Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Forehead of Zeus

I want to invite the patrons here to visit our friend Labrys for a Memorial Day trip to Ft. Maclellan, Alabama for Women's Army Corps Basic Training, 1974.
"I hate running, I hate hot weather. So how on earth did I end up in Women's Army Corps Basic Training in Ft. McClellan, Alabama in August of 1974? I would have done most anything to get the hell out of Kansas. My father laughed and said "So my little girl is joining the Whore Corps."
As much as there is very little that remains of the Army I knew, Labrys brings to life an Army that literally no longer exists except in memory, and does it with her usual frank eloquence.
I can't recommend her post too highly, both for her subject - a piece of U.S. Army life that is almost as forgotten as brown shoes - as well as her writing, which hits like an M-14 round. What better way to spend the Memorial Day weekend? Forget the hamburgs in the grill and go read. You won't regret it.

And don't forget to ask her to keep going - she remembers another place and time that have almost vanished; the U.S. Army, Europe in the Seventies, and the Bavarian glories of Flint Kaserne. Hoch, hoch, Labrys!
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6 comments:

  1. seydlitz89May 28, 2012 at 3:18 AM

    I enjoyed her post. Takes me back as well. I attended ROTC (while at the same time being a Marine Corps Reservist) in the mid-late 1970s. I remember too those strange utility uniforms the women had to wear. Looking forward to read what Labrys has to say about her time in Berlin . . .

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  2. mikeMay 28, 2012 at 8:32 AM

    Elusive Echo Company - wow, I like it!!!! What else did I miss out on: Blushing Bravo? Alluring Alpha? Charlie's Angels? But I have to wonder if the competitive instinct kicked in and anyone dubbed the other boot companies something along the lines of: Awful Alice? or Grungy Gretchen?

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  3. FDChiefMay 28, 2012 at 9:11 AM

    mike: Our First (female) platoon in my BCT called themselves "First Fox"; compared to that I have to say that "Elusive Echo" is downright classy.

    And you have to give the props to any woman forced to wear the female summer Class A uniform of the Seventies, the deservedly-hated "mint-green pantsuit" or better known as the "Slimey Limey", perhaps the worst uniform atrocity ever perpetrated on the U.S. Army since the Hardee Hat.

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  4. rangeragainstwarJune 3, 2012 at 4:58 AM

    Chief,
    My criticism of our uniforms is that they are mostly synthetic fabrics, and they look cheap -just like a COMBLOC peasant.
    The Army baseball hat of the VN era was much worse than a Hardee hat. It was downright uuugggly.
    Mike,
    How about Charlies Cherries?
    jim

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  5. Addie HarrisApril 9, 2013 at 12:00 PM

    Thanks, Jim, for reminding us of the other front woman are forced to fight on.

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  6. Addie HarrisApril 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM

    Thanks, Jim, for reminding us of the other front woman are forced to fight on.

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