Fort Monmouth, NJ
August 31, 2005
Military bases are being closed, and apparently one base on the way to extinction is Fort Monmouth, NJ. What memories that piece of news triggered!
Located near Eatontown, NJ, it is the home of the U.S. Army Signal Corps and the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratory. As a newly commissioned ROTC shavetail in 1954, Ft. Monmouth gave me my first taste of active duty. I was enrolled in the Officer’s Basic Course, which was supposed to transform a college kid into an Army Officer in twelve short weeks. We were subjected to the usual basic training stuff like pre-breakfast calisthenics, confidence courses, running in formation with weapon and pack; rifle, pistol, and carbine training, field exercises, Saturday morning parades, and some classroom instruction. The latter included the same grainy films about the dangers of VD and graves registration that have entertained many generations of GIs. We were also taught such useful skills as laying miles of twisted pair field wire and climbing poles with spikes and belt.
We lived in World War II-style wooden barracks that had been remodeled as BOQs (bachelor officer quarters) with private bedrooms but retaining the communal toilets and showers, which prompted the same bathroom humor familiar to many generations of soldiers.
That was my first stay at Fort Monmouth. Years later, after I had fulfilled my active duty obligation, I suddenly found myself back there in uniform, but that is another tale.
Lt. Dave
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Nice piece, though I imagine most readers would have liked to hear more about your womanizing room-mates and their machinations!
Maybe, if I can think of a way to do it without self-incrimination.