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YOUR BALANCE
Soldiers are tuff
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Soldiers are tuff


Aug 5, 2022, 3:13 PM

Read today 1200 troops are being displaced from Ft Bragg due to substandard living quarters.
Apparently the air conditioning and heating units are old. Instead of replacing the HVAC they are going to replace the old VN era buildings. I think that to be a good idea.

I was in barracks at Ft Bragg in the 60's. There was no heat or air in them. Ventilation was achieved by keeping all windows on one wall up from the bottom, opposite wall all windows down from the top. That was mandatory. I believe it was to hold down contagious diseases like hepatitis that we might arrive with.
I was their in Jan-Feb, and it got darn cold at night.

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the tug abides


In The 80s at The Ft Benning School For Wayward Boys


Aug 5, 2022, 3:21 PM

I remember living in those WW2 Barracks Buildings. They were always hot as hades, but spotless. Lot's of memories from those days.

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Cause you always had to clean them


Aug 5, 2022, 3:26 PM

yourself

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monter le cheval de fer
A coot will usually blink when hit in the head with a ball-peen hammer


Re: Cause you always had to clean them


Aug 5, 2022, 3:30 PM

--- toilets with your tooth brush and and keep a high shine on that center isle

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the tug abides


hot as hades


Aug 5, 2022, 3:29 PM [ in reply to In The 80s at The Ft Benning School For Wayward Boys ]

I spent a Summer at Ft Still in barracks of the same type, not even a fan was allowed.
On impossible heat days the base would run up a black flag to curtail activities. It did not apply to us.



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the tug abides


Re: In The 80s at The Ft Benning School For Wayward Boys


Aug 5, 2022, 4:22 PM [ in reply to In The 80s at The Ft Benning School For Wayward Boys ]

I remember those old barracks like you're talking about, but they were Ft Jackson where I went through Basic training. They were as old as Noah's Ark, but you couldn't find dirt or dust from the floor to the Ceiling, and the floors shined like a brand new penny, and there was always enough screw ups to keep those old open barracks, and the latrines spic and span 24/7.

Plus I went through Basic training in July, and August, and when I got out of my rack, everywhere my body was touching, it was soaking wet from sweat. I think you could actually dehydrate if you didn't drink plenty of water before going to sleep at night.

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I did advanced infantry training at Ft McClellan Alabama


Aug 5, 2022, 4:41 PM

In May and June- then Ft Benning the rest of the summer until airborne trading in October and a cycle of Basic at Jackson until late January- that’s a lot of extreme temps , especially the several inches of snow while on bivouac

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extreme temps


Aug 5, 2022, 4:48 PM

Army is a mess. After basic at Ft Bragg in NC, I was shipped across the country to Ft Lewis -- Tacoma, Washington. I was there for just two weeks, then got new orders to go to Oklahoma.

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the tug abides


Re: In The 80s at The Ft Benning School For Wayward Boys


Aug 6, 2022, 1:39 AM [ in reply to In The 80s at The Ft Benning School For Wayward Boys ]

in '72 they still had quite a bit of the WW2 type buildings in ft. jackson.visited about 8-10 yrs. ago.couldn't get my orientation,because so many of the landmarks i knew were gone.looked more like a college campus.

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null


Re: Soldiers are tuff


Aug 5, 2022, 3:25 PM

I did no A/C at Fort Knox, that wasn’t that bad. Outside, no tent in Germany in February was tougher, single digits. Gear was good enough to keep you warm. They wouldn’t let anyone sleep on a track, because crews were showing up dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

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Germany in February was tougher


Aug 5, 2022, 3:40 PM

I was with 5 Americans on a German convoy from the Alps to Grafenwoehr one night in a blizzard. It was brutal! A German officer in the first Unimog (German Jeep), me in one in the rear. They have no heat so I got in the wrecker. The German complained I had to ride in the Unimog. I refused. He could do nothing.

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the tug abides


Re: Germany in February was tougher


Aug 5, 2022, 4:54 PM

I spent time at Graff & Wild Chicken too.

Wild Chicken weather & conditions. 6 inches of snow at 6am. 12 inches of mud at noon (tanks & APC’s will do that). Shirt off and sunburned at 3:00pm. True story.

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Arrived at Bragg in Feb. of ‘69


Aug 5, 2022, 3:46 PM

By the time we were vaccinated & blood typed we were put in a barracks in the dark with no electricity and no covers for the bunks. Almost froze to death because temps were in the 60s when we left SC. Snowed during the night and nobody came for us the next morning- I think it was a Saturday- we finally just went out on our own until some MP pulled up & found us a mess hall for our 1st army chow

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Re: Soldiers are tuff


Aug 5, 2022, 3:47 PM

I was at Bragg during time frame (68-72) off and on between trips to RVN. Life was good. The BOQ provided a fan in the summer and no heat in the winter months. Life was good. "Airborne!"

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Basic Training was fun - went on a long “forced March”


Aug 5, 2022, 3:55 PM

in late Feb. or early March- huge snowstorm came up about half way through with thunder snow- first time for that- we thought marching full speed in the sand was tough but add a few inches of snow to that !!!!

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JARK


Aug 5, 2022, 4:05 PM

At Ft Still, every Sunday morning in the high heat we turned out for the JARK. It was a double time march uphill and back. I think it must have been about a thousand miles long.
We wore t-shirt and shorts. We had army boots, army web gear, helmet liner, and of course that heavy M-14 rifle. At the time it was kinda tuff (doing it at 40, I would have not have thought that).
Some kids were not "mill hill skinny" like me, and were in poor shape. To get them through we would pass their rifles around (leave no man behind). A few gave up the unit over the months as it was too much.
I don't think they are allowed to do anything remotely close to that now.

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the tug abides


Re: JARK


Aug 5, 2022, 5:14 PM

The hills at Fort Know were called “Agony” & “Misery”. We did 12 miles with a 25lbs rucksack ending with twice up Agony & 3 trips up Misery. About 5 days later I peeled my entire heel calluses off. Came off about 1/4 inch thick. Walked around like a ballerina for a couple of days after that. Recruit boots are the most ingenious torture device ever devised.

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After training for a year ---


Aug 5, 2022, 4:20 PM

Being a SC boy, was scared of the cold --

After training, we got to list where we wanted to be assigned (dream sheet).

I put down:
-- Army recruiter in Hawaii
-- India (as it is warm there)
-- VN as that was where we were all headed.

Most all my friends got orders for VN. I got Germany at the base of the Alps.
When I arrived the QM was giving me all this extreme cold weather gear. I was going into panic.
He said this is all just for show, we don't sleep out.

After training was over, my Army years were kinda like being on vacation. NATO paid for my apartment in the village. Enlisted guys had a place much, much better than the Clemson dorms.
The food was great, the beer was great, the girls were beautiful.

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the tug abides


And I got the VN heat and had to look


Aug 5, 2022, 4:46 PM

at women with red & black betel nut teeth. Still jealous of my hometown Basic Training buddy who got your Germany

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Re: And I got the VN heat and had to look


Aug 6, 2022, 1:58 AM

basic-i spent a month at ft. sam.wasn't exactly full metal jacket.instead of getting yelled at by r.lee ermey,we sat in quanset huts listening to red tape lectures.two 1 hr. sessions for close order drill.most guys had no idea what to do.having had 2 yrs. of rotc at CU-no problem.could tell more,but i don't want to p### you off.that's why i have some guilt when i read stories by guys like yourself whose military experiences were real.

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null


Re: Tugalooriver, sounds like we have some common background


Aug 5, 2022, 4:59 PM [ in reply to After training for a year --- ]

Do I remember that you were from Chester??? I grew up in Lockhart. Know all about a mill village. Worked in cotton mills and woolen mills to work my way through Clemson. Graduated from Clemson in 1964. Spent 8 months at Bragg before going to Viet Nam in October 1965 during the initial build-up after President Johnson made the decision to send combat troops. I activated an Ammunition company at Bragg to go to Nam to support the combat troops. We had it easier than Clover. Spent lots of time in Germany and other parts of the world in 1970s thru 2014 as a civilian engineer managing the development and deployment of the PATRIOT missile system including time in Israel during Desert Storm.

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Lockhart & Chester not far from Clover


Aug 5, 2022, 5:06 PM

Still go through Lockhart on the way to visit family & occasionally through Chester if in Midlands & going to Clover

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Re: Lockhart & Chester not far from Clover


Aug 5, 2022, 11:29 PM

My grandmother and mother grew up in the York and Filbert area and I had other more distant relatives that lived in Clover. The husband of one relative from Clover was killed in WWII. I spent a lot of time in York and Filbert and we occasionally went to Clover when I was growing up. I have an aunt and her husband who is buried in Clover.

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Tugalooriver, sounds like we have some common background


Aug 5, 2022, 5:27 PM [ in reply to Re: Tugalooriver, sounds like we have some common background ]

https://www.tigernet.com/clemson-forum/thread/fm-has-a-2165055


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the tug abides


Re: Soldiers are tuff


Aug 5, 2022, 5:59 PM

Did Bragg have the little green bugs that could get through the screens and bite like the devil like we had at Shaw?

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