the editor talks with you

It was shortly after dark on a chilly November night on Tank Hill in the 1950s. Our basic training company had finished supper in the mess hall, climbed into the back of deuce and a half trucks, sat on the cold metal in the back, the chill piercing our fatigue pants and rode to the live fire range at Fort Jackson. I was one of the excited ones. The Army was a great adventure for me. I was 19 years old and felt like John Wayne going into combat. Nothing could stop me. Some of my comrades were scared or worried. They knew what we were going to crawl through wet sand on our bellies a hundred yards or more while live tracer rounds soared above our heads.

The last thing you wanted to do was to bolt, stand up and try to run. It was a good way to get a bullet in the back. We were warned to avoid booby traps. Explosive charges were planted along the live fire course. You did not want to be on top of one when it exploded. At the starting line, six of us at a time knelt, M1 rifles in our hands, heavy field packs on our backs and steel pots and helmet liners on our heads. We were to drop into a prone position, holding our rifles above the wet sand to protect them. No one wanted to complete the course with even an ounce of sand inside his M1 barrel. The course may have been a hundred or more yards. You couldn’t tell in the dark. The drill instructors had gleefully sprayed the sand with fire hoses. They wanted us to get good, wet – and miserable.

Thinking about it, even years later, I still recall the feel of wet sand in my mouth, eyes and fatigues. If this is what combat feels like, it is nothing like what you will see in John Wayne movies. Even watching realistic combat movies like those Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg make now, you sit comfortably as actors wade through surf, dive for the beach and fight their way toward the enemy. Unless you’ve experience it, you can’t relate to the way it actually feels. These thoughts came back to me when an invitation to visit Fort Jackson next week arrived in my email in box.

Fort Jackson commander, Brig. Gen. Milford H. Beagle Jr., was inviting the public to a special and up-close night view of Basic Combat Training Monday, Nov. 5. “This is your Army and we want you to come learn about it” Gen. Beagle said.

He is offering all of us an opportunity to see how soldiers train and experience the fort’s day to day operations.

The tour will begin at 5:30 pm the Non-Commissioned Officer Club where you will be briefed on the Night Infiltration Course. Then you will be bussed to watch soldiers train under live machine gun fire and talk with the soldiers about their training. To register or learn moren, click https://go.usa.gov/xP5sV or call Fort Jackson’s Community Relations Office at 803-751-1474. The deadline to sign up is Nov. 1. You must bring a copy of your invitation and a valid ID to enter the fort. Space is limited and reservations are required. I hope to see you there.

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