| Dad
had been in the Army for almost five years when he had to make up his mind
whether to stay in or not. When he'd been drafted, he hadn't had a job.
He certainly didn't know what waited for him in civilian life other than
his wife. He hadn't done anything else in his adult life but be in the Army.
He'd done ok in the Army. He'd loved being with the unit, the men. He loved
getting things done and building things. But he didn't like the way things
were going with the peace. The separation between officers and men became
a gulf and the officers would sit around and ask each other what year they
were, meaning what year they'd graduated from West Point. And he didn't
like the grinding petty Army stuff and endless inspections and never had.
But he still didn't know what he was going to do when he got to the room
where they were sorting out the men. If you were going to re-enlist, you
were supposed to step to the left. If you wanted out, you stepped to the
right. When it got to him, he still didn't know what he was going to do,
but he looked to the right and realized that everything he liked about the
Army was standing on the right, so he decided to get out. Funny thing was,
when he started going to the reunions, 35 years later, most of the former
officers hung together, but he and Bagley only wanted to hang out with the
enlisted men. From the moment he'd gotten "volunteered" he'd hated
being treated separately. |
