Memories of an 058
by Ralph R. Reinhold
ralph.r.reinhold@boeing.com
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Ft. Devens:
I was in D Company at Ft. Devens. Its First Sergeant was about as cheerful as a pit bull. One thing that stuck in my mind is his insisting on holding mailcall outside the back of the orderly room. Then some of the guys would scoot around under the eves to go in the front door. He would complain about the guys taking the short cut. What he didn't see is that his guys actually knew enough to stay in out of the rain.

One of the troops going to school at the same time as me was Nelson Rockefeller's son. I don't know whether it was the one who disappeared in New Gueani or not. There was a rule against students driving to class then. He drove a Mercedes 300SL Gull Wing. Rank may hath its priveleges, but money controls the government.

One company used to execute a neat box step before coming to a complete hault. Another used to shout "Tit-less WACs Suck!" until someone complained. For those not old enough,WAC was Woman's Army Corp. This was called up because, like the WAC of the time, we had primarily non-combat semi-clerical jobs. The "Tit-less" refered to the fact that almost everyone in the ASA was male at that time.

At Devens, I heard a rumor floating about that The Kingston Trio was going to play at the service club one night. Bunches showed up, but the trio didn't.

One evening after class I was setting at a table in the snackbar on the other side of Con 4 from the Company. Tom Robertson walked up and kicked my table. I had gone through third grade with him when I had moved to a town about 20 miles away and hadn't seen him since about eighth grade. I've run into him a few more times over the years. The last I knew, he was the Fire Chief in Adams WI.

We had a guy who would sleep through the lectures (particularly slide shows) ramrod straight and with his eyes open. I was told that after I was accelerated out of that group, one instructor figured out what was going on and wrote on the board. "If you can leave without waking so- and-so, you can have the rest of the class off." Then everybody got up and left. The instructor shut off the lights and left so-and-so sleeping. He had a lot of 'splanin' to do when the next class showed up.

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