I reported to Fort Myer, Virginia on January 16, 1974. In a fill-in-the-name letter to my father, Captain Thomas S. Jeffrey III, Commanding said congratulations were in order not only for my selection to the 3d United States Infantry, the Old Guard, but for my assignment to Company E (Presidential Honor Guard). I was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with the 101st Airborne when I got the nod.
I completed basic training at Fort Ord, California on Monterey Bay on the Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1972. I was 17, an E-4 due to 4-years of High School ROTC, and I was the trainee platoon sergeant. We did Army things. Marching, manual of arms, running, shooting, clearing a Vietnamese village, getting inoculated and acclimated, learning different ways to use the word fuck and much more. I qualified as an expert with hand grenades. I think not blowing up yourself or the drill sergeant was the cut off.
We did after duty things. On Post there was a 3.2 beer hall. There was a stretch of ocean beach at the end of a firing range where a Fresno-connect introduced me to hash and slow-motion seagulls. Off Post, there was Monterey, with its “friendly” girls and fishy smelling wharf. Fresno and I visited the ritzy Carmel-by-the-Sea. Not sure how we got there, but around 2 am we were returned to Fort Ord in a Military Police jeep.
Normally, an 11-Bravo grunt, after basic training, would go to advanced infantry training (AIT), but 1972 was not a normal year. There was a fast-track focus on recruitment with the draft coming to an end in 1973. I opted for the $1,500 signing bonus for 4 years and an on-the-job training path at a line unit. I also opted for the airborne physical when I joined. Ten toes? Ten fingers? Yep, you’re good and Uncle Sam will give you $55 extra each month.
The signing bonus, less taxes, came to about $1,200. I bought mom a dishwasher and put money on a 1969 AMC Javelin, with a 390-V8, Hurst shifter on the floor, and an 8-track player. Yeah, buddy.
Next stop, Georgia and jump school.