When I left Fort Campbell
the Company Commanding Officer told the three of us who
were headed to Rigger School, “...you are usually
promoted to Private First Class when finishing Jump School,
but I’ll wait until you get back to cut the orders.
Because I have no doubt you will come back a
private!”
As stated previously Rigger
School was located at Fort Lee, VA. At any given time the
school consisted of 30 instructors and support personnel
and 2 or 3 classes of up to 30 students each. Keep in mind
that the “students” have already finished 8
– 16 weeks of basic and advanced training, and Jump
School. We were the only paratroopers on the post. The
“rest” of the post, over 12,000, were in basic
training or a Quartermaster School or support personnel
– all LEGS. We paratroopers made up, at most, 1% or
less of the entire post. Think about it. It was time to
enjoy being a paratrooper.
In addition to attending
classes we did most of the things all of you were doing,
except maybe a little different.
The first afternoon at Fort
Lee an upper classman gave us a little talk about what to
expect. One thing that really was emphasized that if your
buddy got into a fight and was outnumbered, no matter how
many, you were to help him – or you were guaranteed
to get your “you know what” kicked when you got
back to the barracks.
We had an area to police
each morning that was about 5 miles from the barracks. Of
course we ran. After a week we had two car loads of MPs go
with us – one in front of our formation and one in
the rear. This was the results of some legs making
“cat calls” about us. The Sergeant in charge of
our formation, also a student, asked nicely who had made
the remarks. Since no one admitted it he turn us loose on
the entire barracks.
After Police Call we did
our daily PT. Our instructors were new officers –
most just out of OCS or ROTC. It took at least 3 of them,
each giving us only part of the total workout. One day
during the pushups we goateed the young 2nd Lt.
to keep going after the standard set. He gave it his best,
but in the end it was far from good enough.
We were not allowed to
march on A Avenue, the main street of Fort Lee. We usually
used it to get to and from the Rigger School training area.
A Avenue had a large paved sidewalk on only one side.
During the first rain when we were supposed to march on the
“other” side we wanted to avoid getting mud on
our shinny jump boots. So we used the paved side. All
except one formation of legs moved off the paved sidewalk
and let us pass. The other one should have because when we
got through their ranks they were either off the sidewalk
or flattened on it. After this happened a few times A
Avenue was off-limits to us in all weather
conditions.
For 2 weekends we had a two
hour class on saluting. The reason for this was upon
meeting a Bird Colonel in a car the Sergeant leading the
formation gave him a snappy salute. The Colonel returned it
with a very sloppy salute. Someone in the ranks make
a very loud comment about it. I could never understand that
if the Colonel did not how to salute why it was us that had
to go to Saluting Class.
At any given time about 50%
of our company was on “extra duty” or confined
to quarters or both. I am not sure how many times I had to
scrub the barracks with a toothbrush.
The main Service Club had a
dance about once or twice a month. Unlike most Service Club
dances there were lots of girls. Most were brought in under
agreements with several Nursing Schools in Richmond, VA.
This made for some interesting nights.
My first night there a
couple of legs got into a fight. When the MPs got there the
first thing they said was, “OK Airborne, get your
caps out of your back pockets.” Then they broke up
the fight. They had to come back later to untangle us.
One night there were about
200 people in the Club and a fight broke out. When the MPs
got there, with the Provost Marshall, there were a lot of
girl and 13 men – all paratroopers. The PM, a Major,
really got mad. He told his MPs to take us in and lock us
up. After they got us into formation, with a Corporal, one
of the students, was put in charge they return to their
jeeps. The Mps vehicles were headed in the wrong direction
and as they approached their jeeps the Corporal, in a very
low voice said, “ I don’t know about you guys
but I’m getting out of here.” We were able to
get back to the barracks before the MPs. When asked none of
us knew anything about the fight at the Service
Club.
We had a very tall Marine
in our class and a very short one. At one dance the tall
one came off the dance floor and said to the short one,
“Do you know what that Leg call me?”
“What?” the short one asked. “He call me
a Jar Head!”. “Just point him out”, the
short one demanded. The tall Marine pointed to the largest
Leg on the floor. Now I really don’t believe anyone
had said anything and if so probably not that one. But the
short Marine walked up to him, tapped him on the shoulder
and then decked him. After that we all got into it
and helped him out. Now we were outnumbered by at
least 10-to-1. But each of our 1 was ready to fight. Of the
legs, 9.9 did not want any part of a fight. Also they were
all in basic training and had been told, like us during
basic, about how tough the paratroopers were. Again, by the
time the MPs arrived there were only Airborne guys and a
lot of girls left.
There were so many similar
nights, that one night near the end we did not get into a
fight. At the end of the dance the Service Club Director
stood by the door and shook each of the paratroopers hand
as he left and said, “I didn’t think you could
do it!”
On one Payday-Weekend our
guys got more DRs (Delinquent Report) than the rest of the
post got all month. That’s about 1/15 of 1% per day.
No wonder we were confined to the barracks a lot.
At one time the Post was
off-limits to us, except our company area, Rigger School
and one PX. The PX had two armed guards assigned to it
during off-duty hours. Don’t know why they hated the
Airborne.
There are a lot more I
could tell about our off-duty hours. I will relate what I
consider the best “Tale from Rigger School”. It
occurred during a class before I went to Rigger School. It
happened in a bar just outside the gate. The bar was called
“The Little Fight Club”. This very large
soldier, a leg, walked up to these three paratroopers and
said, “I’ve been told for 8 weeks that any
paratrooper could whip any three legs. I just don’t
believe it.” This guy was huge – not fat. The
trooper in the middle looked at the other two and said,
“I’m the smallest so I get him”. As he
just clears the bench he deck the big guy. Turns out the
small trooper was his division’s light weight boxing
champion. (Not sure it really happened, but its a good
story.)
There was a rumor that to
graduate from Rigger School you had to have a MP’s
White Hat in your locker. There were a lot of White Hats in
the lockers.
There are other tales, but
lets get on to Operation Gyroscope. The point of all the
above is that we may have been in a Quartermaster related
company, but we were paratroopers and we did our part to
make believers of the Leg population.
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