Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Station Experience

[Griff Murphey]

I had two Army physicals in ROTC, the first one was at Fort Sam Houston with the rest of my ROTC class. The previous year the juniors headed to Fort Sill were given shots with the "humane" air gun. Most of them could not use their left arm for a month. So thankfully the university nurse gave us ours. The boys who wanted to fly had flight physicals, which included prostrate exams. As we young men were then ignorant of the significance of that vile organ there was much speculation as to the reason for the digital penetration. The general consensus was that it must have been done "...to see if you like it, I guess..."
The second one was at Fort Sill six months later, just in case Fort Sam missed anything.
In my freshman year of dental school (1971) I had a 4 striper uncle who had the Legion of Merit and offered to get me in the Navy. Sounded good. For some reason two other dental students, one prospective Navy early commission and one Air Force, went with me. I mused about whether I should wear my Army 2Lt greens. "Naaaw... You don't want to wear an Army uniform to a Navy interview!" Was their opinion. When we arrived we were treated like everyone else, like cattle. It was kind of a blur. There was the "Turn your head! Cough!" command. I don't remember if the doctor changed gloves between examinees.
Finally came the time for my medical history question answer to be scrutinized by a bored Navy LT medical officer. "Alright, I see you checked 'yes' to 'tumor or cancer' - what did you have?"
"An old aseptic necrosis of the second right distal metatarsal." I answered (translation: oddball bony growth in foot).
"Where are you in school?" I told him Baylor dental and he wanted to know if there were any others. After that we were real well treated. All in all I think it would have helped had I worn the boot brown bar outfit. There we sat, on the group W bench....
The "Navy" thing worked out differently than I thought, wound up spending two years with the Marines and going on the 1975 Vietnam evacuation as an infantry battalion (1-4) dental officer. At the time it was very intimidating but in retrospect a great experience.

[JohnMOhio]

Thanks for sharing Griff, and thank you for serving.

John

[m1ashooter]

The group W Bench is classic. I went for my physical to Andrews AFB. We drank a lot of beer that night at the O club and then got the basic exam.

MEPS is harder.

[pcox]

The "humane air gun" comment jogged my memory. First day of basic I was on KP. The entire company was to get shots, so they ran us kp's up to the barracks to get ours first so we could get back and prepare lunch. I got in the front of the line and entered the side door of the old wooden barracks. There were five medics on each side of the isle with air guns, ten shots in all. When I went out of the door on the end of the building, blood was running down both arms and dripping off my fingers. I went down the side of the barracks and cut through the line headed back down the hill to the mess hall. I can still remember the sound of the bodies hitting the ground. It was a really hot day in Missouri and a lot of those kids just fainted at the sight of the blood. B-5-3 Ft Leonard Wood, July thru Sept 1966.

[Griff Murphey]

The "humane air gun" comment jogged my memory. First day of basic I was on KP. The entire company was to get shots, so they ran us kp's up to the barracks to get ours first so we could get back and prepare lunch. I got in the front of the line and entered the side door of the old wooden barracks. There were five medics on each side of the isle with air guns, ten shots in all. When I went out of the door on the end of the building, blood was running down both arms and dripping off my fingers. I went down the side of the barracks and cut through the line headed back down the hill to the mess hall. I can still remember the sound of the bodies hitting the ground. It was a really hot day in Missouri and a lot of those kids just fainted at the sight of the blood. B-5-3 Ft Leonard Wood, July thru Sept 1966.

People will tell you those things could be ok but the technicians set them on too high power. They marketed a similar mini one for dentistry but I saw some injections with it and it looked pretty rough. Also it was effective basically just on a local area. You could not get a regional block on the lower with one.

[mhb]

when I reported to the Dallas AFEES for induction (I fooled 'em and enlisted - Ha!), we went through the usual battery of detections, inspections, etc., and finally ended-up as a fair-sized mob on the benches 'W'. We were a fairly stunned-looking bunch, like the cattle headed up the ramp at the packing plant, not knowing what came next, but sure it wasn't anything good.
Then, the biggest, ugliest, meanest-looking Marine Gunnery Sergeant you can imagine came out in his dress blues and barked "I need a dozen Marines today!". And he picked 'em and herded 'em off. A sicker looking dozen inductees you never saw...

mhb - Mike

[Griff Murphey]

when I reported to the Dallas AFEES for induction (I fooled 'em and enlisted - Ha!), we went through the usual battery of detections, inspections, etc., and finally ended-up as a fair-sized mob on the benches 'W'. We were a fairly stunned-looking bunch, like the cattle headed up the ramp at the packing plant, not knowing what came next, but sure it wasn't anything good.
Then, the biggest, ugliest, meanest-looking Marine Gunnery Sergeant you can imagine came out in his dress blues and barked "I need a dozen Marines today!". And he picked 'em and herded 'em off. A sicker looking dozen inductees you never saw...

mhb - Mike
That's interesting, I knew some Marines were drafted. I imagine it was an advantage to the Marine Corps to pick their prospective boots. If they flunked out of boot camp I wonder if they were seconded to the Army?

[Art]

That's interesting, I knew some Marines were drafted. I imagine it was an advantage to the Marine Corps to pick their prospective boots. If they flunked out of boot camp I wonder if they were seconded to the Army?

I suspect lot of Marines were drafted during the Viet Nam era. When I went in in '66 I was shipped from the induction station in New Orleans to Fort Polk. Forty or so of us on a bus. When we got there, at 2 A.M. of course; three Marine NCOs were waiting. About 10 guys were called off the bus and the Corporal told the rest of us to count our blessings because the fellows who had just got off the bus had been drafted by the Marines. Apparently they didn't know their fate until right then when bagging out of there wasn't a possibility.

As far as what happened if the didn't make it through boot camp, I don't know. In the Army they were run back through. In fact there were two guys left over from the previous cycle when I got to basic. They were part of our orientation team until they started a new B.C.T. cycle in another company. Maybe the Marines did the same. I do know that sending them back to the Army wouldn't seem to be productive, manpower wise.

The air gun injections: In my experience some guys did bleed but not most. It was just my experience though. I never bled from an air gun shot. They did tell us not to move, you learned quickly that if you flinched, those things would cut you like a razor. The secret was to stand stock still. I don't know about the pressure setting but I can see how that would cause problems.

[m1ashooter]

42000 men were drafted into the Marines during Viet Nam. In Korea 96,000 men were drafted into the Marines most between Aug of 51 and Oct of 52. in WW2 16000 men were drafted into the Marines.

My dad was one of those drafted into the Marines in 1952. He tried to enlist in the Navy when he graduated HS in 1945 but was told they didn't need him. Years later he is drafted. He reports in and was in a big room. The Marines came in and said who wants to be a Marine. My dad stepped forward and the rest is history.

[M1Tommy]

The "humane air gun" comment jogged my memory. First day of basic I was on KP. The entire company was to get shots, so they ran us kp's up to the barracks to get ours first so we could get back and prepare lunch. I got in the front of the line and entered the side door of the old wooden barracks. There were five medics on each side of the isle with air guns, ten shots in all. When I went out of the door on the end of the building, blood was running down both arms and dripping off my fingers. I went down the side of the barracks and cut through the line headed back down the hill to the mess hall. I can still remember the sound of the bodies hitting the ground. It was a really hot day in Missouri and a lot of those kids just fainted at the sight of the blood. B-5-3 Ft Leonard Wood, July thru Sept 1966.

Forward to Summer of '87, Great-Mistakes NTC..... They still used those guns then. We got the tales of folks with their arms cut open if WE moved, etc.
The lines (4 or 6) were a hundred of so deep. step-step-step..... I was about 10-12, stepped up to some white curtains just in front of me. When I did I answered "REPORT!" with last/first name and last 4 digits as was instructed before hand, then 'step'... through the curtains and ... another curtain was about a foot in front of me. The corpsmen (assumed corpsmen) on either side of me hit my arms with the guns, and "step"... another , etc.... I got 10 that day, 4 more a couple days later, a big antibiotic shot that day too, so we did extra PT "... to work it in better....".

A week later we got a yellow fever vaccination that made every one sick. I had to run some errand, and got mine a few days late, the day before a PT test. I sort of remember cold sweats and running the 2 miles with my 'company' of about 70 (we started with 87, ended with 62. Why do I remember those numbers?). Our CC ran up beside me and asked/told me "Johnson you aren't gonna puke on my deck are you?!?" About then my left shoe came off (really). He continued to 'encourage me' the last mile of that run..... I was hard headed and would not drop out... might give him some satisfaction and reason for more yelling.

Good grief I was hard headed.....

Tommy

[Michaelp]

I enlisted in Little Rock to avoid the draft in 1966.

Bunch of us were sittng around waiting-I believe we had already crossed the line, but don't recall.
4 or 5 guys were in the back-the only draftees.
They were chortling about only having two years and we had three.
This went on for a time until several guys in Marine Blues showed up and dragged them away.
I think one went into shock and was crying real tears.