As for my being in the military, my only regret is that I was too immature...
I was still a wild kid when I enlisted shortly after my eighteenth birthday. I had some growing up to do during my three-year hitch in the Army. But overall, I did okay. I don't regret enlisting. For the most part, it was a good experience, and I would do it again if I could.
It was on the very day of my graduation from high school that I was being sworn in as a soldier. While my
classmates were gathered in the auditorium of Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx to receive their diplomas, I was on a military bus headed for a basic training unit at Fort Dix, New Jersey. This was in 1971.
Then, having completed two months of basic training, I was put on a military flight to an airport in Louisiana. From here I went on a long bus ride to my next post, Fort Polk. In this relatively remote place, I would be trained as an infantryman. Guns, grenades, digging foxholes, and going on simulated patrols with heavy backpacks was preparing me to be a "combat ready" soldier who was eager to fight for my country.
Then, after finishing my two and a half months of infantry training, I was given a thirty-day leave where I went home to New York City to rejoin my dad. And when my leave time was up, I took a flight to what was then the official Overseas Replacement Station at Fort Lewis, Washington, to await a flight to South Korea.
After landing in Anchorage, Alaska to refuel, it was off to Japan, where I and about fifty of my fellow soldiers disembarked from our government chartered commercial airliner to get on a military plane to take us to South Korea. While from here I was placed in the back of an Army truck for the long haul to a remote compound just south of the infamous 38th Parallel, also known as the Demilitarized Zone which separates the sworn enemies of North and South Korea.
The Demilitarized Zone was considered to be what's known as a Hazardous Duty assignment. This automatically qualified me to collect Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) which, back in 1971-72, was sixty-five dollars per month. This was then added to my regular base pay of about $150 per month. Obviously, no Private First Class like myself had any expectation of getting rich, not at that amount of pay.
D.B.
It was on the very day of my graduation from high school that I was being sworn in as a soldier. While my
classmates were gathered in the auditorium of Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx to receive their diplomas, I was on a military bus headed for a basic training unit at Fort Dix, New Jersey. This was in 1971.
Then, having completed two months of basic training, I was put on a military flight to an airport in Louisiana. From here I went on a long bus ride to my next post, Fort Polk. In this relatively remote place, I would be trained as an infantryman. Guns, grenades, digging foxholes, and going on simulated patrols with heavy backpacks was preparing me to be a "combat ready" soldier who was eager to fight for my country.
Then, after finishing my two and a half months of infantry training, I was given a thirty-day leave where I went home to New York City to rejoin my dad. And when my leave time was up, I took a flight to what was then the official Overseas Replacement Station at Fort Lewis, Washington, to await a flight to South Korea.
After landing in Anchorage, Alaska to refuel, it was off to Japan, where I and about fifty of my fellow soldiers disembarked from our government chartered commercial airliner to get on a military plane to take us to South Korea. While from here I was placed in the back of an Army truck for the long haul to a remote compound just south of the infamous 38th Parallel, also known as the Demilitarized Zone which separates the sworn enemies of North and South Korea.
The Demilitarized Zone was considered to be what's known as a Hazardous Duty assignment. This automatically qualified me to collect Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) which, back in 1971-72, was sixty-five dollars per month. This was then added to my regular base pay of about $150 per month. Obviously, no Private First Class like myself had any expectation of getting rich, not at that amount of pay.
D.B.
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