Our first ten days in the US Army was spent at the Fort Knox, Kentucky reception center. Most of the time was spent snoozing or smoking or just making sure we hid from the cadre who came around looking for volunteers. I got volunteered once for KP duty. That's "Kitchen Police." It really has nothing to do with law enforcement, either.

I was assigned to a sink in the scullery and washed pots and pans until my fingers looked like prunes. The mess sergeant (the army calls the place a "mess," but it is only a term, not a state) gave me light duty for the rest of the day - running the potato peeling machine.

The potato machine looked like a giant mixing bowl and beater, but it was a huge thing. It sat on the floor and you tossed in the taters. The whirling blades skinned the potatoes and you had to shut it off, remove the peeled taters and scoop away the peelings. It was hard work, but it was better than hot scalding water and Brillo pads.

After that day I learned the best places to duck and hide.

We had sent home our civilian clothes and the new fatigues (olive green regular work uniforms) were all we wore. We had to write our names in black markers on the narrow white tags sewn on the uniform tunics just above the right pocket. We also had to learn how to spit polish our black boots and low-cut dress shoes.

After ten days of relative boredom, we got our orders and I rode on a C-46 plane to Texas and Fort Hood for basic training.

About sixteen of the guys I went to KY with were on the Fort Hood group. The remainder came from other places. We all were bussed into Hood and dropped off at our homes for the next eight weeks:

B Company, 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry Regiment

I was lined up in a formation in the parking lot and selected by a rap on the head to "run, don't walk" up to the second floor of the big three story concrete barracks. I arrived in a large bay with double bunks down each side wall which was lined with wall lockers. A tough-looking sergeant checked my name and assigned me to the bottom of the first bunk on the right. The guy above me was named Ackerman. Everything in the Army is done alphabetically.

We got out gear stowed properly and were rushed right back out to the central compound area, a large paved space between the three buildings that comprised the battalion area. Then we were double0timed (trotted) into the mess hall for a meal. After a quick dinner we were once again ordered to formation in the quadrangle. We were then double-timed around the perimeter of the compound about five times, a distance of about a half mile, just enough to make sure our dinner didn't quite get settled. After the run we had to do about twenty push-ups apiece. (Later on, in just a few weeks and in terrific physical shape, I could do more than forty!) Then we were rushed back to our bay and told to clean the floor.

We had to strip down to our undershirt and shorts. On hands and knees we scrubbed the entire bay room floor - white linoleum tiles - with toothbrushes and Brillo pads. This took over an hour, and just as we finished the sergeant flipped off the lights and shouted:

"LIGHTS OUT! Hit the sack. We have an early revillie tomorrow. Rise and shine at four-thirty a.m. Formation in the quad at five. Such a sorry bunch of sonsabitches I have never ever seen before!"

And Platoon Sergeant Lake walked down the stairs.

Some guys talked a while. Others said things like "Shut the f..k up and get some sleep!" I could hear somebody softly crying into their pillow. I just laid there and wondered how bad this was going to be - until I finally fell asleep.

I remember how sore I was. My knees hurt. My stomach ached. My brain was spinning and I smelled like soap and sweat. I had made it through the first day and I did not realize it would be one of the easiest.