Every army unit has an annual inspection from the Army’s Inspector General in all categories of operations to include its personnel, facilities, equipment to everything else that’s organic to that unit. The Inspector General’s annual inspection was planned out several months earlier to take place during our training cycle. After training the better part of the day, we would start working on preparation for the inspection. The annual inspection is a big event. Commanders and first sergeants would lose their jobs for failing the inspection which leads to being passed over for promotion.
It had been an especially cruel day having just come back from an extended march through mud in pouring rain. I was tired, sleepy, hungry, and it was now close to midnight. On my way to my barracks to get cleaned up, my squad leader redirected to the Arms Room. “Ojeda, they need you to help clean weapons,” he said.
“Let me just go clean up and I’ll go there,” I asked.
“No. They need you now. Anyway, there’s only a few weapons left to clean,” he said.
I arrived at the Arms Room where a group of some six men and myself were assigned to clean every one of the company’s 250 or so M-14 rifles. Another group was cleaning the gas masks with another drill sergeant monitoring their cleaning.
As we completed a weapon, we would hand it to our drill sergeant who would inspect it and pass or reject it. “Now, you men are not leaving here until every single weapon passes my inspection,” warned the drill sergeant. The closer to midnight it was, however, the more lenient the drill sergeant was.
“Drill sergeant, do you think we’ll be going to Vietnam?” one of the privates asked.
“Why do you ask?” said the drill sergeant.
“President Johnson doesn’t like wars, so I just know he’ll keep us out of that mess.”
“Are you talking fact, or is that your opinion, private?”
“No, I don’t really know for sure, so I guess it’s an opinion.”
“Well, I, too, have an opinion,” I heard myself blurt out. “Johnson is a most corrupt politician and stands to add millions to his millions by expanding the war. You, I and everyone here will be there before the end of the year!”
“Now, that’s disparaging talk about your commander-in-chief!” yelled the drill sergeant. “You can go to jail for making that type of statement!”
The bad wolf egged me on. “Well, Johnson is from Texas. Everyone there knows just how crooked he is.”
“Pivate ! Just keep your opinions to yourself before you wind up in the stockage!” the drill sergeant yelled out at me.
While inspecting another’s weapon, the drill sergeant continued saying “Opinions are like assholes, people. Everybody’s got one. But there’s no room for opinions in my army. Now you men quit gallivanting around and finish these weapons so we can be out of here!”
The drill sergeant left us to do our own inspection saying “I will be back here first thing in the morning, and I expect every goddamn weapon to be ready for inspection."
The I.G. inspection took three days. Our company failed. The Arms Room was one of the failed areas, so I suppose our weapons cleaning was not up to standard. A reinspection was scheduled some weeks later after the men in our training cycle would graduate. Some other group of trainees would be catching the commander’s and first sergeant’s wrath. The company commander was certain to be passed over for promotion. The first sergeant would have a permanent bad mark on his record.
I felt no sympathy for neither the company staff nor for the next training cycle of men. I paid my dues to Alpha Company, 4th Training Battalion, 1st Training Brigade. No remorse. My job was done.
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