Chapter 9
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Even though I had already signed the papers, had already taken the bus here, being in the army didn't really hit me until this drill sergeant started yelling at all of us. I realized later that the point was to break you down to nothing, and rebuild you as a soldier. He insulted me for being a girl, and for being jewish. I wasn't particularly singled out however, he insulted everyone for some reason or another, never seemed to play favorites. I'm not saying it was right, but it was how it was back then, I'd rather not repeat the words he used on any of us. Any new job is going to be an adjustment, the army was no different in that respect. But if it were a normal civilian job I would have the freedom to quit. This sergeant made it clear he would gladly shoot any one of us for desertion, I think he took pride in making us more afraid of him than the alien's bombs and bullets. Like everyone else I just tried to adjust and take whatever came. The first dinner I had in mess hall I learned that the point of military food is just to keep you alive, how it tastes is not a high priority. One young man, whom we all called "Joker" said about this "There are millions of people with no food at all, including us." After dinner we all went to the barracks to try and get some sleep. I was too nervous, my first night sleeping in a strange bed, fearing what the drill sergeant had in store for us tomorrow. That was one of the few times I would be too nervous to sleep. Most of the time I was so exhausted I just went to sleep.
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A typical day in boot camp started at 5am, everyone was woken by revelie. Being at the low end of the food chain we had to be dressed and ready within five minutes, God help anyone who wasn't. Yet it was perfectly acceptable for the drill sergeant not to be there for another ten minutes, so we had to hurry up and wait. Then it was showers, breakfast. The day would usually include excercise, firearms training, and some sort of menial duty. It was usually the new recruits who cleaned the barracks, or others who somehow got in the sergeant's bad side. It was apparently a myth that you were expected to clean it with a toothbrush, why use a toothbrush that could be mistaken by anyone for their own? After dinner we had our only downtime of the day, to read letters from home or play cards with our friends, we could go into the tv room if we were on our best behavior, then we'd have lights out at 9pm. Hopefully this would allow us a full 8 hours of sleep, but the sergeant would do surprise inspections in the middle of the night, it kept us on our toes. He also wanted to see is anyone had snuck out. Some did, went to town to meet lovers or get drunk. I don't know where they found the energy, I was too afraid of the sergeant to try that. And like anyone else, there were mornings I had to wake up at 4am to peel potatoes and help prepare breakfast. I also had to be on guard duty at times. Sometimes I wouldn't get in to barracks until after 1am, and get less than 4 hours of sleep. Other times I'd be on guard duty by 1am, also less than four hours of sleep. I only got slapped once, for reading a letter from home after lights out. There were 30 of us in the female barracks, maybe three who were never slapped during basic training. Not everyone could handle this. One girl tried to slash her wrists. The sergeant came in, took a knife to his arm, and said "You really want to die, this is how you slash your wrists." She backed off her suicide attempt, I guess she wasn't serious about it. Others however, they took the sergeant's advice and successfully committed suicide. I wonder, we all knew the war was only suppossed to last until a certain number were dead. Was the sergeant okay with us killing ourselves so that he would live? I missed my mother more than ever. I read all of mom's letters and wrote back when I could. My mother was still angry, but her letters wished me the best. Her care packages usually included her oatmeal raisin cookies and a bottle of coke. I would sometimes trade a few of these cookies to another girl for a few of her mother's brownies. I believe she was the one who first called me Brooklyn. One time I said to her "I was born in Brooklyn, dropped out of school in Brooklyn, and I'm ready to die for Brooklyn." That's how I earned the nickname Brooklyn. We called her Hudson, because she grew up near the Hudson river.
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Before boot camp I was somewhat proficient in small arms, here I learned how to shoot a rifle. I got better with the obstacle course as well, I had to. Our drill sergeant was over 60, and he ran it every day. Anyone who finished in more time than him would have to run it again. He'd say "I'm over 60 and I can run faster than that, do it again." He also made us do grueling night runs, he and another sergeant were in competition for the camp record. After we broke the record, by almost three whole minutes, he rewarded us by giving us each a pass to go into town for a few hours. I didn't have time to go all the way home to see mom and Willow, so i just went to the movies and for pizza. It was my only leave during boot camp. Unfortunately, the other sergeant soon broke our record, so we had to try and regain it, we never succeeded. After five weeks training was over. Our parents came, including my mother. Saturday June 7th there was a party for us and our parents. Mom was still upset, but she tried to hide it. She was well aware this might be the last time we would ever see each other, neither of us wanted to spoil it by fighting. The next day was graduation. Our drill sergeant gave a brief commencement. He said "I have not been easy on you, but you have proven yourselves worthy. You should be proud of yourselves. Whatever fate has in store, just know that I am very proud of all of you." A priest spoke and gave us all a general absolution for whatever we might do. I have no idea how many of us were actually catholic, but the general absolution did sound appealing at this point. After graduation, we had only an hour to say goodbye to our families, or our friends, before we had to get on the bus. I kissed mom goodbye, and we were off to the front. I was fortunate enough to get a seat by the window, some of us wanted to look back and see our families for as long as we could. It was almost sunset, the sight would have been beautiful, except for where we were heading. I decided to savor this, knowing that I would soon need a pleasant memory to look back on.