Veterans will recall the cramped quonset huts, heated in the winter by Yukon stoves, on which many of us warmed snacks and drinks purchased from the PX trailors that served as camp stores. The stoves were also used to warm various items employed -- often in vain -- in the task of melting frost from the outhouse seats.
That image is indelibly burned into my mind. This was a truly miserable place.
ReplyDeleteMy names is Chris Manis and I was a member of D-7-3, July thru Sep. 1967. We were the unlucky crew we graduated and everyone got a 28 day leave, and shipped out to Vietnam as legs. The DOD added a Delta Company to most Division and Soldiers were needed. I did not make it to Jump School until 1973, 1st SFG in Okinawa. I wonder what happened to many of my class mates. I retired in 2009 as a 1SG. I would like to locate and purchase an AIT Training cycle book. Reply to:
ReplyDeletemanis_j@msn.com
Chris, There were no training cycle books only a Co. D-7-3 Photo. Rodney Eng
DeleteI got to Crockett in mid-November of 68, after basic at Ft. Bragg. I found the training easy, but the living conditions deplorable. Since it was the on-set of winter when I arrived we had to use the two small stoves to heat the hut, and the soot would fill our noses by morning. We did our best to clean them every Saturday, which only made the soot decrease slightly. We were allowed to go home for 20 day's Christmas leave. There was also a riot in the company next to ours that lasted a few hours - no MP's showed up. And we had an ice storm that turned the pine forests that surrounded us into glass it seemed.
ReplyDeleteThose were difficult times - good thing we were young.
Sounds like we were there @ the Camp Crockett the same time. I was in A co in 67-68 Nov, Dec and Jan. I came from Ft Bragg A-1-1
DeleteNot anonymous: Danny Allgood. Went on to jump school at Ft. Benning, then to the 3rd Infantry Bret. (The Old Guard), Ft. Myer, Va.
DeleteI’ve been talking to high schoolers for 12 years now and still know very little about the strange place where I became a sergeant... Was drafted in late 1967 and selected for NCO School after AIT at Fort Polk. Then, as a new “Shake ‘n Bake” sergeant, I spent a training cycle at Camp Crockett, sleeping with a platoon of recruits in a Quonset hut, and starting the day before dawn running them around a rocky track. Then I spent 71/2 months leading patrols in the Rocket Pocket near Chu Lai before ending my tour as Duty NCO at 198th LIB TOC. Any info would really help!
ReplyDeleteIt’s been 50 years and other than the few on this site I have never meet a man who’s been to Crockett.
ReplyDeleteI was there. D -7 -3 Mar 68 to May 68 then Jump School and then SF at Bragg. Nobody can have any idea of what an experience that place was. MLK was murdered while we were there. I say no more.
DeleteI enlisted for Armor with Airborne February 19 1968 did my Basic training Fort Jackson. I was at Camp Crockett June - August Hot, Hot, Hot. Went to Bragg for jump school. After first week I was told the Army made a mistake my MOS was not infantry and sent me to Fort Knox for Armor MOS. Then I would be sent back for jump school. I never made it back.
DeleteSorry I didn't mean for my message to be Anonymous. Bart Germain
DeleteI meant Benning not Bragg.
DeleteI hope all is well with my brothers of Camp Crockett. Take care and never forget the Camp.
ReplyDelete