It was September of 1953, and I was in my second week of basic training at Fort Dix, N.J. It was unusually warm for that time of the year, so we sweated in the hot, humid air. Carrying weapons and full backpacks while walking up and down long, dusty roads didn't help. Making matters worse was the fact that every place we headed for was as far away as possible.

During various exercises, we learned how to take apart and put together many different weapons. We were also taught how to use them effectively.

In late November, we were in the woods sleeping in pup tents in cold, snowy weather. We practiced digging foxholes in the hard ground and then filling them back up. We learned how to crawl on the damp, muddy ground while machine guns sprayed bullets a foot over our heads. Most of the exercises were hard, and some were downright dangerous. We knew instinctively we had to pay close attention to what we were being taught.

However, there were a few times when an exercise somehow turned out to be more comical than it was meant to be. One of those times I recall was an exercise where the object was to teach us how to fight in house-to-house combat. Working in teams of two, we were to approach a house with caution, figuring there could be the enemy waiting there. Upon reaching the door, the soldier on the right side was to bang the door open with the butt of his rifle while the soldier on the left tossed in a dummy grenade, thereby dispatching whatever enemies might be in the house. As luck would have it, the last two soldiers to perform the exercise happened to be the most challenged in our platoon.

We watched as the two approached the house. Once there, the bigger of the two slammed his rifle butt against the door. The door flew back and banged against the wall, causing it to spring back quickly. At that moment, the other soldier lobbed the grenade in. The door and the grenade clashed, batting the grenade back to fall at the feet of the two soldiers. Everyone laughed—except the sergeant, who just shook his head in disbelief.

Being away from home and training for the possibility of going to war was quite an experience, but it is one that I won't ever forget.