The time finally came and my Daddy took me to Reform
to catch the bus for Fort McPherson, Georgia. I believe there were about
fifteen boys in my group and my orders made me acting Corporal until we reached
Fort Mc. I was supposed to be in charge for the trip over. I never found
out what my authority consisted of and that was just as well.
As soon as we arrived, a big fat PFC took over giving
all of us a hard time and showing his authority in the worst way. The first
night I was terribly homesick, since it was the first and only night I had
ever spent away from home. Homesickness I never completely overcame. It didn't
bother me much in the day time but I suffered a spell of it most every night,
usually about the time they were waking us up, early in the morning. It really
was not so bad that I was miserable, but more like a nagging little
headache.
We stayed at Fort Mc. about five or six days being
subjected to the first rigors and requirements of army life. We were issued
our first ill fitting uniforms, summer khaki, underwear, socks, ties and
shoes. My shoes felt way too big, but the army said I wore a 9 1/2 D and
who was I to argue. The army was probably right because they felt real good
I was about to forget to tell about the first morning at Fort Mc. This big
old PFC had us fall out bright and early and line up at attention in our
best military manner, which by any stretch of the imagination was not very
military. Then he asked in his most authoritative voice, who in this group
could drive a truck. About ten of the boys raised their hands, thinking they
would be assigned a soft job, or get the thrill of driving a real army truck.
Of course we didn't know that this was the oldest trick in the non-coms book.
When these boys had finished the day driving wheelbarrows loaded with dirt
they never wanted to see another army truck. I didn't bite on that trick,
but there were many more to come.
The fifteen boys that I had brought to Fort Mc. with
me had one thing in common-I was the only one of the group who could tie
a necktie, so it was quite a job tying fifteen neckties every morning for
a few days. We also had a problem putting on our canvas leggings which at
that time was part of the uniform. They must have had twenty or more eyelets
and hooks, and each of them had to be hooked just right. The hooks were designed
to go on the outside of the legs, for obvious reasons, but you could put
them on backwards just as easily, but then try to run out the barracks door
and hang a hook on the one leg to an eyelet on the other, and all of Uncle
Sam's rules could not keep you from busting your butt.
I will have to say that I liked the army food from
the very start, although it was a far cry from Mothers home cooking, and
I learned to gripe about army food like any good soldier should. The extra
early getting up, the almost constant exercise, and army food began to toughen
me up, and instead of getting fat like so many boys did, I slimmed down,
and began to replace flabby with muscle. I guess I had eaten too much of
my mothers fried chicken and other goodies. I was a bit overweight when I
was inducted but this condition didn't last long.
Some time around the tenth of May a large group of
us were herded aboard a troop train. We circled about and picked up another
group of recruits at Fort Oglethorpe, near Chattanooga, Tenn. then the train
proceeded with undue slowness towards the west. I learned later that this
was characteristic of all the troop trains I ever rode. The supply and ammunition
trains seemed to always have priority. About ten PM on the fifteenth of May
we reached our destination. There had been much speculation on the troop
train as to where we were going, and what type of outfit we were going to.
One old boy made the announcement that he didn't know where, but he was sure
we were going into the air force, because there was not a single one of the
recruits wearing glasses and the air force demanded good eyes.