THE WAY IT WAS…
…Joining the Army, Part 2
by Al Eicher

The first four weeks of Army Basic Training actually put us through a lot of physical fitness training. Push-ups, squat jumpers and chin-ups were part of the daily routine. For a while we had to do 10 chin-ups before breakfast on a high bar in the chow line. We all ate three big meals each day, and if you had any fat when you joined the Army, it soon turned to muscle. Squad leaders were not exempt from doing the exercise.

By the fifth and sixth weeks, we had already marched with full field packs on 10- and 15-mile hikes. Several nights were spent on bivouac in the cold, damp Missouri weather. We were required to shave everyday and have a clean T-shirt as well. On bivouac there were no bathrooms or showers and certainly no hot water. The only thing that was warm was hot coffee in a cold tin cup and only at the moment it was poured. One morning, near our bivouac tent, there was a mountain stream with ice along the edge. We broke through the ice and got our helmets full of cold water. This, we used to brush our teeth, to shave and wash our face. It is quite an experience to shave in 20-degree weather with a safety razor and no soap.

Our commanding officer didn't believe in trucking his troops to the K-D firing range. We marched many a day to the range, while other company troops were trucked. Several times our commanding officer marched with us. When the flu bug hit our company along with walking pneumonia, things changed for a short time. Seventy men reported for sick call in one day from the four platoons of our company. One morning I could hardly breathe from coughing so much. My upper bunk buddy, Ron, was from Elkton, Michigan. He helped me through several rough days and nights. The barracks were so cold, the wet mops we used to clean our cubical area in the morning were frozen to the floor.

During the early weeks of Basic Training, we were given every opportunity to adjust our M-l rifle sights and improve on our skills in target practice. If I recall we fired at targets from our prone position at 100 yards, 200 and 300 yards. Some days our fingers nearly froze in the 15- to 20-degree weather. At the 200 and 300 yard target range it was not uncommon to see "Maggie's Drawers" flying from a pole at the target location. Maggie's Drawers were displayed when you missed the target completely. On the day, we were to fire "for record" we scored points on the 100 yard target range. I was disappointed in getting a marksmanship award as I had missed, by two points, getting an expert badge.

One night in the barracks someone said, "We haven't seen a woman or a child for five weeks and the only colors we've seen are green fatigues and the yellowish-white painted barracks."

The following weekend some of us got a pass to go to one of three movie theaters at Ft. Leonard Wood. What a shock it was to see a woman and child walking down the aisle at the theater. The movie theater was a good place to go when you got homesick!

In our sixth week, we were trucked some distance to a special firing range to get experience on the bigger 50 caliber machine guns. This firing range looked like it hadn't been used for some time. The large open range had high, near dead grass, ideal for hunting pheasants. About 200 yards from our machine gun placement were two or three WWI armored tanks. Before firing practice we had to dig a two-man foxhole with that little portable shovel we carried in our backpacks. Finally, we took turns firing at the tanks with this big gun. Every fifth or sixth bullet was a "tracer round", which made it possible to see where and what you were hitting. It didn't take long before the tracer bullets ricocheted off the tanks and started the field of grass on fire. The flames soon got out of control, and the Ft. Leonard Wood fire department was called to put out the fires. Some of us were given fire extinguishers to put out small areas of fires. A little later the order was given to fill in our foxholes and board the trucks for the trip back to the company compound.

Looking back on the eight weeks of Basic Training, I can truthfully say most of our field instructors told "off color jokes" every day and the slang was often times very crude. We also were not given time off to go to church. Some fellows did not pass Basic and had to stay another four weeks. Other fellows, who were on sick leave or in the hospital, had to go to another company unit to finish out their eight weeks of Basic Training.

After Basic Training I received a two-week furlough and was assigned to the Army Signal Corp School at Fort Monmoth, New Jersey. I was told this is the best Army duty you could get. They called it the "Army's Playground". They were right! I was 38 miles from New York City, and I would be there for 26 weeks of training in radar and microwave communications. My acting Corporal stripes were re-assigned to me at Fort Monmoth and later on at Fort Gordon, Georgia. At this time my pay was increased to $110 a month, with a rank of private first class.

The Army instructors, at the Microwave and Radar school, were RCA civilian engineers, and were better than some I had in college. My classes were from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. with time off for dinner, five days a week. We students had a lot of free time to go to the beaches at Asbury Park and Red Bank, New Jersey. New York City was only 38 miles away and the bus station was just outside the gate of Ft. Monmoth. The nearby USO Clubs and the entertainers at the ocean board walk casino in Asbury Park made Army life very comfortable. Military personnel did not have to pay to see the "Four Lads" or the "Clooney Sisters", and a bus ticket to New York City was only two dollars. For one month about 15 of us got away with sleeping on the beaches at the Red Bank USO. The Commanding General found out what we were doing as we were not in the barracks for bed check, and that ended our listening to the ocean waves that put us to sleep each night.

You never knew what you would end up doing in the Army, especially when the war is over. After finishing school at Ft. Monmoth, I was sent to Fort Gordon, Georgia. There I was assigned to the 228th Signal Company as a team chief, given a jeep and a promotion to Specialist 3rd Class with a monthly pay of $163. My radio and microwave team of 11 men actually built, with hammer and nails, a radio station and sleeping quarters at the Clark Hill Dam site, 32 miles from Fort Gordon. We called it "our cottage on the lake". This was eight months of great duty, keeping the radio station on the air with our portable power generators, fishing the lake for some of our food and having my own jeep to pick up groceries and beverages as needed. It was truly a wonderful learning experience for a 20-year-old.

President Eisenhower and Mamie flew to Augusta many times, as this was the President's vacation home and second White House location. Our 228th Signal Company marched in three parades, given in his honor, during my 13 months in Georgia. It was great to see the President and Mamie up close. In July, our Signal Battalion got orders for overseas duty, when I had only five months to finish my military service. I wasn't eligible for overseas duty, due to being a "short timer".

To keep me busy, I was sent to the Army's Aquatic school held at the Oliver General Hospital swimming pool, which was adjacent to the Augusta National Golf Course. Twelve of us, from 18,000 men were picked to attend the one-week Aquatic's school. We were assigned to a special services company and moved to their barracks. This special service group turned out to be made up of meat cutters for the many mess halls, golf course grounds keepers, movie projectionists and some service staff to the General of Fort Gordon. Since I had more free time, I tried out for the 3rd Army softball team, which was forming. I had been a fastball pitcher on several town-to-town traveling league softball teams in Huron County.

In eight days, at the Oliver General Hospital pool, I logged 48 hours in the water; we were trained to be lifeguards and water front instructors for a new "summer fun program" developed by the Commanding General and his staff. After completing the course, for about a month, I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor at the officer's pool to teach the children of the officers. Then I was assigned to a new summer camp designed for the children of non-commissioned officers and officers living at Fort Gordon. This was, no doubt, fantastic duty for about six weeks. I managed to find time to play fast pitch softball for Ft. Gordon, where we competed against other 3rd Army Divisions. We lost the final game in the championships.

My best duty came when I was assigned to be a lifeguard for the WAC detachment at Fort Gordon...believe it or not! The only rescue I made was that of a WAC from Bay City, Michigan. She was drowning and on the bottom, at the deep end of the pool. I was so startled with the event that while running on the deck to dive into the pool, I left my sunglasses on. Fortunately, I didn't get any facial cuts. I managed to get her off the bottom and to the surface. I then worked my way with her over to the edge of the pool, but people on the deck were stunted or hesitant to assist until I yelled for their help. She survived, requiring only a little artificial respiration, but she had a terrible headache for several hours. She thanked me many times that afternoon at the pool. She also gave me her name and told me if I ever got a traffic ticket in Bay City I should see her father, who was Chief of Police....And That's The Way It Was!

Al and Dave Eicher provide television production services to corporations, ad agencies, and nonprofit organizations. They also create Michigan town histories and offer lecture services on a variety of Michigan History Events. You may contact them at 248-333-2010; Email: info@program-source.com; Web site: www.program-source.com; Address: PSI, P.O. Box 444, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303.