When I entered the military, one of the written documents that needed to be completed contained several questions. One asked whether I had belonged to, supported, or attended any social functions of, any organization listed in the attached chart. The only one I recognized was the SDS or Students for Democratic Society, that I had heard about when I was studying at Purdue.
Trying to be totally candid, I replied that I had never belonged to or supported any of the organizations but may have attended a dance sponsored by the SDS. I noted in the comments section that didn’t think I had but hedged my answer that it ‘might have been.’ Had I over-thought my response?
Henry Ford was the name of my personal banker. Not “the” Henry Ford, of course. He explained to me later that the FBI had come to his bank and interrogated him along with several of my family members, teachers, and classmates, to determine if I had any anti-American sympathies. Since they found that I clearly did not, I was given a top-secret security clearance. Yes, I had over thought the question.
I was put in charge of 53 of my fellow inductees. We were all learning to be tank mechanics. I had graduated from college as had one other man in my unit. Three other soldiers had high school diplomas and the rest were part of the forward looking all volunteer force idea.
Every Friday was a test on the lessons of the week and each Thursday night I would post a list of suggested questions. One Detroit member of our unit threatened to cut me with a knife because my questions were so close to the actual test questions, rarely varying, that he presumed I had stolen a list of the answers and was just refusing to share. His anger was toward the idea that every now and then, I would post a question that was not on the test or miss one that was. On leave I was ordered by my Colonel to accompany this Detroit private as far as the St. Louis airport to make sure he was able to get on his plane to Detroit, as he had difficulty reading and telling time. Apparently he did not overthink.
It was relatively easy to determine what questions were going to be on the test. The instructor would open the class with a statement, “You will see this again.” That same phrase was used midway through the class and at the close of the day. The last thing the instructor said for the day was, “If you don’t take anything else away today, remember, you will see ____ again.” That information went on the sample projected test.
Test scores were so poor for our unit that one day the instructor said, “Today we have a 10-point True and False test. Two, five, and seven are true, fill in the false and turn in your paper.” As I recall, we had about a 71 percent class average. Fortunately, the volunteer army has improved in quality since that time.
One time I was driving a large military vehicle loaded with soldiers. Just as I entered the ramp leading from one interstate to another interstate to go to a training area, I noticed someone backing down the interstate ramp. My horn and the screeching of brakes encouraged him to back off the access ramp and fortunately, no one was injured or killed. That driver was not thinking.
I always had the first target on the rifle range. People whose last names begin with ‘A’ are always in the first seat, first chair, or first target in life. There was a space between soldiers and to my right was an inner-city kid from Chicago. I sighted my rifle toward the target 300 meters away. I noticed that my target fell over, even though I had yet to pull the trigger. I soon realized my neighbor had the wrong target. I won the shooting round that day. No need to think at all about that issue. Later, in the snow, I was lucky to hit 32 out of 40, the minimum competency.
The military was an educational experience and one all Americans should be given a participatory opportunity. Service to our Country, in the military or other public service, should be a mandatory requirement.