Basic training is a lot like prion must be except you can leave--only problems is, if you go AWOL during war time, like when Vietnam was going n , they can hunt you down and court marshall you.Even if you go to Canada and you were granted amnesty, that AWOL charge still hung over you if you came back to the states
In spite of all the hell I was going through. Even after I took the piece of pipe away from the woman in my bay who tried to hit me with it , she kept saying " Go over the wall, you damn Jew.Go over the wall"
I was no deserter and the only reason I left was I was hiding out in the Latrine and I overheard myself being discussed as the only way to get rid of me was to kill me.
That occurred shortly after my OSCAR or tear gas mask disappeared and I was accused of stealing it. Which was absurd on the face because we were not allowed to go off base and where was I going to sell it or get rid of it?
Why would I even want it?
When I pointed this out in a calm logical way, the potential court marshal was dropped and the gas mask suddenly reappeared in my wall locker. We were permitted to have only one combination lock and could keep it on our foot locker or our wall locker. So it was impossible to keep people from stealing out of whichever one wasn't locked. You weren't going to be there all the time to watch.
There was an entire section at the military base where our basic training took place that had been unused since WW II and had been mothballed. I was going to get jumped, tied up with duct tape and locked in a wall locker somewhere over there where I might never be found. I don't know if these idiots were aware I was hiding in the stall listening or not. They were that stupid.
That was when I decided to make a break for it and i put all my stuff in a duffel bag in case I had to bug out.
Fortunately, i received a call earlier that morning that I would be out f the military soon through my congressman's intercession and he wanted a full report of what happened when I arrived back in Texas. He was chair of the house Armed Services Committee and had placed the call personally to the base's commanding Officer.
The Drill sergeant over us had been ordered t Korea. I was glad to see her gone. Her replacement was from Guam. She was OK but,sadly, at that point my mind had already checked out of the "Army of One."
Right now, my mam concern was how to survive long enough to get back to Texas.
I was sorry I had ever joined the military. I wanted to do what my Dad did. He loved this country so much and felt he owed an obligation to protect and defend it.So did I. He made it sound like extreme hardship but an adventure at the same time. A challenge of survival, your personal best with good friends and a few good times.He never mentioned hatred of Jews but that was because in WW II,everyone was too busy to care.
Not so during the Vietnam War apparently.
I talked to some black sailors and one Jewish enlisted man years later and who had much the same experiences I had.
Like me, they were threatened if they applied for any VA benefits.
The women finally left the latrine and I decided I would get back to the bay and try to get some sleep. I slept under my cot for protection--what little sleep I could get.In the morning i would hit the sheets with an iron and some spray starch.
'Whoosh!" what ever it was went straight for me . The fight was on again as it had been every night since I had been in this horrivle place from hell.
I grabbed my duffle bag and I ran out onto the street.
There was supposed to be a corporal at the area downstairs but she and another woman were "involved".
A young lady MP officer with lieutenant's bars stopped and asked me what the problem was.since it was after "Taps.' When I told her, she took me to the Casual Detachment barracks without delay and I saw the Muslim lady and the lesbian lady who had declined the vaccines the same day I had. I also saw a WAC who had tried to commit suicide by drinking Brass-O and another person I had rode on the trip from San Antonio with who had broken her leg and was being sent home. I would never see any of them again. I hope they did OK.
I ,met several others in there who would have been outstanding recruits but the military just wasn't set up to handle women. Or more than likely, they didn't want us.
I didn't give a damn.
I had avoided the LSD in the food.
I had avoided being abducted for MK-Ultra.
I had avoided God know what in the cattle inoculators with six mysterious substances at once.
I had been in hand to hand combat every night since I asked about Jewish worship services.
In spite of all the hell I was going through. Even after I took the piece of pipe away from the woman in my bay who tried to hit me with it , she kept saying " Go over the wall, you damn Jew.Go over the wall"
I was no deserter and the only reason I left was I was hiding out in the Latrine and I overheard myself being discussed as the only way to get rid of me was to kill me.
That occurred shortly after my OSCAR or tear gas mask disappeared and I was accused of stealing it. Which was absurd on the face because we were not allowed to go off base and where was I going to sell it or get rid of it?
Why would I even want it?
When I pointed this out in a calm logical way, the potential court marshal was dropped and the gas mask suddenly reappeared in my wall locker. We were permitted to have only one combination lock and could keep it on our foot locker or our wall locker. So it was impossible to keep people from stealing out of whichever one wasn't locked. You weren't going to be there all the time to watch.
There was an entire section at the military base where our basic training took place that had been unused since WW II and had been mothballed. I was going to get jumped, tied up with duct tape and locked in a wall locker somewhere over there where I might never be found. I don't know if these idiots were aware I was hiding in the stall listening or not. They were that stupid.
That was when I decided to make a break for it and i put all my stuff in a duffel bag in case I had to bug out.
Fortunately, i received a call earlier that morning that I would be out f the military soon through my congressman's intercession and he wanted a full report of what happened when I arrived back in Texas. He was chair of the house Armed Services Committee and had placed the call personally to the base's commanding Officer.
The Drill sergeant over us had been ordered t Korea. I was glad to see her gone. Her replacement was from Guam. She was OK but,sadly, at that point my mind had already checked out of the "Army of One."
Right now, my mam concern was how to survive long enough to get back to Texas.
I was sorry I had ever joined the military. I wanted to do what my Dad did. He loved this country so much and felt he owed an obligation to protect and defend it.So did I. He made it sound like extreme hardship but an adventure at the same time. A challenge of survival, your personal best with good friends and a few good times.He never mentioned hatred of Jews but that was because in WW II,everyone was too busy to care.
Not so during the Vietnam War apparently.
I talked to some black sailors and one Jewish enlisted man years later and who had much the same experiences I had.
Like me, they were threatened if they applied for any VA benefits.
The women finally left the latrine and I decided I would get back to the bay and try to get some sleep. I slept under my cot for protection--what little sleep I could get.In the morning i would hit the sheets with an iron and some spray starch.
'Whoosh!" what ever it was went straight for me . The fight was on again as it had been every night since I had been in this horrivle place from hell.
I grabbed my duffle bag and I ran out onto the street.
There was supposed to be a corporal at the area downstairs but she and another woman were "involved".
A young lady MP officer with lieutenant's bars stopped and asked me what the problem was.since it was after "Taps.' When I told her, she took me to the Casual Detachment barracks without delay and I saw the Muslim lady and the lesbian lady who had declined the vaccines the same day I had. I also saw a WAC who had tried to commit suicide by drinking Brass-O and another person I had rode on the trip from San Antonio with who had broken her leg and was being sent home. I would never see any of them again. I hope they did OK.
I ,met several others in there who would have been outstanding recruits but the military just wasn't set up to handle women. Or more than likely, they didn't want us.
I didn't give a damn.
I had avoided the LSD in the food.
I had avoided being abducted for MK-Ultra.
I had avoided God know what in the cattle inoculators with six mysterious substances at once.
I had been in hand to hand combat every night since I asked about Jewish worship services.