1st Army

October 1958 to January 1959
Fort Dix, New Jersey

Very early in the predawn darkness of Monday 27 October 1958, exactly 4 months after high school graduation, I departed my parents' home on eastern Long Island, New York and boarded a westbound Long Island Rail Road commuter train for the two hour trip to Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. Upon arriving at Penn Station I next rode the 7th Avenue IRT subway train to the South Ferry Subway Station at Battery Park and the ferry terminals on the southern tip of Manhattan. From the South Ferry Station it was a very short walk to the US Army's Induction Center located at 39 Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan. Soon after arrival at the Induction Center, along with a rather large number of enlistees and draftees from across the Northeast, I was sworn in to the US Army. I was now officially Recruit E-1 Ryan. I recall the remainder of the time that day as being a series of long lines and too many needles. At the end of the day a group of us was escorted to the ferry terminal where we boarded a ferry for the short ride from the Battery over to Governors Island, located in New York Harbor between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and at the time a US Army Post and First Army Headquarters, for an overnight stay.

Reception Station [Click image for larger view]

Bright and early the following morning, 28 October, our group was escorted back to 39 Whitehall Street, and placed on Army busses for the trip to Fort Dix, New Jersey. The busses arrived at Fort Dix around noon. I spent that first week in Reception Station Company 2. The first order of business was being given a G.I. haircut and being issued my uniforms and clothing. As for the G.I. haircut, I made out a lot better than many. I came to them with a "flat top", so the barber just trimmed a little more of that off the top.

Interestingly, at the time, the Army was in the midst of switching over from the "Brown Boot Army" to the "Black Boot Army", with the old Class A Olive Drab (O.D.) "Ike Jackets" being replaced with the new Army Green Class A uniforms. So, depending on an individual's foot size, some of us were issued new black combat boots and low quarters while others were issued brown footgear along with a bottle of black boot stain.

Late in the afternoon on Saturday 1 November, I was transported to Company E, 1st(?) Battalion, 4th Training Regiment, to officially start Basic Training. There was the requisite amount of screaming and yelling at us as the Officers and NCO's hustled us off the busses into rag-tag formations. Truthfully, I was initially scared out of my wits, but in time I learned to take it in stride.

The CO of Company E was 2nd Lieutenant Ludlow, a graduate of Infantry Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Benning. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in December. My Platoon Sergeant was Sgt. E-5 Lee, who turned out to be a fairly easy-going guy. Sgt. Lee had been a combat infantryman in the Korean War.

S-4

Quite a few of the platoon sergeants had been combat infantrymen in Korea. They wore their division patches and powder blue braid on the right shoulder and the 1st Army patch on the left shoulder. I quickly learned about the pride each took in wearing his Combat Infantryman Badge.

The week of 3 November, my first full week in Company E - Echo Company - was an indoctrination period. The first full week of the actual eight week Basic Training cycle started the following Monday, 10 November.

What can I say about Basic Training? We all went through it - the good, the bad, the indifferent. Actually, for that time period Army Basic Training wasn't so tough, especially when compared against Marine Boot Camp. The M1 Garand rifle was still the infantryman's weapon of the time, and I lived with that weapon for 8 weeks. I qualified for a Sharpshooter badge, which was pretty good for a kid from a metropolitan area who had never fired a weapon before.

We had quite a mix of trainees from across the Northeast, from 17 year old wet behind the ears Regular Army enlistees (RA's) to draftees (US) in their early to mid twenties, to Reservists and National Guardsmen starting their obligatory 6 months active duty. In my platoon we had a Sergeant E-5 from the Vermont National Guard who had never previously gone through Basic. He was constantly being asked if the sergeant's stripes he wore were really his.

Our Echo Company NCO's used to take pleasure in telling us how they had treated some fairly famous people who had previously gone through Basic under them. One story that comes to mind is how they always tried to harass singer and entertainer Steve Lawrence, of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme fame, by always loudly calling him out in formation by his real name, Sidney Leibowitz. Another is their description and characterization of New York Football Giants Offensive Lineman Roosevelt Brown as the "Gentle Giant" who nobody messed with.

I thought I heard at the time that both men were Reservists, and that Roosevelt Brown served his 6 month active duty requirement during the football off-season. However, my former Redstone colleague and friend, John Jardine, has informed me that Steve Lawrence was not in the Army Reserves, but was indeed a Draftee who served 2 years from 1958 to 1960. After Basic Training at Fort Dix, Steve was stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., and was a singer with the Army band. John says they had a weekly show on AFN radio, and that he was listening to the show on which Steve was promoted to SP4 E-4.

My Echo Barracks

We were crowded into old two story World War II wooden barracks. Each floor held two rows of "bunk bed" double metal cots, along with wall lockers and foot lockers. The latrines and showers were located at one end of the buildings on each floor. The barracks were heated, and hot water supplied, by coal burning stoves that were serviced and maintained by civilians. Because of their wood construction and outmoded heating system, the barracks were literally construed as fire hazzards, and we all had to take turns overnight on fire watch duty. Each time we stepped outside the barracks, we marched and double-timed everywhere. Marching was always to the Count-Cadence-Count chant of: E-C-H-O, E-C-H-O, ECHO! It was that, next followed by the longer Delayed Cadence Count version.

Recruit Ryan

By the end of Week 3 we were granted weekend passes. I received a pass to go to New York City on Thanksgiving Day. At the end of Week 6 we were sent home on leave for the Christmas and New Years holiday period, which was made up for by extending Basic Training to mid-January 1959. This was primarily due to the Army policy of allowing the drill sergeants to spend the Christmas to New Year Holiday time with their families. However, I recall Sgt. Lee complaining about the drill sergeants having to pull guard duty while the recruits were away. Over the entire span at Fort Dix I pulled my share of KP, but for some reason I never pulled guard duty. Now in the Army two months, I came off leave as Private E-2 Ryan, having been automatically advanced in grade on 28 December.

Our seventh week, the first full week of January 1959, was supposed to be bivouac training. We went out Monday morning and set up our pup tents, but we never slept in them. There had been a rather large snowstorm over the prior weekend, and all that week nightime temperatures in south central New Jersey plummeted into the low single digits and to below zero. So, the decision was made to bring us back to the barracks each night.

But it was back out to the field each morning at the crack of dawn. We marched around in the snow and temperatures that barely rose into the teens, from one training exercise to the next in our insulated Mickey Mouse boots, and as many layers of clothing you could squeeze on underneath your field jacket and outer parka.

Of the entire 8 week cycle, the only thing that truly bothered me, or more precisely, what I was fearful of, was learning to throw a grenade. The live fire infiltration course and the gas mask drill inside the gas-filled hut were really "no sweat". The grenade training was another story. I messed up with the practice grenades by pulling the pin, releasing the handle and then trying to squeeze the handle again. Naturally, my grenade went off before the command to throw was given, and all hell broke loose. Everybody else started tossing their grenades, whistles were blowing, and NCO's were screaming to halt the action. Luckily, for me and all it was only a practice grenade. The next day I faired much better with the real thing.

Week eight was almost anticlimactic. For one, the weather moderated, and for two, the worst of training was now behind us. It all came to a conclusion on Friday 16 January 1959 with a Regimental Parade.

On Saturday morning, 17 January 1959, I was issued my travel orders. Surprise of surprises, the orders did not read Redstone Arsenal, but Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I was placed in charge of a group of five going to Fort Sill. We took a bus and a taxi to the Philadelphia airport. I carried the packet of travel orders for all five, plus meal chits for the day. I said goodbye to Fort Dix, New Jersey for what I thought at the time would be my final time.

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