Hell Day in WOEC was the first real hazing we encountered. Like my previous reference to :An Officer and a Gentleman" it was much like it was depicted in the movie. Every TAC officer was there, up and rousted out of bed at 03:30. It was cool and dark, there were plenty of water hoses, ditches fill of water and of course mud. "Get up, get down, get up, get down, too slow, in the ditch." was pretty much the order of the day. By the time they sent us to the showers, we were filthy, sweaty, exhausted and of course we had a full day of regular training to finish. So we got chewed out for being late to chow, late for formation and of course more push-us.
One other interesting fact is that about 10% of the class were non-aviation warrant candidates. Engineers, MPs and Vehicle Mechanic warrants. Once they finished WOEC, they got their commissions. Aviation warrants, had 8 more months of training to finish before they were awarded their bars. The non-aviation candidates were generally older and more experienced, but they also had a harder time in general dealing with the high stress environment. Many were E-7s with 15+ years and were used to being in charge of a platoon, not getting harassed by a TAC officer half his age. I made friends with an engineer candidate named Bill. Bill was a bit heavy like me and was struggling with the physical part some but mostly the mental part. I encouraged him a lot and we had a personal saying we kept repeating to each other: "You got to want it!" Together, we helped each other deal with personal issues and make it to the end.
When we were the intermediate flight, things started coming together. The flight was pretty much a team and most all of us were on board with the plan. Things were still rushed, but it didn't seem nearly as hard as the 1st 2 weeks had been. One day we had an unusual event. I dead fly was found during the daily inspection. Our TAC officer determined that this "Aviator" had died in the line of duty, and he was deserving of burial rights. So on a Saturday afternoon, we held a funeral for the "Aviator". A matchbox was his casket, on 6 long yarn strings. Our candidate chaplain gave the eulogy and we were dying trying not to break up while standing at attention. I swear this guy was a great comedian and he really put everything he had into the eulogy. Afterward, we marched in a pass and review, 4 of the Engineer candidates wore their yellow track suits and carried their ironing boards emulating D7 Caterpillars, and one raised his blade then turned out in a "Missing Man Formation". This had us all in tears. It was a lot of effort, but it did wonders for morale. I believe it was at point we got over the "hump" and figured out that we'd make it to graduation.
I can't really think of a great deal more to talk about WOEC. By the time we were the Senior Flight, we had it down pat. In the 7 minutes we had to get up and get in PT formation, we'd be out in the company street and wait for 2 minutes for reveille to sound. (What a difference from 6 weeks earlier.) The only challenge remaining was Phase inspection. You had to have less than 30 demerits to pass, and you had to pass to graduate. Unlike all the previous inspections, demerits were not stacked and the average was 7 or less. I think 1 candidate for over 20, several had less than 5.
Once we graduated, the MP's, Engineers and Mechanics got their bars and went off to their technical courses. The rest of us moved across post to Bravo Company and to the Initial Entry Rotary Wing Aviator Course (IERWAC). My flight became Light Blue Flight Class 87-23 (It think). There was a rotation of 13 colors (Red, Orange, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Royal Blue, Green, Maroon, Gray, are the ones I remember offhand). I got to watch them start training because I didn't have medical clearance to fly (An UP SLIP) due to a problem with some of the tests on my flight physical. Initially it seemed like I would be on hold for 2 weeks until the next class started then start with that class. In the meantime I was a Rainbow flight member and I was assigned a busy work job in the supply room. The supply sergeant had a civilian employee that did most of the work. For me, I had real work on Wednesdays when candidates exchanged their linen. The best thing about this time was that due to lack of space in the barracks, I was allowed to live at hope while I was in Rainbow status. In many ways, this shaped my future in ways I never anticipated.
Things I hadn't anticipated included #1 my Hyperparathyroidism diagnosis I mentioned in earlier blog posts. If I hadn't applied for flight school, the most likely scenario is that I would not have been diagnosed until I stated to have spontaneous bone fractures. As that is the primary symptom of someone with untreated Hyperparathyroidism. At that point, the bone damage is irreversible and life gets pretty bleak. I met such an individual in Eisenhower Army Medial Center and he didn't seem to be a happy camper.
The second unanticipated event was the conception of my youngest child. It was 1987, we had 2 sons and just entering elementary school and we'd tried for several years for another child and it seemed we were destined for only two. While on medical hold, my flight surgeon (Dr. Robledo) had been running test on me to see if they could determine the cause of my elevated blood and urine calcium levels. When he couldn't then I was referred to a Specialist at Eisenhower Army Medical Center located at Fort Gordon Georgia. It is a day long 350 mile trip, so I was sent there on Temporary Duty (TDY) orders. I was housed in the Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) and seen as an outpatient at the hospital clinic. The trip was Monday thru Friday with 3 days of testing in the middle. The 1st trip was uneventful. The second, since this appeared to be a drawn out affair, I asked the wife and kids to come along. Nothing significant really occurred medically for me, but we had a good time in Augusta Georgia and surprise, we managed to conceive our third son.
The last unanticipated consequence was the start of my fourth career in computing. As I go used to working in the Supply Room, it was the dawn of the computer age in the Army. Sitting in the inner office was an ITT Xtra 8086 computer with a CGA color screen and a 10 MB external hard drive. For the most part the computer just sat there unused except once a week when one of the TAC officers from Bravo company used a Lotus 123 spreadsheet to compute his weekly pass roster for his flight. I asked if I could watch (Fairly bold move since I was a candidate and all) and since I wasn't actively in training he saw little need to put me in my place and actually taught me a few things. After that I asked if I could use the computer on my own and the reply was "OK, just don't break it." The computer had a few applications installed including WordStar 4, Lotus 123 and Database 3 Plus.
I learned for Mr. Hall about Lotus 123 (intermediate on usage, beginner on macro programming) but the rest of the items I was pretty much self-taught. I had noticed a couple of issues in the administration of Bravo company that I thought I could make better using the computer. The first was the revision of the Warrant Officer Candidate (WOC) Guide. Like all army publications at the time, they were all printed (Hard copy) manuals and when enough errata was found, then change pages were printed and you inserted these pages into the existing manual. Some times the change page replaced a page, sometimes a .1 page was inserted (Example between page 22 and 23 you inserted page 22.1) and sometimes the change notice just had you line out a paragraph or word or sentence and have you write in the correction. After about change 10, a document could and did get very wonky. So I volunteered to make the 1st computer document version of the WOC guide and incorporated all the current changes (Seemed like change 24 or so at the time). This project took several weeks and of course was delayed by my TDY trips (4 total) to Fort Gordon.
The second project I worked was the computerization of the operations office. Until I created the database, all active flights (5) plus snowbird (Awaiting training) and Rainbow (On hold for various reasons) were tracked manually. I observed in operations for several days an determined the 2 sergeants in that office spent about 50 man hours a week keeping track of candidates and generating 31 specific reports. I figured out this could all be done using a database and I got permission to try.
Keyboard entry was the biggest challenge as there were roughly 400+ candidates in Bravo company. I had 147 specific database entries for each individual, and created reports for the 31 required reports. I guess this project ran for over a month, but I was successful in debugging it and I could run a report and tell you have many left handed Army reservists there were in the company and what flights they were in. The sergeants in operations considered me their savior as they went form very overworked to pretty happy with their jobs in about a week, after I trained them on the database. These endeavors in computing were the germ of my fascination with computers. At every new assignment, I learned more and 2 assignments later, one of my additional duties that would follow me the rest of my army career was "Automation Officer".
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