After Basic Training I was off to Ft. Gordon, Georgia - home of the Signal Corps.
My snap decision to take Field Radio Repair was based on an empty stomach and the thinking that maybe I could use the experience when I got back to civilain life, - but I wasn't really thinking very clearly.
It was 1981, my Dad's Company used Moterola Radios the size of a pound of butter,- light weight, and powerful they were on the cutting edge of technology,and with cell phones right around the corner, the idea that we were going to learn to fix radios that were obsolete 20 years ago, - just seemed DUMB.
I had no interest in it at all.
I channeled my frustration into working out, and finishing up The Dream Study Questionare.
I was dreaming lucidly four or five times a week, and I was having a blast in my nocturnal adventures.
When The Company finished PT in the morning, I would skip breakfast,and go on a four mile run around the sandy parade ground. After dinner, - I would run four more miles.
I just couldn't bring myself to going to Field Radio Repair School, and then - LO AND BEHOLD, a friend of a friend of our Compay Comander showed up one day, and told me about a new group that was forming, and if I was willing to go back through Basic training at Ft. Bragg, I could get on board with,"some real James Bond Shit" !
I was given a battery of written tests, physical fittness tests; they ran me through The Confidence Course, and gave me a Silent Swim Test, ( which I did so well that, when the cadre administering the test turned around to tell me my time was up, - he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw me standing right there in front of him)!
A week passed, and I just worked out, ran and waited to hear how my tests went.
And I kept up with my lucid dreaming.
Finally, I was called in for an interviewe with the founder of this new group, and I was surprised to learn that he was stationed at Ft. Gordon. I asked him why, and he just brushed off the question, saying he was there for some cross-training. He gave me a big lecture about how the guys in his group were the best of the best, and had years and years of experience, but that since my test scores, (and especially my linguistic scores ) were so good, he would train me (and guys like me) from scratch...
... IF I aggreed to cross-train in Microwave Repair, Advanced NBC, and Arabic.
I told him I wanted Chinese.
"Nope, - I need Arabic speakers"...
... "if you learn Arabic well, - we can talk about Chinese later".
I told him it was a deal !
"Not so fast", he said, "you also have to finsih Field Radio Repair - and don' t be surprisedif I ask you to learn how to bake bread either".
So I signed on the dotted line, - resigned that I would have to learn dumb ass radio repair. ...
[cont]
Last edited by Mike Strong on Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:14 am, edited 2 times in total.