Anchors aweigh

I decided to join the military in the latter part of 1967, but didn't do anything for almost a year.  It wasn't that I was indecisive, though it would certainly be a major change in my life.  I didn't want anyone to think I was "running away from my troubles" after my fiancé shot himself.  So, I stuck around and held my head high.  After all I wasn't the loony, but many people wondered what kind of a girl would cause a man to do such a thing, as if I had driven him around the bend.  I suppose, based on some of my subsequent relationships, there may have been something to that.  Still, I believe I attracted sociopaths, I didn't make them that way.  By early winter of 1968 I thought I had done my penance and it was time to get on with living.  I have always been a patriot and a supporter of my country.  I am still a patriot, but my attitude about war has changed significantly over the years.  I unceasingly support our armed forces and respect the job they must do.  My oldest brother, Harry, had been in the Air Force.  My middle brother, Glenn, had been in the Army.  Joe had somehow managed to develop a heart murmur at his physical and had been given a medical deferment.  Joe had many health problems over the years, but he never again had a problem with a heart murmur.  He also never told me how he pulled that one off, but it was best for everyone.  Joe was not military material.  My sister, Cindy, went into the Navy shortly after I was discharged.


When I went to visit the military recruiters, I had already eliminated two branches in my mind.  It was the middle of the Viet Nam war and the Army was taking anyone who was breathing.  I felt I might be a little more extraordinary than high school dropouts and juvenile delinquents.  I also eliminated the Marines.  Although I was an athlete and in extremely good shape, the women marines are trained in much the same way as the men.  To be honest, that scared me.  I was healthy, but I was not a bruiser.  Since Harry had been in the Air Force, that was my first choice.  I went to see the Air Force recruiter.  There was a bit of an interview and then I was given an intelligence test.  After he graded my test, he asked me to step over in front of a plain white wall so he could take a full length picture of me.  I was a little confused, but he proudly informed me he had to send the picture to Lackland AFB in Texas for approval.  In 1968 the United States Air Force did not want any ugly WAFs.  I was flabbergasted.  I refused to have my picture taken.  With a bit of a leering sneer, the recruiter generously informed me I was attractive enough and would have no problem being accepted.  Surely I was either on Candid Camera or had somehow stepped into the Twilight Zone.  However, he insisted I could not be considered without the photograph so I thanked him for his time and walked across the hall to the Navy recruitment office.


The only thing the Navy cared about was my intelligence.  I passed the test and the recruiter was anxious to get me enlisted, but he also had one small problem.  According to the fitness charts a female who was 5'-6½" tall must weigh a minimum of 106 pounds.  At the time, I weighed 98 pounds.  I told him it was no problem.  I had three weeks until the entrance physical and I would somehow manage to gain eight pounds.  The fact that I had been trying to gain weight most of my life and had been hopelessly unsuccessful didn't seem to faze me at the time.  I mean seriously, who was I kidding?  I had a boyfriend (yes, Wayne, this one is about you) who once said "Carla is so skinny if she turns sideways and sticks out her tongue she will look like a zipper."  Anyway, I went home and started eating every fattening thing I could find.  I pigged out on sundaes and pasta; any and every food I could imagine would put weight on.  I knew it wasn't going to stay permanently, but I only needed it for one day.  (I wish I still had that problem.)  On the day of my induction I got up two hours before the recruiter was to pick me up and drive me to Newark for my entrance physical.  I ate three bowls of Cheerios and an entire bunch of bananas with about a gallon of water.  I had been told bananas and water would "bulk up" and cause me to temporarily weigh more.  Whoever told me that forgot to tell me I would also be constipated beyond description as a result.  At the physical I weighed 104 pounds.  I thought I had been defeated, but apparently the Navy wanted me as much as I wanted them.  Somehow, the scale managed to register three more pounds before I stepped down, so I made it.  Of course, the fact that my recruiter was standing close while I was being weighed and may have rested the toe of his foot on the scale is totally irrelevant.  On January 21, 1969 I was sworn in and put on the bus with the rest of the girls from the northeast area.  We were off to Bainbridge, Maryland for 10 weeks of recruit training.


The rest of this story is too long to included here, so it's gonna be written in chapters.  Tomorrow we'll talk about boot camp and Yeoman "A" and "C" school.