Chapter 4: Basic Training - Part 4

Our first pay day was very special. That's the day the cooks that roomed in our barracks promised us that they would smuggle in ice cream from the base soft serve store. You see, we weren't allowed to eat or drink anything but water and what they provided us at meal times, so after a month of being denied any sort of treat, the ice cream hit the spot. It did come a premium of about 5 times what they paid for it, but we all paid willingly. This happened regularly until they got caught. I think someone squealed on them.

Many men tried to do things that would get them kicked out of the army. Things that I'm sure many of them would have never done as a civilian. One night two men in my barracks were caught "snuggling" naked in one of their bunks. I'm not sure if they were really gay, or were just putting on an act. It did get them kicked out of the army though. Then, as is today, gays aren't allowed in the military.

Another man, Ben Caraballo, claimed he could not speak one word of English. He was from Puerto Rico. There were a few guys in our company from there. Each time he spoke our was spoken to, another guy that spoke Spanish would interpret things for him. The drill sergeant absolutely hated him for that. It drove him crazy. A few guys claimed to have heard him speak English, but I never did. If he was putting on an act, it was a good one. One of the other guys from Puerto Rico said that all kids in Puerto Rico learned to speak, read and write English in school, so personally, I believed that he was acting.

In one of the other barracks, a guy refused to take a shower. Guess he figured if he smelled bad enough, they'd kick him out of the army. It took about three weeks of him smelling up the place when his barrack mates got tired of the stench and gave him a blanket party and a GI shower.

Blanket Party - A blanket party is a means of corporal punishment or hazing conducted by a peer group. Blanket parties are most frequently conducted by groups within the military, or military academies. A blanket party is conducted by an individual being restrained, while his peers strike him repeatedly with improvised 'flails' (generally a sock or a washrag containing something solid, i.e. a bar of soap). GI Shower - GI Shower Given to someone who usually is in need of a shower but who refuses. The offender is forced into the shower (sometimes blindfolded) where others scrub him or her with scrub brushes or steel wool. The intent is to encourage him or her to maintain minimal standards of cleanliness and the outcome is often painful and even bloody. It is an illegal assault and can be punished under the UCMJ. It happens rarely. http://www.answers.com

It was done on a Sunday when all of the DIs were off duty and usually off base. The only NCOs were in the company HQ and usually never bothered us. A bunch of guys wrapped the guy in a blanket and roughed him up a little. Then they took him in the shower and scrubbed him down with things like a broom, brush and anything else they could fine that was used to clean things with. Then they warned him and told him he would shower every day from now on or it would happen again, or maybe something worse. They also warned him not to tell on them, our else! He never did tell on them and showered every day after that.

One day towards the end of basic training I was assigned as a driver and missed a big event back in the company area, but I was told all about it when I got back. Late in the day after training was over, SSG Temple and Corporal Levato got drunk and thought it would be funny to harass the our platoon even more than usual. They got the bright idea to make my platoon dress in odd uniform combinations. They gave them just a few minutes to get into each uniform combination and then stand in formation for “inspection”. They also made the men strip to their underwear and crawl in the dirt on their bellies.

This kind of harassment, and more, went on for awhile, but stopped when the battalion commander just happened to come to our company area to look around. I think he showed up because one of the other NCOs tipped him off. The battalion commander sent Temple and the corporal to our company HQ and then dismissed our platoon to so they could get cleaned up and straighten up the barracks. Both NCOs got in serious trouble for what they had done. They were court marshaled, busted down a rank and docked some pay.

We were confined to the company area in basic except on Sundays when were allowed to walk to the base chapel for church service. You'd surprised at how many men took up religion once they found out that we stopped at the base soft serve ice cream store on the way back after church.