Basic Language Skills 101

In December of 1959 I enlisted in the U.S. Army. Shortly after arriving at Fort Ord, California, an NCO mustered all of us recruits in a loose formation. Because I had been in the Marine Corps I was instructed to join a separate assembly of those men with prior service. A second NCO then took charge of our group. He ordered us to state the branch and unit of the armed forces in which we had served.

One guy identified himself as a Navy Seal. He had “come over,” military parlance for having been released by one service so he could transfer to another. He had to drop several grades in rank-- he wanted to go Special Forces—to go to Vietnam as an adviser—a tour of duty unavailable to Navy Seals at that time. The Army NCO was obviously dismissive of this man’s prior affiliation. Another fellow had been in the U.S. Air Force. This was even worse. Then a stocky older man snapped to attention and said in a gruff German accent, “Eighteenth SS Panzer Grenadiers, sir!” The NCO looked up and asked, “British? Right?” Such linguistic faux pas were not at all uncommon at Fort Ord.

Basic training was followed by the Advanced Infantry Training course. One platoon of our AIT company was made up entirely of Eskimo National Guard personnel from Alaska. About half of these men spoke only Yupik, Inupiat or Siberian Yupik.

The company was assembled for a class in explosives one day. Before his introduction, the NCO in charge of the class addressed the company. “I’ve been told some of you do not understand English,” he yelled. “Anybody who does not understand English will stand up.” Nobody stood up. A few of the guys snickered. The NCO shouted even louder, “If you do not understand English, stand up.” Finally the Alaskans who did understand English told those who did not to stand up.

Later in the class the same NCO demonstrated several types of explosives. He inserted a blasting cap in a block of TNT and set it off. The blast blew a huge hole in the earth. He buried a cap in a ball of Composition C. It made an even larger hole. He explained the principle of the M16A2 Bouncing Betty anti-personnel mine and triggered one—the bouncing element shot up from the ground and at about chest-level sprayed shrapnel all over a sheet of plywood. He detonated Bangalore Torpedoes and anti-tank mines. Finally he showed us the M18 Claymore mine. “This one,” he told us, “will kill you the worst.”