A reader asked about the phrase "cut a fat hog in the ass". It comes from parts of the country where hunting wild boars is common. After the beast is dispatched, there will be a lot of cutting, much of it involving the posterior.
l imagine that a great deal of effort would be spent carcassizing the hog, the ass of which would almost certainly be cut into several rump roasts. People from wild hog country, like Sgt Battle, can use the hog's ass as metaphor for
whatever difficult task they have deftly completed. Here, it's like saying "We
did good, we did REAL good.
It can't really be said that l actually drove the tank. I did sit in one of the two
driver positions and steered the tank for about two miles on a smooth, gently
curving dirt road. A crew of five or six soldiers is required to safely and completely move the tank down the road. At the end of my two-mile steering
job we came to the entrance of the Track Vehicle Training Area (TVTA), a
squarish piece of ground, two miles on a side comprised of a topography so
craggy and bomb-pocketed for most of it's area, that only track vehicles find
it passable.
For what turned out to be an hour and fifteen minutes (while l rode in the seat
in the top of the turret, the tank-commander's seat) certainly the best seat for
an observer. The crew put the tank thru all of the listed exercises built into the TVTA. Much of the time the ride was so wild and the speed so high (Time
elapsed is part of scoring) that, a few times l thought to jump off. Ha! (Just
the thing a tit-less WAC might do,or at least be expected to do. To be honest,
it was very exciting, but not really frightening. No matter how fast the curve is taken or how high the jump (off the compacted dirt ramps) or how deep the
constructed "bomb pockets" it was obvious at the start that the crew knew
exactly what it was doing and was not about to do it wrongly. lt was necessary to hang on tight but there was no chance of the crew allowing any
loss of control
Jamey returned to pick me up as Sgt Battle and the crew fielded the few questions l had. l thanked them all, personally, for such a great ride and said
l'd look forward to being invited back. Then, Jamey and l were off to Richmond
to pick up the movies for the coming week. l needed some paper and some other drafting supplies which we got at Jamey's favorite stationer. He also
took us to acouple of stores from which we needed nothing then, just so l could know where they were, should l need to fill in for him at some point.
Returning to the S3 office at Camp Hill, l found a short pile of work orders in
my in-box which l finished before retreat was sounded. (workday's end)
My time at Camp Hill was,far and away the best time l had in the Army. There
was enough work in the office that l knew l was making a contribution but not so much that l ever had to work late. l had enough free time that l was able to thoroughly explore it and the country surrounding it,thanks to the '54
Hudson. l was so comfortable there that l made only one trip home to Riverdale during the month of maneuvers.
That place in Riverdale, that my fellow tenants and l leased, was one of the nicest homes in which l lived. The home in which l presently abide, and have
for twenty years, is my all-time favorite. The place on 43rd street in
Riverdale is much grander and is probably worth much more, but it ain't in
California's tri-county wine country. And l don't like the idea of having my main home in a place that might suddenly be covered with deep snow, such
as it was , in Riverdale, many times during the winter of '58/'59 and probably
during every winter since then.
The one time that l went home while on maneuvers, l was only there for four
hours before returning to Camp Hill. l spent the whole weekend at home
after maneuvers, probably trying to soak up some of what l had missed, l guess. l absorbed some great vibes: (All of my room mates home) Great food
thanks to Herman Shultz. Even though it was my first and only Welcome Home
Party, it was great. Should have been in Guiness's.
When l got to my office at HQ Co. S3,at Fort Meade for the first time, ready to do great things. But, over the course of that first day l came to understand that my job, "Battalion Engineer" was a position with next to no workload whatever. the time was early July,'58, l'm seven months away from my
Estimated Termination of Service and l'm in a job without a present, let alone
a future. lt only has waiting. Within a few days, though, my new plan arose:
l had decided to become one of those people You've seen them; they wander
around the office having conversations with any that will listen, they'll spend
time making color doodles and other minor works of art, or bring a book on self improvement to work, refer to it and discuss it with others. Call in sick,
or with personal issues that require time off. These are traits l've always
thought objectionable and l thought that acting in such a way might motivate
Sgt. Vaughn to send me back to 6th Cav Personnel for a re-shuffle. Of course,
with so little real work to do, he might welcome my new persona and then,
where would l be?
That week, l came in late every day, ignored my in-box 'til late in the day,
did all the stuff mentioned above and at weeks end l'd become his bud! He
really liked me. He had somehow learned (probably from Jamey) to whom
l had mentioned that, as a kid , i'd been called "Lanny". So Sgt. Vaughn
started calling me "Lanny Me By". OK, back to the drawing board(as we
draftsmen often say). That weekend l built a 3'X4' frame, streched canvas
over it and began to paint my first oil painting. When l'm building something,
my thinker works real good, whether the thinking is related to the build or is
about something unrelated. Before my stretched canvas was ready to paint,
l had a new idea to shorten the time remaining until my discharge. Some weeks previously l had heard Roy and Ray talking about a government
program that allows soldiers an early discharge to accept seasonal work on
an emergency basis. First thing Monday l stopped by the Captain's office
and picked up two sets of forms for the Early-out Program.
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