Chout Loc: Central Texas

The Engineers started out with the Artillery. West Point started as a training school for artillery and military engineers. In the early days of the Academy, the brightest and smartest were nudged to the Artillery and the Engineers.
At the other end of the spectrum were those officers chosen for the mounted arms. A prime example of this was George A. Custer whose academic record at the USMA earned him assignment to the Second Regiment of US Cavalry upon graduation. And Winston Churchill's academic record at Sandhurst also gained him an assignment in the mounted arm.

Military Intelligence, the Silent Warriors

wnagel Loc: Fair Oaks, CA

I too am a proud member of the CCCCC. Graduate of FAOBC 9(er) 72. Spent January to March 1972 at Ft. Sill. Learned a lot about “cocking cannons “ and very changeable weather.

Derryg

VT fuse's were tricky in Nam and helped to know the location of the firing batteries so you didn'r receive "splash."

Dannj

There was a guy in my FAOBC who, because Lawton didn’t offer much of a social life, suggested that we join the local branch of a well known national fraternal organization. He would be our sponsor and the lodge, or whatever they called it, would give us a place to go other than the “O” Club on base. Plus as members we’d now have access to all the lodges wherever we might wind up stationed and could continue our membership after we’d left the Marine Corps. We may have paid a small initiation fee but I’d say 10 of us took him up on it.
He set up the initiation ceremony for 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning at the local lodge and when we arrived we met the local board members who included several prominent Lawton citizens: a couple of lawyers, the president of a local bank, the owner of the largest car/truck dealership, a doctor or two, etc.. We had some kind of a swearing in ceremony and then we went downstairs to a large room that had a bunch of chairs set up in a circle and we all sat down. I had no clue what was going on and even thought we might be subjected to some type of initiation ritual. Then the head guy stood up and told us that as new members we were getting a special treat. From an unseen record player we heard the beginnings of “Limehouse Blues” and from a door in the corner there appeared a nurse who entered the circle and began to dance as she navigated around the circle stopping to pay some attention to each of us. Well, the record finished after she’d made her way around once so someone re-set the record and she started around the circle again this time starting to strip. It took three runs of “Lime House Blues” before she ended totally naked sitting on our sponsors lap. I guess that was his reward for recruiting us new members. We all gave her a round of applause and she was given a robe and the lodge’s entertainment chairman suggested we adjourn to the bar for a celebratory drink. We did and she accompanied us and it became clear that she was well acquainted with the membership. One of my buddies who was married asked me to help him come up with a story to tell his wife about how the initiation went. Turns out her father was the head guy at the ___ Lodge in her home town.

merrytexan Loc: georgia

my 21 year old grandson just recently finished doing boot camp at ft sill !

Graveman Loc: Indiana

I remember seeing this a few times. After active duty I went into the reserves, while trained in Logistics (POL), I had to spend some time as a FDO in a 155 (towed) battery. Remember getting my butt chewed during an inspection because I was helping to plot (we were about 3 people short in our section). Told that my only job was to sit in the chair and supervise, that lasted until the inspector left. As a maverick (E6 when I went to the "dark" side") I always felt it was my responsibility to learn as much as I could about the jobs the enlisted had that were under my control. Never got to Ft. Sill learned OJT.

Derryg

You do what you gotta do to get the job done. Former grunt then spook.