After spending a week's furlough in Sioux City, I proceeded by train to Fort Monmouth. After arrival I was assigned to a holding company until after Christmas when I would be assigned to my permanent post. I spent Christmas Eve walking guard duty in a light snowstorm. After the holidays, I was assigned to a school for Field Radio Repairmen, which was a twelve week course with the first six weeks being primarily theoretical and the last six weeks being primarily hands on training. This chapter will discuss the on duty aspects of the time I spent in the Field Radio Repair class, and the off duty time will be covered in Chapter 4, Barracks Life.
Most of the students in the class were, like me, fresh out of basic training and relatively new to the army. On the average they were probably a little brighter than the trainees with whom I went through basic training because they were selected for this course. But again, they came from all areas of the country and diverse backgrounds. I recall several in our class that weren't raw recruits. One was a paratrooper, whose last name was Worthy, on TDY (temporary duty) from 101st Airborne Division at Fort Benning, Georgia to take the Field Radio Repair class. He was a PFC and Regular Army (RA) all the way. He was also one of the brightest students in the class. Upon completion of the class he was to return to his home headquarters at Fort Benning.
To digress, I referred to Worthy as being RA, or Regular Army. Enlisted personnel on active duty were either RA or US. RA meant they had enlisted while US meant they had been drafted. Since I volunteered for the draft, I was classified as US. Enlisted personnel's serial numbers began with RA, while drafted personnel's serial numbers began with US. Commissioned Officers' serial numbers began with O. Other prefixes reflected Warrant Officers, those members of Reserve or National Guard units on temporary active duty etc. I still remember my serial number after over 40 years. It was US 55-480-412. And I can't remember why I just got up to go to the kitchen. ;-)
Another in our class on TDY from another outfit was a guy name Lincoln. (As with Worthy, I've forgotten his first name after all these years). Unlike Worthy, Lincoln was a draftee. His permanent assignment was with the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It was all very hush hush what he did there, but he did say he was involved with cryptography, which is the coding and decoding of secret messages. The work of the CID was mostly top secret and the personnel were the best and brightest they could find. Basically one had to be a college graduate with an exceptionally high IQ and, of course, have a background where he could get a Top Secret Security Clearance.
Again, to digress, I learned a little more about the CID from a friend of mine from Sioux City, Doug Bogenrief. Doug was a graduate of the University of Iowa, where he had been a pitcher on their baseball team. He was beginning a career in professional baseball when he was drafted into the Army. He went in at about the same time that I did, but into a different Basic Training Company. Immediately after Basic Training, he was assigned to the CID and we heard nothing from him for a couple of years. After I had been out of the Army for a while, I ran into Doug and asked him about his Army service. He said a lot of it was classified, but he told me this much. Even his rank was secret. He would go undercover in various places like Hawaii and might be impersonating a civilian, or and officer or enlisted man of any rank. Beyond the fact that it was criminal investigation, he couldn't go into the detail of any of the things he had done. After he got out of the Army, Doug played a season of professional baseball and then went into the insurance business. He is now an insurance executive.
Warren Evans and Pat Corrigan were Sergeants in the Louisiana National Guard assigned to temporary active duty to take the Field Radio Repair class. Both were a little older than most of us, being around 30 years of age. Although both were great guys, I hung out with Warren a little more. He became my best friend in the class, and the only one I hung out with much off duty. They both returned to their home town of New Orleans and civilian life upon completion of the course.
I've always been better at the classroom stuff than actually doing things with my hands. This manifested itself in my doing one of the stupidest things I've ever done. We were using a voltmeter to measure the plate voltage of a radio, which is about 800 volts. I put the hot lead on the plate and the alligator clips on the "ground" and got a reading of 800 volts. So I thought to myself, it should show the same reading if I switched from "positive DC" to "negative DC" and switched the leads. What I hadn't considered is the fact that the hot lead was insulated and the alligator clips weren't. So I got an 800 volt jolt, which knocked me on my ass and burned the knuckle on my hand. It could have been worse, but the guy next to me saw what was happening and unplugged the radio just as I was taking the reading.
It was very cold outside with snow covering the ground and the uniform of the day included gloves. I was walking to the medical center and got stopped by the MPs who were telling me I was out of uniform because one glove was off. I showed them the burn and they gave me a ride the rest of the way. Lesson learned - consider not only the theoretical, but also the practical.
After I had completed six of the twelve weeks of the class, I was pulled out and reassigned to my permanent job as an Instructor's Assistant in the Signal Officer's Basic School. Due to the unusual way that I had been assigned to the Signal Corps, I had been given the MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) of a Field Radio Repairman. Since the purpose of the class was to train students for this MOS, it was decided that I already had the MOS and therefore didn't need the training. Although it would have been nice to have completed the course and acquired the skills to repair radios, it worked out OK because I liked my assignment and I was probably better off than I would have been if I had completed the class and been assigned elsewhere,
The only problem was that PFC stripes were given to those graduating from the class and I was still a Private. When I later complained about not getting a promotion despite excellent performance ratings, I was given the answer that there were no allocations for promotions to PFC for my MOS. Well duh, since people with that MOS already were PFCs, of course there were no allocations. I was in a Catch 22 situation. After a year of my bitching, special orders were finally cut promoting me to PFC.
I thus began, as a Private, my assignment at the Signal Officers' Basic School.
