US Army 2

All I'm gonna do is run this thru a spell check that's all. Where did I leave of at...

Oh yeah, Ft. Sill Oklahoma. Basic Training, May 31 to August 18th. Ft. Sill is, was, and still is, hell on earth. My training, 13 Bravo, Cannon Crewman on a M109A1, 155mm Self Propelled Howitzer. I have never been to such a hot as place as Oklahoma before. Not even The South Bronx in August ever got that hot. And sand storms, what the fuck ?1! A freaking sand storm, storms, turn the bright of day orange.

I think I was the only one from NYC in my training cycle, but I found out really fast though. The bathrooms, latrines were battleship grey, and being that I was an artist, graffiti artist at that, I saw the untouched bathroom walls and stalls as a untouched canvas. I had a marker, oh yeah, fat black Pilot marker, and I went to work. A Company formation was called bout 2 hours later. The3y wanted everyone from NYC to stand to the side, I was the only one. Yep, cleaning the latrines for a week.

About the 4th week into Basic Training, we had a class on the M17 Protective Mask. It was hot and flies were buzzing all around the small group I was in. The Drill Sargent was giving the class, and he was getting pissed off because we were trying to kill the flies as by clapping our hands together. This was distracting him. I killed one by doing this, and I yelled, 'I got it'. This set the Drill Sargent right over the edge.

Since we were in full combat gear, he made me ready my entrenching tool, that's a small shovel. Had me dig a standard grave, 6 by 10. Had me bury the fly and had me say the last rites for the fly, then made me fill in the hole. About 5 shovel fulls from completion, he said this. 'Do you hear that?, I think that the fly has a pulse, quick dig it bag up'. I just finish buring this thing, dug it up, and was told to perform CPR. Drill Sargent said, nope, no pulse, its dead, bury it back. All this went on for 3 hours, in the hot as sun. That little show told me that my life in The Army was going to be an adventure.

Half way through Basic Training, we were cut some slack, given a weekend pass. Mind you now, I was only 17 years old. The town outside of the Base, Lawton, had a strick code about not letting anyone in their strip clubs under the age of 21, so I couldn't get in. This was 1977 mind you, first time I have been outside on New York State. So I just hung outside in uniform khakis. After a while about 4 hours some of the girls started coming out. One black girl asked me did I want to hang out with her for the night. Sure. I was a virgin, and didn't know any better. She took me to a nice house that she was sharing with 3 other girls in the business.

I stayed with her the whole time I was pass for the weekend. Nothing happen sexually cause I was still a virgin, and knew nothing about sex. But I was in The Army, go figure that one out. When I got back from my weekend, I told the guys where I was at, no one believed me. But next weekend they did. Back at the same club, the same woman asked me was I coming over again, that I could if I want to. And I did. This time the guys came also, and they paid for sex. I guess that was the whole plan after all.

I graduated from Basic Training on August 18th 1977. I was going home for 12 days and then going to Germany. The next part of my life was and would play a big factor of why and whom I am today