My official photo in Boot Camp 1970
The Army. Well, where to start. I was nineteen. In heat for my girlfriend at the time, traveling one hundred twenty miles one way to work and life wasn’t really going anywhere. So what to do. I had started working at the Diamond Shamrock site with Daniels in Castle Hayne and had met a guy my age who became my friend and his parents took me in practically as one of their own. Two dollars and change an hour got me close to ninety dollars a week clear. It wasn’t much by today’s standard, but it got me by. I still wasn’t totally happy nor was I figuring on trying to finish my drafting school. I knew the Army would get me soon enough.
The military was taking young men by a number system. They had taken the days of the year by the numbers 1-365. They then drew them from a hat, well maybe not, but you get the picture. Whatever order the numbers were drawn is how they would determine who would be called. October 25th was the 176th number drawn that year so I knew I’d be called by the end of summer, because I knew about what their quotas would be for the year. In February I decided I would try to enlist to maybe lessen my chances of going to Vietnam. I asked for drafting school. They sent me to Raleigh to test to see if I qualified and of course I did, since I’d already been taking courses in that field. Mom wasn’t too happy that I was looking to go for at least a three year tour in the Army. But if I got the school it was a bit longer and lessened my chances at a yearlong South Pacific vacation. But as things go they offered me cartographic drafting or map drawing as I call it. I wanted to draw straight lines not curvy lines so after I talked a bit about chances of getting what I wanted I went back home. I believe I went a couple of times to Raleigh. I even had my physical done, so I was pretty much ready to sign on the line if I could only get the school I wanted. But August came along and my parents started talking about getting together as a family and with me being in heat I usually said I hope you all have fun, I got to go see my girl. They even planned a weekend in Wilmington for just us. I wasn’t happy with that so I left them and went home while they all sat at in a dingy trailer all weekend in Castle Hayne. Little did I know why they were doing. Well, the last week of August on Friday morning I got up to go to work and my dad came into my tiny bedroom and asked me to sit for a minute. He had something to tell me. He took out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to me. He said my draft notice had come. Oh, was my reply. I asked when did it come. His reply was about a month ago. I was to knocked off balance to get angry at that moment. My mind was on wearing green and standing at attention listening to some drill sergeant yell at me. I said that since that was the case when did I have to report. Dad said next Wednesday to Raleigh. I said then I’ll have to let my boss know I was going to have to quit my job and see about getting my last check. My dad was ahead of me. He’d already told my boss and my check and sign out papers would be ready when I got to work that morning. I was already being taken care of and didn’t know it. All these things were going on behind my back. I had time to be angry later. So, I picked up my checks that morning, worked till eleven thirty as always and said my goodbye’s and left. I could only suppose my dad had already told Eleanor, Billy’s mother that I was gone. I didn’t have time to say goodbye to my bud.
I went home with mixed feeling to say the least. Mom had already been expecting me to be off balance mentally when I got home. I didn’t know what to think. I’d just had a new motor and transmission put in my car and finished paying it off and now I wouldn’t be able to get any enjoyment out of that. I had to see Vickie and break the news to her and tell all my friends at home I was leaving, but I could only suppose they knew it too. I spend the weekend between my parent and Vickie. Come Monday my dad took back off to Castle Hayne and I sat around the house during the day wondering what to do. Well, one thing I could do. It was time to renew my license, so I drove to New Bern and took the test, but failed it. That’s how my mind was. I went back the next day and passed it and my license were good for another four years. I’d hopefully be out of the Army by then and safely back home.
Wednesday morning mom took me to Washington to meet the bus full of fresh recruits heading for Raleigh. I remember sitting next to the window as we pulled away. My mom stood on the sidewalk crying and waving and then all of a sudden it dawned on me that my life was about to change like at no other time to that day. Raleigh and beyond lay ahead of me with all the adventures I would encounter.
I got to Raleigh a couple of hours later and went straight in for processing. This was going to be a long day. The center, at the time, was downtown in a crowded building. They lined up probably a couple dozen of us leaving out that day and escorted us down a hallway and into a room that was large enough to accommodate all of us. One at a time we were examined and then told to stand in an oval in the middle of the room undressed to our shorts. This, gentlemen, is where we become intimate. We were all told to drop the shorts to our ankles and a couple of doctors and a note taker walked from man to man with rubber gloves and did the turn-the-head-and-cough routine. Once this was done we were all ordered to turn around facing out from the oval, bend over and spread our cheeks. Hopefully no one put their hands in their mouth and pulled their mouth wide open. It was the other cheeks they were talking about. It was interesting though to listen to the doctors going from one to another saying hummmmm and oh my, and such. I guess some flunked out right there. But me, I was too normal I suppose. We all got dressed after that and were escorted to an administrative area and each of us in turn were called to a desk by some enlisted guy and asked a lot of questions about our lives, families, insurance in case we died, who’d be the beneficiary. It was stuff I’d never had to deal with before. With that done we were given a brown folder with papers in it, which I’d learn later was my 201 file. That’s the file you carry with you to every duty station which had everything anyone wanted to know about me, including my IQ. I learned that was 124. It didn’t make me a genius, but I was told I was smarter than the average Joe. Oh well, I really wasn’t impressed. I was sitting here with a bunch of guys who were all headed the same direction. If I was that smart what was I doing in this human mill.
We were finally taken to a room and told to wait for further orders. There were about the same couple of dozen or more young guys sitting there when two Army and two Marine enlisted came in and took us to a room, lined us up in one long straight line and ordered us to raise our right hand and repeat after them. There were a couple of officers there to administer the oath. This was it folks. The oath taken meant no turning back. Once we did this, those Sergeants took on a new persona. We became their property, but wait. The Marine enlisted were wearing Smokey hats. Fortunately for me they started and the far end of the line from me and started yelling at one man then the next as they worked down the line toward my direction. They got maybe six or so from me and stopped. Then they looked at the guys they spoke to and told them in no uncertain terms that they belonged to them now. They made them make a right face and headed them out the door. Whew, I wasn’t among them. The Army sergeants weren’t quite the same, but they were forceful. They called out names, handed us plane tickets and told we were being taken to the airport. They told us where we’d being going. They got to my end of the line and the group on my end was heading for somewhere called Fort Polk, LA. I wished I’d never heard of the place. It was later that I’d learn this was chosen for fresh recruits because it had the nearest climate to that of Vietnam the United States had. That didn’t sound good. But off to the airport we went. I was for the first time in my life going beyond the state line of North Carolina.
