Penny and Sarah made a delightful dinner for the family and us soldiers in mid-
afternoon so we could get back to Ayer in the early evening. Sgt. Manning was in the dayroom when we arrived, having taken over for the guy that filled in for me Friday and Saturday, but failed to show on Sunday. The Sgt. had received the results of the first round of testing;Jerry and l would be going to Monterey whileCarl would be going to NSA for more testing and probable assignment there. Jerry and l would have one more test to help determine which language would best fit our individual aptitudes.
At the second language test we were invited to chose three languages from the list of available languages and put a "1" before our first choice, a "2" before our second and a "3" before our last. Our choices, we were told, may or may not
influence our assignment. My choices were 1 German 2 Russian 3 Korean. The
assignment is,of course for only one language and my assignment was Russian;
more precisely Russian Six. Most courses at Al's come in two sizes;six months and twelve months, except Chinese, which is available in twelve and eighteen
month courses. Those scoring highest in testing are assigned to the longer
courses. Not being offered my first-choice language and being assigned to a
six month course to boot indicates that,even though l passed the tests, l did
not pass by much. My friend Jerry wound up assigned to a Russian 12 course.
Within a few days of receiving our assignments, a plane-load of us was flown
to Monterey and began classes the following Monday. Each day consisted of six
one-hour classes with a two-hour lunch between the third and fourth classes.
There were just six students to a class and six instructors; one for each hour of
class. Most of them had fled Russia around the time that it became the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (they had been part of the monarchy that existed before the revolution) One of the teachers in the Korean department had been
a jet fighter pilot in North Korea before accepting Uncle Sam's offer of $100,000 to any pilot who would surrender himself and his Mig-15 fighter to U.S. forces
during the Korean War. It was said that most, if not all of the teachers at Al's,
were paid that much and more per year. In 1950's dollars!
That first day (June 4, 1956) we (the whole class of six) took our bag-lunches
to what was called Shady Grotto, where the Army had provided picnic tables
and a water fountain under the trees for days when eating outside was best.
We had barely begun lunch, when a new Hudson sedan carrying two beautiful
young ladies stopped near our table. The ladies dismounted, walked to our table
and introduced themselves (Rita and Sandy).They asked directions to a barrack
that was located just a few hundred feet up the road. Directions were given to the barrack, quickly followed by an invitation to have lunch with us. They accepted and while one of the guys went to the mess hall for a couple more bag
lunches, l made sure we had all the relevant data for Rita and Sandy. While l might have thought there would be some resistance to giving me their phone
numbers, there wasn't. ln fact, before we parted that Monday, Sandy and l agreed we'd talk on the phone before Friday. l couldn't help but notice, when the ladies left us, they left the post without stopping at the barrack for which
they had asked directions.
l was puzzled most of the week about our encounter with Rita and Sandy. First,
if they had some reason to visit the barrack, why did they not? lf the barrack had nothing to do with their visit to the post, why were they here? They left
at about one p.m. Maybe one of them had an early afternoon appoint-
ment and had spent so much time with us that she had to skip whoever was
waiting in S-12. One of the things learned about Al's while in testing at Ft. Devens was about it's relationship with the people of Monterey. People of
Monterey (especially the merchants) love Al's students:For some reason, some
merchants, back near the time of the school's origin, got to know some of the students,liked them and thought they would be good credit risks. From what
l've heard, the results have been stupendous;some merchants report NO
delinquent accounts associated with Al's. Some report "one or two but with an
explanation." l go into this now because while merchants and other townspeople
see Al's students in a positive light as customers that can be trusted to pay their bills, there are local folks who see Al's students as easy-going, self-confident
marks lulled by the local gladhands to believe everyone is on their side. And,
while almost everyone IS;others are looking to ruin your day. So, for most of the week, l tried to come up with a scenario that might fit the circumstances
of the 4th of June.
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