South Carolina
Once I was enlisted and had been though all the hoops to get ready to go it was time to get going.
First on the list was Albany Airport. Up till then I'd never flown before. I was a little nervous but not as scared as I would be today. Maybe I just didn't know enough to be scared. I had seriously never heard of hijackers and the only planes I'd heard about going down were in books. I was pretty naive when you think about it.
Preparing to leave.
I took this from the waiting area but I don't know if it would be the plane I would fly on to South Carolina. It was the same company, though.
The parking lot with a bit of Albany in the background.
I wasn't the only recruit on the plane. There was a young man beside me who told me he was on the way to the same place I was. His name was Dan Hoteling. I hope I spelled that right. I don't know why his name stuck in my mind but it did. I saw him once during Basic but never again.
It was a very long flight to me but how would I know really. I'd left NY in bright sunshine. I don't even remember if there were stops or not. I just remember getting off the plane somewhere and getting on a bus that took us all to base.
We arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina at 8 o'clock at night.
It was dark when we got there. We were sluggish getting off and I'm sure we got yelled at for that but the memory is fuzzy.
We entered the amnesty room. It's a glorified name for a toilet with a waste basket. Here we were told to empty our purses and pockets of any contraband, not only drugs but anything else on the list they read off.
Somebody before me had left a joint. I expected to find guns, knives and all sorts of drugs. I guess they kept the good stuff. One guy decided to smoke his, rather than throw it away. He was really in a good mood when he came out. Anything we dumped there we'd never see again and no one would hold us liable. At least that's what they told us. I had nothing to toss.
From there we were herded into an almost closed mess hall with not much in the way of lighting. They had saved us some supper. Trays of food were shoved at us. We didn't have a choice but at that point we didn't really care, either. We dined on chewy fish, dry bread, and cold coffee. I think they had been saving this since before my mother was born. Perhaps they were trying to prepare us for the horrors to come. We ate it because we would get nothing else till the next day.
From there we went to our assigned bays to sleep the few hours we were allowed. I don't recall if anyone was assigned guard duty like it would later be assigned.
From then on every morning and morning came early, we would be up and dressed with our beds made and our area neat as pin. I don't remember doing any drilling or stuff like exercise the first week. We ate quick and were marched to where ever we were going. We were given a lot of different health exams including the old pee in the cup routine. At least one girl out of the whole of us went home from failing that one. She was pregnant. Another for drugs. No germ in his right mind would dare invade our bodies.
We could keep our hair long, if we could keep it up off our collars. Most opted for hair cuts. My hair lasted for a week and a half. I could twist it in a knot and it would stay up for awhile. After the drill sergeant made our whole platoon do fifty extra pushups because my hair fell out of the knot I tied it into, (We could not use pins or rubber bands in our hair. In a combat situation, the shine from them would give away our position.) My mane was cut.
Different ones would leave for different things. Our numbers dwindled. In a bunk about three away from me was a nice little Latin girl whose name was Megdahlia or something like that. It wasn't exactly that. She went home for a whole other reason. It was said she was a lesbian but I never noticed. I never would have because to the best of my knowledge unless my sister Enid was, I didn't know any. She seemed pretty normal to me. Not Enid, I mean the Megdahlia person.
We got our eyes tested. At first they told me I had to wear the ugly black framed glasses we all had to wear. Later, I would be allowed my metal framed ones for the simple reason I couldn't see out of the other ones and they were always falling off me.
We had dental exams. My teeth were fine but there were others who needed fillings.
We lined up for measuring for uniforms. A lot of us would wear some of them only once our twice in our whole time there but some of us would need them for our whole career. Besides boots and fatigues we got at least 2 sets of more formal uniforms. One was the official dress uniform that also during this time we would wear this to get our formal photos taken. We also got a lesser uniform that was a skirt and blouse of a striped material. If you would have an office job you would wear this then. I think we got a slipper shoe but I'm not sure about that. I just can't picture us in skirts wearing combat boots.
I loved my boots! They were the best part of the uniform. They fit me just right and were comfortable. I heard others complaining how their feet hurt in theirs and I just couldn't understand that because mine fit me. I wasn't thrilled with the fatigues. They were thin and baggy and nobody looked good in them but they were mostly comfortable unless it was cold out and then you froze your butt off.
I was excited to get my dog tags. I think we got them the first day. I wish I still had mine. I had them for a long time but they also got left behind in Ohio. I'm pretty sure they are long gone. To me, they meant I'd finally done something important with my life.
We lined up for shots but the shots were delivered with a gun that either injected something in you or scratched the surface to put something on you that would tell if you had TB I think. It could have been something else but I think that's what they were testing for.
After three days there were more empty bunks than filled ones. We were all keeping our fingers crossed that we wouldn't be the next one sent home.
The final day came and those of us left were herded into groups. I don't remember how many in each group but it didn't make much difference any way. One small group was told they didn't make the cut for reasons none of the rest of us were told. The rest of us were assigned different codes. I think mine was Charlie 8 2 but that could have been a later company. I was put into a group who were being trained for things females were not normally trained for. We would work alongside men doing the same things they did and being expected to keep up with them.
We piled on our assigned "cattle cars". We called them that. They had small windows up high but none of us could see where we were going, not that it would have meant anything if we could have seen. They told me about the windows. I never actually saw one. Hey, they said they were there. Would the government lie to me? The seats were gray metal benches. Each of us carried with her or him our assigned gear, a gas mask, a filled duffle bag and our suitcases we'd brought with us.
We were packed in tight like sardines. They could not fit another body in there, dead or alive. I felt a kinship with the Jews on their way to the ovens. We had no idea the hell we were going into. It was a record heat that summer and somebody's deodorant wasn't working. I was feeling queasy, but at least I knew I wasn't pregnant.
We got to the top of Tank Hill, the truck wrenched to a screeching halt, the doors banged open, and the drill sergeants screamed at us to "fall in". First we all fell out then we all lined up. It was immediately pointed out to us that we were now property of the U.S. government.
I felt funny in the uniform. Not like I didn't belong in it but more like I was a different person. I felt like I could really be me and not what someone else wanted me to be. Of course that was all a lie because now I really had to be and do what a lot of other people wanted of me.