Be Careful Who You Call Out: During Basic a member of my squad was obviously not paying close attention to the Cadre Man who was instructing us on the use of the 1911 .45 Automatic. Every man in the squad was to learn to fire and qualify with every weapon the squad, also the Plt. had. He called the man forward and gave him the automatic with an extra magazine and told him to fire at the target. "Which Hand should I use the recruit asked" "Just Fire the weapon" was his answer by the Cadre Man. The recruit proceeded to fire one mag. with each hand and every round was a bull's eye. After that the recruit walked back to his place and sat without saying a word. Next day we were being instructed on the .03 Springfield Rifle on range with a 750 yard target. Cadre Man calls the same recruit and says "Let's see how good you are with this weapon hotshot". The recruit got in the prone position and fired a clip -- all in the bull. "Where in hell did you learn to shoot like that" the Cadre Man asked. Recruit replies with a very emotionless face "My job in civilian life was test firing weapons at the Springfield, Mass Armory". Sgtleo
Slipdigit:- Since you seem to like "Basic Stories" here's another for you. Every day as we were going on a "hike" we had to pass an area where there were a lot of "casual" officers awaiting assignment to a unit. Naturally they had a lot of cat calls etc as we marched by but the Co. CO. had given orders that no reply was to be made. One day when we were to go on a ten mile hike with a full field pack weapons etc. they really got on our case especially about how many would have to "drop out" and how sorry they were that we were "grunts" ,you'll be sorry etc. This really PO'd our Co. but he kept quiet as he had ordered us to do. On the our return to our area we were halted about a mile down the road and given a "10" The CO then told the Company we were going to go to High Port Arms - Double Time at Attention while singing a Jodie as we passed their area. As we got directly opposite their area, the CO gave the order "Eyes Right" so we could all see their red faces. From that day on there was complete silence when we passed by. Damn near killed a few guys but NOBODY dropped out as had been predicted. Shows you about that extra little strength you can reach down and pull up if needed. Sgtleo
Slipdigit et alia:- Will try to jog my memory about the ones that would pass the censor here!! This is reaching back but one went something like this for those officers. Sound Off One Two Three Four:- Don't know what I have to do To be a Butter bar to rate a salute We are Grunts you already know But the H**SE A**S*S ain't even F'g cute They stand around and wait for a snappy salute But we ignore them every time we can Cause they may have on a unifiorm But they ain't yet a Soldier Man. We be trained and off to the ETO But they'll be watching a USO Show Please God don't send them when we go We need real men don't you know. Sgtleo
YOU GO SARGE, Everyone here is blessed to have a great man like Sarge Leo on your site. This man is THE example of what America has to offer as a reference to our past. I've had the pleasure of converseing with my interenet friend for many years. He's a link to our past and an example of what we as Americans should follow. A perfect husband and a mentor to all of us of as what life should be. Sarge, I hope your bride is doing OK. I care for my hadicap sister and understand what such a task it is. God bless ya Sarge and I hope you and Joe 3rd ID are doing well. As the others say "more stories" !!!!!! Best Regards To All, Steve
Great stories, thanks for sharing. I wrestled in high school and we had a Marine Sgt. that was a former team member come home & train with us over Christmas vacation. He taught us several cadence calls, there were not any PG-13, LOL.
Thankyou for sharing Sgt. Memories of these times are more valuable than stardust we are surely honoured to be custodians of such valuable information.
P.S Sgt i hope the fellow in the first story ended up in the sniper section of his battalion or wherever men like that are supposed to go not sure of the makeup of US Battalions Cica 42/43 I myself am ex Inf. Royal Aust Reg and qual cross rifles so know how valuable that gentelman's skills were. So just a curio Cheers
w8litfer our Jodies were more on the order of "X" rated for some reason and it just seemed that everybody talked like that for no particular reason. Had a friend whose father was a Proctor at Harvard and at his welcome home dinner his father told him to watch his language or leave the table(Rog. was a Tank Commander 2nd Armored Div.) Steve Schaeg thanks for the understanding. I have a couple of nieces and nephews that don't have a clue as to what my responsibilities are. Their solution --put your wife in a Nursing Home!! Yeh right after 60 years together. P-Popsie right on there mate. He went to Snipers School and we never saw him again!! Got to thinking a lot about the "old days" with those stories and too many came flooding back into my mind but I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did when it happened. I call it the "Fort Devens for Discharge Saga":- I would ask that you grant me some literary license with this posting because I really do consider the 1st Lt. involved and his Cpl. assistant as garbage in the broad sense of being soldiers. I had many Officers that I felt were real Officers and Gentlemen and it didn't take an Act of Congress to make them that way. As I said previously, we were taken to Fort Dix for processing and then were to be sent to the Reception Ctr. nearest our homes for discharge or reassignment For the sake of convenience, the Officer in Charge at Dix decided to form a "Company" of men going to Fort Devens,Mass and since I was senior "Top"--I was put in charge. After I got the Service Records and read over them quickly "Oh my God - I have tiger by the tail here". I asked a Tech. Sgt. I knew to help me review the records as we had thirty other men in the "unit". Each man was above the rank of Staff Sgt. and the Decorations were plentiful to say the least. This surprised me because up to this point nobody was wearing anything on their uniform other than their unit's patch-no chevrons-no Hersey Bars,CIBs etc. Everybody myself included was called by the last name only. When we arrived,via train,at Devens we were met by a Spic and Span very GI looking 1st. Lt. and his Cpl. assistant and we were told that the Lt. had had his Commission for OVER SIX(6) months and the Cpl. had been with him all that time so they were qualified to be in charge and they would control the "Company" as we were still in the U.S.Army. The "Company" was assigned to one of the old two floor barracks and a Duty Roster had been posted on the bulletin board near the room the Cpl. occupied(remember the old two story barracks with the two NCO rooms on the first floor??). According to the men, with ME by name only as the one in charge of the whole barracks. I got up and saw that I was in charge of the Barracks and soldier "X" the first floor and soldier "Y" the second. Just about this minute the Cpl. came in and asked for me by my name and said he would tell me what he required me to do. Fortunately,I had warned and pleaded with the other men not to give any thing other than their name-i.e. no rank and not to tell him who I was and in what bunk. He went looking for me but I was in one of the top bunks - DUH!!! GI Joe to the nth degree!! That afternoon the Lt. and Cpl. told me that we had to take the men to the Tailor's Shop to have their uniforms completed with all the necessary chevrons,ribbons etc. I told him I had been at or in Devens(my cousin was a "Ring Knocker" stationed there) and I knew where the Tailor Shop was so I would be glad to take over the detail for them and he immediately agreed as this relieved him of the assignment. Off we went!!! As the men went through the line,I was reading from the service records, the chevrons,Hersey Bars etc. for each and I asked each man to go along with something I wanted to do to these two ^%$#$#^%%^ and all agreed with me. When all was finished,we lined up outside the Tailor Shop in three ranks,according to height and marched at attention back to our barracks counting "Jodie". When we left,naturally,it had been Route Step,and we must have looked like Cox's Army or POWs.Talking, smoking etc. When we got back to the barracks, I entered, knocked extremely hard on the Lt's. and the Cpl's. doors and asked them to come out and review the men. The men had performed the "Open Ranks" maneuver as I had asked as the LT. & Cpl. were to "Review the Company" for correctness in Military Courtesy and Discipline as far as their uniforms etc would be correct according to the Regs. for their rack, insignia etc. Bug-eyed they then rushed through the ranks almost at "Double Time" and took off for their quarters without any comment(s). We were there another two days being processed but we never saw either the Lt. or the Cpl. again. The Major that was pitching to us for re-ups asked "How come you have no Officer with you?"(WE SMILED). To add insult to injury -- the orders were that all units were to march to the mess hall and follow the usual order of entering the mess hall. What I did was to assemble the "Unit" in the Company Street , give an About Face order, which faced them away from the mess hall. Then I took off running until I thought I had a good enough head start, turned and yelled "Fall Out for Chow". When the Mess Officer saw this he was livid but knew he would be whistling Dixie to say anything as most were only days from being a civilian. This is a long read but you guys stirred up all kinds of memories and it's your fault!! Sgtleo
