Chapter 4: Basic Training - Part 1

After our week in the reception center we were bused to our respective basic training areas for 9 weeks of basic training.

Upon completion of a four-day processing period, in the Reception Station, trainees were assigned to Fort Gordon or one of the Basic Combat Training Brigades, either the 1st or 2d Training Brigade, at Jackson.

I was assigned to the 2d Training Brigade at Fort Jackson: Company A, 6th Battalion, 2d Training Brigade to be exact.

The 1st and 2d Training Brigades were responsible for the conduct of 215 hours of company-taught subjects. These subjects included: (1) Drill and Ceremonies, (2) Marches and Bivouacs, (3) Pugil Stick, (4) Bayonet, (5) Hand- to-Hand Combat, and (6) Mechanical Training with the M14 Rifle.

The Committee Group would teach us other lots of cool things.

The Committee Group was responsible for the conduct of 117 hours of instruction in Basic Combat Training subjects. The Committee Group taught two general subjects: (1) Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Training and (2) First Aid. Additionally, the Committee Group conducted training in such Combat Indoctrination subjects as: (1) Infiltration Course; (2) Hand Grenades (3) Night Firing and Vision; and (4) Individual Tactical Training, which included negotiating barbed wire obstacles, individual field emplacements, and individual camouflage. Finally, the Committee Group conducted training in Basic Rifle Marksmanship to include marksmanship fundamentals on the 25 Meter Firing Ranges, Field Target Detection, Field Firing Exercises, and Record or Qualification Firing.

These are just some of the men responsible for turning us into soldiers during basic training.




Our platoon drill instructors were SSG Jerry Temple, SGT Krietz and Corporal Levato.

This is SSG Temple. What a prick! He was a real redneck Rebel from the back woods of Tennessee and hated Yankees. Since most of us were from the northern states, he gave us shit for almost the entire time we were in basic. He was the most despised drill sergeant I ever came in contact with.







This is SGT Krietz and the most liked of all the NCOs commanding us. Just look at him, can you blame us for liking the guy?

Who does he remind you of? You'll know if you ever watched the Andy Griffith Show or Mayberry RFD. Yep, the spitting image of Deputy Barney Fife the bumbling dope of a deputy of Sheriff Taylor. But Sgt Kreitz was far from a bumbling dope. He was an excellent instructor.

Or does he remind you of Opie, Andy's son?


Sorry, no picture available of Corporal Levato. He wasn’t assigned to our company until after these pictures were taken.

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As soon as our bus arrived at the basic training company area, the door opened and SSG Temple jumped aboard and the yelling began. OFF THE BUS, OFF THE BUSS! FALL IN! DOUBLE TIME, DOUBLE TIME! FALL IN, FALL IN! LINE UP! DRESS RIGHT DRESS!

Our heads were spinning trying to comprehend what he wanted, because it seemed like no matter what we did, it wasn’t done correctly or fast enough. To test our speed, we were ordered to dump our carefully packed duffel bags out and repack them. Of course we were too slow and repeated this I don’t remember how many times. After a while, the drill sergeant much have gotten bored with this games and dismissed us to the barracks. We fell out of formation and double-timed into the barracks, which would be our new home for the next 9 weeks.

The barracks were built in the 1940s as temporary barracks and looking at these pictures, hadn’t changed a bit. The first picture was taken in the 1940s and the second in the 1960s.

The barracks were two floors high with bunk beds lining both sides of the room and with two wall lockers in between the bunks near the wall and two footlockers at the foot of the bed. The drill sergeant had a room at one end of the first floor. The mess cooks stayed in a room at one end of the second floor. The barracks was spotless and the floors were so shiny you could practically see yourself in it. Of course, everyone walked down the center aisle between the rows of bunks scuffing the highly polished wax as they walked.

Soon the drill sergeant and the drill corporal walked in and started that incessant yelling again. We fell in at attention at the foot of our bunks as the drill sergeant walked down the center aisle chastising us for walking on “HIS” floor and scuffing it up. We were told to never walk on that floor again. That the DI's were the only ones allowed to walk on the center aisle, which they did at least once a day probably to scuff it up and give us more work to do. There was one exception, we could walk on it while we were cleaning and buffing it to that high sign with a buffer.