Fort Hood.

I arrived in the Fort Hood area in a small commuter type plane.  Where we landed only had a small operations type building on it. Nothing else, Just a runway and a little building.  Nice Very nice, Only 3 and 1/2 more years to go.  Even though it was a hot, sunny day, the future really looked dark.  I spent the next couple of hours trying to find the 303rd ASA.  Fort Hood is a Big damn place.  Carrying your duffel bag wearing your class "A"s did not help to make a very enjoyable experience.   At last I found where I was going.  The 303rd  ASA shared a building with a transportation  headquarters unit.  There were only about 60 of us assigned there.   I checked in and met the First shirt and the C.O   The COs name was Bratton, Balls Bratton was his nick name.  I think it was the lack of, that got him the nick name but he was a OK guy.  We also shared the mess hall with other company,  We had to supply a couple of KPs every day to do our part.  The problem was that was not many of us under E5 so the damn KP came around ever 6 or 7 days.  Damn.  Living quarters were the big room with all double bunks style.  Another Damn, this is getting worse day by day.  We spent most of the days in the motor pool.  Most of the time we were  just washing trucks and such and hiding from the lifers.  There were some North Carolina  Draftees there also, and  they kept things pretty jacked up.  They did not want to be in the  Army  and there was not much the Army could do about it.   They just did not give a damn and everyone knew it.  They worked  and were smart enough not to go the stockade but they sure knew how to push the limits.  It was great fun to watch them in action..  One time a Sargent Major form the "Real" army came down to visit the next door transportation guys.  So as he is walking by Horrel an draftee, Yelled,  Damn Look at that guy, That son of Bitch has got some stripes !!!  The whole place just froze.  This was a real bad ass he had just yelled at.  The Sargent Major stopped and looked Horrel dead in the eyes "What did you say?" he screamed.  Horrel  Snapped to attention and said " I said you have got some stripes"  I thought the Sarge was going to hit him but he did not.  He just got red in face and spun around and walked off.  ...After a couple of weeks I was made the training clerk.  Not a bad job.  Made the training schedules, and best of all went to the film library and checked out training films for our classes.  They would let you review them so I watched a lot of WW2 combat films.  I used the job to get a bus drivers license.  I could sign off on most endorsements and training so in short order I was qualified to do most anything.   We used to go the field a lot.  I liked that  because I was the training clerk I had a lot of time to look at maps and see where every thing was..  Sometimes I would bring things to guys out in the field but most of the time I was there with them.  Fort Hood  Is a big big place.  160,00 acres or close to it.  I know its 25 to 30 miles to Jack Mountain where we used to go when we went to the field.  Most of the time there were just 5 or 6 of us maybe a few more sometimes.  Our Mission was to monitor communications and sometime cause them problems.  We were allowed to add noise and such to interfere with communications.  That was the fun part.  We had a radio that transmit all kinds of junk ,noise, Morse code, different  tones and voice.  We tried to catch them not authenticating call signs and other infractions.  Some ops were very very good and would know what was happening very quickly.  I always left the good ops alone.  But some would get mad and go to pieces.  I am not going to tell much more because someone might read this and come kick my ass.  But then maybe not, he would most likely have to use a cane to get here.   Anyways  One day we were  copying some voice and we pick up Wicket Basket 1 .  A quick check shows that call sign is assigned to a field grade officer.  His driver and Jeeps call sign  was Wicker Basket 6.   WB1 Calls his control  and tells them he will be in a meeting out in the field for couple of hours and his driver will wait on him. Ooops he did not authenticate headquarters  call sign.  So we lock in his freq on another radio.  About 2 hours later, BINGO, his driver is trying to get in touch with him.  "Wicker Basket 1 This is wicker Basket 6"  #6 repeats this a couple of times.  I can not resist.  I dial up a little off freq so maybe he will not notice I am not control.  " Wicket Basket 1 this headquarters what can I do for you?'  Note I did not give a call sign nor did he ask me for call sign authentication  code.   I had him now .  WB6 says" Well I am hungry and I dont have any water and #1 is still in the meeting.  What should I do?"  The perfect storm, a text book case.  I tell him "  #1 said that you could go back to post and get something to eat at the PX.  and to bring him a few soft drinks. And Please move your "push"( Operating frequency)  to  123.56    WB6" Wow thanks that is great"  Remember it is 30 miles back to the PX and I have him off frequency so he can not hear them and he can not transmit on the right freq to contact control  .   Now we wait.  In about 30mins   #1 Calls for his driver.  Wicket Basket 6 this is Wicker basket 1.  Where are you.  he repeats a few times and is getting pretty mad.    No one answers him  of course because #6 is headed back into town.  So I have to help him out.  #1 This is control what is your problem.? "Where is my damn driver have you heard from him?  Ooops no call sign check, no nothing, too bad, just doing my job.  "Sir I heard your driver is going back to town to get something to eat"   He went nuts.  I be God da.m I did not tell that SOB to do that.  This is Colonel Jackson and I want my Jeep right damn now!!!!!  BIG ooops  Never ever Expose your real name and rank over the radio.  As soon as he said he name he figured it out.  One more Big DAMN IT and he was gone.    All on tape also.  It was game over.  About a hour later our officer came up and said to shut it down,   That is happened most of the time.  We worked for a couple of hours till some big guy got pissed then told us to quit.  I will have to admit, it was fun as hell, messing with everyone.  Sprinkling Static was also fun.   One reason it worked that the real control may have been on the edge of not being able to hear them.  They should have called my bluff when I first made contact with the driver.  If any of them would have asked me to authenticate, it would have been game over and they would have received a nice report on their net security.    Yes Sir  Making the Big time Secret agent man.  Only 3 years and 3 months to go. Damn it.  The best move I ever saw in the field was when we had a mock war.   Some units were bad guys and others were the good guys  I think the bad guys the  Aggressors) had green triangles on their equipment.  They had a massive meeting for all units.  We were set up so we could listen.. From what I understood  This was going to be just like the real thing.  No holds barred.  It was really neat to watch the tanks fight at night.. They had big xenon lights mounted on the tubes(barrels) of their tracks.  They would sneak around in the dark and ambush each other.    Every thing would be pitch black then  BOOM  they would turn on the lights and the victims should be caught in the beams .  So everyone was ready for the big fight. We were neutral so we went ahead and got set up on top of Jack Mountain.  Here is were the trouble started.  Any type of large field maneuvers required road guards and such to direct the flow of traffic to the proper staging area.    Remember we are talking about a couple of hundred, maybe much more, of  tanks, APCs, and other big time stuff.  We could tell something was up because units were in the wrong place, and some were running low on fuel.  Things were getting worse and it was getting late.  The "Bad" guys, the aggressors, and  had captured the road guards and had scattered the  good guys units all over place.  What a mess.  They called it off about 4:00pm but it was a very long time getting everyone back together.