“I don't have any respect at all for the scumbags who went to Canada to avoid the draft or to avoid doing their fair share.” This quote from former Marine Corps Staff Sergeant (and honorary Gunnery Sergeant) R. Lee Ermey, talks about draft dodgers during the Vietnam War. My grandfather was drafted, but he did not decide to leave to avoid the war like those draft dodgers R. Lee Ermey was talking about. I doubt that he had the same attitude as Ermey, but then again, he was in Army Communications during the war, not the Marine Corps. Recently, February 10, 2018 to be exact, when my grandfather recounted his military service from 1968-1970, he shared with me some valuable life lessons he gained. Having registered before that time, as was required
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When they arrived and went into the barracks, “I must have been smiling because the drill sergeant told me to get down and do some pushups because ‘we aren’t happy here.’” This leads me to assume that the drill sergeant stereotype is well-founded. The drill sergeant also told them that basic was going to be the, “fastest eight weeks of your life.” When they went to eat, my grandpa shared that, “the cooks told us ‘You have three minutes to eat, and two minutes are up.’” So they ate as fast as they could and stuffed the rest in their pockets, but they couldn’t get caught eating the food they took. After Fort Lewis, they were sent to Fort Huachuca in Arizona for communications. There, if they were late for the reveille, they would have to carry their foot lockers out. Grandpa remembered the drill sergeant there saying that the foot locker punishment was a “promise, not a threat.” After four weeks there, they were stationed on the other side of the country in Fort Gordon, Georgia. After Fort Gordon, he was sent to Fort Wainwright in Alaska for the rest of his time in the Army.
He remembers how weird Alaska was. There was the bitter cold winter and the midnight sun in the summer. “We even had an earthquake once. The building started shaking,” he said. In one non-weather related instance, he was told by a sergeant to go downstairs and try being a clerk for a day. The next day, the same
When they arrived and went into the barracks, “I must have been smiling because the drill sergeant told me to get down and do some pushups because ‘we aren’t happy here.’” This leads me to assume that the drill sergeant stereotype is well-founded. The drill sergeant also told them that basic was going to be the, “fastest eight weeks of your life.” When they went to eat, my grandpa shared that, “the cooks told us ‘You have three minutes to eat, and two minutes are up.’” So they ate as fast as they could and stuffed the rest in their pockets, but they couldn’t get caught eating the food they took. After Fort Lewis, they were sent to Fort Huachuca in Arizona for communications. There, if they were late for the reveille, they would have to carry their foot lockers out. Grandpa remembered the drill sergeant there saying that the foot locker punishment was a “promise, not a threat.” After four weeks there, they were stationed on the other side of the country in Fort Gordon, Georgia. After Fort Gordon, he was sent to Fort Wainwright in Alaska for the rest of his time in the Army.
He remembers how weird Alaska was. There was the bitter cold winter and the midnight sun in the summer. “We even had an earthquake once. The building started shaking,” he said. In one non-weather related instance, he was told by a sergeant to go downstairs and try being a clerk for a day. The next day, the same