A friend told me I should add this story to my book. She read all my stories and has encouraged me a lot so here it goes.

As a teenager I wasn't very sure of myself and my abilities. Didn't feel I would make it in college so I joined the Army. I had just turned 17 when I enlisted. Back in 1985 you could do that with parental consent. My mother wanted me to go to college and she was a little disappointed but she signed and I enlisted. Just in case anyone is thinking about enlisting or no anyone thinking about enlisting this is how they get you.

First they get you up at 500am. You drive to Fort Hamilton. You take a three hour entrance Exam. Then a 5 hour physical. Then you go to your career placement specialist. Let me tell you they can make the worst job look good.
For example I got to choose my job from a list of about 10 career choices.
They list jobs no one in their right mind would want. eleven Bravo Infantry.
Motor man. Tanker. Then they throw something like petroleum supply specialist at you. Hmm what's that about you say. They show you a video of these 50,000 gallon fuel storage tanks and they show you fuel pipelines and they show you helicopters being refueled. Sounds interesting right. So I signed up. Only after completing my training and when I was assigned to my duty station did I realize what I had done. My duty sergeant said, "This one is your gas pump."
Yes I enlisted in the Army to pump gas.

Any way that's not what this story is about. It's about basic training. When I enlisted in 1985 there was a huge enrollment into the military. When you first enlist you go to a three day in processing stay over. They give you your uniforms and equipment and you get your haircut. I remember my first night in the Army. After a long day of travel and processing we got to bed around 11pm.
Around 4:00 am I was jolted awake by a loud banging sound and screaming get out of bed you maggots. I jumped out of bed and was standing on the floor before I became fully awake. Someone had thrown a metal garbage can down the middle Isle which made a terrifying sound. After three days of being woken up like this I found out it was my fellow recruits throwing the garbage cans thinking it was funny.

When I finally got to where I was going to be stationed and meet my drill sergeant I was tired and my nerves where shot. How I met my drill instructor was not good either. They called off our last names and we were supposed to get in line. When they got to my name instead of Dodd they said Do Do. I didn't think they meant me so I didn't go.

Well that was a mistake. See we were all in a line and we began filing into this big room where we all had to cram into and sit on the floor close to one another so we could all fit. We were supposed to be in alphabetical order and now they had all ready began sitting and I was not in the order. I had to explain to the drill sergeant why I was not in the line. It didn't go well.