Toxic Waste:Alien Abductions:Stories:Influence:Christina Williams:LA Riots:Civil Rights:other

 Fear at Fort Ord

 

 

I didn't need to have worried about enjoying it, since I'm pretty sure I'm no faggot. But I did worry back then, and so I showed up at the draft center.

We were both accepted, of course, and sent off to Fort Ord. I hated the army. You all know what I'm talking about, morning runs and that fuckin' obstacle course, and all of the other shit that was supposed to make fighting men out of us, but which didn't teach shit about what war was really like.

http://www.frengle.org/nik/reflexive.html

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had, and have the utmost respect for, the job those guys had to do, but I could not see myself surviving in that role. The R.O.T.C. (Run Over To Canada) was never an option as both my parents had served and that would have been just too difficult an atmosphere around family gatherings.

My curiosity would begin to be satisfied in October 1968. I received my induction notice near my 20th birthday, and upon arrival at Fort Ord, took a battery of tests that identified me as qualified for Warrant Officer Candidate ~

Rotary Wing Flight Training. I recall calling my Mom to let her know what I'd gotten myself in line for, and half expected her to say: "What's wrong with you?" Her reply sealed my fate: "Oh. Your father would be so proud!" Ohhh, swell.

http://www.americal.org/174/bio-16.htm

 

 

 

 

 

My memory keeps going back to my first day in the Army.

Initiation into the armed services sticks to our brain cells as a significant "first." Fortunately I went to Basic Training at Ford Ord in California, which is as good as you can get if you are forced into outdoor activities in generously fitting governmental clothes (one size fits all). We arrived , in the dark, on a bus, in the rain, on Easter Sunday morning. The aroma of breakfast wafted through closed windows. An evil precursor of things to come.

http://www.coffeegallery.com/story.html

 

 

 

While undergoing Army basic training at Fort Ord, Calif., we spent a day in the field studying the techniques of camouflage. My partner and I were instructed to cover our foxhole with available foliage. Later, the rest of the class gathered around to evaluate our efforts. "You will observe what excellent concealment we have here," said the instructor. "But what mistake did they make?" "They used poison oak, sir," one soldier answered with a grin. The results were obvious on our hands, faces and necks a few hours later.

—W. E. Pierce (Waterloo, Iowa) Readers Digest, Aug. 83. http://www.goodstories.com/story404.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used to hitchhike through Silicon Valley before the boom, just before Intel produced the world's first microprocessor. I was in the Army, stationed at Fort Ord near Monterey, and would visit my brother in San Francisco on weekends."

--William Hoffman hoffm003@tc.umn.edu

 

Toxic Waste - Alien Abductions - Stories - Influence
Christina Williams - LA Riots - Civil Rights - odds & ends