They Accused Me of What?
You're in the Army now,
You'll never get rich
You son of a bitch,
You're in the Army now.
While in Basic Training one of my favorite things
to do was marching,
while at the same time one of my most hated things
to do was marching.
But I almost never made it into the Army.
Many, many, many years ago I had to take a bus to Los Angeles
to see if I qualified to get into the WACS.
Back then females went into the
Women's Army Corps,
not the Army as it is now.
Anyway I took a public bus the 20+ miles into L.A.
And having never used public transportation I was pretty proud
of myself for figuring it all out.
I arrived at the main recruiting station in L.A
and went in to take my test.
I was in a large room filled with mostly young men,
most of them had been drafted so they looked at us
women like we were crazy to be volunteering to do what
they were being forced into doing.
I mean since there was this unpopular war going on.
Anyway I took my test like everyone else,
then they sent us into another room to wait.
I guess it was to see who passed and to let us know if we did or didn't.
But I never got that far.
After waiting for what seemed like forever,
a door opened and two big MP's came through with an Officer.
We all sat up quickly, almost with fear,
because we knew that MP's meant trouble.
But what I was not expecting was that they were going to
call out my name and ask me to come with them.
Talk about being scared, well I was shaking in my feet.
And the whole room was staring at me wondering what I had done.
I soon found out!
I was accused of cheating on the language section of the test.
Cheating, me?
I knew I had not cheated.
I may have a few times in school just to be silly, but not this.
This was too important
and by that time I knew that the only person who really gets cheated
is the person who cheats.
I told the Officer that there was no possible way that I had cheated.
He said that if I wanted to prove it then
I would have to take the test again with the two MP's
standing guard over me while I did it.
I told him it was no problem as I was still shaking.
And I asked why they thought I had cheated.
The Officer said that I had gotten 100% on the language test,
and only a few people had ever been able to do it.
I told him I did not understand the problem because
it had been the easiest section of the whole test.
He looked at me in disbelief and gave the MP's a new test.
This only contained the language section.
It is where they make up this fake language
and you have to answer all the questions about it.
So there I sat in a small room with the two MP's
watching my every movement to make sure I did not cheat.
I finished, they took the test and left me in the room.
Awhile later the Officer and the MP's came back.
They were looking at me a lot differently.
The Officer apologized and said that I had gotten 100% on the test again.
And I think he said that I was the fifth person to ever do that.
He then tried to see if I wanted to go to the Army Interpreter School.
I asked him if I had to stay in the Army longer then the two years
I had signed up for.
He said I had to stay in for three years since the school
lasted for almost a year.
I looked at him like he was nuts and he kept telling me
that I was what the Army was looking for
and that I was really needed.
I asked him what language I would be learning
and he told me it would be Chinese.
Now at that time I did not know a whole lot about China.
And I really did not think that there would ever be a need for me
to learn the Chinese language because we did not have a lot to do with them.
Or at least I had thought so at the time.
So I kept saying that I would only do it if I could stay in for just the two years.
He said there was no way because the Army would have
spent so much for my education and I would have to repay the
time spent by at least working for them for two more years.
I finally refused and he finally just told me to think about it.
I just wanted to do my two years and so instead I went to Basic Training,
then went on to be part of the Field Artillery
and one of only nine women to have ever held
a Combat MOS (Military Occupational Skill).
Hey did you know I was "Historical"?
We were put in there by mistake and they only caught the error
after we had finished training.
And by then we had to repay them for our training
and was allowed to stay in our MOS.
But if I had re-upped then they might have sent me to
language school.
I guess it has all worked out for the best anyway.
As you can see I must be communicating
to the people in China in a way the Army never thought of.
Whenever I check my stats,
the country of China is always my brightest green country.
And the majority of my views come from China.
So maybe I am not speaking their language,
but they must surely be enjoying reading mine.
I would very much like to thank all my readers in China,
Russia, Ukraine, the Asian countries,
and all over the world.
You are all very much appreciated by me.
And I would love to have comments from you.
Even if it is just an "Hello".
I really would like to know what you enjoy about my writing.
God bless.