You've Never Heard of Sand Hill?

It was the general opinion that if you wanted to give the world an enema, Sand Hill would be the place you'd put the tube! It was October of 1960 when we gathered together for AIT at Fort Benning Georgia. The Fort Benning main garrison was actually a very nice place. But Sand Hill, Harmony Church, and Kelly Hill were outlying garrison areas that were a little behind the times.

Harmony Church is being demolished. Kelly Hill has permanent barracks now, and the Sand Hill temporary barracks buildings have been bulldozed and replaced by the multi-story barracks they call "starships".

The 2d Battle Group, 23d Infantry was located in the rows of 1917 temporary barracks along the main drag. These were the two-story affairs that housed 50 men apiece. They were heated by coal furnaces that were fed coal by the troops that occupied the building. The latrine was downstairs at the end of the 1st floor. There were 6 sinks, six mirrors, etc. The urinal was on the other wall and was a trough that could accommodate 6 men at a time. The six toilets were to the right of the urinal, and had no stalls. Morning was a very communal place when everyone was getting ready for reveille.

Advanced Individual Training was considerably different than Basic Training. Very little P.T., no drill and ceremonies (except for the Friday parade). There was little supervision by the NCO's. There were 5 Platoon Sergeants. They would be available for the first couple of hours each day, then the company would head out for training, and only one of the Platoon Sergeants would go along.

This is where we began to learn the darker side of Army life. There were loansharks, who would loan you money "payday" stakes at 100% interest. There were extortion rackets. (fortunately, these had not had time to appear in the 23d.) And...there were bullies. One of these in particular terrorized the 2d Platoon, and was moving in on the rest of the company. We also learned how to handle these activities. After several fights in the chow line in the morning, where this guy would pick out someone and establish his "turf", everyone had had enough.

One night 7 or 8 guys threw a blanket over him in his bunk, and beat him with entrenching tools. He went to the hospital and we never saw him again.

One of the saving graces was the Browning Automatic Rifle...We went to the range for qualification, and I shot 2d highest in the Battle Group. The four of us who shot the highest were picked up on the 2d Infantry Division Marksmanship Unit to fire Le Clerc matches with the BAR. We spent our training time at Karamouge Range practicing for the 3d Army matches. For some reason, the matches were cancelled, and we were returned to training just in time to graduate.

Everyone was eagerly waiting for the assignments to be posted. Finally the First Sergeant posted them on the bulletin board.

Yep, Nearly every one was headed to Germany. That was the plum assignment. You guessed it! Those of us who were on the Le Clerc teams received orders for Alaska.

Ain't life grand