Joining the United States Army
Entré Act -- Army Basic Training
Ft. Polk, LA - 8 Nov 1965 - 10 Jan 1966
- San Donahue (the Tommy Dorsey bandleader) had been successful getting me into the NORAD Band (as he promised to do in Tokyo. He sent, on my behalf, a letter to Col Mark Azzolina, USAF (ret) the founder of the North American Defense Command Band. I had a copy of the letter that was sent by the NORAD Band's US Army contingent's commander, CWO Edwin Bearman, to the San Antonio US Army recruiters. It was the first guaranteed assignment enlistment that they had seen and the process was not without a glitch or two!!
- I arranged for my actual enlistment date to be 8 Nov, 1965, went to Biloxi to work one more month with Johnnie "Scat" Davis and returned to report for enlistment.
- Al Hansen drove me to the recruiting station on Monday morning, Nov 8, I was sworn in, loaded on a bus with 30/40 other guys and sent off to Fort Polk, Louisiana. Leesville, LA is the closest local town, just across the Texas border
- I was in a company of recruits that were all headed to advanced infantry training and then to Viet Nam... I didn't say much about the NORAD Band...
- Ft. Polk is very close to the Red River and the Gulf of Mexico and, as a consequence, is very damp/humid... It was cold and always raining... I never warmed up or dried out the whole time I was there!!
- We were furloughed between Xmas (24 Dec) and New Years (3 Jan)... as we left Ft. Polk the drill sergeants "threatened" that we faced a 20 mile hike to a 3 day bivouac (camp out) on the day after our return... it didn't happen, they pulled in 'cattle' trucks while we were at chow (the breakfast meal to the uninitiated), loaded us up and trucked us the 20 miles (THANK GOD!!)
- Actually they were in such a hurry to get us out of basic that our training was 'accelerated' which effectively trimmed it from 8 weeks to 6.
- As a result my orders were several days late getting to my training company headquarters. The company commander and clerk were somewhat befuddled by the nature of my orders/assignment, as well. I alerted the NORAD Band that I was finished and sitting idle at Ft. Polk. CWO Bearman called and impressed on the company commander that "my presence was required elsewhere."
- Back to San Antonio, packed up my drums and clothes and headed towards Colorado Springs in my Catalina convertible with a stopover at Jake's house (Don Jacoby) in Dallas, on the way. After heading north out of Dallas I ran into a big snow storm outside of Amarillo, TX. The highway conditions and resulting slow speeds almost caused me to arrive late to report to the band.
- Three days of rehearsals after my arrival the NORAD Band left on a 3 week tour of Florida. NOT bad duty!!