United States Army, 1970s
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| (soldiers talking) | 0:03 | |
| (engines rumbling) | ||
| - | Lieutenant! | 0:08 |
| Soldier | Company! | 0:10 |
| - | Attention! | 0:11 |
| Forward! | 0:15 | |
| (boots tramping) | 0:18 | |
| (soldiers chanting) | 0:22 | |
| (chanting continues) | 0:30 | |
| Soldiers | One! Two! Three! Four! | 0:34 |
| One, two, three, four! | 0:39 | |
| One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! | 0:42 | |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 0:45 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 0:47 |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 0:50 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 0:53 |
| Instructor | Here we go! | 0:55 |
| Soldiers | Here we go! | |
| Instructor | Up the hill! | 0:57 |
| Soldiers | Up the hill! | |
| - | The army isn't going to hell. | 0:58 |
| I think we probably bottomed out. | 0:59 | |
| We've been there, and we're coming up now. | 1:01 | |
| - | At one time, there was a... | 1:02 |
| I could have made it through two years of the army, | 1:05 | |
| but I can't make it now. | 1:07 | |
| - | If a man thinks he's got a problem, | 1:08 |
| he's got a problem. | 1:11 | |
| (boots tramping) | 1:12 | |
| - | Well, yes. I think there's a lot of challenge in the army. | 1:17 |
| - | You work on a group basis, like cows. | 1:19 |
| They'll take a bunch of cows, and... | 1:22 | |
| Instead of human beings, they'll take a bunch of cows | 1:24 | |
| and herd them here, herd them there. | 1:26 | |
| - | Say your folks come down on the weekend to visit you. | 1:28 |
| You're not going to bring your mom out here | 1:30 | |
| to show her where you live. | 1:31 | |
| Soldier | I never bring my mom here. | 1:32 |
| - | You wouldn't bring your mama. | 1:34 |
| You wouldn't bring your dog out here, man. | 1:35 | |
| Soldiers | One rolled over to the other and said: | 1:36 |
| Instructor | The man I marry has got to be | 1:39 |
| Soldiers | The man I marry has got to be | 1:42 |
| Instructor | an airborne ranger with the CID. | 1:45 |
| Soldiers | an airborne ranger with the CID. | 1:47 |
| - | I'd say one of the army's greatest problems right now | 1:49 |
| is what everyone's talking about: the generation gap. | 1:51 | |
| - | There's nothing wrong with him. | 1:54 |
| I'm having the same problem with my son. | 1:56 | |
| - | We came back from a field trip | 1:57 |
| and Steve's bed was turned upside down | 2:00 | |
| with the spring on top of the mattress, | 2:03 | |
| and two drawers were ripped out of our desk. | 2:05 | |
| - | You'd tell a man to do something and he wouldn't do it. | 2:06 |
| You'd take him out behind the back | 2:09 | |
| and kick the shit out of him or something like that. | 2:11 | |
| And he'd respect you for it. | 2:13 | |
| - | I mean, a lot of these guys would love | 2:14 |
| to go back to the brown boot army. | 2:16 | |
| We can't accomplish anything. | 2:18 | |
| You have to let a man get out and perform to his ability. | 2:20 | |
| (boots tramping) | 2:22 | |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 2:24 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 2:26 |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 2:27 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 2:28 |
| Instructor | Break it on down! | 2:30 |
| - | I drive a garbage truck and kill rats. | 2:31 |
| That's part of my job. | 2:33 | |
| - | Yes, I believe it's very good | 2:34 |
| that the American army is in Germany. | 2:36 | |
| And I myself, I owe my life to the American army, | 2:39 | |
| because when I came here after the war, I starved. | 2:42 | |
| And so I worked with the American army | 2:46 | |
| and I got something to eat. | 2:48 | |
| - | Oh, everybody from all over the states | 2:51 |
| gets together in the barracks | 2:53 | |
| and sits down, smokes dope, | 2:54 | |
| and says how the shitty the army is. | 2:57 | |
| - | I feel that I can contribute many things | 2:58 |
| to this great cause. | 3:01 | |
| I think the army is a great cause. | 3:02 | |
| (boots tramping) | 3:04 | |
| - | Every once in a while, you run into Daisy. | 3:08 |
| You think, "He ain't going to live." (sniggers) | 3:10 | |
| - | Man, too many people telling you what to do. | 3:12 |
| Somebody tells you to do something | 3:14 | |
| and then somebody else comes up | 3:15 | |
| and tells you to do it a different way. | 3:16 | |
| - | The NCO doesn't want to be left out. | 3:17 |
| He just don't want to be the person | 3:20 | |
| that takes the order and tells what has to be done. | 3:21 | |
| - | You're treated like a child. | 3:25 |
| They expect you to act like a child and think like a child. | 3:26 | |
| (boots tramping) | 3:29 | |
| Instructor | Colonel, colonel, can't you see? | 3:31 |
| Soldiers | Colonel, colonel, can't you see? | 3:33 |
| - | There's no meaning for the EM, | 3:36 |
| for us at all in our job. | 3:38 | |
| - | If I can make it in Uncle Sam's army, | 3:39 |
| I can make it out there. | 3:41 | |
| - | It seems like sometimes they want to make you a housewife. | 3:42 |
| - | I think a lot of people are just bored | 3:45 |
| and a little frustrated with the army, | 3:47 | |
| because they're not doing what they know. | 3:48 | |
| - | Yeah, blow it up and start all over again. | 3:51 |
| - | We cannot afford to have unsatisfied people | 3:53 |
| in the United States Army. | 3:57 | |
| - | Back in the old army days, we had more discipline. | 3:58 |
| Nowadays, discipline is almost out. | 4:03 | |
| - | Take the army back to were it used to be, | 4:05 |
| the brown boot army, | 4:07 | |
| and you won't even have an army anymore. | 4:07 | |
| Instructor | Over the hill! | 4:09 |
| Soldiers | Over the hill! | |
| Instructor | Down the hill! | 4:10 |
| Soldiers | Down the hill! | |
| - | Around the hill! | 4:12 |
| - | Around the hill! | |
| - | I think talking with troops is really the only way | 4:13 |
| that you can actually find out what they're thinking | 4:16 | |
| and find out what's going on. | 4:19 | |
| (soldiers shouting) | 4:21 | |
| - | Well, at one time, I was going to get out. | 4:24 |
| But now, I'd really like to stick around, | 4:26 | |
| just to see the changes come about. | 4:29 | |
| - | I think we've got to realize that society's different too. | 4:30 |
| Soldier | All right, sir? | 4:32 |
| - | Airborne. | |
| These guys that we work with, | 4:36 | |
| they're about the same as you're going to find | 4:37 | |
| back on the block and in the states. | 4:39 | |
| But you know, it's a time when people question things. | 4:42 | |
| You just can't tell somebody to do it | 4:46 | |
| and have them do it in every instance. | 4:48 | |
| So society's changing, and the army's got to change. | 4:50 | |
| We've got to come up with some new ways | 4:54 | |
| to get people to be interested | 4:56 | |
| in the kinds of things that the army does. | 4:58 | |
| And adventure training is the kind of thing | 5:01 | |
| that challenges your manhood. | 5:03 | |
| Well, we've been doing that here, | 5:05 | |
| and I think that we've struck a spark | 5:07 | |
| in some of these young men. | 5:09 | |
| They're getting interested in the army, | 5:10 | |
| where they never have been before. | 5:13 | |
| And we're trying to change the army, | 5:15 | |
| so that we take the mop away from the soldier | 5:17 | |
| and replace it with that rifle. | 5:20 | |
| Well, we've had some people go down a major river here | 5:22 | |
| in rubber boats. | 5:25 | |
| A lot of barge traffic on that river. | 5:26 | |
| One of the things that they did | 5:28 | |
| was meet a friendly partisan. | 5:29 | |
| He takes their boats and hides them, | 5:31 | |
| and then they go on off to recon a position, check it out. | 5:34 | |
| See if this old building would be suitable | 5:40 | |
| for an observation post or headquarters of some kind. | 5:42 | |
| (steam whistle blows) | 6:00 | |
| (horns blow) | 6:04 | |
| I think you're going to see a new spirit, | 6:24 | |
| a new interest in everything about the army. | 6:26 | |
| (soldiers talking) | 6:29 | |
| Soldier | You're not racing. | 6:32 |
| It doesn't make no difference who goes over there first. | 6:33 | |
| (soldier shouts instructions) | 6:36 | |
| - | Back in civilian life, | 6:45 |
| I used to always like to try things | 6:46 | |
| that was a challenge to me. | 6:48 | |
| And I think these ropes here are a challenge to me. | 6:51 | |
| I want to climb them. | 6:54 | |
| - | It's hard, man. It's really tough. | 6:55 |
| (soldiers shouting) | 6:58 | |
| (instructor speaking) | 7:02 | |
| So I joined the army. | 7:11 | |
| I knew it was going to be tough, | 7:12 | |
| but I didn't think it was going to be this damn tough. | 7:13 | |
| But it's good though. | 7:15 | |
| I heard a note about some drill sergeant | 7:16 | |
| who was supposed to smile every now and then, | 7:18 | |
| but I wouldn't want a drill sergeant to smile, | 7:20 | |
| because he wouldn't be a drill sergeant then. | 7:22 | |
| Basically, it's tough. | 7:23 | |
| It makes a man out of you. It makes you feel good. | 7:25 | |
| Just like this long run here. It's about two miles. | 7:26 | |
| Soldier | Two and a half miles. | 7:29 |
| - | Two and a half miles. | 7:30 |
| We didn't stop. | 7:31 | |
| We wanted to stop. We don't know what made us keep going. | 7:32 | |
| But we did keep running. We didn't stop until he said so. | 7:36 | |
| - | We don't let anybody fall behind. | 7:39 |
| - | I don't say they should be afraid of me, | 7:40 |
| as long as they do what I tell them to do. | 7:42 | |
| Because, number one, we're both human. | 7:44 | |
| I'm here to teach them. | 7:47 | |
| Not to make them afraid of me, | 7:48 | |
| but to teach them the basic knowledge they need | 7:51 | |
| of basic training with the army. | 7:53 | |
| And I feel that no man should be afraid of me. | 7:55 | |
| I don't want him to be afraid of me. | 7:58 | |
| - | He treats us like respectable young men. | 7:59 |
| We should treat him with the same respect. | 8:01 | |
| - | Tell him to do something. Show him how to do it. | 8:03 |
| Tell him how to do it. Show him how to do it. | 8:07 | |
| And if possible, do it for him for the first time. | 8:09 | |
| - | You can go to Sergeant Pete, tell him your problems, | 8:14 |
| just like your own dad. | 8:17 | |
| He sat down | 8:18 | |
| and he's helping me get my high school education. | 8:19 | |
| (soldiers chuckle) | 8:21 | |
| Soldier | Even tucks you in bed! | 8:23 |
| (soldiers chuckle) | 8:24 | |
| (rifles fire) | 8:25 | |
| - | A lot of times, | 8:28 |
| our company commander would double time with us. | 8:29 | |
| Like go to the ranges. And- | 8:31 | |
| (tape sticks) | 8:33 | |
| (tape restarts) | 8:45 | |
| You're losing your breath or something, | 8:46 | |
| and you think, "Hell, the CO can do it. I can do it." | 8:47 | |
| (rifles fire) | 8:52 | |
| (tape rewinds) | 9:02 | |
| (rewinding continues) | 9:06 | |
| (rewinding continues) | 9:33 | |
| (rewinding continues) | 10:02 | |
| (soldiers talking) | 10:43 | |
| (engines rumbling) | ||
| - | Lieutenant! | 10:49 |
| Soldier | Company! | 10:50 |
| - | Attention! | 10:51 |
| Forward! | 10:55 | |
| Soldier | Double time, let's go! | 10:59 |
| (boots tramping) | 11:00 | |
| (soldiers chanting) | 11:03 | |
| (chanting continues) | 11:09 | |
| Soldiers | One! Two! Three! Four! | 11:14 |
| One, two, three, four! | 11:19 | |
| One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! | 11:22 | |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 11:25 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 11:28 |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 11:30 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 11:33 |
| Instructor | Here we go! | 11:35 |
| Soldiers | Here we go! | |
| Instructor | Up the hill! | 11:37 |
| Soldiers | Up the hill! | |
| - | The army isn't going to hell. | 11:38 |
| I think we probably bottomed out. | 11:39 | |
| We've been there, and we're coming up now. | 11:41 | |
| - | At one time, there was a... | 11:43 |
| I could have made it through two years of the army, | 11:45 | |
| but I can't make it now. | 11:47 | |
| - | If a man thinks he's got a problem, | 11:49 |
| he's got a problem. | 11:51 | |
| (boots tramping) | 11:52 | |
| - | Well, yes. I think there's a lot of challenge in the army. | 11:57 |
| - | You work on a group basis, like cows. | 11:59 |
| They'll take a bunch of cows, and... | 12:02 | |
| Instead of human beings, they'll take a bunch of cows | 12:04 | |
| and herd them here, herd them there. | 12:06 | |
| - | Say your folks come down on the weekend to visit you. | 12:08 |
| You're not going to bring your mom out here | 12:10 | |
| to show her where you live. | 12:12 | |
| Soldier | I never bring my mom here. | 12:13 |
| - | You wouldn't bring your mama. | 12:14 |
| You wouldn't bring your dog out here, man. | 12:15 | |
| Soldiers | One rolled over to the other and said: | 12:16 |
| Instructor | The man I marry has got to be | 12:19 |
| Soldiers | The man I marry has got to be | 12:22 |
| Instructor | an airborne ranger with the CID. | 12:25 |
| Soldiers | an airborne ranger with the CID. | 12:27 |
| - | I'd say one of the army's greatest problems right now | 12:30 |
| is what everyone's talking about: the generation gap. | 12:32 | |
| - | There's nothing wrong with them. | 12:34 |
| I'm having the same problem with my son. | 12:36 | |
| - | We came back from a field trip | 12:37 |
| and Steve's bed was turned upside down | 12:40 | |
| with the spring on top of the mattress, | 12:42 | |
| and two drawers were ripped out of our desk. | 12:45 | |
| - | You'd tell a man to do something and he wouldn't do it. | 12:47 |
| You'd take him out behind the back | 12:49 | |
| and kick the shit out of him or something like that. | 12:51 | |
| And he'd respect you for it. | 12:53 | |
| - | I mean, a lot of these guys would love | 12:54 |
| to go back to the brown boot army. | 12:57 | |
| We can't accomplish anything. | 12:58 | |
| You have to let a man get out and perform to his ability. | 13:00 | |
| (boots tramping) | 13:03 | |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 13:05 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 13:06 |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 13:07 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 13:09 |
| Instructor | Break it on down! | 13:10 |
| - | I drive a garbage truck and kill rats. | 13:11 |
| That's part of my job. | 13:14 | |
| - | Yes, I believe it's very good | 13:15 |
| that the American army is in Germany. | 13:16 | |
| And I myself, I owe my life to the American army, | 13:18 | |
| because when I came here after the war, I starved. | 13:22 | |
| And so I worked with the American army | 13:26 | |
| and I got something to eat. | 13:28 | |
| - | Oh, everybody from all over the states | 13:31 |
| gets together in the barracks | 13:33 | |
| and sits down, smokes dope, | 13:35 | |
| and says how the shitty the army is. | 13:37 | |
| - | I feel that I can contribute many things | 13:39 |
| to this great cause. | 13:42 | |
| I think the army is a great cause. | 13:43 | |
| (boots tramping) | 13:44 | |
| - | Every once in a while, you run into Daisy. | 13:49 |
| You think, "He ain't going to live." (sniggers) | 13:51 | |
| - | Man, too many people telling you what to do. | 13:53 |
| Somebody tells you to do something | 13:54 | |
| and then somebody else comes up | 13:56 | |
| and tells you to do it a different way. | 13:57 | |
| - | The NCO doesn't want to be left out. | 13:57 |
| He just don't want to be the person | 14:00 | |
| that takes the order and tells what has to be done. | 14:02 | |
| - | You're treated like a child. | 14:05 |
| They expect you to act like a child and think like a child. | 14:06 | |
| (boots tramping) | 14:10 | |
| Instructor | Colonel, colonel, can't you see? | 14:11 |
| Soldiers | Colonel, colonel, can't you see? | 14:14 |
| - | There's no meaning for the EM, | 14:16 |
| for us at all in our job. | 14:18 | |
| - | If I can make it in Uncle Sam's army, | 14:20 |
| I can make it out there. | 14:21 | |
| - | It seems like sometimes they want to make you a housewife. | 14:23 |
| - | I think a lot of people are just bored | 14:25 |
| and a little frustrated with the army, | 14:27 | |
| because they're not doing what they know. | 14:28 | |
| - | Yeah, blow it up and start all over again. | 14:32 |
| - | We cannot afford to have unsatisfied people | 14:34 |
| in the United States Army. | 14:37 | |
| - | Back in the old army days, we had more discipline. | 14:38 |
| Nowadays, discipline is almost out. | 14:43 | |
| - | Take the army back to were it used to be, | 14:45 |
| the brown boot army, | 14:47 | |
| and you won't even have an army anymore. | 14:48 | |
| Instructor | Over the hill! | 14:49 |
| Soldiers | Over the hill! | |
| Instructor | Down the hill! | 14:50 |
| Soldiers | Down the hill! | |
| - | Around the hill! | 14:52 |
| - | Around the hill! | |
| - | I think talking with troops is really the only way | 14:53 |
| that you can actually find out what they're thinking | 14:56 | |
| and find out what's going on. | 14:59 | |
| (soldiers chanting) | 15:00 | |
| - | Well, at one time, I was going to get out. | 15:04 |
| But now, I'd really like to stick around. | 15:07 | |
| Just to see the changes come about. | 15:09 | |
| - | I think we've got to realize that society's different too. | 15:11 |
| Soldier | All right, sir? | 15:13 |
| - | Airborne. | |
| These guys that we work with, | 15:16 | |
| they're about the same as you're going to find | 15:18 | |
| back on the block and in the states. | 15:19 | |
| But you know, it's a time when people question things. | 15:23 | |
| You just can't tell somebody to do it | 15:26 | |
| and have them do it in every instance. | 15:28 | |
| So society's changing, and the army's got to change. | 15:30 | |
| We've got to come up with some new ways | 15:35 | |
| to get people to be interested | 15:36 | |
| in the kinds of things that the army does. | 15:38 | |
| And adventure training is the kind of thing | 15:41 | |
| that challenges your manhood. | 15:44 | |
| Well, we've been doing that here, | 15:45 | |
| and I think that we've struck a spark | 15:47 | |
| in some of these young men. | 15:49 | |
| They're getting interested in the army, | 15:51 | |
| where they never have been before. | 15:53 | |
| And we're trying to change the army, | 15:56 | |
| so that we take the mop away from the soldier | 15:57 | |
| and replace it with that rifle. | 16:00 | |
| Well, we've had some people go down a major river here | 16:02 | |
| in rubber boats. | 16:05 | |
| A lot of barge traffic on that river. | 16:06 | |
| One of the things that they did | 16:08 | |
| was meet a friendly partisan. | 16:09 | |
| He takes their boats and hides them, | 16:11 | |
| and then they go on off to recon a position, check it out. | 16:15 | |
| See if this old building would be suitable | 16:20 | |
| for an observation post or headquarters of some kind. | 16:22 | |
| (steam whistle blows) | 16:40 | |
| (steam whistle blows) | 16:44 | |
| (steam whistle blows) | 16:54 | |
| I think you're going to see a new spirit, | 17:04 | |
| a new interest in everything about the army. | 17:06 | |
| (soldiers talking) | 17:10 | |
| Soldier | You're not racing. | 17:12 |
| It doesn't make no difference who goes over there first. | 17:13 | |
| (soldier shouts instructions) | 17:16 | |
| - | Back in civilian life, | 17:25 |
| I used to always like to try things | 17:26 | |
| that was a challenge to me. | 17:28 | |
| And I think these ropes here are a challenge to me. | 17:32 | |
| I want to climb them. | 17:34 | |
| - | It's hard, man. It's really tough. | 17:35 |
| (soldiers shouting) | 17:38 | |
| (instructor speaking) | 17:42 | |
| So I joined the army. | 17:51 | |
| I knew it was going to be tough, | 17:52 | |
| but I didn't think it was going to be this damn tough. | 17:53 | |
| But it's good though. | 17:55 | |
| I heard a note about some drill sergeant | 17:56 | |
| who was supposed to smile every now and then, | 17:58 | |
| but I wouldn't want a drill sergeant to smile, | 18:00 | |
| because he wouldn't be a drill sergeant then. | 18:02 | |
| Basically, it's tough. | 18:04 | |
| It makes a man out of you. It makes you feel good. | 18:05 | |
| Just like this long run here. It's about two miles. | 18:07 | |
| Soldier | Two and a half miles. | 18:09 |
| - | Two and a half miles. | 18:10 |
| We didn't stop. | 18:12 | |
| We wanted to stop. We don't know what made us keep going. | 18:12 | |
| But we did keep running. We didn't stop until he said so. | 18:16 | |
| - | We don't let anybody fall behind. | 18:19 |
| - | I don't say they should be afraid of me, | 18:21 |
| as long as they do what I tell them to do. | 18:22 | |
| Because, number one, we're both human. | 18:25 | |
| I'm here to teach them. | 18:28 | |
| Not to make them afraid of me, | 18:28 | |
| but to teach them the basic knowledge they need | 18:31 | |
| of basic training with the army. | 18:34 | |
| And I feel that no man should be afraid of me. | 18:35 | |
| I don't want him to be afraid of me. | 18:38 | |
| - | He treats us like respectable young men. | 18:39 |
| We should treat him with the same respect. | 18:41 | |
| - | Tell him to do something. Show him how to do it. | 18:42 |
| Tell him how to do it. Show him how to do it. | 18:47 | |
| And if possible, do it for him for the first time. | 18:49 | |
| - | You can go to Sergeant Pete, tell him your problems, | 18:54 |
| just like your own dad. | 18:57 | |
| He sat down | 18:59 | |
| and he's helping me get my high school education. | 18:59 | |
| (soldiers chuckle) | 19:02 | |
| Soldier | Even tucks you in bed! | 19:03 |
| (soldiers chuckle) | 19:04 | |
| (rifles fire) | 19:06 | |
| - | A lot of times, | 19:08 |
| our company commander would double time with us. | 19:09 | |
| Like, go to the ranges. | 19:11 | |
| And you know, you're losing your breath or something, | 19:13 | |
| and you think, "Hell, the CO can do it. I can do it." | 19:15 | |
| (rifles fire) | 19:20 | |
| (rifles fire) | 19:25 | |
| Drill sergeants teach us to help each other out. | 19:33 | |
| If one of us starts to fall out, two of them grab him. | 19:37 | |
| One carry his weapon, and the other one push him along. | 19:39 | |
| - | You got a lot of self-discipline here too. | 19:43 |
| Like when you're done at 5, 6:30 at night, | 19:45 | |
| you know what has to be done, | 19:48 | |
| like polish your boots and clean up your uniform | 19:49 | |
| and put away all your field gear. | 19:51 | |
| After a while, you just get to do that naturally. | 19:55 | |
| And I suppose you keep that with you | 19:57 | |
| when you get out of the army. | 19:58 | |
| - | I didn't have this kind of recreation | 19:59 |
| when I was in the service, I'll tell you that. | 20:00 | |
| When I was in basic training. | 20:02 | |
| - | The hardest thing that I've had to adjust to in army life | 20:03 |
| is the continuous harassment you get by drill sergeants. | 20:06 | |
| - | We had lots of KP duty. | 20:10 |
| We had to go through a tremendous exercise program. | 20:14 | |
| - | You walk in, you see three towers, | 20:18 |
| all about 40 feet up in the air, | 20:20 | |
| and you have to go over them one way or another. | 20:21 | |
| Either pull yourself up with a rope, climb a rope ladder, | 20:23 | |
| or climb a ladder up and swing down them. | 20:25 | |
| - | Because we were in a complete state of quarantine. | 20:28 |
| We were allowed no liberty. | 20:35 | |
| And then we went to a place called Paradise, | 20:38 | |
| and this was not exactly paradise, I want to promise you. | 20:40 | |
| - | They're rough, | 20:43 |
| but they want to see that you get the job done right | 20:44 | |
| and that you'll serve your country in a real good way. | 20:47 | |
| - | On December 7, 1941, | 20:50 |
| was my first night of liberty. | 20:56 | |
| (officer speaking) | 20:58 | |
| (mortarmen shouting) | 21:00 | |
| (officer speaking) | 21:04 | |
| - | By the time he leaves here, | 21:07 |
| we feel that we're turning out an overall better mortarman | 21:08 | |
| than we ever have before. | 21:11 | |
| He has a greater opportunity to put his hands on. | 21:14 | |
| He works with the fire control equipment and the mortars | 21:17 | |
| more so than what he would have under the old system. | 21:20 | |
| (mortarmen shouting) | 21:25 | |
| (soldiers talking) | 21:30 | |
| - | Finlay, you've got the wrong deflection. | 21:36 |
| - | I have had a problem in the past, | 21:38 |
| as some of the older NCOs with whom I work. | 21:39 | |
| For instance, when I came, this training was new to me. | 21:43 | |
| It was somewhat hard for me to accept it. | 21:46 | |
| Here, it's a constant demonstration and a constant hands-on. | 21:48 | |
| And he has morale therefore, has heart. | 21:52 | |
| He feels like he is truly participating more. | 21:55 | |
| Not only that, | 21:58 | |
| but once he has learned a certain amount of the instruction, | 21:59 | |
| he is given the opportunity to transfer this knowledge | 22:03 | |
| to a newer man who is just came to us for the training. | 22:06 | |
| - | Man, we've just been here about how many weeks? | 22:09 |
| 13 or 14 weeks? | 22:11 | |
| - | 15. | 22:12 |
| - | 15 weeks? | |
| And I've learned to fire | 22:14 | |
| I don't know how many different weapons. | 22:15 | |
| Learned a lot of different approaches to things, and like- | 22:15 | |
| - | Know how to strip down your weapons you fire. | 22:18 |
| - | It's good training. | 22:20 |
| It's real good training if you want it. (chuckles) | 22:21 | |
| (tanks rumble) | 22:23 | |
| - | The trouble is with the training, | 22:34 |
| we just don't get to do enough realistic tactical training. | 22:36 | |
| We spend about 45 weeks a year sitting in garrison | 22:39 | |
| or going down to Grafenwöhr for tank gunnery. | 22:42 | |
| Graf is a hell of a lot of work. | 22:44 | |
| We really don't get much good, hard tactical training in. | 22:46 | |
| So we come out here for a week or so. | 22:50 | |
| We need to run, to try to get rid of the motor pool boredom. | 22:52 | |
| The commander today really has to plan his program | 22:56 | |
| to keep people out of the motor pool. | 23:00 | |
| You try things like map courses and compass courses. | 23:02 | |
| So we come out here and the people sit around and complain, | 23:05 | |
| hour after hour after hour, | 23:09 | |
| but they'll work like hell. | 23:10 | |
| Soldier | My mechanics are up the road now, | 23:12 |
| repairing a tank. | 23:14 | |
| They'll work 36, 48 hours straight | 23:15 | |
| to keep the equipment running. | 23:17 | |
| - | You gotta walk a fine line. | 23:18 |
| You gotta be able to approach each man differently, | 23:21 | |
| approach him as an individual, | 23:24 | |
| which is sometimes difficult to do | 23:26 | |
| when you're trying to deal with a mass number of bodies. | 23:27 | |
| But you've got to try to remember that Cooper is Cooper | 23:30 | |
| and Lowman is Lowman and Smith is Smith, | 23:33 | |
| and they each have their personal problems | 23:35 | |
| and their backgrounds. | 23:36 | |
| You try to take these things into account | 23:38 | |
| when you're talking to them, when you're helping them work. | 23:40 | |
| - | I mean, you gotta get the younger generation | 23:47 |
| to understand one thing. | 23:49 | |
| You take a white baby when it's first born | 23:51 | |
| and a black baby when it's first born, | 23:53 | |
| and you spank both of them. | 23:55 | |
| It's no different. They both cry the same. | 23:56 | |
| Identically the same. | 23:58 | |
| So that's what you gotta get the young guy to understand. | 23:59 | |
| And why I say the old has to teach the young | 24:01 | |
| to persuade him to understand things, | 24:04 | |
| to overcome these prejudices. | 24:06 | |
| - | We all feel like... | 24:08 |
| Or some of us do, feel like we just end up a number. | 24:10 | |
| A file stuck away somewhere. | 24:14 | |
| - | Ideal officer? I haven't met one yet. | 24:16 |
| - | A guy of 24 leads all these men | 24:19 |
| by listening to them, I think. | 24:21 | |
| Certainly you don't throw away that experience. | 24:23 | |
| You'd be a fool to think that at 24, | 24:25 | |
| you could run a cavalry troop in the United States Army | 24:28 | |
| by your own background and experience. | 24:31 | |
| - | Basically, there is a new kind of soldier. | 24:33 |
| But it depends a lot about the leadership you give a man. | 24:35 | |
| If you give him something to work for, | 24:40 | |
| he'll work till hell freezes over for you. | 24:41 | |
| (tank rumbles) | 24:44 | |
| - | This isn't training. | 24:50 |
| This is just getting a bunch of men out here, | 24:52 | |
| keeping them cold. | 24:54 | |
| You're not doing nothing. You're just sitting here. | 24:56 | |
| - | Yes, I've got pride. | 24:58 |
| I like to do a good job. Do it as best I can. | 25:00 | |
| - | Well, if you can stand the army, you can stand anything. | 25:03 |
| - | I don't like the army. | 25:05 |
| - | I can remember when my greatest frustration | 25:06 |
| in the army was not being given the leeway | 25:10 | |
| to go ahead and make decisions and make policies. | 25:15 | |
| I've had young officers that I'd lose to industry | 25:18 | |
| who would give me that criticism of the army, | 25:22 | |
| the fact that they felt frustrated. | 25:25 | |
| - | I'm 25 years old and sort of coming to the middle of it. | 25:27 |
| I've got a brother who's the same age as most of my troops. | 25:29 | |
| I can sort of identify with him. | 25:34 | |
| I've also got fairly close home life | 25:37 | |
| and fairly well-disciplined home life, | 25:39 | |
| so I can identify with the senior NCO | 25:41 | |
| and the problem that he's going through. | 25:43 | |
| I think the problem that we have today stems a lot | 25:45 | |
| from the soldiers' upbringing. | 25:49 | |
| (officer speaking) | 25:51 | |
| - | Reach up on your front and center risers, two. | 25:52 |
| To your front. Drop two. | 25:54 | |
| To your right. To your right, one. | 25:56 | |
| Reach up high on your right set of risers. | 25:58 | |
| Reach up high. Drop one. | 26:00 | |
| Three, to your rear. Three, to your rear. | 26:01 | |
| Reach up high. Drop three. | 26:03 | |
| Pull it deep, three. All the way down to the reserve. | 26:05 | |
| Pull it deep. | 26:07 | |
| That's the way to work. You're looking good. | 26:09 | |
| You're looking good, two. | 26:11 | |
| - | Pull it down, three. Deep! | 26:12 |
| Looking good. Unlock your knees. Unlock your knees. | 26:14 | |
| Pull it down, three! Deep! | 26:15 | |
| Feet together, feet together, feet together! | 26:17 | |
| Pull what you got! Pull what you got! | 26:19 | |
| Feet together! Chin on your chest! | 26:23 | |
| (paratroopers shouting) | 26:27 | |
| 24, overall satisfactory jump. | 26:34 | |
| Get out of your harness, report back here in the field. | 26:36 | |
| (indistinct) | 26:38 | |
| Take it off, 21! (indistinct) | 26:41 | |
| (paratroopers shouting) | 26:44 | |
| - | Right, you're in on three, you're in on two, | 26:51 |
| and you're in on one. | 26:53 | |
| You're off to an even start. | 26:54 | |
| (indistinct) | 26:55 | |
| Who's going to be first? One, two, or three? | 26:59 | |
| There's a lot of movement on three. Three's on the go. | 27:03 | |
| Three's looking hot. Waiting on two and one. | 27:05 | |
| There is is, three. Three's first. | 27:08 | |
| Waiting on two and one, one and two. | 27:10 | |
| Who's going to be next? Two or one? | 27:11 | |
| A lot of rigging over there. Cut pile on one. | 27:14 | |
| - | Just relax, play it cool. | 27:16 |
| - | When you go on up there, you'll be scared. | 27:19 |
| But when you come down, you do the same thing what I do. | 27:21 | |
| Just float down, just like you're on a- | 27:24 | |
| - | You might be up to your waist in mud, but (indistinct). | 27:26 |
| - | And let's get them up high where the birdies fly. | 27:33 |
| Make that airborne money. Get them off the ground. | 27:34 | |
| Okay, take them up high where the birdies fly. | 27:37 | |
| Jumpers, let up. Reach high on all four risers. | 27:39 | |
| Lock your elbows, get your feet and knees together. | 27:42 | |
| Head and eyes to the front. | 27:44 | |
| Unlock your knees and point the balls of the feet down. | 27:46 | |
| Jumpers, check your canopy. | 27:49 | |
| Throw your head to the rear. Arch your back. | 27:51 | |
| You're looking good. | 27:53 | |
| Let up, let up. | 27:54 | |
| Now look around and get a good view | 27:55 | |
| of Fort Benning, Georgia. | 27:57 | |
| Three! Get your feet and knees together, three! | 27:57 | |
| Feet and knees together! Unlock your knees! | 28:00 | |
| Now, you're almost there. Wait for your arm number. | 28:02 | |
| One, two, and three. | 28:05 | |
| Release safety line left side. Quickly, left side. | 28:07 | |
| Reach up on the right. Fold hand over hand. | 28:09 | |
| Drop two. | 28:11 | |
| (indistinct) To your right, to your right, one! | 28:13 | |
| Reach up high on your right set of risers. | 28:14 | |
| Reach up high. | 28:17 | |
| (indistinct) Reach up high. | 28:18 | |
| Pull it deep. All the way down to the reserve. | 28:20 | |
| - | In the mirrors and that, it's all like the funhouse. | 28:21 |
| You walk in, you look in the mirror, | 28:24 | |
| and your head's swelled out and wrinkled. | 28:26 | |
| And you got to go to the mirror to shave, you know? | 28:28 | |
| You can cut your half your face off, | 28:30 | |
| and you'll never know it looking in the mirror, | 28:32 | |
| in the glass. | 28:34 | |
| - | Like when I was reading a book. | 28:35 |
| I read about maybe four or five chapters of it. | 28:36 | |
| Just a short paperback. | 28:38 | |
| And I must've killed about at least a half dozen cockroaches | 28:40 | |
| that were on the bed when I was on it. | 28:44 | |
| - | Rumor control center has it | 28:45 |
| that they were going to be tore down last year, | 28:47 | |
| or this year or next year. | 28:50 | |
| And I don't think they're ever going to tear them down. | 28:52 | |
| - | It's been rumored that we're supposed to move. | 28:54 |
| I haven't been around here that long. | 28:57 | |
| Some of these guys have been stuck here since basic. | 28:58 | |
| They've been living in this stuff for a year, | 29:01 | |
| a year and a half. | 29:02 | |
| They got kind of a poor outlook, but I don't blame them. | 29:05 | |
| - | But when the wind comes off the ocean here, | 29:08 |
| it gets down to below zero, the chill factor. | 29:10 | |
| And these barracks are pretty cold. | 29:13 | |
| I got a head cold, everybody else here has had cold. | 29:16 | |
| So you're going to catch one too. | 29:19 | |
| - | The place all together is just inhuman really. | 29:22 |
| - | We got bedspreads, rugs, throw rug. | 29:25 |
| We got a desk, TV, a chest of drawers, | 29:30 | |
| tape player, some pictures. | 29:35 | |
| Got our own closets with our clothes in it and stuff. | 29:38 | |
| - | Hell, they gave us bookcases in this room. | 29:39 |
| We got a chest of drawers, desk. | 29:42 | |
| Even gave us a rug | 29:47 | |
| so we don't have to buff the place anymore. | 29:48 | |
| - | It's changed completely. They modernized. | 29:50 |
| - | I thought you'd like | 29:52 |
| to see our luxurious shower room here. | 29:52 | |
| You can see these pipes. | 29:54 | |
| Somebody bent them down to shut the water off. | 29:56 | |
| The water ran down here for about three days I think | 29:58 | |
| before somebody realized we could turn it over there. | 30:00 | |
| But still, unless you turn it there, it runs all night, | 30:03 | |
| and the place is usually completely flooded | 30:06 | |
| by about six o'clock. | 30:09 | |
| This here is all moldy. | 30:11 | |
| I don't know how many times it's been replastered. | 30:12 | |
| This is all moldy over here. | 30:15 | |
| I don't think we have too many shower heads that fit, | 30:17 | |
| if we have them. | 30:19 | |
| All the plaster's ripped down. | 30:21 | |
| We don't have any lights for the place at all. | 30:23 | |
| And the drain that I spoke of, | 30:25 | |
| after about three showers it'll fill up with water | 30:27 | |
| and it'll develop a puddle over there. | 30:29 | |
| Anything you have over there will get wet. | 30:31 | |
| And it's very cold. I know you can get a cold from it. | 30:33 | |
| I've had one since I've been in Germany. | 30:35 | |
| This may have something to do with it. | 30:36 | |
| And the last medical report out of the place | 30:38 | |
| was that it had crabs. | 30:39 | |
| - | The war is not here. The war is at home. | 30:40 |
| - | We go to court over here, like anywhere, | 30:42 |
| we just going to a kangaroo thing, you understand. | 30:44 | |
| We have no representation. | 30:47 | |
| (soldiers grumbling) | 30:50 | |
| I mean, we take all these sports. | 30:51 | |
| We do everything. | 30:53 | |
| We go abroad for America, | 30:55 | |
| and win trophies from other countries, | 30:57 | |
| and we're praised, you understand. | 30:59 | |
| But when we come back home- | 31:00 | |
| - | Books, we need books to read. Black books. | 31:01 |
| Soldier | Newspapers and pamphlets and stuff. | 31:03 |
| - | Playing football | 31:07 |
| is not helping you get your mind together. | 31:08 | |
| - | They show a film on the world, | 31:11 |
| like that on television, man. | 31:13 | |
| My mom's wrote me back and told me, man. | 31:15 | |
| They're showing films on the (indistinct), man, | 31:17 | |
| and stuff on TV. | 31:20 | |
| But they don't show what's really going on. | 31:22 | |
| They never show when we go downtown, you understand. | 31:25 | |
| They never show when have to communicate with these Germans, | 31:28 | |
| much less have to communicate | 31:32 | |
| with the same people here on post, | 31:33 | |
| our so-called white leaders, our brothers, you understand. | 31:35 | |
| That's the people who we gotta live with every day. | 31:39 | |
| We gotta work with those people. | 31:41 | |
| - | I'm just fed up to the point, man, really, | 31:43 |
| that I just want to get the hell on out of Germany. | 31:45 | |
| - | You go to the barbershop, | 31:48 |
| and they're trying to learn about the black man hair, | 31:50 | |
| but they don't have enough products | 31:54 | |
| that they can use on our hair, you understand. | 31:55 | |
| They used all these white products. | 31:57 | |
| You just can't put Brylcreem on my hair | 31:58 | |
| and expect it to lay down, you understand. | 32:01 | |
| It's not going to work. That's right. | 32:03 | |
| What's gotta happen, | 32:05 | |
| they got to send some black products over here. | 32:07 | |
| Same thing about food, you understand. | 32:10 | |
| I eat so much potatoes and stuff, I'm about to go crazy. | 32:13 | |
| Soldier | One of the things we have | 32:18 |
| for our professionalism is called PIQ: | 32:19 | |
| periodic individual qualification. | 32:23 | |
| Every soldier does it twice a year, | 32:25 | |
| and it consists of a speed march, | 32:27 | |
| rappelling from a helicopter hovering at 60 feet, | 32:29 | |
| and going down a slide for life. | 32:31 | |
| - | Okay sergeant, I'll take over. | 32:35 |
| - | Everybody has a certain amount of fear of height, | 32:36 |
| and two of those drills require a man to overcome, | 32:39 | |
| by himself, that fear. | 32:42 | |
| Soldier | Sir, request permission to slide for life! | 32:45 |
| Officer | Come on down here. | 32:48 |
| (zipline whirrs) | 32:51 | |
| (soldiers yell) | ||
| (yelling continues) | 32:56 | |
| Officer | Looking good, looking good. | 33:02 |
| (soldiers whooping) | 33:06 | |
| Officer | Lift your feet! | 33:12 |
| (soldier splashes) | 33:15 | |
| - | Next one up the ladder. | 33:17 |
| Mount the rope. | 33:22 | |
| Take your time. It's not a race. | 33:26 | |
| There you go. | 33:28 | |
| (indistinct) Take your time now. | 33:30 | |
| Keep it close to your body. It's right here. | 33:32 | |
| Take your time. It's not a race. | 33:35 | |
| - | Sometimes when I go out on this thing, | 33:37 |
| I wonder what I'm doing here. | 33:40 | |
| - | Take your time. | 33:41 |
| Soldier | You got it, you got it. | 33:43 |
| Traverser | Sometimes it gets pretty scary. | 33:45 |
| You look down, it's 30 feet down. | 33:46 | |
| But you don't expect to send your men anywhere | 33:48 | |
| where you can't go. | 33:49 | |
| (observer shouts instructions) | 33:51 | |
| If I can go on this thing, then I expect them to follow me. | 33:53 | |
| - | Now I tell you to drop. | 34:01 |
| Bring your arms straight down to your side, | 34:02 | |
| take a deep breath, and look out to the horizon. | 34:04 | |
| (traverser yells) | 34:07 | |
| (traverser splashes) | 34:09 | |
| (soldiers cheer) | 34:12 | |
| (officer speaking) | 34:17 | |
| - | If there's any questions pertaining to | 34:21 |
| how to tie a rappel seat | 34:24 | |
| or how to tie the knot around your waist, | 34:25 | |
| I want you to let me know. | 34:28 | |
| Okay, I want everybody to start putting on the equipment. | 34:28 | |
| - | Okay, listen up. | 34:31 |
| As a normal PIQ rappel, what I want you to do, | 34:32 | |
| move up, four people at a time, two on each side. | 34:35 | |
| (helicopter thrums) | 34:37 | |
| (officer giving instructions) | 34:43 | |
| (helicopter thrums) | 35:22 | |
| Soldier | What say we shove off | 36:00 |
| and try to make it as far as we can? | 36:00 | |
| Soldier | Sounds like a good idea. | 36:03 |
| Soldier | I think we'll find out a lot more | 36:06 |
| about ourselves, about what each of us is like. | 36:07 | |
| Soldier | And how much we can take, | 36:11 |
| how much our neighbor can take. | 36:12 | |
| Make sure that in a combat situation, | 36:13 | |
| we could really depend on each together. | 36:14 | |
| So far, it's been a pretty tough 11 miles. | 36:17 | |
| I mean, uphills, downhills, around switchbacks, | 36:18 | |
| through the jungle, down slippery terrain. | 36:21 | |
| It's really been tough, you know? | 36:23 | |
| But we've all made it, and we've all helped each other out. | 36:24 | |
| Soldier | I'd say it's a lot more mental too. | 36:27 |
| We can all put our heads together and figure out problems. | 36:28 | |
| Crossing streams, mountains. Problems. | 36:32 | |
| Soldier | The Bible confirms it's a safe bet | 36:35 |
| to follow Moses. | 36:36 | |
| (soldiers chuckle) | 36:37 | |
| - | That's right! | |
| Soldier | With a name like that, he can't be all wrong. | 36:40 |
| Keep going. | 36:42 | |
| Soldier | I believe it's going to rain on us, fellas. | 36:44 |
| - | Like crossing a stream, if you can't make it alone, | 36:45 |
| then you've got to have somebody to help you. | 36:48 | |
| Like back there, | 36:52 | |
| if it wasn't for the rest of us helping each other, | 36:53 | |
| we wouldn't have made it. | 36:55 | |
| Soldier | I tell you, going up that mud bank, | 36:57 |
| it was sure was nice to reach up and grab Tim's hand | 36:58 | |
| and keep climbing. | 37:00 | |
| It's really nice. | 37:01 | |
| (waterfall thunders) | 37:02 | |
| (soldiers chattering) | 37:07 | |
| Soldier | That's what I call a reward | 37:13 |
| rather than a punishment. | 37:15 | |
| - | There's a big credibility gap | 37:17 |
| between the EM and the officers still. | 37:19 | |
| I mean, they can't believe | 37:20 | |
| that an EM can be intelligent enough | 37:22 | |
| to think of an idea and to carry it through | 37:24 | |
| and to plan the logistics of an operation like this, | 37:27 | |
| and just go on and have a good time, | 37:30 | |
| but yet do things the military way as well. | 37:32 | |
| - | You have to have self-discipline | 37:35 |
| in order to get along in a group, | 37:36 | |
| because one man revolting against the rest of the group | 37:38 | |
| is going to disorganize it | 37:42 | |
| to the point of not being able to carry on. | 37:44 | |
| And self-discipline is a must in all phases. | 37:46 | |
| Soldier | We discipline ourselves. | 37:49 |
| (motor idles) | 37:54 | |
| - | I think this is the beginning of a new era. | 38:01 |
| - | The army made me realize a lot of responsibility | 38:04 |
| that I neglected when I was in the states. | 38:08 | |
| - | A guy coming in the army, | 38:11 |
| most of them getting out of college or high school, | 38:12 | |
| they're coming in the army | 38:17 | |
| and they're drawing something like | 38:18 | |
| $300 and something a month, | 38:20 | |
| where when I came in the army, | 38:22 | |
| I only drew about $99 a month. | 38:24 | |
| - | GI Bill. I want to go and get me a job. | 38:26 |
| I mean, start me a business. | 38:30 | |
| - | I like to treat a man as a man. | 38:31 |
| And then first thing I try to do is give him responsibility. | 38:35 | |
| Give him a responsible job so he will know | 38:39 | |
| that I will come to him if anything goes wrong. | 38:42 | |
| - | Back in garrison, all we have to do is just pull details. | 38:46 |
| Different things, it's... | 38:50 | |
| Everybody gets on everybody's nerves, | 38:51 | |
| and a lot of tension builds up. | 38:53 | |
| I think if we get to spend more time out in the field, | 38:56 | |
| there wouldn't be so much tension built up. | 38:58 | |
| - | You have to have worthwhile training that has a goal, | 38:59 |
| that has a meaning, | 39:02 | |
| that the soldier can readily identify with. | 39:03 | |
| - | Well, I was kind of hard-headed about it. | 39:05 |
| I knew the effects that drugs have on you, | 39:07 | |
| because I used them. | 39:09 | |
| I went to a lot of classes about drugs which the BC gave, | 39:12 | |
| and, well, it took me to get busted | 39:16 | |
| to know really how much trouble drugs can cause you. | 39:19 | |
| - | Just prior to his court martial, | 39:23 |
| just a complete about face in the man. | 39:26 | |
| - | The BC had a lot of faith in me, | 39:28 |
| and my section leader and the rest of the sergeants and NCOs | 39:31 | |
| and EMs in the battery, so they gave me a lot of push. | 39:35 | |
| - | I had him in | 39:39 |
| and we talked for about two hours on everything. | 39:40 | |
| You know, why he was being court-martialed. | 39:42 | |
| Myself, my first sergeant, | 39:44 | |
| a few other people, wrote a letter to his defense counsel | 39:45 | |
| in case he needed items of mitigation. | 39:48 | |
| And I told him, if he gets off, that he came back, | 39:50 | |
| his record's clean, as far as I'm concerned. | 39:55 | |
| - | Just then, I quit. | 39:57 |
| I don't need it anymore, | 39:59 | |
| because it's too much of a trouble which I got to. | 40:01 | |
| And I got a long time to live. | 40:05 | |
| I got a lot of responsibility to take care of, | 40:07 | |
| and I couldn't do them if I was in jail | 40:09 | |
| or sick in the hospital. | 40:12 | |
| - | You are to set up a deliberate-type point ambush | 40:13 |
| to ambush one of the enemy squads, | 40:16 | |
| so we can determine exactly what they're up to. | 40:20 | |
| We want to ambush the squad | 40:23 | |
| and bring a prisoner back with us. | 40:24 | |
| - | I put two claymores over there. Where'd you put yours? | 40:28 |
| - | We've got one here at this bush, | 40:30 |
| one in that bush over there, and there's one about- | 40:32 | |
| - | Quickly, quickly! Let's get them all set up here. | 40:34 |
| Be sure to check all your positions. | 40:36 | |
| Make sure that you do not spot any of your personnel. | 40:38 | |
| - | Go ahead and get on that hill right back there. | 40:41 |
| - | Now wait a second. | 40:43 |
| You think it'd be good to throw some smoke, | 40:44 | |
| just as a diversionary? | 40:46 | |
| - | Yeah. Throw it across the other side of them too. | 40:48 |
| - | Throughout this course, | 40:58 |
| physical conditioning is a great factor in it. | 40:59 | |
| Also, you learn all the tactics | 41:02 | |
| that you're going to need to know on running ambushes, | 41:04 | |
| different types of military operations. | 41:08 | |
| Right now in this squad, | 41:12 | |
| I couldn't really tell you which ones are officers | 41:13 | |
| and which ones are EM. | 41:15 | |
| We all function as a team. We each have a job to perform. | 41:17 | |
| We do it to the best of our ability. | 41:21 | |
| (claymore explodes) | 41:23 | |
| (guns fire) | ||
| - | We are debriefing on this close ambush. | 41:31 |
| Formation, order of movement, was good. | 41:34 | |
| Reaction on the immediate action drill was outstanding. | 41:37 | |
| Alertness, detection, a little late, | 41:40 | |
| but the way the wind was blowing | 41:42 | |
| and direction wind was blowing, I thought was outstanding. | 41:44 | |
| Know which way the wind's blowing before you move out, | 41:47 | |
| and know where you're going to put the smoke up | 41:51 | |
| on an ambush. | 41:52 | |
| Don't throw the smoke and then move, | 41:53 | |
| and then the smokescreen's behind you. | 41:56 | |
| It's ineffective. | 41:57 | |
| - | But it's very, very hard | 41:58 |
| to know where these emplacements are. | 41:59 | |
| I knew it was off to our right and we were moving into it, | 42:01 | |
| and I figured that we were about halfway into it. | 42:03 | |
| - | Now, rifleman, if you have no other mission | 42:05 |
| in a reconnaissance patrol, you should be hunting. | 42:08 | |
| Looking through the jungle and not at the jungle. | 42:14 | |
| You can hunt all day, shooting quail, | 42:16 | |
| and walk around a rattlesnake and never step on it. | 42:19 | |
| You're looking through it and not at it. | 42:21 | |
| If nothing else, | 42:24 | |
| you can be practicing this within a formation. | 42:25 | |
| I'm Sergeant Alan Molloy | 42:27 | |
| from the Second Battalion, Scots Guards, | 42:28 | |
| of the British Army, | 42:31 | |
| and I'm over here to do this course for interest's sake, | 42:32 | |
| because I always wanted to come over here | 42:36 | |
| and see how the American soldier worked, | 42:39 | |
| and now I'm doing it and I'm enjoying it. | 42:40 | |
| - | You can be split up with officers on a buddy team. | 42:41 |
| Like my buddy is Ranger Omstead. | 42:44 | |
| He's a first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. | 42:45 | |
| - | I'm assigned to Second Reconnaissance Battalion, | 42:48 |
| and our main function in life | 42:51 | |
| is to do patrolling operations like this, | 42:53 | |
| to go on out and gather intelligence information. | 42:56 | |
| And this is right down our alley, | 42:59 | |
| and it's given me a good opportunity to get out in the field | 43:01 | |
| and apply the techniques and tactics used in patrol. | 43:03 | |
| - | I'm an Israeli soldier, a major. | 43:07 |
| - | The American soldier, if the going gets a bit rough | 43:10 |
| and he knows it's only a maneuver or an exercise, | 43:13 | |
| he tends to give up too much. | 43:15 | |
| Tends to say, "To hell with it. I'm not working anymore." | 43:18 | |
| (indistinct) after a man is in the war, | 43:21 | |
| that (indistinct). | 43:27 | |
| - | Because I'd never seen an American soldier | 43:28 |
| in combat itself I suppose. | 43:30 | |
| Obviously, like everyone else, he's scared, and he can go. | 43:31 | |
| - | I met these things many times, not on training, | 43:35 |
| and it's nice to meet it again in training. | 43:40 | |
| - | It'll help me keep some of my men and myself | 43:43 |
| from getting killed. | 43:46 | |
| - | Mrs. Crimin, I think we should get some more x-rays | 43:47 |
| of this foot. | 43:50 | |
| Dr. Savage had some. How long ago was that, you told me? | 43:51 | |
| Mrs. Crimin | Back in September. | 43:54 |
| - | In September, okay. | 43:55 |
| We can see if there has been- | 43:56 | |
| - | Well, We Care is a program that was initiated | 43:58 |
| after a meeting of the doctors | 44:01 | |
| to try to decide a way of personalizing, | 44:03 | |
| getting a greater type of personalized care | 44:06 | |
| for the patients. | 44:09 | |
| Not only the outpatients, but also the inpatients. | 44:10 | |
| And as such, through this program we have tried | 44:13 | |
| to put emphasis on the fact | 44:16 | |
| that people need to be seen as individuals | 44:18 | |
| rather than as a hoard. | 44:22 | |
| In the last couple of years, | 44:24 | |
| it's been realized more and more | 44:27 | |
| that people have been complaining. | 44:29 | |
| - | Fortunately, here we have enough doctors | 44:31 |
| so that we've got almost a group clinic. | 44:33 | |
| This to me has been one of the advantages | 44:34 | |
| in the army type of a practice. | 44:37 | |
| - | I had four kids in the army hospital at Fort Lee, | 44:38 |
| and I was treated real good. | 44:41 | |
| Only thing about it, they give you a little too much to eat. | 44:42 | |
| You know, I hated to go home. | 44:47 | |
| - | Wouldn't give her an appointment | 44:49 |
| even though she had a toothache | 44:50 | |
| until she went to a special class | 44:52 | |
| that showed her how to brush her teeth. | 44:53 | |
| - | Naturally, I had quite a few fears | 44:55 |
| about coming on January 6, and my baby due on February 4, | 44:57 | |
| after having been with my civilian doctor all this time. | 45:01 | |
| And when we arrived here, | 45:05 | |
| I was really pleased with the service I got | 45:06 | |
| from the very first. | 45:09 | |
| - | The army is a set of books. It's a set of rules. | 45:10 |
| People are people, you know? | 45:15 | |
| And the people I've met here, | 45:17 | |
| the doctors are definitely not army. | 45:18 | |
| They don't follow the book. | 45:20 | |
| Every army is making your (indistinct) run the same way. | 45:21 | |
| It's got the same problems. It'll never change. | 45:24 | |
| (motorcycles roaring) | 45:27 | |
| - | This courses was first laid out, one as elaborate as this, | 45:41 |
| under General Rogers. | 45:46 | |
| He was just trying to improve the life of the soldier, | 45:47 | |
| give him something to do. | 45:48 | |
| A good place for him to work | 45:49 | |
| and a good place for him to play. | 45:51 | |
| - | Yeah, this is something I think | 45:53 |
| that the army has needed to do for the people | 45:54 | |
| for a long time. | 45:56 | |
| The army is taking care of the soldier | 45:57 | |
| from Monday through Friday, | 45:59 | |
| and Saturday and Sunday he's left to his own. | 46:01 | |
| - | We came out and we built this particular course back here, | 46:03 |
| and then went through a big hassle with... | 46:05 | |
| It had to go all the way to Sixth Army | 46:08 | |
| and just about the deity | 46:09 | |
| to get approval for safety to run this thing, | 46:10 | |
| but the general said, | 46:12 | |
| "If they want a course, we'll build them a course," | 46:13 | |
| and he said, "Run it." | 46:16 | |
| (indistinct), but nobody been hurt that I know of, | 46:17 | |
| except myself this morning. | 46:19 | |
| - | It's about time we started realizing | 46:21 |
| that we're not going to be able to keep these guys | 46:22 | |
| if we don't give them something to do. | 46:24 | |
| I think this is a big step forward. | 46:25 | |
| I really think it's great. | 46:28 | |
| Gives the men an opportunity | 46:29 | |
| to stay off the street downtown, and it's a lot of fun. | 46:30 | |
| (horn beeping) | 46:34 | |
| - | Special Services offers tennis lessons, | 46:36 |
| cooking, bridge, sewing. | 46:39 | |
| All these for free, | 46:41 | |
| and I've taken advantage of several of them. | 46:43 | |
| - | I just enjoy looking. | 46:45 |
| It's always got something new coming in every day. | 46:47 | |
| - | I think they should have, well, | 46:49 |
| more varieties of things that they have. | 46:52 | |
| - | So many times I come up here | 46:55 |
| and they're completely out of necessities and I get upset, | 46:57 | |
| but I appreciate not having to buy on the outside. | 47:01 | |
| - | I was interested in a poem | 47:03 |
| that I heard in a movie one time, | 47:05 | |
| and I came over here to check it out | 47:07 | |
| to see if I could find it. | 47:10 | |
| - | Today, the soldier is able | |
| to pursue an educational program | 47:14 | |
| literally from the primary grades to a graduate degree. | 47:16 | |
| Certainly the army has established educational goals | 47:20 | |
| for our enlisted men and for our officers. | 47:23 | |
| And they are very expressive. | 47:27 | |
| In fact, they are more demanding and more precise | 47:29 | |
| than they have in state (indistinct). | 47:32 | |
| - | We had to learn to swim the length of the pool. | 47:34 |
| And I can't swim very good. I made it about halfway. | 47:38 | |
| And they told us just go ahead and practice | 47:41 | |
| whenever you get a chance, and we'll check again later. | 47:45 | |
| And they just let us do this on our own. | 47:50 | |
| Everything's free down here. | 47:53 | |
| - | KP is a waste for me, | 47:55 |
| because I think I should be doing something else | 47:56 | |
| than peeling hot dogs. | 47:59 | |
| I think I can do better things than just sit here | 48:01 | |
| and do what I'm doing right now all day. | 48:04 | |
| I don't think I was meant for this kind of work, | 48:06 | |
| and that's not why I joined the army. | 48:09 | |
| - | I volunteered for the army, | 48:10 |
| went to Aberdeen Proving Ground. | 48:11 | |
| 13 weeks for welding training. | 48:13 | |
| I arrived here at Fort Belvoir two weeks ago. | 48:15 | |
| Now, last week I was on barracks orderly, | 48:18 | |
| and today I was on KP, | 48:21 | |
| and I haven't been able to work on MOS. | 48:22 | |
| - | Oh, I'm not learning right now. | 48:24 |
| Any two year old could do this. | 48:25 | |
| - | So after the government has spent this money, | 48:26 |
| upwards of $1,600, $1,700, | 48:28 | |
| to train this individual for this MOS, | 48:31 | |
| it seems kind of asinine that this person should be used | 48:34 | |
| in meaningless tasks such as KP. | 48:37 | |
| And for that reason, I'm very happy myself | 48:40 | |
| that we now have civilian KPs working | 48:43 | |
| in my particular restaurant. | 48:46 | |
| - | We've been allowed to change the system. | 48:46 |
| Instead of just feeding three good, square meals a day, | 48:48 | |
| we are able to feed short order: | 48:51 | |
| cheeseburgers, hamburgers, western sandwiches, submarines. | 48:53 | |
| The price of this to the taxpayer is not one cent. | 48:56 | |
| All we've done is rearrange the food that we order | 48:59 | |
| and the way that we prepare it. | 49:01 | |
| - | In the past, we've gone out on company battalion exercises | 49:04 |
| where a troop may spend the whole day sitting in position | 49:08 | |
| or moving, up and down, back and forth, | 49:11 | |
| and really not accomplishing anything, | 49:13 | |
| and not understanding why something is being done. | 49:15 | |
| Squad Leader | The first squad will move | 49:17 |
| from the assembly areas, | 49:18 | |
| which is where we're located right now. | 49:19 | |
| Interviewee | Starting with | 49:21 |
| this basic squad attack problem. | 49:22 | |
| We have given the squad leader and the individual soldier | 49:24 | |
| a little better understanding | 49:27 | |
| of what we expect of them today. | 49:28 | |
| (guns fire) | 49:32 | |
| (soldiers yell) | 49:34 | |
| (gunshots continue) | 49:38 | |
| - | This type of training helps me think of myself | 49:48 |
| as a professional soldier | 49:50 | |
| more than just company or battalion-type training, | 49:51 | |
| because I have to do... | 49:56 | |
| Well, for one thing, a squad leader does a lot more work. | 49:57 | |
| I do a lot more work in this type of training. | 49:59 | |
| And it is not only a test of my men, it's a test of myself, | 50:02 | |
| to organize this in a field situation instead of in a class. | 50:06 | |
| - | I really want you to cover a little more specific | 50:09 |
| than your order, was your accident- | 50:11 | |
| - | Okay, we're at this position right now | 50:13 |
| in the assembly area. | 50:16 | |
| We'll move from the assembly area, | 50:18 | |
| approximately a hundred meters down to the- | 50:20 | |
| Squad Leader | Sometimes they knew exactly | 50:25 |
| where they were going. | 50:26 | |
| - | I think when you moved into your assembly area, you did- | 50:27 |
| - | This type of training trains each individual man | 50:30 |
| to do his job. | 50:32 | |
| - | I thought you handle that real well. | 50:33 |
| - | About the only thing I see | 50:34 |
| that wasn't realistic was the time. | 50:35 | |
| We had too much time. | 50:37 | |
| An actual combat situation, an operation, | 50:37 | |
| you may have an hour, you may have two hours to move, | 50:39 | |
| instead of maybe taking a half a day to recon your area. | 50:42 | |
| Another fact that you want | 50:46 | |
| to really take into consideration is the timeframe | 50:46 | |
| on accomplishing your mission. | 50:49 | |
| In this timeframe, you used your time very well, | 50:51 | |
| with plenty of time to plan. | 50:54 | |
| Used a lot of foresight. And you put a lot into it. | 50:56 | |
| - | I think every man had a very vivid picture | 50:59 |
| in their mind when they left | 51:03 | |
| of exactly what was going to happen | 51:04 | |
| and what part he was going to take | 51:06 | |
| to make it a successful operation. | 51:08 | |
| He not only gave you a good terrain sketch, | 51:10 | |
| but he gave each man a job, | 51:12 | |
| and this is what we're striving for, | 51:14 | |
| to show that each man has a definite job | 51:16 | |
| and he's just not along for the ride. | 51:19 | |
| He's got a job. | 51:21 | |
| And by understanding what's expected of him, | 51:22 | |
| he can do a better job at it. | 51:24 | |
| (tank rumbles) | 51:26 | |
| - | This course is the Mechaneer's Gauntlet. | 51:37 |
| I hope that everybody in the entire division, | 51:39 | |
| eventually all mechanized units, | 51:41 | |
| will go through it. | 51:43 | |
| I know everybody in my brigade is going to go through it. | 51:43 | |
| All four battalions. | 51:45 | |
| It takes courage. It doesn't take extraordinary skill. | 51:47 | |
| What we got out here is just modern training | 51:50 | |
| for a modern young soldier in a mechanized context. | 51:53 | |
| We're aiming to have a better army than we had before, | 51:56 | |
| and we're just carrying some of these basic ideas | 51:59 | |
| out into the field of training. | 52:01 | |
| Challenge: give the young man a sense of independence, | 52:02 | |
| which goes along with de-centralized training. | 52:05 | |
| Put him with hands on on this equipment. | 52:07 | |
| And then out of that, | 52:10 | |
| we expect to take pride and self-discipline | 52:11 | |
| out of accomplishments, | 52:13 | |
| which we've certainly had in the heritage of our army, | 52:15 | |
| and certainly you've had it in all the elite units. | 52:18 | |
| But we're not the elite unit: | 52:20 | |
| we're the main-line strength of the United States Army. | 52:21 | |
| Regular infantry. Brigades, divisions, battalions. | 52:25 | |
| (tank rumbles) | 52:28 | |
| I just happen to believe | 52:33 | |
| that the young American soldier is more capable, | 52:34 | |
| certainly more sophisticated, getting more educated, | 52:38 | |
| than we've given him credit for. | 52:42 | |
| Some of these tracks running around this course, | 52:43 | |
| some of these NCOs, officers, as well as the new soldier, | 52:45 | |
| just can't believe that they or the track can do the things | 52:48 | |
| that they're doing today. | 52:51 | |
| We're taking men on tracks that have been well-designed, | 52:53 | |
| that can do things that the men don't believe they can do. | 52:56 | |
| And if you don't believe it, ask some of these drivers. | 52:58 | |
| (driver pants) | 53:00 | |
| - | I don't know about that. What do you think? | 53:01 |
| (panting continues) | 53:05 | |
| It gets kind of hairy up there, I know that. | 53:08 | |
| Knees are still shaking too. | 53:11 | |
| - | Takes a guy with a lot of balls | 53:12 |
| to go round those mountains. | 53:13 | |
| - | A lot of excitement. | 53:14 |
| It's like, when you get up there, you can't stop, | 53:16 | |
| and you're just... | 53:18 | |
| Heart's going 90 miles an hour, your legs are shaking, | 53:19 | |
| and everything else. | 53:21 | |
| It's exciting. It's good training. | 53:23 | |
| I don't think I want to go through it again. (laughs) | 53:26 | |
| - | We are having adventures out here, | 53:28 |
| but with the tools of war which the men must master. | 53:30 | |
| - | It's quality really. | 53:34 |
| It helped me to learn my driver better, | 53:35 | |
| to know so many things we're capable of doing. | 53:37 | |
| So many people... | 53:39 | |
| When we came out and looked at the course, | 53:40 | |
| I was about ready to say the vehicle wouldn't do it. | 53:41 | |
| But they've actually proved today | 53:43 | |
| by going out and running the course. | 53:45 | |
| It'd get hairy sometime, but that's the GI's life. | 53:47 | |
| - | I've got approximately 19 years of service, | 53:51 |
| and I've seen the old army training program | 53:54 | |
| where they had mandatory subjects, | 53:56 | |
| where you must make this training. | 53:58 | |
| And a lot of this training was nothing more than classes. | 54:00 | |
| We weren't actually using our hands. | 54:03 | |
| - | But combat is an open-ended proposition, | 54:04 |
| and future combat is liable to be so much different | 54:06 | |
| than we think it is now. | 54:09 | |
| But what I'm trying to do is build up a mastery | 54:11 | |
| of the tools of the trade, | 54:15 | |
| so that they can be put together on the scene of battle | 54:16 | |
| and be able to prevail under conditions | 54:20 | |
| that we can't imagine. | 54:23 | |
| - | Came up here to set up a drop zone for a water drop. | 54:24 |
| Practice a means of infiltration. | 54:29 | |
| - | I personally spend an hour with every man | 54:31 |
| that comes to my unit and is freshly assigned. | 54:34 | |
| Before he unpacks, I let him know the standards of the unit. | 54:37 | |
| - | Our colonel was just about the best one | 54:40 |
| in the United States Army. | 54:42 | |
| He don't do anything, and he don't tell us to do anything, | 54:43 | |
| unless he can do it himself. | 54:46 | |
| And he does it himself long before he has us do it. | 54:48 | |
| - | Captain Wise, you'll push the stick. | 54:51 |
| You'll be jumping in (indistinct), 1,000 feet AGL, or 1,250- | 54:54 | |
| Soldier | I don't particularly care | 55:00 |
| what society says about me, | 55:01 | |
| says about me in the papers or supports me, | 55:03 | |
| because I'm not working for society directly. | 55:05 | |
| I'm working for the army. I'm in the army. | 55:08 | |
| - | Plate your B-7s. Check your canopy. | 55:10 |
| Release your belly bands and one side of your reserve. | 55:14 | |
| - | Be a member of Special Forces. | 55:17 |
| We've been volunteering since 1952. | 55:18 | |
| - | You're a triple volunteer. | 55:21 |
| You volunteer for the army, you volunteer for jump school, | 55:22 | |
| and you volunteer your life. | 55:26 | |
| Helper | Ready. | 55:34 |
| - | I think I learned everything I've been able to do | 55:36 |
| with my soldiers from General Patton. | 55:38 | |
| Patton was my idol when I was a young buck sergeant | 55:41 | |
| in his Third Army in World War II. | 55:45 | |
| - | Soldiering to a great degree is repetitious. | 55:48 |
| And unfortunately, in many cases today, | 55:51 | |
| this repetition has carried over and over and over. | 55:54 | |
| Soldier | I don't think you can pay a man enough money | 55:57 |
| to make him stay in the army. | 56:00 | |
| It's not money, it's not (indistinct), anything, | 56:03 | |
| that'll make a man stay in the army, unless he likes it. | 56:05 | |
| If he likes it, | 56:07 | |
| it doesn't matter how much money he's getting. | 56:08 | |
| (helicopter thrums) | 56:10 | |
| Instructor | Stand up! | 56:20 |
| Hook up! | 56:27 | |
| - | I think the army's generally pretty well messed up. | 56:29 |
| - | Okay. The cutters will activate out the top of it. | 56:36 |
| Ten seconds after aircraft deploys. | 56:40 | |
| Two B-7 parachutes are used. | 56:42 | |
| Instructor | Go! | 56:43 |
| Paratrooper | As soon as you get to the water, | 56:45 |
| you're in the water, | 56:46 | |
| make sure the cutters are correctly positioned | 56:47 | |
| and cut the side ropes, allow the boat to expand. | 56:50 | |
| - | How do you take a man in a civilian occupation | 56:51 |
| and make him the best meat-cutter or the best truck driver | 56:55 | |
| or the best taxi driver? | 56:58 | |
| - | The people themselves have to have the discipline. | 56:59 |
| You can't make me do anything that I don't want to do. | 57:03 | |
| And that's where I think the whole problem lays right now. | 57:05 | |
| - | You must be honest with the man that you're dealing with. | 57:13 |
| And the only way you can do this is by being the example, | 57:16 | |
| showing him that... | 57:20 | |
| There's three things that are important. | 57:22 | |
| One: you pat him on the back if he does a good job. | 57:23 | |
| Two: you try to promote him, | 57:27 | |
| do everything you can | 57:29 | |
| to help him better himself to get promoted. | 57:30 | |
| And number three: if he goose up, | 57:34 | |
| you chop his head off and he knows where he stands. | 57:36 | |
| - | I think that the trouble people don't like the military | 57:44 |
| is your forced discipline. | 57:46 | |
| The military will make you grow up, | 57:49 | |
| whether you want to or not. | 57:50 | |
| Officer | Formerly, you didn't have to explain to a troop | 57:52 |
| why he had to be disciplined. | 57:54 | |
| Now you have to convince him that he needs to be disciplined | 57:56 | |
| or else he's not going to be disciplined, | 58:00 | |
| because you can't discipline him. | 58:02 | |
| - | My husband, | 58:04 |
| who is a full believer in old army-style stuff, is... | 58:05 | |
| He comes home worried at times because of lack of respect. | 58:10 | |
| - | Right now, it seems as though, | 58:13 |
| after 15 years of long, hard work, | 58:15 | |
| that almost everything that we have is going down the drain, | 58:18 | |
| because he's buffered in between his officers | 58:21 | |
| and his enlisted men. | 58:25 | |
| - | (laughs) It affects me in the way | 58:26 |
| that when my husband would come home and say | 58:28 | |
| that he had to tell some lower ranking soldier, | 58:32 | |
| he gave him an order and he says, | 58:39 | |
| "I don't have to do that. This is a new army now." | 58:41 | |
| Then of course it lowers morale for my husband, | 58:45 | |
| and consequently at home it's a little different. | 58:49 | |
| - | I've had a little bad experience | 58:53 |
| since I've been in the service. | 58:54 | |
| I'd been in six years, | 58:56 | |
| and I was married for six years. | 58:57 | |
| I was home about two years out of six. | 59:01 | |
| And my wife and I came to an agreement | 59:04 | |
| that we should come to parting ways. | 59:07 | |
| She didn't like the military life, | 59:10 | |
| and we decided that it was the best. | 59:11 | |
| But I have friends who have been in the service 30 years | 59:15 | |
| and their wife is still with them. | 59:18 | |
| It takes a special type of woman | 59:19 | |
| to be married to someone in the service. | 59:21 | |
| - | Like an army brat. (chuckles) | 59:24 |
| - | And if they make it, fine. If they don't... | 59:26 |
| - | The wives have to shoulder | 59:29 |
| a lot of family responsibilities, | 59:30 | |
| because our husbands' responsibility | 59:32 | |
| of course comes first to the army. | 59:33 | |
| And we learn to make do. | 59:35 | |
| We learn to be prepared to cook a dinner | 59:40 | |
| at one o'clock in the morning, | 59:43 | |
| if that's when they come in out of the field. | 59:44 | |
| - | My wife and I had just moved into the housing, | 59:46 |
| just shortly before it was time for me to get out. | 59:48 | |
| And all the new pay raises | 59:50 | |
| and this nice-type housing encouraged me | 59:52 | |
| to want to stay in. | 59:55 | |
| - | They told us we'd come over here | 59:56 |
| and have government housing. | 59:57 | |
| Soldier | Yes, we were guaranteed government housing | 59:58 |
| when we got here, | 1:00:00 | |
| and they told us when we got here we'd have | 1:00:00 | |
| to wait eight months for it. | 1:00:02 | |
| - | It's not too bad being in the army here in Germany, | 1:00:03 |
| but the fact is, the housing is the biggest problem | 1:00:06 | |
| any GI over here will have. | 1:00:09 | |
| I mean, especially if you're E5 or below, | 1:00:11 | |
| it's hard to get housing that you can afford. | 1:00:15 | |
| - | The quarters here are much nicer | 1:00:17 |
| than what we could get anywhere in Columbus, I think. | 1:00:18 | |
| It has three bedrooms and a full bath and two single baths, | 1:00:24 | |
| one of which is downstairs. | 1:00:29 | |
| The kitchen has all brand-new appliances, | 1:00:31 | |
| including a large refrigerator and a gas stove | 1:00:36 | |
| and a garbage disposal, which we really like. | 1:00:39 | |
| - | It's terrible to live here, because you're not allowed | 1:00:41 |
| to paint the colors you want to paint. | 1:00:43 | |
| You have to paint what they tell you at your own expense. | 1:00:45 | |
| The house has to be spotless when you move out, | 1:00:48 | |
| no matter how dirty it is when you move in. | 1:00:50 | |
| The plumbing's terrible. | 1:00:52 | |
| I had a work order in for six months for my bathtub, | 1:00:54 | |
| because I have to fill it up with the shower | 1:00:57 | |
| in order to take a bath. | 1:00:58 | |
| And they haven't done anything about that. | 1:00:59 | |
| You can call them, or you can go up and put a work order in, | 1:01:02 | |
| and they'll tell you they'll be down, | 1:01:04 | |
| and you can wait around, and they don't come. | 1:01:05 | |
| And they're not going to come to fix anything | 1:01:07 | |
| until April here. | 1:01:09 | |
| And I have electrical problems and the ceiling's cracked. | 1:01:10 | |
| - | I think the housing that we have here is very good, | 1:01:14 |
| but I think the housing system here is terrible. | 1:01:17 | |
| - | They're always making you do things | 1:01:21 |
| that you don't have to do when you're not in the army. | 1:01:21 | |
| (wind blows) | 1:01:24 | |
| - | Poles in front of you to hold your position right now. | 1:01:29 |
| All right? Now, don't lean back under any circumstances. | 1:01:32 | |
| You're going to get in a comfortable position, right? | 1:01:35 | |
| You're nice and loose. | 1:01:37 | |
| - | Right, loose. | 1:01:38 |
| - | All right. Push off! Go! | 1:01:38 |
| - | They're finding out that we're not quite as infallible | 1:01:41 |
| as maybe we might think we are, | 1:01:43 | |
| and we take our falls and we get laughed at, | 1:01:47 | |
| and we laugh at the other guys. | 1:01:51 | |
| - | Be sure to fill your hole in. | 1:01:53 |
| - | Ready to go. Yeah, I'm comfortable. | 1:01:54 |
| - | Ready? Go. | 1:01:57 |
| Skier | A soldier has confidence in himself. | 1:01:59 |
| He is more apt to have confidence | 1:02:02 | |
| in his vehicle, his weapons, | 1:02:03 | |
| and just provide a better all-round soldier. | 1:02:05 | |
| It provides an opportunity for a lot of people | 1:02:07 | |
| to learn how to ski | 1:02:10 | |
| that may not ever have had the opportunity before, | 1:02:11 | |
| or think that it's just not for them. | 1:02:14 | |
| And we find that a great many of them | 1:02:17 | |
| will probably be taking up skiing. | 1:02:19 | |
| (rotor whirrs) | 1:02:21 | |
| (aviators chatter) | ||
| - | You can see the armed guards. They patrol down here daily. | 1:02:26 |
| Guards not to keep us out, but to keep their own people in. | 1:02:30 | |
| It makes it very obvious what our purpose | 1:02:33 | |
| and our mission is up here. | 1:02:34 | |
| The responsibility | 1:02:36 | |
| and belief in what you're doing is obvious. | 1:02:38 | |
| It's on a day-to-day basis, where you can't miss it. | 1:02:41 | |
| - | This mission today is a training mission | 1:02:44 |
| involving one of our new aviators assigned to the unit. | 1:02:46 | |
| We're orienting him on the East-West German zonal border. | 1:02:48 | |
| Our mission out here is | 1:02:51 | |
| to conduct daily aerial reconnaissance of this area up here. | 1:02:52 | |
| This is his second flight up here on the border. | 1:02:57 | |
| We've got a guard tower setting up over here, | 1:03:00 | |
| which has got two observers in it. | 1:03:03 | |
| Machine gun ports. | 1:03:05 | |
| Over here on this treeline, | 1:03:06 | |
| you've got a bunker there that they use for observation. | 1:03:08 | |
| Right there in front of it, along this fence line, | 1:03:11 | |
| right down here, it's running along the trees, | 1:03:13 | |
| is the actual border itself. | 1:03:14 | |
| And they've got mines, dog runs, down there, | 1:03:16 | |
| and a plowed strip to monitor any traffic | 1:03:19 | |
| or footprints of people that try to cross the border. | 1:03:22 | |
| - | The caliber of professionalism | 1:03:24 |
| of the initial people he meets the day he comes in the army, | 1:03:26 | |
| the sergeant at the reception station, | 1:03:29 | |
| the first basic training commander, | 1:03:32 | |
| the instructors that he meets through basic training | 1:03:35 | |
| and through AIT. | 1:03:37 | |
| If these people are obviously professional | 1:03:39 | |
| and believe in what they're doing | 1:03:42 | |
| and know what they're doing, | 1:03:44 | |
| then you'll get this young man geared | 1:03:45 | |
| to where he can understand why he's there. | 1:03:48 | |
| - | Well, when I went to flight school... | 1:03:51 |
| All right, I was there. | 1:03:52 | |
| I was the only one in my flight platoon. | 1:03:53 | |
| And it certain instances, to me it did seem | 1:03:56 | |
| like maybe they leaned on me a little harder, | 1:03:59 | |
| or maybe they expected a little more of me. | 1:04:02 | |
| - | Leaders, I suppose, | 1:04:04 |
| are starting to realize now the value of initiative | 1:04:05 | |
| in the junior leaders. | 1:04:07 | |
| They should let them conduct training more on their own. | 1:04:10 | |
| If they've got some good ideas, | 1:04:14 | |
| go ahead and present the basic format for it, | 1:04:15 | |
| show how it's going to work, | 1:04:19 | |
| and then let them conduct it themselves, | 1:04:20 | |
| because it was their idea. | 1:04:20 | |
| Let them take the credit for it. | 1:04:22 | |
| - | Yeah, you treat each man as a man, | 1:04:23 |
| and you reward him or punish him on the end result | 1:04:25 | |
| of what he does on a day-to-day basis. | 1:04:29 | |
| Hell, Vietnam, 1968. We were fighting like crazy. | 1:04:32 | |
| Nobody hollered about haircuts. | 1:04:34 | |
| '69, things quieted down, so you started cutting hair, | 1:04:37 | |
| but it didn't stop people from running tanks or guns | 1:04:39 | |
| just because their hair was long. | 1:04:42 | |
| - | How do I lead these people? | 1:04:42 |
| Well, mainly it's by example, | 1:04:45 | |
| by setting an example in your clothing and your speech, | 1:04:47 | |
| and also identifying with people. | 1:04:52 | |
| If I can be effectively led, | 1:04:54 | |
| I'll look at them, pick up some of their points, | 1:04:56 | |
| and utilize them myself. | 1:04:59 | |
| - | There's nothing the matter with American youth. | 1:05:01 |
| There's absolutely nothing wrong with them. | 1:05:02 | |
| Sure, they don't think the way they did 20 years ago, | 1:05:04 | |
| but 20 years ago, | 1:05:06 | |
| people didn't think the way they did 20 years before that. | 1:05:07 | |
| (stock cars roaring) | 1:05:09 | |
| - | We're here this afternoon getting ready | 1:05:18 |
| for the Daytona 500 race coming up in a couple of weeks. | 1:05:19 | |
| We're going to have some displays. | 1:05:23 | |
| Like today, the main idea of being out at the speedway | 1:05:24 | |
| is just to be seen. | 1:05:27 | |
| We don't actually recruit at a place like the speedway. | 1:05:28 | |
| There are a great deal of benefits now for a young man | 1:05:31 | |
| as opposed to years past. | 1:05:34 | |
| A lot of guys come up the hard way. | 1:05:36 | |
| Their parents maybe don't have a lot of money. | 1:05:38 | |
| They can join the army | 1:05:41 | |
| and perhaps a little while later use their GI Bill | 1:05:42 | |
| to go to college on. | 1:05:44 | |
| - | Chose the army | 1:05:45 |
| because I figured I could get the best education from them. | 1:05:46 | |
| - | I was just bumming around, not doing much. | 1:05:48 |
| And I get tired of the same thing all the time, you know? | 1:05:52 | |
| Same people, same places. | 1:05:54 | |
| It just got to be a drag, you know? | 1:05:58 | |
| I wanted to do something constructive. | 1:06:00 | |
| - | A lot of times, the guys that we talk to are out of work. | 1:06:01 |
| - | I'm an engineer, and then I got laid off last May. | 1:06:04 |
| Now, I've been learning how to play tennis since May. | 1:06:07 | |
| - | Some cases, young lads come in | 1:06:10 |
| and they've sold (indistinct). | 1:06:12 | |
| - | If you want to be a man, be one. | 1:06:14 |
| (indistinct) | 1:06:17 | |
| - | I think probably one of the biggest problems we have | 1:06:18 |
| on recruiting now is finding enough qualified people | 1:06:20 | |
| to join the service. | 1:06:23 | |
| They've set the requirements so high in recent years | 1:06:25 | |
| that you just don't find people every day | 1:06:27 | |
| that meet all the qualifications. | 1:06:30 | |
| - | I believe in the Women's Army Corps, | 1:06:32 |
| and I enjoy telling people about the Women's Army Corps. | 1:06:34 | |
| I talk to their parents, | 1:06:36 | |
| I talk to their high school counselors. | 1:06:38 | |
| I talk to the newspapers and TV people. | 1:06:39 | |
| - | I wanted to finish my last two years of college | 1:06:41 |
| but I didn't have the money to do it, | 1:06:43 | |
| so I decided that... | 1:06:45 | |
| They help you. They pay part of your way. | 1:06:47 | |
| - | I wanted to get into nursing, | 1:06:49 |
| and I couldn't afford to pay for school | 1:06:50 | |
| or didn't have any transportation, | 1:06:53 | |
| so I called in one day and got started. | 1:06:54 | |
| - | They see me in uniform and say, | 1:06:59 |
| "Are there still women in the army?" | 1:07:00 | |
| And I have to convince them that, yes, | 1:07:02 | |
| I'm not a senior girl scout or an airline stewardess. | 1:07:04 | |
| I am a WAC counselor. I've been in the army five years. | 1:07:06 | |
| So we are normal people. We do normal jobs. | 1:07:09 | |
| We come from all parts of the country. | 1:07:13 | |
| - | People on TV and things like that say something | 1:07:14 |
| and I say to myself, "What a bunch of baloney!" | 1:07:19 | |
| "No, I know you're lying." | 1:07:22 | |
| So it does sound phony, | 1:07:24 | |
| the fact that I feel proud to serve my country. | 1:07:25 | |
| I sound like I'm a goody-goody, miss goody two-shoes, | 1:07:29 | |
| and all that sort of thing. | 1:07:32 | |
| But I really do feel proud. | 1:07:35 | |
| And I hate to sound phony, and I'm not lying, | 1:07:37 | |
| because this is really the proudest I've ever been | 1:07:40 | |
| in my whole life. | 1:07:44 | |
| - | Well, I joined the army when I was 17 | 1:07:45 |
| and I volunteered for parachute troops. | 1:07:48 | |
| - | Well, I know a friend of mine, | 1:07:52 |
| he was supposed to go in for medical reasons. | 1:07:53 | |
| I mean, he was going to help a doctor | 1:07:57 | |
| or something like that. | 1:07:59 | |
| He ended up being in airborne. | 1:08:00 | |
| - | You know, I got to take his word. | 1:08:01 |
| That's all I got to go on. | 1:08:03 | |
| - | I know on recruiting in West Virginia, | 1:08:05 |
| I was talking to guys who were 6'5", weighed 245. | 1:08:07 | |
| A kind of guy like that, you start telling him a lie | 1:08:11 | |
| and he's coming back to see you, bud. | 1:08:13 | |
| As soon as he gets back from basic training, | 1:08:15 | |
| he'll put your nose right through the back of your head. | 1:08:17 | |
| - | They'll probably give me a crew cut in the beginning. | 1:08:19 |
| But then it'll grow out again hopefully. (laughs) | 1:08:21 | |
| - | If all you think about's your hair | 1:08:24 |
| and not your future, man, that's bad. | 1:08:25 | |
| - | Probably one of the happiest days of my life | 1:08:28 |
| was the opportunity to jump into Normandy | 1:08:30 | |
| and engage in combat. | 1:08:37 | |
| One reason being | 1:08:39 | |
| because I didn't know what I was getting into. | 1:08:40 | |
| - | Drove down in the army truck. Rogers was the driver. | 1:08:43 |
| And then just bought a guide book, | 1:08:47 | |
| mapped out the route up the backside, down through there. | 1:08:50 | |
| Soldier | I had been interested before | 1:08:53 |
| in mountain climbing, | 1:08:55 | |
| and I knew that Taylor here had some experience. | 1:08:56 | |
| I didn't know at that time how much. | 1:09:00 | |
| Turned out later he's got quite a bit of experience. | 1:09:02 | |
| But we approached Colonel Hamilton | 1:09:04 | |
| with the idea of climbing the Zugspitze, | 1:09:07 | |
| which is the highest peak in Germany. | 1:09:10 | |
| Soldier | About climbing this mountain, | 1:09:12 |
| I said to myself, I said, | 1:09:13 | |
| "Wow, I could be one of the first black men to climb it." | 1:09:15 | |
| I don't know. I may be wrong. | 1:09:18 | |
| But anyway, that inspired me 100% to go on. | 1:09:19 | |
| And in fact, I was sometime dog tired, | 1:09:22 | |
| just didn't want to go. | 1:09:24 | |
| Soldier | Gave me a chance to get out on my own. | 1:09:25 |
| Doing things by ourselves. | 1:09:28 | |
| It was a lot of fun in that respect. | 1:09:30 | |
| Soldier | Without having someone there | 1:09:33 |
| to tell you how to do it. | 1:09:34 | |
| "You have to do it this way, because it's the army way." | 1:09:35 | |
| Soldier | We were definitely experimenting. We were just- | 1:09:38 |
| - | Technically, there wasn't really anything to it. | 1:09:40 |
| Technically, it was a very long walk. | 1:09:42 | |
| - | Just a long walk. That was all it was. | 1:09:44 |
| - | But beautiful. This is my first time in the Alps. | 1:09:45 |
| - | Would've been a whole lot better | 1:09:48 |
| if we would've been in any kind of shape | 1:09:50 | |
| so far as taking a long hike with a backpack. | 1:09:51 | |
| But at the time, we wouldn't, | 1:09:55 | |
| and we kind of suffered a little bit. | 1:09:56 | |
| Soldier | I learned a lot about taking responsibility | 1:09:58 |
| for something like this. | 1:10:01 | |
| Making a coordination. Trying to make a coordination. | 1:10:03 | |
| I think the adventure training is definitely going | 1:10:07 | |
| to make us all better soldiers. | 1:10:09 | |
| It's teaching us a lot. | 1:10:11 | |
| Soldier | I've found that, since I've been here really, | 1:10:12 |
| if you make it a problem, | 1:10:14 | |
| it's going to be a problem all over the world. | 1:10:16 | |
| You have the same anywhere. | 1:10:17 | |
| You have black against white, white against black, | 1:10:19 | |
| anything you want to say, if you make it a problem. | 1:10:21 | |
| But the thing is now, we got to be understanding. | 1:10:24 | |
| Soldier | We'd been wandering around | 1:10:27 |
| in almost whiteout conditions, | 1:10:28 | |
| and, well, we knew we had to go up. | 1:10:30 | |
| And just as we neared the very summit, | 1:10:31 | |
| the weather broke miraculously. | 1:10:34 | |
| And we had good views of... | 1:10:38 | |
| You could see almost all the way to the Dolomites in Italy. | 1:10:39 | |
| - | It's a fact that the mind gives out long before the lungs | 1:10:42 |
| or the heart or the legs. | 1:10:48 | |
| So what we're talking about is mind over matter. | 1:10:49 | |
| - | The only time you have to worry is | 1:10:52 |
| if a soldier starts degrading himself or the service | 1:10:54 | |
| or his buddies around him or his leaders. | 1:10:58 | |
| - | If you have a logical reason for something, | 1:11:00 |
| and if it'll make you feel like a person, | 1:11:02 | |
| then the army can change, you know? | 1:11:05 | |
| That's the only way it change, is make it personal. | 1:11:07 | |
| - | I got to meet a lot of people. | 1:11:09 |
| I got to know people which put away memories in my mind. | 1:11:11 | |
| I met a lot of friends and a lot of good friends. | 1:11:15 | |
| And I learned, people that I wouldn't even expect | 1:11:18 | |
| to reach out and help me, well, they did. | 1:11:22 | |
| And those memories, | 1:11:26 | |
| they show that you have to trust in people first | 1:11:27 | |
| before they can trust in you. | 1:11:29 | |
| - | History proves that we need the army. Very much so. | 1:11:31 |
| And if human beings are going to remain the same, | 1:11:34 | |
| we're always going to need an army. | 1:11:37 | |
| And there's nothing that says they're going to change. | 1:11:39 | |
| And I feel that I can contribute many of my goals, | 1:11:42 | |
| and, if need be, my life. | 1:11:46 | |
| - | I think you'll attract more intelligent people, | 1:11:48 |
| people willing to do a fine job, enthusiastic people, | 1:11:53 | |
| if you give them pride in their service, | 1:11:56 | |
| pride in their profession, pride in themselves. | 1:11:59 | |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 1:12:02 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 1:12:03 |
| Instructor | One, two, three, four! | 1:12:04 |
| Soldiers | One, two, three, four! | 1:12:06 |
| Instructor | Break it on down! | 1:12:07 |
| Soldiers | Break it on down! | 1:12:09 |
Item Info
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