July 6th, 1967. Upon arrival at Fort Benning Georgia, processing took the three hundred and sixty of us all night long. We learned that we were trainees, not super heroes. We endured a rugged physical, moving from station to station in whatever skivvies that we happened to wear, or didn’t wear, to the reception center upon our enlistment or draft. Daylight found all three hundred and sixty of us huddled in the grass outside. Sargent Faget “and you better not crack a smile at the name”, barked the orders, and educated us about Jody. Jody was the guy in every home town who remained behind. We learned to hate Jody.
“We are going to fall into a formation and you are going to march at quick step down to the dispensary” “You will receive your first round of shots in your upper arms and another one in your sorry ass” “You are to relax and do not tighten your arm muscles, that injection gun can split your arm from your fingers to the shoulder”! Or worse, the one in your rump could split you from your A hole to your elbow, thereby destroying valuable government property which will be deducted from your pay.
We sang as we marched at a dead run. Old Sargent Faget would sing,” AINT NO USE IN GOING HOME”, We would repeat and he would sing, “JODY GOT YOUR GIRL AND GONE”. We would again repeat. “AINT NO USE IN LOOKIN BACK”, repeat “JODY GOT YOUR CADA-LACK”.
As we stood in line, dreading the ordeal, colored stickers were placed on our bare chest. “You see those medics lined up on either side of that sidewalk holding those pretty colored guns”?. “As you file between those guns, if you have a yellow sticker, hesitate when you come to the yellow gun” “Your injection will be applied to the closest shoulder to the yellow gun and your little yellow sticker will be removed, continue onward,”. “If you walk between the red and blue guns and you are displaying a red and a blue sticker, well guess what”? When you have no remaining stickers step aside, drop down and give twenty five, (push ups). Then line up and you can smoke em if you got om.
About the second puff on my cigarette and someone across the road started up a push mower. Whack! That rock hit me in the right eye and went up into my head before lodging behind my eyeball. I complained to Faget but to no avail. We had all been macho alpha males until we found out that we were not being treated as super heroes, then everyone had their aches and pains that might gain a free ride back to the world. Faget just did not want to hear anything about any of it.
After about forty five minutes of my enduring excruciating pain along with the, now visible swelling in my head, old Faget took pity and called a taxi. Faget gave the driver instructions, “drop em off at the hospital and let em find find his own way back here when he’s done”!
An hour later, after picking up and dropping off passengers we arrived at the military hospital. When the X rays were read the old doc declared, “ Man, you got a rock in your head and we gona get it out fer ya!
I finally found my way back. I had missed haircuts and uniform issue. I was made to wait two weeks for a hair cut and uniform. I stood out like a frog on a living room rug. That cost me hundreds of push ups in the two week period, not to mention wearing the same old smelly civilian clothes day after day.
In 2005 I filed a claim for loss of vision in that eye due to an existing scar on my eyeball. I was denied for the reason, “the report says that nothing was to be found in your eye”. The actual X ray report contained in my medical record of that encounter reads, There is a 4mm opaque foreign object lodged behind the right eye”. I mailed the rock home. Go figure?????????
James M. Cripps
US Army 1967-1970
VA THE REDNECK WAY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO IT ALONE! 