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The GI Camp Town

Nuclear Biological Chemical Warfare

At one camp I sat with Specialist Jim Ahnefeld, and a Private named Skaarup on a curb outside their office on post. They say they're not working their MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) and that they basically do nothing all day. GIs of E-4's and be low are dissatisfied, this place is a joke," Ahnefeld says, and ridicules the idea that the army wants a smarter recruit today, "We run around mopping floors, cleaning things; they want a smarter army so we can really think about that floor."

After high school Ahnefeld spent 3 years as a civilian where he said he worked 15 to 20 dead end jobs; supermarkets, warehouses, Sears, construction, driving a school bus, a tow truck. He thinks the government has too much control and that the military tries to brainwash people about humanitarian missions when it's really about oil and economics. He also feels he's been treated unfairly by the army and complains "I'm an American, I don't have to take being treated like a dog."

Skaarup, who is white, recently got into a fight with a black GI and admits in front of his black superiors that he used the "N word" but he didn't mean it, just the heat of the moment. As a result Skaarup had to go to drug and alcohol counseling where he said all they do is ask you how much you drink. He said he lied. He said that he came in the army for his people not the Korean people, complains that because of regulations he can't hit Koreans in a fight, he can't defend himself, that we shouldn't be over here and refers to South Korea as the property of the United States.

On another post in the city of Taegu, I met members of the RATT (Radio, Telephone and Teletype) Platoon, a group of mostly white enlisted soldiers who work an MOS which they've imbued with a certain pride. Before the military they worked as managers at Burger King, at McDonalds, as roofers and laugh about being stoned when they took the ASVAB (the military entrance exam). When they get out they want to be police officers and have vague plans about college.

Their barracks are similar to the college dorm with the small brown refrigerator, stereo system and Beavis and Butt Head posters. They go on beer runs and swap Ann Rice books. After work the boys pile in to a room to play dominoes with their women who work as 71 Limas (secretaries). At night they go to the club on post, slam into each other during hard-core songs, get drunk and scream out with very thinly veiled racist exuberance when the USO comedian mentions OJ or rap or anything connected to blackness.

They're against welfare, okay with gays in the military, talk about "fag bars" being off limits and the whole hall full of dykes that used to be in the barracks and constantly direct funny little Mexican jokes to the one Mexican soldier in their unit.

In addition to Eatman there is Specialist Bill Smith,* 23 years old with four years in the Army, and Specialist Kenyett Johnson who is 24 years old, has five years in the Army and a wife in the states. Johnson and Smith both repair communication security equipment.

I ask who joins the army today. "People with nothing better to do," Eatman says. Smith, an intelligent, funny kid who occasionally feels obligated to pretend he is or was a criminal, says that after he graduated from high school he sat around and did nothing, briefly working as a cashier at Target. He says he didn't really attend high school, joined the Army to "stay out of jail, stay out of trouble."

One day he just got in his car and drove to the recruiting station. "They were throwing stuff at me so fast, I didn't really know what was going on. I was just like - - Yeah, okay, yeah that sounds good. Oh, man, that's real good - - not knowing. I was young , y'know, I didn't know what was going on."

"They've got some nuts in here that like it. I don't feel the pride, the joy," Smith says. "Instead I feel stupid out there doing their - I ain't gonna lie to you, I used to feel, back in AIT [army training school], I was always Oh, yeah, gotta' do all that, be up there, locked and cocked, BOW! And now, man I'm like-" Smith trails off.

"The army traps you in a certain way too, "Eatman says, "because you get in the Army and you can get all the credit in the world, and by the time it's time to get out you can't, you gotta' have a job to pay off all these bills. You get started partying all the time, you don't go to school. I'm going to school right now, I'm not even using my GI Bill or College Fund and they're giving me tuition assistance. There's a lot you can take advantage of, but you have to ask, you have to know, you have to look into it yourself, because they're not going to tell you."

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