I was in the US Army?
I did my boot camp at Ft. McClleland, Alabama in the Spring of '87. I was 23 at the time and I was the second oldest. The oldest guy was like 30 and we called him, "Grandpa".
The Gas Chamber is one of my favorite stories:
We all had several lessons on how to properly don our gas masks and what the gas chamber routine would entail. We had to wait for the gas tablets to be dropped (CS something or other) and then put our masks on and then wait a minute or two and then "Drill Sgt." would come in and ask each of us to recite our name, rank and serial number.
Well, I was a little nervous and didn't clear my mask properly and inhaled a large portion of the gas! The Drill saw this and asked me first to recite in order to get me out of there quick. But I couldn't remember my name let alone the other stuff so he screamed instructions to me that sounded like; go out the back door and turn towards the steps. So, I go out the back door and couldn't see because my eyes were watery and I banged into the big tree at the bottom of the three step porch. I feel over holding my head, I couldn't see and the worst part was all the gooey snot pouring out of my nose like a rain storm.
It was terrible. Later I over hear at the chow hall from some cooks talking about some idiot smashing into a tree at the gas chamber. Hoiw embarrassing.
Maybe next time I'll tell you about the firing range when I was with the 7th ID Band.
~O