02/18/2021
****Long Post Warning***
I left for Basic Training 33 years ago today. This is the story.
On 18 February 1988, I left home heading to Ft. Benning, GA to begin Basic Training as a United States Army soldier.
In the pre dawn morning, the tears flowed freely as I said goodbye to my mother, brother and sister and got into the car with my recruiter for transport to the M.E.P.S (Military Entrance Processing Station) in New Haven, CT.
In those first moments, I was filled with dread as a million “what if’s” flashed through my mind.
What if I get killed?
What if they send me halfway across the world? (They did 😆)
What if I never see home again?
I seriously began to doubt that I was making a good decision. I wanted to tell her to turn around and take me home.
My recruiter seemed to be reading my mind and she began to assure me that I would be okay. I still had my doubts, but I welcomed the conversation.
As we pulled up to a traffic light at the edge of Yale’s campus, I felt a strong urge to bolt from the car and run the 4 blocks or so back to the house.
We were essentially halfway there, and I felt like that intersection was the point of no return.
Suddenly, I wanted to be there right away. I talked her into running the red light and low and behold a Yale cop just happened to be coming down the side street and pulled us over.
Believe it or not, that is what sealed the deal for me to go. I didn’t want her to get the ticket for nothing.
I walked into the MEPS alone but unafraid. One of the reasons that I selected 18 February to depart was because a friend that I played little league baseball with was leaving on that day for Ft. Benning as well.
Since we were teammates playing for Rite-Way Cleaners at 8 years old, we might as well be teammates in the Army at 18 right?
Wrong!
Of all the people scheduled to enlist in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines that day, I was the only one who showed up. They drove me to JFK in a 15 passenger van all by myself. (Side note: my friend joined later and thrived as a member of the famous 82nd Airborne Division)
At this point, I am introduced to something called “hurry up and wait”. The Army dropped me off around 11am for a flight that was leaving at 5pm. I have nothing but time on my hands at this point so I people watch for a couple of hours.
Eventually, I made my way to the departure gate and I sat down a couple of seats away from an older white gentleman sitting by himself.
He looks strangely familiar to me and I keep staring at him periodically trying to figure it out.
Soon enough, a gate attendant announces a flight to Tampa and he is the ONLY person to get on it.
A Marine recruit comes over to me and he says, “I saw you staring at him, why didn’t you get his autograph?”
The man that I was sitting next to was George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees and he was heading down to Florida for Spring Training.
My first official day in the Army held a little more drama. There was a malfunction on the plane, so we had to get off and scramble to another airline to catch the flight to Atlanta.
By the time I got to Georgia it was after 10pm and all of the busses to the base had stopped running. Fortunately for me, the Army planned for this possibility. Inside of my packet was a special military 800 # to call and get a room for the night.
It had been a very long day and I was tired as f**k. However, I simply could not rest because I was stressed about what kind of reaction was awaiting me for showing up late.
18 February 1988 ran the emotional spectrum for me. Let me break down the sequence.
Sadness about leaving home and my family
Nervous about the unknown
Guilt over the traffic ticket
Fear of the commitment I was making
Abandoned after being dropped off alone
Bored waiting the entire day at the airport
Stressed out because I was late
I have never told anyone this part before, but I am going to share it with everyone now.
In the morning, I barely had the courage to continue the journey. It was actually harder for me to leave that hotel room than my mother’s house.
I stared at the phone for an eternity and debated calling an adult cousin that lived in Atlanta to come scoop me.
As the hour came for me to depart the hotel, my heart thumped in my chest so hard that I could hear the blood in my ears. My mind was racing a 100 miles a minute and every fiber in my body was screaming for me to flee!
But I didn’t. I put one unsteady foot in front of the other and walked into an uncertain future.
To this day, it remains the wisest and most reckless decision that I have ever made.
Mo Dub.
Out.
