The training regimen and barracks life were twin nightmares. Eight weeks of what was, for me, total hell followed.
In early March I kissed my mother good bye, got on the bus to Denver where I was sworn in, spent the night at a cheap hotel on the Army’s nickel, and flew off the next day to Army basic training in Texas. The best I could hope for, I was told, was clerk school. HA! I was not the only one with that idea, it seemed. Benjamin Harrison followed by a fabulous career on Armed Forces Radio. Since I had been working part-time as a radio announcer and tv cameraman, I had this wonderful mental picture of information specialist school at Ft. Being as how, at the time, they were drafting for the Marines and, being as how there was absolutely no way in HELL that I was going to be a Marine, I took myself down to the friendly Army recruiter to see about enlistment. I wasn't drafted yet but the hounds were sniffing at the door.
Hard on the heels of my 1-A draft status came a notice to report for a physical. Shortly after the first of the year, 1968, the axe fell. For a few short years, several lifetimes ago, I wore a uniform.
