My Army Experiences, Part I
MY THREE YEARS IN THE ARMY
Just to liven things up a bit, I'm starting a new thread. Actually, there will soon be many new threads, each on a different subject. This one is about my experiences in the U.S. Army in the late 1950s. On the surface, a time of peace. Ike was president then, the Korean War was over, and Khrushchev was visiting Disneyland. But under the surface a lot was going on.
In the early fall of 1956 my draft notice arrived, suggesting that I travel to Philadelphia for a pre-induction physical. I was 22 years old, and in good health, so of course I was accepted. A few days later a recruiting sergeant called me, offering a more "interesting" service if I would enlist for three years instead of the compulsory two. Assuming that I qualified for a top-secret clearance, my time would be spent overseas in the Army Security Agency, then a military branch of the NSA. Actually, I'm glad this happened — it was as much a life-changing experience as my now-interrupted photo career in New York.
Shortly after Christmas I left for Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. That's me on the left.This was not nearly as tough as I feared, certainly not the living hell depicted in Stanley Kubrick's great flick, Full Metal Jacket. In fact, it had its fun moments — like shooting guns, crawling through the mud, and throwing hand grenades that went boom. And it only lasted about two months. And, yes, my clearance came through, so I was off to Fort Devens, Massachusetts and the Security Agency. After they discovered that I was absolutely useless at anything to do with cryptography, and that I had worked in advertising, it was decided that I should attend the Information School to learn the Army's way of writing press releases. Just what a super-secret agency wanted with press releases was beyond me, but it sounded like a good deal.
This assignment took me back to familiar territory — Fort Slocum, an ivy-covered old fortress on a tiny island just off the Bronx, almost within sight of Manhattan. Although run by the U.S. Army, the school had students from all the services as well as from allied countries, both enlisted peons and officers. Our instructors ranged from a sergeant teaching typing to a general teaching philosophy. That's one of our classes on the right. And we made field trips into the city, visiting newspapers, film producers, and TV stations. And, since I had a car, I drove home to Pennsylvania each weekend.
Then my real assigment came — Tokyo, Japan.
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