MY COMB IS CROOKED
Once again other people had made decisions
that would change the direction of my life. Once again I was conflicted
and could only guess whether it was good or bad. Once again I just fell
into line and did what I was told.
The battery commander had called me in to the
orderly room to announce that I had been “selected” to attend the Basic
Non-Commissioned Officer Course at the 3rd Armored Division
(Spearhead) Academy in Hanau, Germany. I was not regular Army – I had been
drafted and went away kicking and screaming. I expected that such a course
would be gung-ho, spit-shine and major BS. On the other hand, our normal
duties in Germany in 1959 were mostly BO-O-ring, so this could be a welcome
change.
Anyway, I hadn’t been given a choice, so I
gathered up all the instructions and proceeded to get ready. The Army was
in process of some uniform changes, moving from the old brown class A uniform to
the new “greens”. However, I had not been issued the browns with the old
Ike jacket when I was processed in, so I couldn’t conform to their list of what
to bring. I was delivered to Hanau with all the other authorized
possessions at the appointed time.
The receiving authorities checked my
belongings and were not pleased. They were ready to reject me and send me
back to my unit in Butzbach. I don’t remember how this was resolved, but
the Academy people and my unit people worked out some resolution and I was
reluctantly allowed to stay.
The quarters assigned for this course were
Spartan, but absolutely sparkling. After 27 former classes had scrubbed,
cleaned, waxed and polished every last square inch, it LOOKED like our
maintenance activities would be trivial. Think again. Another
building across the campus was being renovated, and guess who was conscribed to
scrape paint? We probably spent more time scraping paint than previous
students had spent Brassoing the pipe fittings in the heads and on the
radiators, and the hardware on the doors and windows. Or maybe not.
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The course consisted of a dozen topics, each
of which included classwork, homework, testing and actual experience.
Possible points for these activities are listed in the table at right and total
1000. However, instructors reserved the right to award extra points for
exceptional performance at their discretion.
Leadership was subdivided into Capabilities
400 and Principles 65. Students were given the opportunity to fill various
roles for experience at leadership. A student might be given the
responsibility to march the group from one activity to another on a given day or
to lead the evening paint scraping detail. |
Leadership |
465 |
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Supply |
40 |
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Methods of Instruction |
100 |
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Weapons |
40 |
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Communications |
30 |
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Map Reading |
80 |
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Intelligence |
30 |
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Artillery Forward Observing |
35 |
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Tactics |
80 |
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CBR Warfare |
30 |
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Physical Training |
15 |
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Dismounted Drill |
55 |
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Total Possible Points |
1000 |
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Once during my tenure as Student Commander we
had an afternoon review in preparation for a test the next day. The review
went on and on and suddenly I realized that it was chow time. I raised my
hand, was recognized, and using appropriate protocol said “Student Commander
Sandin, sir, requesting permission to alert the mess hall to hold chow for this
group.” I was given permission and attended to it.
The next day there was a nice extra point
award allocated to my account for that initiative. My action was
apparently viewed as taking responsibility for the welfare of “my” people.
Actually, I was very hungry, and with the pittance left to me by the Army after
all the deductions, I really didn’t want to pay for my own dinner at the
cafeteria.
To make a long story shorter, we all finished
the course and got the results. My report indicated a total of 996.4
points to beat the previous record. Looking at it now, I see a couple of
arithmetic errors or maybe transcription errors, but the total adjusted for
these errors would still exceed the previous record. The newspaper
clipping tells the story.
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Not surprisingly, when I got back to my unit,
the officers were delighted with me. I got an official promotion and was
also given the designation of acting sergeant. The designation took me off
the lists for KP and guard duty and moved me to Officer of the Day and Sergeant
of the Guard. Big deal? Still had duties but they didn’t involve
scrubbing trash cans or standing around in the weather trying to stay awake.
And I got to cut the chow line.
The surprising part was the attitude of my
fellow draftees. They viewed me as a gung ho turncoat and teased me
unmercifully about 996.4! It took me a while to make the transition to
sergeant (leader of men), but the treatment of my fellows actually helped me to
adapt to things like cutting the chow line and eating at the sergeant’s table in
the back room of the mess hall. The draftees did get to laugh at me
because I also had to take a turn monitoring the extra duty details.
Trying to get a half dozen goof-offs to pull weeds or other menial tasks was
more torture for the acting sergeant than for the guys.
So I finished out the balance of my
conscription as a sergeant. I had a lockable semi-private room (two-man)
in the castle we used as a barracks. My duties included more dignified
activities and less menial. I probably got more respect from the officers
and definitely got more from the sergeants ‘cause I made their jobs easier.
And in the long run, I think I did better with the draftees because I could
relate to their attitudes. And then I was discharged.
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