I got tired, restless, bored, in the concrete/asphalt isle where its sad people die of doing nothing,deciding to join the US ARMY, to become all I could be...I saw no alternative at the moment.
We were sent as a group. Probably twelve. Them islanders were high school graduates or drop outs with a 0.5 intelligence coefficient. The most unsavory moment of the 24 month adventure was swearing allegiance, since that act made me a de facto mercenary, a rather unpalatable sensation lasting for a couple of weeks.
During basic training I got gastroenteritis, consequence of being exposed to extremes of heat/cold during the intense physical training. Spent 3 days in the Fort Jackson Hospital, where I was used as an interpreter for some puertorican hick, unable to explain in English his abdominal pains. Now that I think of it, my debut, becoming a career in 1998, 24 years later.
A short return for vacation to Puerto Rico, then back to Fort Lee, Virginia, for MOS or job training. The ARMY gave me with a college degree a prestigious career; Parts Specialist.
During that late summer in Nellingen, Deutshland, I got first hand what my short career would be, in a truck motor pool with the despicable stench and look of grease. The office was so dirty, dark, cold and that I started having nightmares, believe it or not.
The only fun part of the job was to go around Germany, delivering and picking up part orders with Gilbert Walz, a fellow American, driving one of those trucks in MASH.
I appealed my nightmare case with the company commander. He was bright and kind, finding the solution. Another career with promise: Training Clerk, typist! That meaningless job as it seems, became the envy of everyjuan else. I put in actual hours of work perhaps 4 out of the 35 most people did. It consisted in typing and mimeographing the company weekly schedule a simple task, a retard could probably do, and maybe even better and faster than I did.
The rest of the time was spent reading or answering a rare phone call. The envy started corroding some souls. My honey moon was over.
First, considering the amount of spare time I had, my enemies thought that I should become a mail clerk. They ordered me to take a test and failed on purpose, or at least that is what I wanted to think..
On the second time I put some effort, not much, with same result. They were not happy, the intention was to screw me up...Next, it was working with the delivery of weapons and equipment in the few times during the year my 48th Aviation Company went to the field.
The ARMY, like any other institution, has a pecking order. Aviation was much more than tanks, artillery an else...I do not remember shooting at anything after my original 4 weeks basic training.
I could probably write a short book on this subject but I am tired. Let me finish with the ladies department. I was not yet a ladies man but my love life, meaning sex encounters was adequate and at the end, stable with Silke, a German national.
However, the record must show that patriotism aside, during this Memorial Day week end, the best reason to be all you can be is drugs! Hash, coke, Thai sticks, heroin, amphetamins, acid, rarely marihuana, anything, you name it.
I saw a couple of fools shooting up, but it was never mine or my friends bag. Just recreational snort, smoke and ingest, with gin, scotch and plenty of two liter Dinkel Aker, every week end or discreetly during the week.
Yes, there were drug tests, I was positive once. But I can not remember what happened if you were caught more than that. Perhaps one of you dear reader could report.
War mongering is not healthy. Dismembering, killing, mutilation of mind and body, should not be considered patriotism or a good thing, unless you a sick jerk.
What drives me nuts is all those USA war films, mostly dealing with pre Vietnam/Korea times when they where victorious. What a bunch crap the freedom and patriotism preached!
Memorial Day is now an excuse to eat hot dogs, hamburgers washed down with coke or beer, preferably by the beach.
Stop the war mongering...Everybody knows is just for oil or the mineral resources required at the moment.
that is that
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