Show 0 Offered for Your R Reading ead g Enjoyment Under the Sponsorship of t heTE POWER COMPANY r II M.- M. r. r 4 nL n r I I Here a ri t j 0 J Marion Hargrove SERVICE i IF FIRST SERGE SERGE SERGE-iNT CLAR CLARENCE CLARENCE ENCE A. A GOLDSMITH back in inthe inthe the old battery where I was sup sup- supposed P posed d to have learned the art o of f cooking for the army ever gets his hands on this it will ivill provide him with amusement throughout a long hard winter When he lie reads that Private Edward Eduard Thomas Marion Lawton Hargrove is giving ing advice to prospective soldiers his derisive bellow will disturb the the training program in the next regiment My God he will ivill roar Look who's learning who how to do what My My- God The blind leading leading lead lead- ing the blind It was once said Sergeant Gold Gold- smith by the eminent vegetarian George Bernard Shaw Sham that he who can does docs he who cant can't teaches This dear sergeant is m my y contribution con to the army and to pos os- os Please go o away and leave us us young people to our studies 4 CHAPTER I If It I were giving advice to the boys who have already been called into the Army and will go away in a few days Id I'd sum it all up in this Paint the town red for the tho rest of your civilian week Pay no attention attention atten atten- tion to the advice that is being poured into your defenseless ears for twenty four hours a day Form an idea of what Army life is going to tobe tobe be like Leave your mind open Two weeks from now you will be thoroughly disgusted with your new Job You will have been herded from om place to place you will have wandered in nakedness and bewilderment bewilderment derment through miles of physical examination you will look upon privacy vary vacy and individuality as things you I left behind you hi In a golden civilian I society Probably you will have developed a murderous hatred for at least one oner r sergeant and two corporals You will writhe and fume under what you C consider brutality and sadism and you will wonder how an enlightened nation can permit such atrocity in its army Take it easy brother take it easy Keep this one beam of radiant hope constantly before you The first three weeks are the hardest For those first three three three-or or possibly four weeks four weeks will bear the you greatest great great- greatest est part of the painful process of adjusting yourself to an altogether new routine In those first three weeks you will get almost the full I required dose of confusion and mis mis- ery cry You will be afraid to leave your barracks lest the full wrath of the war department fall upon you L r. li e a t o 1 f fl fv l O O v You dont don't get anywhere by buying buy buy- lag ing soda pop or beer for your jour sergeant ser ser- geant You will find yourself unbelievably awkward and clumsy when you try to learn the drills and the knowledge of ci this awkwardness will make you even more awkward Unless you relax you can be very unhappy dur dur- tog fag those first three weeks When you are assigned to your basic training center you'll really Set get into it You'll drill and drill a little more each day and when the sergeant ergeant tries to correct or advise you you'll want to tear his throat out with your bare hands You'll be e sick lick of the sound of his voice before an hour has passed The only comfort I can give you is the knowledge that the poor sergeant is haying having a time too loo- He knows what youre you're thinking and he cant can't do anything about it You'll be inoculated against small small- Do typhoid tetanus yellow fever Pneumonia and practically all the theother theother other ills that flesh is heir to You'll be taught foot drill the handling of ofa a rifle the use of the gas mask the Peculiarities of military vehicles nd and the intricacies of military courte cour- cour tsy te y Most of what you are taught will impress you as utterly useless non non- ense but you'll learn it be initiated into the mys teries of the kitchen police proBably proBa- proBa bly before youve you've been in the Army for a week Possibly two days lat later later lat lat- er you'll be sent on a ration detail to handle huge bundles of groceries You'll haul coal and trash and ashes You'll unpack rifles that are arc burled buried in heavy grease and you'll clean that grease off them You'll stoke fires you'll mop floors and you'll put a high polish on the win win- dows You'll wonder if youve you've been yanked out of civil life for This All your persecution is deliberate calculated systematic It is collegiate colic colle practice of hazing applied to the grim and highly important task of tran transforming forming a civilian into a soldier a boy ins into a man It is the Hardening Proc Process ss You wont won't wont won't get depressed you wont won't feel sorry for yourself You'll just get mad as hell You'll be breathing fire before its it's over Believe Belleve me or not at the end of that minor ordeal you'll be feeling good You'll be full of spirit and energy and you will have found yourself You'll look at the new men com comIng coming ing hi In to go through the same hardening hardening hard hard- ening period and you'll look at them with a fatherly and sympathetic eye They will be rookies to you a veteran of almost a month For practical advice there is none better than the golden rule of the Army Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut At first probably you'll be inclined inclined in in- to tremble at the sight of every corporal who passes you on the street You might even salute the first class first class privates Then when the top sergeant neglects to beat you with a knout they rub GI These two letters are the cornerstone of your future Army vocabulary They stand for the words Government Issue and just about everything you get in the Army will be GI Even the official advice This story on the other rand hand is not GI salt into wounds you might want to go goto goto to the other extreme This way madness lies When corporals and sergeants are areto areto to be dealt with always remember this Make friendships first and leave the joking until later When its it's the top sergeant it might be best to leave the joking permanently perma perma- It can be very easy to start your military life on the wrong foot by giving your officers and noncommissioned noncommissioned officers the impression that youre you're a wise guy a smart aleck Soldiers like senators dont like for a new guy to shoot his mouth off oIL So much for the On the thedo thedo do side the most important thing for you to watch is your attitude As a matter of straight and practical fact the best thing that you can do dois dois is to reason that you are going into a new job The job is temporary but while you have it its it's highly important As when you go into a new job in civil life you do your to impress your employer with your earnestness your diligence your Interest interest in In- terest in your work work work-go go thou and do likewise in the Army As in your civilian job the impression is made in the first few weeks You make that impression starting from the very first day by learning as quickly quick quick- ly as you can by applying yourself with energy to each task no matter mat ter how small or how unpleasant it is You dont don't get anywhere by buying buy buy- buying ing soda pop or beer for your sergeant sergeant ser ser- geant P h Brodie Griffith managing editor of the Charlotte News adjusted his ancient green eyeshade and began glancing through a sheaf of copy Hargrove he said lighting a cigarette it beats the hell out of me what fate did mean for you Dr Garinger down at the high school said years ago that it didn't write a formal education in on your budget Belmont Abbey found out that you weren't destined to be worth a hoot as a public relations man for a Benedictine Benedictine Ben Ben- college The drugstore chain in Washington said you had neither the talent nor the temperament temperament tempera tempera- ment for soda And you certainly certainly fizzled as a theater usher Maybe fate dont don't know you May I have a cigarette I asked reaching before he could protect protect pro pro- them Day after day I work my fingers to the shoulder blades for neither thanks nor living wage I Iam Iam am the feature editor of a progressive progressive sive growing newspaper What hat makes it that My hearts heart's blood makes it that I would fire you tomorrow he sighed if anyone else could possibly possibly bly straighten out the chaos you have brought to this office In the most underpaid brotherhood in the world you are arc the most overpaid two headed brother I am the most underpaid six six- armed Siva I snorted Look at met I nm the feature editor the obituary editor the woman's womans page Cry editor the hospital editor the hefe re rewrite write man the assistant to the city editor the commissar for paste and copy paper and cokes the custodian of oral memoranda the publics public's whipping boy the translator and copyist of open open forum forum letters the castigator of the composing room staff the guest artist for ailing col columnists columnists col- col the tourist guide for visiting visiting visit visit- ing school children the press representative representative at barbecue suppers of the United Brotherhood of Plumber and the butt of the office oi of fice jokes Period said Mr Griffith New paragraph I lead a terrible turbulent life I wailed I am the man forgotten by Destiny If you will get your elbows of off my desk he said the boy can put the mail on it What you need he continued sorting through a batch of letters is a tour of military service The Army would make a man of you I Iwas Iwas was in the Army in the last war A Atop Atop top sergeant at eighteen The Army did wonders for me not much of a sales argument argument ment I told him Then again he said if we must take up my whole busy day weeping over your sorrows lets let's not burden the Army when it has a job already Concerning the whole matter I would suggest that you apply yourself to making up the womans woman's page right now lest you come down tomorrow morning and find someone else sitting in your chair Leave my sight Theres not a letter there from New York I asked with my 4 t 1 1 1 1 l t Well ell my lad he said with faint glee we know what Fate means for you You can be happy now name written on it in a delightfully illegible feminine and slightly redheaded redheaded red red- headed hand Is there ever he snorted Lets see see see- and he went through the stack Well my lad he said with faint glee at last were we're getting some some- where We know what Fate means for you You can be happy now He handed me a long white inno Irmo- looking cent envelope addressed to me The return address read Selective Se Sc Service System System Mecklenburg burg County Board Number Three The President of the United States to Marion Hargrove greeting Pa PaThe The boy across the table in the Piedmont Grill lifted both hands and clapped his brow three times He looked at the clock then back at athis athis his breakfast then back at the clock My name is Hargrove I said handing him a cigarette Mine is Piel he said Melvin PieL Tomorrow maybe you can make it Private on the front So long as youre you're healthy I Isaid Isaid said shrugging a n shoulder It cuts down on the income tax My hay fever he wailed What will I do with my hay fever In the jungles of South Carolina for maneuvers maneuvers ma ma- with my hay fever Oy Just look at it he said on the way to the bus station maybe a posthumous medal my grandchildren dren will get Private Melvin Piel who gave his life valiantly and through the nose from hay fever yet Sneezing to glory The bus station on that morning in July was a pathetic picture Four large groups of boys reconciled to the grim and gruesome life ahead of them were bade farewell by wailing wail ing mothers and nobly suffering girl girlfriends girlfriends friends who had come down to see their loved ones off in a blaze of pathos It was pretty terrible The buses swung out of the terminal terminal nal through midtown and out toward toward to to- ward the road to Fayetteville The boys began to feel better shouted farewells to startled girls on the street and finally broke into raucous song Four flowers of the nation started a blackjack game on a suitcase suitcase suit suit- case in the back of the bus Brother Piel's spirits brightened a little His smooth voice found its way through the hay fever and emerged in song Its a lovely day tomorrow he be sang Tomorrow Tomorrow To morrow is a lovely day TO BE CONTINUED |