The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
John park hopper said:
WOW small world(not the horrible song) we were there at the same time. Still have my group photo. Fun times Fire Drill middle of the night-fall wall out with wool blanket --smell of wet wool still reminds me of Amarillo. I left for Denver (Lowery) 2nd week in June
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You left for Denver just about when my 7 weeks in MREP's started. Then transferred back into regular basic where I had a little disagreement with both a "rope" and a drill sergeant on the 28th day of training and got sent back to the 6th day. I was innocent I tell ya, I was framed. I had to be because up until that day the sergeant's only knew my name if they read my name tag. It is a long and different situation after I was sent back, but I am not going to bore everyone with the story.

I'll be honest, I thought tech school was worse than basic training. Did you ever get the KP assignment in Lowery to work in the chow hall which basically required one to take the steaming hot dishes out of the dishwasher? We had to have a bowl of ice water to dip and numb our fingers in so we could quickly handle the hot dishes long enough to take them out of the rack. It still burnt the first one or two layers of skin right off your fingers but it was less painful. Or to polish the copper pipes in the barracks with Brasso?
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
That's were I had basic training. The dusty panhandle. Graduated from college on June 6, 1968. Inducted in Manchester, NH on June 7th and arrived in Amarillo on June 8th. Due to having a stint in MREP's and a little problem with one of the "ropes" and a minor disagreement with a drill Sargent, I left for Denver for technical training in August. 90 lbs. lighter (lost in 7 weeks, no self control needed) and not a single piece of civilian clothing that fit except shoes and socks. I was there for one of those solid walls of blowing dust that covered everything except the scorpion's. Good times! 🥵😨🫡😧
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A couple people have inquired about what MREP is about. Well, in 1968 Vietnam was at it's peak for the need for staffing. To help combat that they started to bend the rules by offering a special program for those of us that were either underweight or overweight.

I was the later and in order to qualify I had to first, flunk the physical for military entry. I basically had to go and kinda hope that I was 4F so I would qualify. It was successful and I enlisted. The program was actually named Medical Remedial Enlistment Program. After the first 6 days we were transferred to the program separate from regular basic training. The program had three different stages.

Stage one was weight loss. They decided what was you goal loss necessary. Mine was 90 lbs. that I got to in 7 weeks. That was achieved by 6 to 7 hours per day of running the half mile track and Air Force Calisthenics and start all over when that was done. Three non-stop hours in the morning, lunch break, 3 more hours in the afternoon (outside in the summer sun in Amarillo). If we didn't have to wait to long for the medics to pick up those that had passed out, we would double time back to the barracks quad area and practice marching, etc. Then Dinner. I might add that the combined total calories for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was 2000. The underweight did the same thing except their plates were literally mounded with high calories and the were forced fed through intimidation by drill sergeant's while us fatty's had to watch. Our plates fully loaded only covered about 40% of the plates surface. On the plus side we could drink all the Tab we could afford. To move on to Phase Two you had to qualify by running a mile in under 8 minutes and do 25 non-stop of each of the Calisthenics in rapid succession. If one wasn't able to achieve this, they were medically discharged but I know of no one that didn't make it eventually. They gave you three months to achieve that goal. Of course once I phased out I have no idea what happened to those that were still in it.

Phase two was known as the build up phase. Phase one was to beat you down and lose weight. Phase two was supposed to build you back up but amazingly everything else was exactly the same but you had to do that same qualifying three times in a row (not the same day) to move up to #3.

Phase Three was when the diet phase was dropped but you still had to do the running and exercises once a day and stay within those qualification numbers or hopefully improve. Many got to Phase Three and went crazy eating everything in sight thus getting them back to Phase Two. To get out of Phase three all you had to do was qualify six times in a row, (again once a day) if I remember correctly, and and then you would be done with the program and placed back into the 7th day of Basic training.

That was about it and honestly I don't know how any of us survived it. Youth had a lot to do with it, I guess. Right now just typing that out has given me mild chest pains. What it did do was probably enlarged my cardio vascular system and hardened my body. It taught me the difference between good life and terrible life, built up my confidence and probably my attitude about the ups and downs of regular life. Very little phases me now, at least in a way that would visibly show. Maybe verbally but not physically. The really downer about the whole experience was that the purpose was to get you to be able to do all those mile runs and exercises (same numbers) at the end of basic training. (required) Then to add a little to the frustration of everything, the day we were scheduled to do all that stuff, it was a very stormy day and those doing the judging didn't want to have to get all wet so they had us run in place for 8 minutes and do the exercises that by that time were not even a challenge. Whew, I think I need a nap.

Sadly, over the last 56 years I have managed to put most of that weight back on. I wonder if I should sign up again?
 
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Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
John park hopper said:
Had KP in basic never had KP at Lowery. In basic we had a couple of guys sent back, I kept my mouth shut did what I was told just wanted out of that h--- hole Amarillo. Had a staff sergeant DI mean SOB
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You kind of jarred my memory a little. I think that some of us had a few days to wait for the next class to start so they put us to work. My career field was Inventory Management so I guess food service was some degree of supply. The pipe polishing was just in the open bay, hold barracks again waiting to have the previous class finish up and give us our regular barracks which were 4 bunk rooms.

Remaining closed mouth was also my goal and managed it until one day after running the confidence course we were not allowed to change clothes. I was feeling miserable but we had to go out in the quad to practice saluting. I got a little preoccupied with trying to figure out all the procedures when I didn't step off the paved area in time some equal rank Rope wearing airman basic screamed at me a few offensive names and I, in turn might have used a couple of obscene words out of reflex. He went whining to the drill sergeant and I got busted for it. Fortunately, I got an understanding Drill Instructor and the next 24 days were much better. Because of my weeks of experience he "unofficially" made me in charge of making sure that our squad was ready for any barracks inspection. Power with no official responsibility. I was a benevolent leader though.
 
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