After a week had gone by (11 more to go) we were becoming used to the routine. The worst part, nighttime guard duty for 2 hours never became part of the comfortable routine. Being awakened just before 2 AM then getting dressed in your uniform, grabbing your useless rifle and running outside to relieve the previous sentry, all the while trying to remember the 11 General Orders that all sentries were supposed to know by heart. If an officer came by, they had the right to ask you "Recruit, what is the 4th General Order?" This would happen right after you had challenged him, "Halt! Who goes there?" Luckily for me, that never happened and by 4 AM I was relieved from sentry/guard duty and happily slid beneath the covers of my bed (Rack) to get another hour of sleep. What was I guarding during those cold and foggy hours? The clothesline. And all during those 2 hour's I would look across the water of the channel and see the lights of San Diego, sigh...
After the first few weeks we began to get to know some of the other recruits. There was Donald Dunn, and he became known as the "Good Dunn" while I was unnamed, but I got the hint. There were just three of us in the Company that were from California, and we were always being asked if we knew any movie stars.
We had one Black recruit, from Louisiana. His name was Willie, and everyone was his friend. Then sad news came in our sixth week. Willie was discharged and sent back to Louisiana. It seems that the recruiter 'forgot' to tell anyone that Willie had failed the intelligence exam. The whole Company was upset, Willie was one of us! We begged our Chief to see if they could change their minds and let Willie graduate with us. It didn't happen. Willie thanked us all for our support and then he was gone.
(My first duty station sent me to North Carolina and in 1960, Segregation ruled in the South. I saw it and I was shocked.)
More memories later...
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