I had a hard time learning to make my bed really tight for inspections. So I got it really tight and then slept under my bunk with my spare sheets and blanket, which worked well for two or three nights.

The night that my drill sergeant had watch, he came into our room at 0200 and saw that I was not in my bunk, he turned the overhead light on, and yelled “Where the hell is Private Washburn?” I rolled out from under the bed and said “Here, Drill Sergeant”.

He said “What the hell are you doing under your bed?” I was just about to answer, and he said “Get your A** into bed!” He watched me get into my bed, turned off the light and walked out.

One day, we got to play with Pugo sticks (picture a five foot long broom handle with a padding on both ends (kinda like a Q tip, but instead of just cotton tips, they were more like boxing gloves).

We all stood in a circle and the rules were to try to knock your opponent out of the circle. Winner stays for the next round. Loser steps out. My first match went okay and I won. My second match, I was paired with one of my roommates (who was at least 4 inches taller than me and outweighed me by 40-50 pounds).

He took one end of his stick and slowly jabbed it toward my face. I reached up to block the slow end, and he swung the other end, and nailed me in the head. The good news was that I didn't leave the circle. The bad news was that he almost knocked me out.

Obstacle course day. I was having great difficulty getting across the monkey bars because all the bars spun. The drill sergeant said “just get across any way you can.”

I grabbed the bars pulled myself up and ran across the top, jumped down and ran. The drill sergeant yelled at me to get back and do it again, but he couldn't recognize me anyway, so I just kept running to the next obstacle.

Our platoon had a motto I still remember 30 years later:

We are the bulldogs, brave and strong! We bark at the moon all night long! We're a lean mean fighting machine, with one fist of Iron, the other of Steel. If the left one don't get you, the right one will! Make it hurt Drill Sergeant, Make it hurt! (clap clap) Make it hurt Drill Sergeant, Make it hurt! (clap clap). The bulldogs are runnin' the show! Say Hoo-ah!

Bob Washburn