While I was in California recently, I took a side trip to Fort Ord, where I served my Basic Combat Training in 1969. Fort Ord was closed as an active Army post in the 1990's, and slowly over time it is being dismantled and converted to other purposes. The US Army still retains a slice of it along the eastern edge for use by the USAR. Some of it has been converted to the California University at Monterey Bay, other parts are used by local municipality functions, and a corner of it has been developed into a shopping center. The former Army airfield is the City of Marina airport. The rifle ranges along the beach have been converted to a state park beach. Gradually, it is fading away as a military facility that for many years was the scene of much military activity and the home of thousands of soldiers.
I was in Company B, 3rd Battalion, 4th BCT Brigade. This was abbreviated as B-3-4. To make sure trainees didn't wander around from one area to another, we had while stripes sewed above our name tags with B-3-4 written on them. These were called "Maggot Tags."
My old B-3-4 barracks building still stands, unused. It is Building 4556. It may eventually be refurbished as classrooms for the university. It is locked and boarded up, but one of the doors had been kicked in by local partying teenagers, so I went on in and up to my old squad room. The old layout with large squad bays had been diced up with walls for for privacy during the "beer in the barracks" days of the late 1970's. In BCT, I wasn't in one of the squad bays, but was in a six man room along the hall. I was able to go right to this exact room and the latrine next door.
The following pictures were taken in 1969 when I was in BCT.
The Mormon boys from a Utah ARNG MI translator unit in Salt Lake:
gschwertley in 1969:
This soldier's name was Bob Schiller and I knew him in junior high school. He became a military policeman.
This is gschwertley with his trusty M-14 rifle, standing in the company street.
This picture was taken in the six-man room that I was quartered in. Sitting on the bunk is a soldier named Gary Manning, whom I had gone to elementary school with. He became a medic. Standing at left in the background is a soldier named Lynn Sorrells. He was from Texas, later deserted from the Army, and died in prison in California.
This picture below shows the same camera angle in the same room as the picture above. I took this picture last month. Some time in the 1970's, this room was converted to NCO quarters and a toilet was added in the corner.
This picture shows our latrine next door, taken last month, which didn't look all that different.
This picture was also taken last month, and shows a view down the former company street. If you look at the 1969 pictures above that show soldiers sitting in the street, rifles piled up, etc, this is the same place.
The next picture is one I took of my old barracks in April 1972, while I was passing by the post.
This was taken of the same building in 1975 late on a foggy day when I was in the area while at National Guard Annual Training at Camp Roberts.
Below is a picture of the same building last month.
Other highlights of Fort Ord:
The large PT field across the road from my barracks in which we spent a considerable amount of time during BCT (taken in 1972):
Horizontal ladder conveniently located next to a chow hall. Sometimes, you had to cross this ladder before you could enter for a meal (taken in 1972):
The next two pictures were taken in 1976 and were in the former US Army Reception Station at Fort Ord. When you first entered the Army, before you actually started Basic Training, you spent several days up to a week in the Reception Station. This is where you took tests, were issued uniforms, got shots, and so forth, plus spent a lot of time learning about Army chickens**t. Here, we didn't yet have drill sergeants, but minders who were called "roster guides." This is where I learned how to clean glass windows with plain water and newspaper. This is also where a few guys went out onto the little roof edge above the first floor to clean second floor windows, only to fall off and never make it "up the hill" to BCT.
This first picture shows the first building I was in in the Army. When we got off the Greyhound Bus, we were sent into this building for the first go-around. We were given pencils without erasers to fill out some form or another, and when one inductee asked for an eraser, the lieutenant in front of us said, "You're in the Army now, we don't make mistakes, so we don't use erasers." That is my nice, black 1961 Lincoln sitting next to the building.
We cleaned windows and waxed floors in these buildings while we were waiting for something to do.
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