Boot Camp 1958

By: Hubert Crowell

After enlisting in the Army May 26, 1958 in Portland Oregon, they wasted no time, I had to report for duty the following week and boarded a train for California. Fort Ord, located on scenic Hwy. 1 about five miles north of Monterey, was once home to 25,000 soldiers and civilian workers. Founded as a cavalry post in 1917, it became a major training post during World War II. Most recently, Fort Ord was home to the 7th Infantry Div., which inactivated in 1993.

We were issued our military clothing, giving shots and saw little of the sights, I just recently figured out where Fort Ord is and how close I was to the Pacific ocean and did not even see it!

I lost track of my personal belongs in the rush to leave Portland and the thing that I missed the most was an Indian pipe that my grandfather gave me. I should not have taken it with me when I ran away from home. It was a carving of two deer stepping over a log, one of the antlers was broken but otherwise it was perfect. It even had a silk lined leather case. The pipe was white and was carved from bone or made of clay. My grandfather Clark, said that an Indian passing through western Kentucky gave it to him. I sure would like to have known the story behind that gift.

After a couple of weeks at Fort Ord, we were placed on a train and shipped to Fort Hood, Texas.

The first day on the train while we were still in California, the train put on the emergency brakes and came to a stop. Our car was just over the railroad crossing where a woman had jumped in front of the train. I remember thinking that I hoped that this was not a sign of things to come.

I felt safe in entering the army at this time, the Korean war had just ended with troops still at high alert on each side and occasional shots beings fired at each other. Most of us thought that we would end up in Korea before it was over. We had not heard about Vietnam and it was not until years later that I discovered that we had advisors there before I was discharged. This qualified me as a war veteran and a free life long drivers' licence from the state of Georgia.

After a couple of days on the train we arrived at Killeen, Texas for basic training at Fort Hood. My earliest memory at age four is of going the latrine with Dad at a base in Texas during WWII. Dad was drafted in 1944 and sent to Europe just in time for the Battle of the Bulge. I believe that he received his basic training also at Fort Hood.

Fort Hood was hot, dry and very few trees. They feed us a lot of salt tablets and we sweat salt until out clothes were white. I gave it my all during the first PT test and almost passed out. I believe at the time that they collected the youngest recruits and sent them all to the same camp at the same time. I believe that we were all sixteen or seventeen at the most. A few of the recruits confessed their true age and got out of the army to be sent home. I stuck it out and wondered if they would discovered how old I really was. During advance training I had to be cleared for confidential material and I was sure that the investigation would give me away. If it did, they did not say anything.

I remember one night after a long day on the training field, hiking back to the barracks and fell asleep while marching. I marched right off the road and into a ditch! I was still young and had not yet learned to do everything I was told. So I got more than my share of extra details. I recall one time that the Sargent had me digging a fox hole under the HQ building. Why there I will never know, it was low and sort of like shoveling coal in the mines. Another time two of us hid in the attic of the barracks to avoid marching that day. We did not get caught but that may have been the cause of having to dig the holes.

I will never forget that first hand grenade we had to throw. I recently saw on the news that when your adrenaline gets high that you remember the moment forever. All that I could think of was that I was going to drop the grenade into the hole or would not be able to throw it far enough. You think that you will be OK until they hand you that heavy grenade and tell you to pull the pin!

The gas chamber was another experience I will never forget, my eyes watered so much that I could not see, but I did not get sick. And then there was the crawling under the live machine gun fire. I sure was glad to see those six weeks end.

At the time I did not know that Elvis Presley was training also at Fort Hood and had bought a house in Killeen, Texas. Elvis was stationed at Fort Hood for six months of training and followed us to Germany in late September 1958.

At the end of Basic Training, we got some time off to visit our families and I returned to Providence, Kentucky. Mother forgave me for lying about my age, but not for running away from home.

I returned to Fort Hood for eight weeks of advance training and was assigned to the Artillery. I am not sure how I made it with less than a ninth grade education, but I was assigned to fire direction control based on my high scores on the entrance test. We had lots of class room training before going out on the firing range with the 105mm self-propelled howitzers. When I enlisted, I was assured that the army would provide me with a high school education. I later found out that meant taking a GED test and then providing classes on the subjects that were not passed. The GED test was so general in nature that I passed all the subjects and therefore no schooling was required.

Passes were hard to get, so I did go under the fence once for a night on the town, and the group that I went with were wild and talking about staying awol. I had second thoughts and returned alone the same way I left, under the fence. I never tried that again. I recalled when we were ready to ship out, they gathered us all into the main theater for a pep talk. It was just like in the movie Paton. And then we got our orders for Germany, as I had enlisted for three years, I would spend two years on assignment in Germany. About half of the replacements going to the 73 Artillery were draftees and the other half were from our group of young volunteers. The draftees only had to spent eighteen months on assignment and would leave early. Elvis left Germany before I did even though he arrived after I did.

We boarded a train for New York, with no stop overs and the train rolled right through New York City and stopped at the docks. It was in the middle of the night so I saw nothing of the city. Early the next morning I was assigned KP duty and had to remain below, even missing the view as we sailed. I pulled KP duty every other day for the 20 some days at sea before landing at Bremerhaven, Germany.

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hubertcrowell@comcast.net