Enlighten

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

…. = Assorted F Swear Words

In the 1950’s the United States Air Force had recruiting officers visit schools all over the nation. They were there to enlighten Young Folks on growing up, to be truly enlightened in the ways of the world, patriotism, and service to their country. Their job was to sell a lifestyle of romantic and exotic, exciting World Travel. Recruiters were very well trained in the Art of recruiting young Folks eager to become men and leaders.

When they got enough Young Folks to sign up they would bring them all into a place like the YMCA. They had them line up along the wall in a big room, stripped down naked to see if they were fit for duty in the Air Force. One doctor had the job of doing all these physicals while everyone stood around freezing their rear ends and everything else. I don’t recall if the doctor even had a rubber glove on! Most of the time a cold penis goes inside, smart critters that way, just so it remembers to come back out. That big meeting place was so cold, it appeared to be half females in there before the exam was over.

Each new recruit was given a few days to get their business in order and then they got on an airplane and flew to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. We flew on an old DC-3, through a thunderstorm, like flying on a kite. The young lady sitting beside me got airsick, I held the barf bag for her it seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Drill instructors welcome these young recruits as they got off the bus from the airport. The new arrivals do not meet volleys of bullets but they are attacked by volleys of swear words. An almost constant barrage shouted explosively, directly into their faces it was a very demoralizing change for most of these young people. No matter what kind of a home they had come from, they were now going to be exposed to working under fear and degrading conditions.

Sergeant here comes another busload of …. new recruits. I will escort these green …. kids to the barber shop for GI haircuts. You can have the next one. The bus stopped and picked up A/1c Johnson. He yelled in his loudest voice, “Welcome to …. Lackland Air Force Base.” I’m going to enlighten you lucky …. girls to the fact that I’m your drill instructor for the time you spend here. I don’t see any girls here but you all have hair longer than girls. We are going to stop right down here at the …. barbershop and give you all a GI Haircut, it’s not going to cost you one quarter, not one red Cent. Your Uncle Sam’s going to give you a free …. haircut.
I want to enlighten you all, make it very clear I’m your leader, you will …. obey all of my orders, you will not question me, if you disobey any of my orders you’ll be placed on very unpleasant extra …. detail duties.
You young lives are going to be enlightened more at our next stop, that will be the …. supply room, you will be issued a full set of clothing and two pairs of shoes. You will put them all in your new …. duffle bag. When you get your duffel bags full you will march in a orderly …. manner back to your barracks. That is when you realize you can’t lift the duffle bag let alone march with it on your shoulder. You are scared, ‘your inner voice says’ ‘I’m here to become a leader, a man, while being degraded by …. and more ….!’ “Somehow you carry that bag and march to the barracks.”
Your next order, take all of the clothes out of the duffle bag and place everything in your new …. Footlocker. You’ll be given a instruction sheet on how to fold each piece of clothing and how to roll each pair of socks so they go in the exact order in the …. damn…. Foot Locker that they are supposed to be in, they better be right or your ass is mine …. get it?
You better …. double-time it with those Foot Lockers you’re all due at the dispensary at 14:00 Hour for all of your inoculation. It is …. hard to say what kind of bugs you are all carrying, you will get every shot the Air Force feels you need to have at this stage of your life, if you ship out for overseas you’ll get a few dozen more …. inoculations at that time.
You will march to the evening mess hall at 1700 hours, in …. close order formation. By the time you march in the morning formation to the breakfast Mess Hall at 0600 I want to see shiny boots on everyone’s feet, and when I say …. shiny I mean I want to see my face reflected in the toe of each shoe. You little …. pusses now see what you will be doing all night long.

Revile was at 05:30. Everyone fell out at a …. slow pace for formation to march to the mess hall. It was about a half a mile march, there were young Airmen dropping like …. flies. Many were sick from the smallpox vaccinations. The mess hall was a real ‘mess’ that morning. The drill instructor was screaming his …. head off to no avail, he had sick troops scattered all over the quadrangle.

The lights in the barracks came on 15 minutes early the following day. A big tall elderly fellow was hollering in his southern drawl, out of your…. bunks, drop your Cocks and grab your socks. My name is Tech Sergeant Pyle, you will all call me SIR. The first wise ass commenting about a relationship to Gomer Pyle will be doing 50 push-ups. I’m about a month from retirement, any of you screw that up for me and I will haunt you for the rest of your life.

You can all see that I’m a calm easygoing fellow with a very kindly manner about me, ya all are going to think I’m your daddy before you ship out. I don’t know if you have seen the White Corners in the barracks? They go along good with my white gloves if I find any dust in those white corners or anywhere else you will all stay in that barracks and clean it from top to bottom. Another thing, “I do not want to see any …. Yeller Assed drawers around this barracks!” I don’t give a damn if you lived so far back up the holler you only took a bath once a year, you’re going to take a …. shower here every day and keep your asses clean so we don’t have to look at them damn….yeller assed drawers with hash marks. I hates it!

Ya, all are going on a 20-mile forced march at 18:00. I want all of you to get your gear packed, mess kits, ponchos, two changes of clothes, and extra shoes. Halfway through the march, you will find a partner to set up your tent half with. We will take a 1-hour break and then return to the barracks. We’re going on a 20-mile march, it is raining fairly hard. We’ve been very fortunate to have a weatherman who gives us rainy weather for these delightful …. forced marches. Everyone will finish, unassisted. There sure was a lot of mud got tracked back into that perfectly clean barracks with all the corners painted white.

Sergeant Pyle finished his job of enlightening all of us in the ways of the United States Air Force. We were all soon off to school to learn what part of service we would serve our time in. I felt fortunate to have become a jet aircraft mechanic and crew chief. The pilots counted on my abilities to perform proper maintenance. I was in charge of everything in the log book and all maintenance scheduled for RF-101c 56-080 until I left.

All the branches of the United States military services have what they call Boot Camps where new recruits find out what the military is all about. Many of the training methods that are practiced at these facilities are very questionable. I’m sure changes have been made on some of them in later years. Treating recruits almost worse than the enemy is supposed to train them to do their jobs correctly? That makes no sense to many people.
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