Time In The Army

Explore more details about Bob (Pops) time in the Army in the late 1950s

After graduating high school in the late 1950s my grandfather Pops enlisted in the Army. He was sent to basic training at Fort Jackson near Columbia South Carolina where he endured a tough basic training—completing such activities as crawling under bard wire while shots were fired over you, many nights spent walking through the woods and being stripped by drill instructors. Fort Jackson is known as the gateway to the army with almost anyone who has served in the army from the 1950s to 1970s stepping on its ground.

During this time period when Pops was training there, you had many interesting opportunities to earn some extra perks. Such as completing 50 pull-ups for an extra peanut butter and jelly sandwich. More free time would be earned if you joined one of the sports teams such as the boxing team where Pops competed. He would fight in 3 official matches during his time in the army where he would suffer 2 losses both by knockout and one win by knockout. Many of these fights were between the Puerto Rican soldiers who were also training at Fort Jackson during this time. Pops said that they and the Puerto Rican soldiers did not get along very well as most of them did not want to be there. As he members many soldiers saying “If there ever was a war they would hope the Puerto Ricans would walk in the front so they would not be accidentally shot in the back”.

Pops would be stationed in a few areas around the U.S. during his two years in the Army. He learned many lessons from being in the army such as toughness, resourcefulness, and most importantly that he wanted to graduate college because he did not want to serve in the Army all his life.