Cheerful Obedience (eBook)

Patrick McLaughlin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
386 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-0164-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Navigating the stormy seas of the 1960s wasn't easy, especially if Vietnam was on your horizon. Ignoring his 2-S selective service deferment, Conor Patrick McKall volunteers for the draft, and Uncle Sam promptly deposits him in the Big Green Machine. Six months later McKall is walking point in jungles, rice paddies, and rubber plantations. In nine short months, he's made an infantry squad leader responsible for a dozen other grunts. In the 'boonies,' life is lived one day at a time. Joining McKall's squad is Jack 'Red' Sheridan whose near-death encounter with a black panther presents challenges to his credibility from other members of Lima Platoon. When McKall stands with Sheridan, an unbreakable bond develops. They meet Red Cross Donut Dollies and together experience the infamous Black Virgin Mountain where the good guys control the top and the bad guys the rest. Escaping Vietnam for a handful of days on R&R in Sydney, Conor experiences Aussie hospitality and the attention of a green-eyed beauty who offers him a chance to escape the war. Loyal to his oath and to his men, Sergeant McKall barely has time to supplant the fading scent of Chanel before he and his squad must face their determined and deadly adversaries. The arbitrary gauntlet of Vietnam offers no guarantees.

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Navigating the stormy seas of the 1960s wasn't easy, especially if Vietnam was on your horizon. Ignoring his 2-S selective service deferment, Conor Patrick McKall volunteers for the draft, and Uncle Sam promptly deposits him in the Big Green Machine. Six months later McKall is walking point in jungles, rice paddies, and rubber plantations. In nine short months, he's made an infantry squad leader responsible for a dozen other grunts. In the "e;boonies,"e; life is lived one day at a time. Joining McKall's squad is Jack "e;Red"e; Sheridan whose near-death encounter with a black panther presents challenges to his credibility from other members of Lima Platoon. When McKall stands with Sheridan, an unbreakable bond develops. They meet Red Cross Donut Dollies and together experience the infamous Black Virgin Mountain where the good guys control the top and the bad guys the rest. Escaping Vietnam for a handful of days on R&R in Sydney, Conor experiences Aussie hospitality and the attention of a green-eyed beauty who offers him a chance to escape the war. Loyal to his oath and to his men, Sergeant McKall barely has time to supplant the fading scent of Chanel before he and his squad must face their determined and deadly adversaries. The arbitrary gauntlet of Vietnam offers no guarantees.

Textauszug

Chapter 5

Basic Training, Fort Benning

The first couple weeks of basic the new soldiers are introduced to the singular world of military life. Not only does each soldier have to look and act the part but so do all physical things that interact with the soldier. All brass, shoes, and boots must display at all appropriate times a shine that defies logic since the first time one wears that item the hours spent placing it in proper form vanish as if they never occurred but, to be sure, will be repeated again and again.

The soldier’s bunks and foot lockers must be maintained in a specified manner, and no deviations are accepted. The two-story wooden barracks occupied by the Fifth Platoon might as well be a cathedral because at times of inspection one can only pray that the DI does not find even one tiny flaw in the cleanliness of the commodes, showers, and especially the waxed floors. One can easily shave using the floors as a substitute mirror and eat off the floors at inspection time. But if not flawless, there is hell to pay, and the entire platoon pays the price.

Unlike uniforms and other standard issue items, sleep is not something the Army issues to basic trainees. By the time one attends to personal and platoon responsibilities and falls exhausted into one’s bunk, the reality of an 0400 reveille substitutes for the nightmare that the soldier would have but for the exhaustion that robs their ability to dream.

Adjusting quickly to military life, Private McKall continues to appreciate the wisdom of his father’s advice to keep eyes and ears open and mouth shut in basic training. His fellow soldiers hail from Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All shapes, sizes, colors, and attitudes are represented from the gung-ho “kill the commie bastards” recruit to “this is all a mistake because I am not supposed to be in the Army” guy. Most of the guys take this seriously, but a few are chronic fuckups. Physical training is robust, and McKall is pleased that he prepared himself. The mental abuse? Well, it is not so easy to prepare for the myriad ways that the DI’s will mess with your mind.

Close order drill and marching in formation are treated with reverence, as all trainees in the platoon must move and react as one. Deviation is unwelcomed and individualism is punished. “You will move, react, and think as one,” announced Fifth Platoon’s DI, “or y’all will most certainly suffer as one.” Marching in formation brought new cadences that required the platoon to sound off “like you got a pair.” A favored opportunity to sound off while marching in formation is to the obstacle course that must be traversed if one wants to enter the mess hall for chow.

Ain’t no use in going back

Ain’t no use in going back

Jody’s got your Cadillac

Jody’s got your Cadillac

Sound off

One, two

Sound off

Three, four

Cadence count

One, two, three, four. One, two…three, four.

“Straighten that formation up, look like soldiers—not a bunch of cub scouts.”

I don’t know but I heard rumors

I don’t know but I heard rumors

All the WACs wear khaki bloomers

All the WACs wear khaki bloomers

Some wear pink and some wear white

Some wear pink and some wear white

Someone gets in them every night

Someone gets in them every night

Sound off

One, two

Sound off

Three, four

Break it on down

One, two, three, four. One, two…three, four.

One afternoon the platoon marches over to a one-story wood building and presents single file at the entrance. Rumor is that the new soldiers will request the MOS they wish to be assigned and the duty station following advanced individual training. Some of the men are succumbing to wild fantasies as they muse about receiving military occupation specialties like clerk, mechanic, cook, truck driver, chaplain’s assistant, and the like as opposed to infantry, artillery, or armor. Even more fanciful are the trainees that trip out on the idea that they will be stationed in Germany, Hawaii, the pentagon, or an installation close to their home so that they can make it back on the weekends to see girlfriends and party with the old crowd.

The soldier in front of McKall sits at a chair by the desk of a PFC clerk completing forms that capture the requested MOS and duty station of each man in the platoon. Standing near, he overhears the colloquy between the men.

Clerk: “This is your opportunity to tell the Army what job skills you have and what you are best suited for in your enlistment. Tell the Army what you would like to do and where you want to be stationed.”

Soldier: “Really, this is better than I expected. We get to pick what we want to do in the Army?”

Clerk: “Sure enough but you understand that there are no guarantees. It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?”

Soldier: “I am a pretty good mechanic ‘cuz I helped my brother work on his cars. And I worked part-time at the only gas station in town when I was in high school.”

Clerk: “Hell, that’s good enough for the Army. I will put down mechanic. Now, where do you want to be stationed after training?”

Soldier: “Anywhere but Vietnam.”

Clerk: “I can dig that. How about Germany, I understand those frauleins are something else.”

This clerk is blowing some serious smoke up this guy’s ass, reasons McKall as he watches the charade.

Soldier: “I don’t speak German. Do you think that would be a problem?”

Clerk: “Heck no, you know that love is the universal language, and those girls speak that for sure. So, I am putting you down for Germany and for mechanic MOS.”

Soldier: “You are the man, gotta give my thanks to you.”

Clerk: “Alright soldier, move on so I can square these other dudes away.”

The clerk snickers as the soldier stands, turns to McKall and proclaims, “This is gonna be your lucky day—it sure is mine.”

“Don’t bet the farm on it.”

“Huh, what farm?”

Pointing to the next station McKall motions for the soldier to move on and takes a seat. Before the clerk could commence his spiel, McKall directs him to “forget the bullshit and mark this down.” The clerk starts to respond, thinks better of it and picks up his pen.

“For MOS put down infantry, 11Bravo, and I volunteer airborne. For duty station, mark Vietnam which is where I will be assigned as will the soldier you just bullshitted and everyone else in this platoon. Any questions?”

The clerk stares at the soldier before him and thinks this guy must have a death wish. “Let me get this straight. You want me to mark that you elect infantry, want jump school, and then posting to Vietnam?”

“Bingo!” McKall stands, towers over the clerk, bends forward over the desk causing the clerk to sit back in his chair. “One more thing, if you blow smoke at any more of these guys behind me, I will let them all know that you were only having fun at their expense. You are fucking with their minds as you sit here fat and happy at Fort Benning knowing that this little routine of yours is a charade. Understood?”

Red faced, the sheepish clerk replies, “Man, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just trying to put my time in just like you.”

Bending over the desk McKall again asks, “Understood?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

When every man completes the time-wasting process, the platoon gathers in formation and double times to the obstacle course for more PT, all while singing like they got a pair.

After several weeks, the trainees are assigned the M-14 rifle for familiarization and qualification. The drill instructor, a staff sergeant wearing a CIB and the 25th Infantry Division patch informs the trainees of Company D, 9th Battalion, 3rd Brigade that the M-14 is an air-cooled weapon that fires a 7.62mm round weighing approximately 9 ½ pounds unloaded and 11 ½ fully loaded with a 20-round magazine. “Gentlemen,” the instructor bellows, “you will train to fire this weapon from the prone, sitting, squatting, kneeling, and standing positions. You will learn to stroke this weapon with tenderness as it will be your best honey if you are fortunate enough to be assigned one in Vietnam. And yes, you are going to Vietnam so best pay close attention.” Following the lecture, McKall zeros his M-14 at twenty-five meters firing from the prone position.

After two weeks of rifle range the trainees fire for record at pop-up targets at distances of 75, 175, and 300 meters with times limited in which to fire at the target to 5, 7, and 10 seconds, respectively. Adding difficulty, the targets are interspersed in the woods and the terrain presents uneven ground. Qualifying as expert is a challenge on the Benning course. It did occur to McKall and several other privates in Fifth Platoon that from what they were reading and hearing about infantry...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.6.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-0164-1 / 9798350901641