Dwight Davis   Class 37-69  NCOC

For NCOC I returned to Ft. Benning which is the home of the U.S. Army Infantry School.  This was approximately the last week of March, 1969.  This turned out to be a very valuable experience because we received excellent training.  The NCOC was essentially equivalent to the first half of Officer Candidate School (OCS) with the same instructors and the instructors were outstanding. 

            The Army began the NCOC program in 1967 to compensate for the lack of junior NCOs, especially Sergeant E-5s, who are the squad leaders.  Since you were not in the war for the “duration” like soldiers in W.W.II, but rather served one year tours, in time the Army ran out of junior NCOs.  The Lifers had been promoted to ranks too high to serve as squad leaders and everyone else got out of the Army as soon as possible.  The NCOC program was the brainchild of a famous soldier, David Hackworth, who was a colonel at the time.  He went on to write his memoirs about his experiences in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and then to write books critical of the military establishment.  His criticism of the military establishment after his third or fourth tour in Vietnam got him forced into retirement as an embarrassment to the Army.  Hackworth was the one of the most decorated soldiers in modern times; including five purple hearts, which he said, were the most important awards because you could not fake them.   I believe his observations about the corporate nature of top military leadership, especially in peacetime, is right on target. 

NCOC was very similar to OCS with lots of harassment.  Interestingly, most of the sergeants in charge of us were graduates of the NCOC just like those in A.I.T.; however, the men who served as “TAC NCOs” in the NCOC were generally the top graduates of their NCOC classes earning the rank of Staff Sergeant E-6.  Again, most of these guys were draftees.   They were; however, very sharp.  There were an amazing number of college graduates and guys who had attended college but not graduated in the NCOC.  One guy in our company, Tom Ridge, had actually completed a year of law school before he got drafted.  He would go on to be the top graduate of our company.  This is the same Tom Ridge who would become a congressman from Pennsylvania, governor of Pennsylvania, and the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.  He was an amazingly sharp guy with very good leadership instincts and a great voice he used to call cadence when we marched from place to place.  

 

 The culture of the NCOC was different than that for Basic Training and A.I.T.  In Basic and A.I.T. you felt like you were an individual trying to survive.  In NCOC we were a team.  Our motto was “cooperate and graduate.”  We were very supportive of each other and guys coached other guys to pass the various courses.  There was a fair amount of pressure. The courses were rigorous and, in addition to being trained, everyone had to serve in the various leadership roles including squad leader, platoon sergeant, and field first sergeant.  We were graded on our leadership ability as well as our mastery of the technical content of the classes.  When we went into a classroom at the Infantry School, we had to yell a class cheer before we took our seats.  In general, we were enthusiastic about our program.  We also became good friends, much more so than in Basic and A.I.T.

 

In NCOC school we saw each other as individuals rather than just part of the great green machine.  We learned each others personal stories and aspirations and we supported each other.  About 33 years later, I became involved with an association of guys who had graduated from NCOC.  It was started by a guy who was in my platoon when I was a TAC NCO in the NCOC program, Budd Russell.  He went out of his way to locate as many NCOC graduates as possible which included more than 2,000 guys.  He developed an Internet website for NCOC graduates, which posted the names of everyone he became aware of and also posted the names of NCOC graduates who had been killed in Vietnam.  There were 26,078 graduates of the NCOC program and 1,118 of them were killed in Vietnam including four who earned the Medal of Honor.  I was very sobered when I read the names of guys who were in my class some of whom I knew very well.  This website is very neat because it applauds those guys who went on to lead men in combat even though they were still very young; generally not much older than the guys they led and certainly much less experienced that most non-commissioned officers (NCOs) whose positions they took.  We may have been “Shake and Bakes” but we generally did a good job under very difficult circumstances.

 

The instructors in the NCOC were outstanding.  To be selected as an instructor at the Infantry School one had to have done a good job in the infantry and be recommended as an instructor. They also got substantial training about how to teach.  Their jokes were written into their lesson plans.  I eventually became a university professor and I concluded that I never had a university professor in undergraduate or graduate school who was any better than the instructors I encountered in the NCOC.  We learned a lot about how to lead men in combat and make competent decisions as a combat leader.  This was a remarkably successful program since its graduates generally distinguished themselves in Vietnam.  Never-the-less, it was disbanded in 1972 as the Vietnam War came to a close for American forces.   The contemporary Army has; however, begun a series of specialized classes for sergeants in recognition that such training will pay dividends in the performance of these NCOs. 

 

Part of the NCOC curriculum was Ranger training provided by bona fide Army Rangers.  This included hand to hand combat and special tactics for small units such as squads and platoons.   It was a privilege to be taught by these guys because they were the Army’s best.  Towards the end of NCOC we had “Ranger Week” which consisted of patrolling and ambushes in the Georgia countryside.  We ate C-rations and operated very similar to the way platoons in Vietnam operated.  Of course, the insurgency force, which was composed of regular soldiers, generally killed us all in ambushes.  We got some very good lessons; however.  At the end of Ranger Week we went to the Ranger training area at Ft. Benning and got to drop from a thick wire suspended from very high posts into a lake after asking permission from the Rangers in charge.  It was a little scary; however, it was also fun. 

 

Just before Ranger Week we got a weekend pass and I hitchhiked to Tallahassee to see my girlfriend.  I was lucky and got a ride only slightly outside the post all the way to Tallahassee.  There were several GI’s going that way and they were happy to give me a ride.  I had a nice weekend with my girlfriend; however, the ride back was not pleasant.  I again had to hitchhike.  No one I caught a ride with was going all the way to Ft. Benning; however, so I had to catch several rides.  In between I walked.  At one point I walked from one Georgia town to the next town.  And one of my rides was unpleasant.  It was in a pickup with an old guy.  He asked me weather I had ever “gone” with a man before which made me very nervous.  As a consequence, I asked to be let off shortly after we got going and had to catch another ride.  I got back into my company area only about an hour before I had to get back.  The next day we went on a 25 mile forced march complete with backpacks.  I was already worn out from all the hiking I had done the day before trying to catch rides back to Ft. Benning.  I wound up getting blisters on my feet so it became very difficult to walk.  The TAC NCO’s were running up and down the formation urging us on and threatening us with terrible consequences if we fell out.  Fortunately, I made it.

 

NCOC training was physical.  We had to run everywhere we went and we generally ran about five miles every morning in our boots.  At the end of NCOC I was in the best shape of my life.  As in Basic Training we had to do pull–ups before we were allowed into the mess hall. 

 

About half way through NCOC I got a visit from my best friend from college, Pat Curry.  Pat had recently graduated from Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) and was becoming a naval aviator.  I was in our barracks when I got word that I was supposed to report to company headquarters which I did immediately as fast as I could.  When I went into the orderly room, there was Pat in his Navy uniform.  Of course, I could not go anywhere so I had to talk to him there and just outside.  It was an awkward time for me.  Pat seemed so together and he was an officer and I was a lowly NCOC trainee.  Pat went on to spend 26 years in the Navy and retired as a Captain, the equivalent of a full colonel in the Army and Air Force. 

 

I graduated in the top two percent of my NCOC class which provided me the rank of Staff Sergeant E-6.  I was proud of myself.  My parents came to the graduation ceremony.  They were astounded at the old CCC-built barracks we lived in and it was very hot when they were there.  Of course there was no air conditioning in these barracks.   I graduated in June, 1969 and immediately began work as a TAC NCO for the next class of NCOC candidates in our battalion.  I tried to help them benefit from everything I had learned.