One of my 8 roommates was a 17y/o
1.He wasn't supposed to be in our battalion-they wanted 20-23 y/o folks (explanation to long and not on topic)
2, He meet a bar room foozy before he entered boot camp, she was a 30y/o female with no visible means of support
He spent his two week leave after boot camp at her cheap hotel room.
3. She proposed, he accepted, she knew spouses are paid an allotment by Uncle Sam and discussed the urgency of her plight. (lot of questions here, why weren't they married before he shipped out...)
4. Once in Germany, he was frantic to get back to the states and marry this 'lady.'
5. He was a tender sprout of 17, he openly discussed his problem with his older roommates.
6. If you volunteered to go to Nam, Uncle Sam would grant you a 30 day leave in the states;
That was his solution: Get back to the states, marry and get the paperwork submitted for her allotment check.
7. Our NO's! were a chorus, he could not hear, He knew it was a bad decision but his hormones found him
submitting paperwork for Nam.
8. He spent a total of three months in Germany, then he was gone-a tragedy.
Reminds me a little of one of my fishing buddies from High School.
After High School I went on to Junior College and he continued to work as a bus boy.
He was working at the Holiday Inn on US 19 in Clearwater and he got involved with this 38 year old waitress named Gladys and shacked up with her for a while. But after a while I think he was getting a bit uncomfortable with the arrangement and he joined the Army I think basically get away from her.
We had kind of a going away party for him. Some of us went out with him and we all got drunk and then got the 2am munchies so we went to this all night diner. I remember I ordered a steak and said I wanted it cooked rare.
When it came it was rare all right. It still had ice in the middle. But I was hungry so I ate it anyway. I remember we played Ballad of the Green Berets over and over on the Juke box. And Gladys was there and she was pretty bummed out about Ken, that was his name, leaving for the Army and she turned to Larry, that was my best friend, and I and said “You boys have got to take care of me while he’s gone”.
I was kind of taken aback by that because even though I was 19 and had never gotten laid before I sure didn’t want to start with a 38 year old waitress who looked every day of that and then some. But crazy Larry chimed in right away and said “I’ll take care of you” Which I’m sure he never did. I’m pretty sure none of us saw Gladys again after that night.
So Ken left for the Army. He came home for a short leave after basic at Ft. Benning and told us all some cool Army stories and then went out somewhere in California for AIT. (Advanced Infantry Training). He had more stories when he came home on leave after that. I remember we went out shooting with our .22’s and Ken, who was a country boy, always was good with a rifle, but after AIT he was damned impressive with it. He could just pop that rifle up to his shoulder and instantly fire without sighting in and hit a beer can 40 feet away no problem.
But he wasn’t going to Nam. He’d signed up for 4 years which at that time you could do and be guaranteed a European tour. So he ended up somewhere near this place called Gelnhausen. He liked it at first. When he came home on leave he gave us all each a switchblade knife, they were apparently legal over there, and a cool fancy German beer mug neither of which I have anymore. But after a while he got bored with it and volunteered for Nam. He served with the 4th Infantry Division in the Pleiku area. Finished his year tour in one piece and came home got out of the Army and enrolled in an engineering program on the GI bill at some college in the Atlanta area.
About 7 months after he came home from Nam he came down with Malaria. Apparently you can get infected with it and it can lay dormant for a while. Anyway, he got treated at the VA hospital, recovered, finished his degree and did quite well for himself. He’s retired now and living somewhere south of Birmingham.
I saw him again at our 25th High School reunion. We talked about old times and when the reunion party was winding down Ken wanted to go out for a beer at this bar that he had gone to back in the day because they had never checked ID’s. Of course that wasn’t an issue now because we were both 43 years old.
When we got there we found that the atmosphere had changed over the last 25 years. We were both wearing suits. Mine was a cheap 20 year old one that I had gotten at Sears for about 50 bucks. The best description I can give of the crowd was that it was a cross between redneck and biker dudes. Anyway, as soon as we walked in the door some guy looked up at us and said “Here come the cops” Earlier that evening Ken had told me that he had been into Karate. O I said to him, “I’m glad you know Karate, in case we have to fight our way out of here”. And then he laughed and said to me “In a street fight what it comes down to is whoever gets in the first good kick to the nuts wins”
But we went ahead in anyway and we had one beer and left and no one bothered us.
We emailed for a while a few years back. Both of us have sons that made a career out of the Army. So it kind of got to be a pissing contest between us as to whose son was the most bad ass. His son made warrant officer and was some kind of aide to a big shot general, so I guess he thinks he won. But my some was a Green Beret and made Master Sergeant so I think I won.