to be fully appreciated as a program of rigid discipline and intimi dating harassment leading (the Army hopes) to the individual's submission to the system. Ideal ly, the soldier would function mechanically within his squad, platoon and eompany, perform ing routinely as a cog, but with pride—esprit de corps—in the wheel “Woijm-b—no goon. Whiskey —no good! PT—so good!” Physical training serves to build morale in two ways: it boosts strength and confidence for the soldier and is used as punishment, most commonly when one man errs, all go down for pushups to emphasize the bad example and his mistake, which could be real or imagin ed but certainly petty. The social pressure to con form to the Army way is tre mendous, and each man is deter mined not to blunder, bringing on the disapproval of his com rades. “I want to be an airborne Ranger, I want to go to Vietnam, I want to live a life of danger, Kill me a few scroungy Cong” —gung-ho Army marching song. The product of this intensive eight weeks of 4 a.m. to mid night. seven day-a-week training is a soldier, proud of hirnself, strongly identified with the Army’s operations and goals as America’s defenders against all comers, and thinking and be having in military fashion. T volunteered for airborne infantry when I enlisted,” said an 18-year-old Seattle trooper “and I can’t wait to get over the pond.” Others, mainly draftees and Reservists, were more conser vative, but still strongly per suaded that the l S. position and presence in Vietnam is cor rect. 'I used to think the service was just a lot of marching crap and boot polishing, but I can see its purpose as an agent of democracy and defense much clearer now." said a 23-year-old draftee who flunked out of Washington State his sophomore year. "All 1 knew was what 1 had observed about the ROTC." he continued But these reactions to the mil itary are a culmination of daily life in a coal-heated wooden barracks first used in World War II With 50 other trainees in com mon predictment, the trainee is committed to from four months of active duty for a Reservist (ultimately six years) to four years for an enlistee. The short-time National Guardsman or Army Reservist quietly gloats over going home at the end of the eight-to-11 weeks of advanced training that fol lows Basic. The enlistee, and to a lesser extent the draftee, need to jus tify their participation in the service as a desirable thing to do Wouldn't you defend your occupation as a student or teacher as necessary and good'* The soldier may hate it for its harassment and manipulation, but he'll generally defend it as well. "Hell No. We Won’t Go” vs. “Airborne—all the way” Dissension over Vietnam and high draft quotas mean the induction of many young men without friendliness or optim ism towards the military or its offerings. Men previously con ditioned to anti-war, once in uni form. weight thoughtfully the price of following their con sciences by refusing service in the Army: those who have re fused are now either undesir ably discharged and or reduc ing rocks at Leavenworth. This forced prostitution of ideal amounts to the price one must pay for the privilege of being American, the draftee may ra tionalize. reflecting on calls to war heard by young men of the world's countries throughout history. The draftees in A-5-2 were conscripted not only into a uniform, but into a dog tag mentality.” Conversion to the Army way is aided by the instruction and example of the training cadre sergeants, the backbone of the Army. Responsible for 50 men and at least a ten year veter an. the NCO (non-commission ed officer) is a professional in skill as well as service. Most are fair and knowledgeable, many have several overseas tours be hind them, including combat duty in Vietnam. Despite the indictments against them in soldier's letters home, few poor personalities are allowed to train the troops in Basic. Private Jerry T of Portland put it this way: "Our sergeant is real straight. He’s ready to go to bat for any of us if we're right and the lieutenant or the major is wrong: but he sure can chew tail when we're not " Another trainee. Private Roger S. of Spokane felt that •‘the ca dre are trying to teach us things to save our lives in Nam. We all listen up when Sarge talks because what we don't know will kill us in Asia Training Inlfnw The training is intense, us ing Vietnam as a research iab for gathering the meat of the curriculum. Jungle camouflage, boob;, traps, search and interro gation techniques and etnpha sis on night operations are add ed courses The result is a sol dier who is more likely to re turn home from combat than his WW II or Korean war counter part. a new type of warrior for a new type of war. At least this is what the held commanders in Vietnam hope they have in their units—since anyone can die at any time, their personal lives often depend on the effi ciency of the men in neutraliz ing any Vietnamese big enough to carry a small grenade into headquarters it is to the draftee's advan tage ( once be has decided that deserting is not worth three years in prison) to fully obli gate himself to the system, to assimilate combat lore, to get gung-ho All the games against the Army and induction end when the trainees realizes how far out of his own hands his life is. With no control, he must prepare for the worst U he cares to live through 12 months of combat in a land with no king's X. no sidelines and no rules Anyone, the trainee knows, who thinks he can fake it in Vietnam will come back in a cargo, not a troop, plane It's true, so many people have already gone and the realist in uniform doesn't care to be next in line. Would you? Fruit Can Ashtrays The private kissed bis girl again as they neared the visi tor's building, an unheated ex garage filled with square ta bles adorned by No. 10 fruit cans serving as extra adequate ashtrays. It was a dismal place and then only for visiting, al though warmth and food was available a half-mile away at the snack bar. the military's idea of a combination restau rant reprieve. Seeing the coke machine in the garage was emp ty. the G1 and the girl, lacking anything better to do (facilities being in short supply), started for the Army’s Halfway House, a reminder of civilian life for those in captivity. After enjoying an oatmeal hamburger and coffee trucked Oregon Daily Emerald The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub listed Monday thru Friday, Septem ber to May, except during exam and vacation periods. Bi-weekly June thru the first week of August, once a week the last three weeks of August, by the Publications Board of the University of Oregon. Second-class postage paid at Eu gene, Oregon 87403. Subscription rates $e per year, $3 per term. THE Cathay Restaurant invites you to enjoy our • Fine American and Chinese food for lunch or dinner. • Live music and entertainment in the "Shelter" at the Cathay nightly. • Fine bar facilities COME IN TONIGHT 165 W. 1 1th Phone 342-3391 in from an Army mess hall in Alaska, the couple watched sol diers without visitors sit and exchange rumors, stare vacant ly, practice totaling up the time remaining in stir loops, sen ice), or dreamily caress the Gl’s plastic-fantastic lovers, the juke box and the pinball. The selections were telling: the military is full of masochis tic troops who played records extolling, mainly, the virtues of life off-post Married men favor ed "Have You Got Cheatin' on Your Mind." while reminiscent acid-rock tunes were preferred by single men Eating your own heart out (or your huddle's, if you could get to him) seemed to be a favorite pastime, and just about everything was car nivorous on occasion. Time So Short The soldier and his sweet heart, however, were being de voured by the clock Their time together started at noon and would end, by order of the ma jor, precisely at 3 p m. Tomor row would tind her at home again, spilling perfume on pink letters for him, he would be 1,000 miles down the coast at Fort Ord for eight more weeks of schooling nerore, most pkc ly, Vietnam port call. Walking towardH tin- Ims tluit would lake her to SoaTac, to the plane of separation, the two spoke quiet reassurances and Kentlo IhouKhta to each other, their speech interrupted by sporadic firing from third • week basic at the nearby range. She looked at the painted sign in front of the A 52 headquar ters: blue background, with ’ Al pha-Cators" in black across the top, white borders, and a de piction of an alligator armed with a bayoneted M 10 herding an Oriental type in black paja mas, who was presumably a J’.O.W The gunfire and the war and the uniform next to her brought the war 7,000 miles closer Eyes moibtening blurred his face, and she began to under stand exactly what and how much could be lust in war; 20 years ago, nearly every mother might have told her and she wouldn't have believed Now the kias goodbye, now the lieutenant smiled understand ingly, and now the gay blue eyes matched the windy gray of an afternoon in January at Tort Lewis, Wash. - < ^ 1. \\li.it on earth is. that.** Thr wmltl's fii?H almost pcrf'd puklr filt er. 2. What cl you mean ‘almost f It keeps rejecting Jills. •3. i low'll you make out with vour M-if-sharpoiiing toothoirk? I gave it up to work on my prc-stretched rubber bund. 4. 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