Walking the Blocks

Image by Collin Key via Flickr

The first six weeks of OTS was pretty stressful. Almost anything you did was punishable by being awarded "gigs". You could have 10 gigs per week during the first half of the school and more than that were paid for by marching 25 minutes each on Saturday morning. Keep in mind this was San Antonio in July and August and by the time the punishment started it was already over 100 degrees. (Remember the Purple/Red/Yellow Flag deal? It was always yellow when punishment started!) You not only got hot, but you ruined a uniform and the shine on your boots. Added to that, the Flight Training Officers usually appeared on the drill pad and handed out MORE gigs. The first time that I "walked" I was awarded a gig for needing a haircut by Lt. Algrin (keep this Dodo in mind, there's more of him coming.) That same morning I met the "Silver Fox."

The Silver Fox was a Captain from 1st Squadron (members of which were called "Medina Marines" - we in the 2nd Squadron were known as "Grapes" - obviously to be stomped upon. ) Anyway this Captain was so bad that he would drive down the street in his MG Roadster with the top down and look for infractions. He gigged my room mates and I for being naked in our rooms with the blinds open. According to him he saw us from the street. He gigged me constantly for "needs a shave" even when I was bloody from the razor. I actually hated the man. One thing about him, he always led the run and always finished first. I ran into him after I made Captain. He was still a Captain and I told him what I thought of him. He smiled and said, "You were lucky! I'm pinning on Major's leaves next week!"

Well, anyway "walking the blocks" had nothing to do with any of this. It had to do with where lower classmen (called "chicken scratch") were allowed to walk in the hall. The hall was 8 tile squares wide and we had to walk on the rightmost tile anytime we were in the hall - thus walking the blocks.