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Fifth Job of Bob - Army - Part I-B - Advanced Traning; Walk to the back, where's the hat boys?; Franz tries for West Point
This entry was posted on 12/21/2010 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
Army Basic and then Advanced Individual Training was I suppose, a comparable social experience in way, to heading off to college. In retrospect, it was simular to a time in a young person's life to getting exposed to new and different people and the culture they bring with them. It was a time to challange pervailing stereotypes set in a kid's mind. There were the two Germany guys from Basic Training who were looking to become U.S. citizens. They sure did not fit the stereotype the war movies constructed of the tough German soldier. These guys were more like girly-men. In A.I.T. there was a fellow from Bolivia taking the same track via service in the military. He did however, fit the stereotypical Latin machismo character.
There was another fellow that gravitated to me named Franz. Ol' Franz was about my age and in the spirit of the Cold War, his family had made it to America from Communist Hungary. I believe the story went that they got out after World War II just before the Russians got too tight a foot-hold in the region. He loved America and all the odd freedoms it offered up.
A footnote would be that later at my German base station, I met and became friends with a guy named Hernandez whose parents had fled communist Cuba. Like so many people from that background he too was far more patriotic than some of us native born Americans.
Franz and I would often eat together at the mess hall. He was very devout religiously and would always pray. Sometimes a training sergeant would tap Franz on the shoulder wondering what he was doing with his head bowed so low and his hands clenched as he recited his prayers out loud. I always had to be the one to to explain to ol' Sarge that Franz was praying.
Sometimes Franz would read us letters from his parents that were written in Hungarian. We all found the sound of the odd words intriguing. Then he would have to interpret to us what he had just said. He always did it good naturedly, non-the-least bothered by his heathen friends.
In those days, the Army had some cold weather gear that might amuse Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn with his Siberian Gulag experiences. The Korean War era M1951 Pile Cap was uncomfortable and ...cold. It also looked like something from the costume department of a bad foreign film. Nowadays, I see videos of the American military guys in the mountains of Afghanistan and saw for myself in Iraq that they now wear warm stocking caps. What a novel idea. Fort Leonard Wood had an enormous main post exchange (PX). It was a monstrosity in the spirit of the emerging big-box super store culture. On a Saturday morning off which we were afforded in Advanced Training, Franz and I headed out to the post exchange to find stocking caps, even though we would have to wear them surreptitiously against regulation. But it was...fuck'n cold.
We got to the PX and worked our way back to the men's clothing. And there, was a huge section of hat shelves. We both found a couple dark colored stocking hats. But as young men might present, we were both broke. I nor Franz had a credit card. I had set up a small account at the base bank. So, we stuffed the hats to the back of the mighty rack and headed out to raid my small bank account. God forbid either of us had the sense to ask a clerk to hold the hats for us.
About a couple yards from the front doors we were met by a gaggle of security dudes in civvies (civilian cloths) who promptly asked, "Where are the hats boys?"
Stunned, I think it was me that said, "Still on the shelf."
"Sure they are," said a husky mook with a polyester flowered shirt on.
"This dude thinks he is a cop on Hawaii Five-O," I remember thinking.
"Book 'em Danno," I blurted out as if I was suddenly struck by Turrette Syndrome.
Then he said, "Alright, smart guys, walk to the back of store; don't touch anything; and don't stop; don't talk."
In the back room it impressed me that we were being interrogated by a squad of schleps that lost their jobs as Joe McCarthy commie interrogating hacks. Polyester dude lite up a cigarette. One of his minions hopped his foot up on a chair as if the next phase might include the pulling out of our finger nails.
"Damn, fellahs," I said. "Let's just go back to the shelf and we will show you where the hats are stuffed."
Reluctantly, and disappointedly after searching us to no avail, we all headed out to the hat racks.
"Jesus Christ," said polyester dude. "Let's get these hats to the desk girl so she can hold them for you. Now get the fuck out of here."
Poetically, Franz let me do the talking. He was well aware his foreign accent could prejudice our case. "He could be one of them damn commies, right in our midst, and stealing hats for his commie cohorts," I could imagine polyester dude thinking.
And poetically, as it seems with other transplants such as Hernandez, Franz was very patriotic and would always get selected for special honor guard duty. I of course was a regulation military uniform wearing mess. Franz was always dressed perfect.
In fact, Franz, because of his foray into honor guard culture and his family's political asylum background, when we parted company, he was ensconced in the process to enter West Point. To think...if the hat thing had not gotten straightened out immediately, and Franz was actually wrongly accused of stealing, it could have wrecked his West Point crusade.
I bet he made it. Some day if I have more time, I will try to find some evidence of Franz's journey. Until then, I hope you are well my old Hungarian friend.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Navy Chief Petty Officer Patrick Lee Wade, 38, Oak Harbor, Washington (originally of Manawa, Wisconsin), was one of two sailors killed while participating in combat operations in Samarra, Salah Ad Din province Iraq, on Tuesday, July 17, 2007. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Wade was an explosives technician and 20-year Navy veteran, a job which took him all over the world, including Iraq. Wade was attempting to disarm a roadside bomb that had partially exploded; a subsequent explosion killed the two sailors. The two men served with Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11, out of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington State. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention Wade had helped clear debris from the second space shuttle explosion; he also at one point trained with German Navy divers recovering munitions from World War II. Patrick Wade was born in Appleton, Wisconsin and grew up in Manawa, a central Wisconsin community of about 1,350 people. He was said to enjoy fishing and canoeing Bear Lake and the Wolf River, and hunting deer and turkey with his older brothers. He joined the Navy after graduating from Little Wolf High School in Manawa in 1987. Patrick wrestled, ran track and played football in his high school days. He married his wife Keri in 2003. She had also been in the Navy when they met. Wade had been in Iraq about two months. The data base for war casualties iraq.pigstye.net noted via information from the Lacrosse Tribune that Wade was the second son from his family to die in the military. An older brother, Bob Wade, was killed in a helicopter accident in 1993 in Japan while serving in the Air Force.
Like so many military members, Wade was claimed by more than one state. The Web site heraldnet.com out of Everett, Washington notes Wade and his family lived in Oak Harbor, Washington, a Navy community. The site went on to note the two sailors killed were working with a battalion of U.S. Army Rangers. They were killed despite being in a special explosive ordinance disposal vehicle.
Another data base iraqnam.blogspot noted the Oshkosh Northwestern as saying Wade went into the Navy with a best friend who was quoted as saying Wade had a great sense of humor, was a pretty small guy and got into body building in his last year of high school. Both friends played the trombone together in the high school band. Wade comes from a family that had several generations serve in the military. At the time of his death Patrick Wade was survived by his mother Shirley Wade; brother Gary; sister-in-law Ann Wade; wife Kari and daughters Noel and Esme. Chief Petty Officer Patrick Wade was the 77th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
99,052 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,811 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,433 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1436 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
830 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,771 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
27 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
145 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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