Starched

I think the reason that I, and I’m sure many more candidates, got through the academic portion of OCS was that we accepted the instructors’ word and simply learned our lessons by rote.

Two types of students in our classes had difficulty with this concept. One was the candidate with high intelligence and perhaps a background in math. He would try to derive all the formulas we used to determine targets, required elevation of the guns, and other technical data. He might spend time on theory and neglect the memorization. The rest of us just accepted the formulas and concentrated on remembering what we were told to do in certain situations.

The other group that had trouble were regular Army types who decided to get their commissions. Corporals and sergeants in the program had difficulty taking orders without question. They had spent their recent careers giving orders, not taking them. On the other hand, the rest of us had just come out of basic training and were accustomed to accepting authority. Again, many of our category of candidates were recent college graduates and used to school work.

With reference to those non-coms in our outfit, they were being paid at the rate of pay they came in with. We were told, in our information sessions to determine if we wanted to apply for OCS, that while we would not wear the stripes, we would be given sergeant’s pay. The reason for this, we were told, was because our personal expenses would be more as candidates than the normal soldier would have.

For example, we had to wear a freshly starched pair of fatigues each day. Aside from doing it yourself in the latrine every day, the alternative was to take them to the post laundry. Very few of us had the knack or the time to starch laundry. The cost for the professionals to do the job was 75 cents per pair and one had to buy extras to always have some available. The cost of starching amounted to about 25 per cent of a private’s base pay.

The logic of the extra money for us was reasonable and we looked forward to the raise. It didn’t happen. Starting with our unit, Class 28, the policy was changed and we retained our lowly pay status until we received our gold bars.

The pay situation illustrates a common Army axiom: Do not rely on any previously set policy to determine your future actions. A corollary: Don’t ever try to out-guess what the Army will do.