I Can't, Sir!

By Philip Gardocki

This took place around 1975. This gives you an idea of the military mindset regarding its enlisted personnel of the time. Unfortunately this mindset eventually led to tragic consequences.

All service men serve multiple duties. In the Navy, only the most educated personnel were assumed responsible enough to guard the ship from intruders. So, the PRP, or Personal Reliability Program, was populated mainly with Electronic Technicians, otherwise called "Twigits"*. Drills to lock down the sensitive areas of the ships were practiced daily, but usually after normal working hours.

One winter evening, on board USS Oklahoma City CG-5, such a drill found a petty officer, dressed only in a towel, wet from a shower, and positioned at the highest point of the ship with his pistol. When a drill was over, no man could actually leave his post until personally relieved by an officer in the security chain of command. Shivering from the cold, he waited an interminable time for the weapons officer to relieve him. The officer, a new ensign, climbed to the O5 level, and issued an order, "Sailor, load your gun."

As this was not the expected order, the surprised petty officer did nothing but shiver for about 10 seconds.

The officer repeated the order, "Sailor, load your gun."

Finally, the Petty Officer responded, "I can’t, sir."

The officer, actually perked up, thinking he was going to get to berate someone for incompetence."Why not?" he asked.

"I wasn’t issued any ammunition," replied the Petty Officer.

This story was probably replayed thousands of times. The most egregious variation on the story may be that M-16’s were being stolen from cadets guarding the gates at West Point. It finally hit home hard enough that the lunacy of sending unarmed men to defend sensitive areas was eventually reversed, and the first reaction teams were issued ammunition - with the admonition of a courts martial should anyone actually load a weapon without express orders.

  *The derisive and or affectionate titles for the various enlisted job classifications were "Twiget", "Snipe", "Airdale", "Nuke", "Bubblehead", "Rider", "Scope Dope", "Pecker Checker", "Rivithead", "Sub-mariner" and "Deck Ape".

 

Tragic consequences.

Dateline Lebanon , October 23, 1983 . 241 marines were killed when their barracks was targeted by a suicide truck bomber. Even though the barracks was guarded by several machine gun nests, none of the weapons were loaded.

What are Stories of the Cold War?

by Phil Gardocki

This feature has its roots one evening at a COLD WARS HMGS Miniatures Convention. It is best described as a very late evening bull session where Jeff Billings, an old shipmate, and I traded stories before what appeared to be an enraptured audience. Of course, it was late, there was beer and maybe the audience was not as enthralled as I thought. By strict definitions of the word, Jeff and I are both "veterans." But, I do not think of myself as a veteran when compared to real combat soldiers. But, as we were in the post-Vietnam War Navy and armed conflicts were rare, we were very rarely endangered and then, usually only by the incompetence of our own armed forces.

When I had enlisted in 1975, the morale of the armed services had been crushed. It was not the crisp professional force we have seen performing since 1990. It was an organization despised by the general populace, manned with the lower crust of society, given no purpose and treated by the management as incompetent. The morale problems are better described by General Fred Franks book, "Into The Storm"*, which I highly recommend.

Throw into the mix a force pool from the public education system that had, for "school assemblies", apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movies like Failsafe, Dr Strangelove, Planet of the Apes, On the Beach and the message was clear: "You are going to be dead in 5 years, so what does it matter?" It is no wonder so many of my generation turned to drugs. As a historian, I know my generation did not have it rough, and in fact, it was the most privileged, educated, and wealthy generation ever, but it is the nature of every generation to think it had it rough. I will say, in our defense, the "Baby Boomers" were the first generation that grew up with the constant reminder that they could be annihilated in a few hours.

Into this environment is placed "Stories of the Cold War." These are not stories I just "heard" but either happened to me or I can actually put a face on the participants.

*I know Tom Clancy's name dominates the landscape of the cover, but the book was still written by General Franks.