US Army Recruitment Standards. (You've got to be kidding me....!)

[cavanami]

Two of the extended family members went in to the US military...as they could not get jobs! (another thread needed on the shit US economy).\

 

Only the US Marines would take them...not the Army, Air Force or Navy, the Marines.

They did not test all that high so after many weeks of ribbing (join the Marines and get issued your 103 fleas, etc) they boarded the bus and headed off.

 

The US military is a "good" job today, as most of US industry has gone off shore...so there you are, welcome to USA 2010!!!

[Bangkoktraveler]

Audey Murphy was no specimen. He was rejected by the Marines and the Navy.

 

During boot camp in the Army, he passed out. They tried making him a cook but he insisted on being a soldier.

 

But Audey Murphey went on to become te most decorated soldier in WWII. What made him great was he knew how to shoot.

 

 

[temfarang]

we ran in "AF issued boots" on an unimproved dirt trail .. seems it was an 8 minute mile (?) .. might have been 6 but I've always remembered 8

 

my last duty assignment was at back at Lackland, San Antonio, AF basic training, located on the northern edge of the Chihuahuan desert

 

worked in the ER .. during the warm months May - September (near 100F / 35 C in the shade) we would ride around the PT fields in an ambulance picking up recruits that fell out.

we would load up the ambulance before returning to the ER .. would not go to the ER with 1 passed out / heat exhaustion recruit .. would fill the ambulance up like a bus before returning to the ER

& then we'd immediately head back to the PT fields for more 'fall outs'

the ambulance was on a 'bus like route' from morning to late afternoon ..

we routed by the women's PT fields 1st, = picked up the girls 1st, for a chance at developing a meaningful relationship / scoring /

'some guys' would place the laid out lasses in a way that allowed 'peeping' through the rear view mirror.

[Flashermac]

PT in the "good old days" was in your ordinary fatigues and combat boots. Ground your equipment, take off your fatigue jacket and steel pot, lean your rifle on top ... and run. You also wore the same fatigues the rest of the day - drenched in sweat and stinking. Nowadays, it's go back to the barracks and change into your PT clothes and running shoes. One career NCO said to me, "What happens if we are in combat and we have to run? Do we change into our PT clothes?"

 

 

 

 

[temfarang]

damn I'm having flashbacks ..

remembering the BS lifers handed out to non-lifers

 

I got out with 3 stripes .. would have gotten my 4th if I re-uped (LO F'n L)

the 4 stripe-ers (& up) knew 'we' were short timers

my 'love beads' under my uniform may have given me away. (African trade beads on a string .. ?)

 

POed a lifer beyond belief when he caught me typing the words to Country Joe's anthem "fixin to die rag" on the unit's typewriter.. be the 1st one on your block to have your son come home in a box

he tried to cause problems .. the CO was irritated with me but apparently there was not much he could do to a short timer .. or perhaps too much paper work for typing the words to a popular published song .. anyway, never heard of it again after that afternoon.

 

..short timers were getting out & going on to a real life ..

lifers were jealous of us .. & we HATED 80+% of them

 

1. in basic the only way to take a break was to puff a cancer stick.. "Light um if ya got um" .. you could not stand around to shuck & jive .. if you didn't smoke you could not take a break!

the military almost forced recruits to become tobacco addicts

cancer sticks were very very cheap on base.

I never bowed .. F' smokin' to please a dummy lifer!

 

2. I became religious in basic .. in church there were no lifers f'n with you. went to church at every opportunity .. any & all religious days (& any 'ol religion would do) .. I think David figured that out, he had been class president at a New England university.

 

3.my group of short timers hated most of the lifers .. we were mostly college guys that got caught up in the Vietnam choice: Army for 2 years or AF / Navy for 4 years .. all of my buds chose 4 years of AF over 2 years in the Army.

we hung out with 0 lifers.

 

we looked at lifers as guys that could not make it on the outside.

IMHO, lifers enjoy the protection provided by rank & rank is mostly based on seniority not achievement.

.. rank allows bulling & abuse .. constant threats of "assorted court marshals" if you did not jump when a superior rank lifer said jump..

 

we figured out if you were 'working' you could avoid saluting .. we kept a brand new spotless garbage can in our 4 man barracks room.

we would walk around base carrying an empty & never used garbage can between 2 of us .. = no saluting .. would leave it in front of the PX, NCO club, bowling alley .. (who's going to handle a garbage can they do not have to?).. pick it up on our way out & saunter back to the barracks sans 1 f'n salute!

 

to this day, I've met few lifers I respected .. much less liked.

[Flashermac]

How did you manage to get into the USAF? It took years of waiting in California - by which time you have been drafted long ago. I was in my first year of teaching high school, when the Santa Barbara draft board decided to go after me. There were two male teachers in their early 20s. They grabbed us both - said they had to get us before we were too old. The other guy was in and out in about 6 months. He was seriously wounded in a sapper attack in Da Nang after just 2 weeks in RVN and was medically discharged! Did his service really accomplish anything? He was back at the same high school in less than a year, while I was off in the Central Highlands. I did get put in an E-6 slot when I was still an E-3. They took me out of a line platoon because the guy doing the job was an absolute fuck up, so I got lucky. Once they gave me that E-5 stripe, I was treated as a human. It was an amazing difference - though for a long time I was just an acting jack. Serving in RVN was pleasanter than being in a stateside base (provided you didn't get killed). None of that lifer crap, just do your job and maybe salute if you felt like it. I extended in RVN so I wouldn't have to pull any stateside time when I got back. I didn't want to go back to all that Mickey Mouse nonsense.

 

p.s. We weren't allowed to smoke in basic. All ciggies were confiscated. Trainees weren't allowed such a "luxury". I remember one Sunday when my entire BCT company showed up for church. The reason was the company with the most attendees got invited to stay for cookies and lemonade. We even took the Jewish guys along with us.

 

 

 

 

[Old Hippie]

If I had it to do over, I think I'd have done 20 years in the coast guard or something...maybe even army. I'd have some pension, medical for life and maybe even a bit more job opportunities.

[temfarang]

?

I started working on the AF months before I was forced to deal with my expiring deferment .. I knew it (military) was coming

 

I had taken aptitude tests at the AF recruiter in March - April of that year.

may have taken a physical at that time, do not recall .. I recall the physical but do not recall where or the timing.

 

(I do extremely well on standardized tests .. scored in the 93 percentile on the GRE (graduate school SAT) . + I generally finish the tests you are not supposed to finish)

 

.. any way ..

got notified by the AF of a slot before I got my 'draft report for physical' notice in August.

 

+ I knew I was going to be trained as a medic before I reported to basic.. ?

 

& I swore into the AF in September.

Reported to Lackland in October

 

I took an AF paid for bus to SA on a Friday & did not have to be on base til Monday .. so I went to Austin for one last party weekend

could have gone to the base on that Friday .. but the last day to show up was on Monday ..

 

>>>>>>>>>>

I got my report for physical notice in August & freaked. (one thing that has always irritated me about Clinton .. he said he did not recall getting his notice) .. I remember every detail of my call home from a pay phone & my moma telling me I had a letter from the 'government', "Do you want me to open it"

 

I never took the 'draft physical'

 

>>>>

as I recall different draft boards had different quotas ..

the heavier the ethnic population the higher the % drafted.

[Flashermac]

My cousins had been in the Navy and loved it - one enlisted, one commissioned. I decided to try for a Navy commission after I graduated. They sent me up to San Luis Obispo for the written tests, which I breezed through. Then it was down to LA for a physical, which I passed. Finally, off to Santa Barbara for an interview. They immediately asked me if I was a pharmacist. I said of course I wasn't, they had my university transcript right in front of them. Well, ALL THEY NEEDED WERE PHARMACISTS. They had to go through the motions, even though they didn't need anyone - just for appearances sake! Meanwhile, I'd wasted so much time with the Navy, that the draft board got around to me. The Army did give me orders for infantry OCS twice. I told them what they could do with their infantry orders and stayed enlisted.

 

Combat engineers wasn't all that bad - when you compare it to infantry. We didn't have to go out looking for trouble, though sometimes it came looking for us. The only times the bad guys would go after us was when they wanted to kill some Americans to keep the anti-war movement in the States going. Since the infantry had already been pulled back under Nixon's Vietnamization, we were the only Americans around - except for an artillery battery and a small Special Forces camp. More or less, we were supporting the South Vietnamese infantry by then. It's a wonder they didn't have us wear the 42nd ARVN patch.

 

The air base at Pleiku looked like it has been moved from California. Even had company clubs with cute Vietnamese hostesses in t-shirts and hot pants. When I saw them, I knew I was in the wrong branch of the military. Several told airmen there was a back log of guys volunteering to serve in RVN. Nice safe duty, but the USAF guys were getting the same pay as the combat troops who were fighting and dying.

 

 

I remember scoring 97% in verbal on the GRE and exactly 30% on the mathematics. I hadn't taken any math since high school algebra, and it took me almost the entire time remembering how to do it. Then I managed to answer maybe 15 questions before the time ran out. I mention my scores to a friend. She told me I'd done well - she only got 12% on mathematics!

 

Military pay really sucked back then. You're right about the lifers. A lot stayed in because they couldn't get a job on the outside. A black E-6 was supervising us one day in BCT as we scrubbed the barracks from top to bottom. He said to me, "Look at you, white boy. You're mopping the floor and I'm giving you orders. In civilian life, it would be the other way around." There were a lot of Tex-Mex guys too - pretty good guys, but some of them could barely even speak English. They'd retire no higher than E-7 at the best.

 

[temfarang]

do you remember what we were paid?

$52 ever 2 weeks in basic & training.

$75 every 2 weeks w/ 2 stripes.

 

I went from $100 a day (w/ OT) to $100 per month

 

during the draft, a grunt's pay was same same as an issan rice field worker.

 

You let your deferment expire without action

.. I asked a lot of questions & prepared.

 

watched a history channel vietnam documentary a couple nights ago (2008 production).. they treated the Gulf of Tonkin as an event that happened & was a valid reason to escalate

 

excellent, except for the US had a right to murder the SE Asians based on the gulf of tonkin lies

 

I remain so pissed at Johnson I cannot stand it

& the CS'er westmoreland should be beat about the head & upper body on a regular basis

Kissenger should be sold to a cambodian brothel