ISBN: 0595212727
ISBN-13: 9780595212729
Format: Paperback, 714pp
Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
Edition Number: 1
A 16 year-old high school dropout leaves home to avoid
incarceration in a Juvenile Court Detention Center for placement in an
orphanage. Using a falsified birth certificate he enlists in the army
where he finds himself in an extremely hostile environment. Seeking
refuge in the army, he discovers that he cannot run away from himself
or escape the family curse. As a member of the elite United States Army
Constabulary in occupied-Germany, he faces the greatest challenge of
his life amid the war torn ruins of a conquered nation.
The book describes, in lurid detail, the misadventures
of the men in the lower echelons of the military establishment and the
effects of their relationships with the German populace. As a
fraudulent enlistee, he lives in constant fear of being discovered. He
is further plagued by premonitions of doom by the family “curse”, the
result of an unconscionable sin committed by his maternal grandfather.
Born into an impoverished, dysfunctional family in the middle of the
Great Depression, he struggles to overcome the indoctrination of
inferiority and social ostracism resulting from his mother’s
alcoholism.
The story traces the family history from his ancestors’
19th century Mississippi plantation to the early 1950s in segregated
Birmingham, Alabama.
A depressed teenager flees the destructive forces of his
dysfunctional family and searches for life’s meaning while serving as
an under-aged soldier in occupied Germany.
Afterword:
The author, John Bandy,
entered the army at the basic training center of the 5th Infantry
Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on October 11, 1948. Because
he was under aged at the time of his enlistment, he forged his birth
certificate in order to be accepted. Once donning the uniform of the
United States army, however, he soon learned that there is a reason for
the minimum age requirement, because as a 16-year-old, he soon
found out, the hard way, that the army was no place for the
faint of heart, and that if he were to survive, he would have to
grow up in a hurry.
During his first night
away from home, he was attacked and brutally beaten by
his platoon sergeant, a hardened veteran of World War II. As
a result of this experience, he quickly learned that the army
had neither patience nor tolerance for the juvenile and immature
behavior of under aged recruits!
After adjusting to the rigors
of basic training, he became a model soldier for the rest of his
time at Fort Jackson. However, at the end of his training cycle,
he was given a 13-day delay en route with orders assigning him to
the elite United States Army Constabulary's 14th Armored Cavalry
Regiment!
The author learned
from his beating at the hands of his drill sergeant in basic
training, and other frightening experience, as he crossed the
storm-tossed Atlantic Ocean on a small "one-stacker" troop
transport ship that took him, in the middle of winter on a wild and
stormy, 13-day trip to the port city of Bremerhaven,
Germany. From there, he was shipped by train to his permanent
duty station, located in the barracks of an ex-Luftwaffe Kaserne
in Schweinfurt, Germany.
It didn't take the young
recruit long to adjust to army life in Germany. The
soldiering was tough and the mission dangerous, and in
order to "make it" in his new outfit, he had to grow up
in a hurry. And that he did, but not without succumbing to the
many temptations he was exposed to while there.
However, he manages to
eventually overcome the obstacles in his way and, after over three
years of promiscuity that resulted in a series of reductions in
rank, he finally learns to behave himself in time to gain a
small amount of compensation just before his discharge from the
service. For his willingness to cooperate, he was finally promoted to
Corporal.
After he returned to his
home in Alabama he fell into his earlier bad habits and
rebellious nature. His readjustment to civilian life was a total
failure and he soon found himself in serious trouble with abuse of
alcohol and other bad habits. Later, he realized that if
he was ever going to "straighten up", he must reenlist in the
army, where he had finally learned to control his wild behavior.
After reenlisting only nine
months after his discharge, he took advantage of what he learned from
his many mistakes in his first enlistment and, after 17 more years of
soldiering, including duty assignments with the 1st Cavalry
Division where he was sent to the Division NCO Academy and finally
earned the rank of Sergeant (E-5). He was subsequently assigned as Team
Chief with a radio relay AN/GRC - 26 Radio Teletype Communications
outpost at Camp Fuji located on the side of Mount Fuji in Japan.
Before leaving Japan, he finally completed his high school
education by earning his High School GED Certificate by attending
the Army Education Center during off duty hours. When he
returned to the States, he was assigned to The Alaska Communications
System with the then United States Territory of Alaska, where
he spent two years in a small Eskimo fishing village. This was
followed by two more years of duty in Nome, where he served as
Chief Operator in Charge of the Communications Center at that
location.
From Alaska, he was
sent to Fort Lewis, Washington. From there, he was assigned
to The Armored Training Center at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where,
after 7 years in grade as a Staff Sergeant (E-5), he was finally
promoted to E-6!
A year's tour of duty followed
his tour at Fort Knox, when he was assigned to MACV,
in as a military advisor to the 9th Vietnamese Infantry
Division based in Qui Nhon, Viet Nam. While there, he went with the
Vietnamese platoon-sized troop units on combat patrol missions and
operations to set up listening posts and radio relay site teams in
the jungles near the villages of Toy Hua, Phu Cat, and Ban Me
Tuit.
From Viet Nam, he was assigned
to the Instructor Training School, at The Southeastern Signal
School at Fort Gordon, Georgia While there he earned his
Instructor's Communications certificate and served as a
military instructor at the Signal School there. While there,
he won the Outstanding Instructor Award, and was promoted to
Sergeant First Class (E-7).
From Fort Gordon, he was sent
to Fontainebleau, France as Radio Section Chief with the Petroleum
Distribution Command. While there, he earned a GED
sponsored, one-year college equivalency certificate. soon
afterwards, he was promoted to Master Sergeant (E-8) and assigned
to the unit's operations staff.
From Fontainebleau, he was
transferred to the 1st Signal Group Headquarters located in Orleans,
France, where he was assigned to the general staff and, while
assigned the duties of acting Headquarters Staff Radio Officer,
and assisted in the preparation and planning of FRELOC (French
Relocation) to comply with President DeGualle's orders for
all United States forces to relocate out of France to Germany. He was
awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his work on that project.
When his unit arrived in
Worms, Germany, he continued to work on the general staff. And for his
efforts there he was rewarded by being nominated for the army-wide
call for applications to fill the vacated Sergeant Major
position with the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon. He was
one of a total of twelve Master Sergeants nominated for this
prestigious assignment. After two months of reviewing all of the
nominee's records, he was awarded the position and immediately
transferred to the Pentagon. Two months after he took command of his
duties there, he was promoted to the coveted rank of Sergeant Major
(E-9). He was only 35 years-old at the time! After two years of
outstanding service at that position, he was awarded the Joint Service
Commendation Medal. Shortly afterwards, he retired with honors at the
Pentagon, and returned to civilian life. Once back in civilian life, he
immediately enrolled in the University of Alabama at Huntsville to
begin work to earn his college education. He had
already procured a position with RCA Company's top
secret project at U.S., Army's Redstone Arsenal, where he worked as
much as ten hours a day, while attending classes at night.
Later, he moved to Birmingham,
where he enrolled in the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where he
completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Elementary
Education under the GI Bill.
He taught Fifth Grade classes
at Pinson Elementary School where he was an award- winning
teacher for 19 years before retiring. He is currently listed in
the 1996 edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers.
He and his wife, Cathy, now
live, in Pinson, Alabama where he and his wife have
made their home for the past 28 years. He has three daughters
and three grand children.
