Chapter 4: Basic Training - Part 3

The next story in the continuing saga of BTExpress' army adventures.

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Once everyone had arrived in basic later that week, SSG Temple called us to formation in front of our barracks. Temple asked us if there was anyone in our platoon that thought they could kick his ass. No one spoke up at first until one guy raised his hand. Temple called him to the front.

Temple got in his face yelling and screaming that "... who did he think he was? Asking him "...if he thought he was a tough guy?" All kind of thing like that. The guy stood right up and unflinchingly said, "...yes." Temple asked him "...if he thought he was so tough, to come with him behind the barracks and try!" Then off they went.

HOLY CRAP! Was that guy crazy or something. Temple was about the toughest sounding guy I'd ever seen and he was sure to kick the guys ass. We all stood silently listening for the sound of a fight, but we never heard anything. A few minutes later they both came out from behind the barracks looking just like they did before this whole thing started.

The guy stood next to Temple with both of them facing us. Temple told us that he was our Platoon Leader and in charge when none of the NCOs were around. He wrapped a blue arm band around his upper arm that had three stripes on it. This arm band signified his position.

Platoon Leader SGT Dallas Cook











Temple instructed Cook to choose one man to be his assistant. He would also get an arm band, but with two stripes. He choose this man.

Platoon Leader Corporal Robert Cleckly











Temple's choice of these two men made for problems sometimes for basically two reasons. They let their positions go to there heads and turned into a couple of first class pricks. Also because these two guys were black. Remember this was 1968 and racial tensions were running quite high in the USA at the time. And since out of the 56 men in our platoon, 8 men were black. The rest were either white or some other nationality.

On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward. The Washington, D.C. riots of April 4–8, 1968 erupted with the April 4, 1968 assassination of Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil unrest affected at least 110 U.S. cities; Washington, along with Chicago and Baltimore, was among the most impacted. Then on April 11 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

One evening just before bed, Cook began walking up and down the center aisle with his dick hanging out of his boxers stroking it as he walked. Truthfully, it was huge! He asked if anyone wanted to get fucked or blow him. Everyone was afraid of him, so no one said a word and just tried to ignore him. Then he jumped on a few bunks, including mine acting like he was trying to fuck you. He didn't do anything except laugh, make humping motions and stroke his dick. When he got tired of playing the game, he stopped and went to bed.

That night I was suddenly awakened when my bunk was pushed over. My arm was between the foot locker and the bunk when we hit the floor, but I didn't get hurt. We were pushed over by Cook and his partner in crime Cleckly. They knock over one or two more bunks too.

By then everyone in the barracks had woken up. Someone woke up Temple and and he came running up the stairs to see what was going on. Cook and Cleckly were ratted out immediately and the two of them were taken to the company HQ. Temple asked if anyone was hurt, but no one was hurt, just shaken up. We were told to straighten things up and go back to bed.

The next day during morning formation, Temple made Cook and Cleckly apologize, but that was it! Well, except that they weren't allowed out of the company area for a while. No one thought that was fair, but Temple said since there was no real harm done, it would just be dropped.