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………………….Before I go on with my story….I want to introduce you to my three best friends that I made in the army……The insert picture with the two of us smoking on the stairs of the barracks is my BEST FRIEND Jim Nicoletti, and me….The three friends on the ‘monkey bars” are Joe Montalbano on the right, Jim at the top center and Bill O’Brien at the left……Making good friends is imperative to survive and keep your sanity! We were the best of friends and went everywhere together…….We were the only three that stayed together after basic training……….Back to my story…..My friends convinced me that I was in legitimate pain, and it wasn’t in my head, and that I had to go on sick call…..The building I had to report to was another single floor building that looked like a barrack, but was the Officers and Drill Sergeants office. There was a window, and a box in front of it that you had to stand on and report in. There was a sign that said “SICK CALL”, and I had to get on line. There were only two other guys on line with me. When they opened the window the first guy got up on the box, and said what was wrong with him. I was to frightened to listen to what they screamed at him. He left and it was my turn to get up on “the box”! My DS immediately saw me standing there and immediately started screaming at me…..”Dell’Olio you had better be dying to get on this sick call line!” I explained that my leg and hip was in terrible pain, and they gave me a slip of paper to go to the hospital and get an x-ray. After being given directions to the hospital I walked the few miles….very slowly……When I finally got there I was given more directions to the x-ray building. The x-ray was taken and I was told to report back to my barrack for the result. After that long walk to the hospital I was in pain again. A very nice nurse asked me how I got to the hospital, and did I have a ride. I told her I walked. She was shocked and repeated, “you walked all the way here?!! didn’t anyone tell you there was a bus that stopped right by your company that you could have taken?” I said no. So she told me where to go and pick up the bus back to my company. By now the pain had subsided, and again I started to wonder if I imagined it!?? When I got back to my company everyone was gone on the seven day excursion. I was told to wait in my barrack….It was empty….The beds were stripped, and the mattresses were rolled up. I never felt so alone…….Then I heard my name being called. I made my way down the stairs and was told I was put on laundry detail. There were three of us who had to go into each barrack and get the huge bags of laundry and put them in the jeep. We were driven to the laundry which was huge airplane hanger made in a huge laundry. We had to get the bags off of the jeep, have them signed in and wait for them to be done, which I figured would take all day! I lost tract of time. I could only guess an hour or two went by when a jeep came to the entrance and STARTED YELLING MY NAME…..I thought, crap what now! They told me to get into the jeep and I was being taken to the hospital with a FRACTURED HIP! How could this be….I wasn’t even in any pain anymore!!! When I got to the hospital I was assigned to a single floor wooden barrack type building with rows of beds on either side. Each barrack had patients with similar problems. Mine was the broken bone and fracture barrack. Almost everyone was on crutches if they were allowed. I remember it was Easter, and the nurses came around with tiny plastic baskets with chocolate candy in them. On the TV was “The Wizard of Oz”, and many guys were watching it. I got bored. I had seen it so many times! I decided to take a walk on my crutches…..I realized there were many barracks lined up all connected with a common hall way at the end of each one…..Each barrack specialized in a different problem……Not too far in front of me I saw another patient walking down the hall with his back to me. He was from another barrack. Two offices were walking toward us. They stopped him and reprimanded him for not saluting. I wasn’t expected to because I was on crutches, but he had his hands in his robe pockets. All of a sudden he pulled his hands out of his pockets, but instead of hands he had TWO STUMPS. He said to them “what do you want me to salute you with….THESE!”…..He lost his hands in Vietnam. The officers were very embarrassed and apologized, but the man said nothing and walked off. I realized this hospital was one of the main hospitals for returning solders from Vietnam……It is something that is as vivid in my mind as the moment it happened over fifty years ago!…..Eventually, I was returned back to my company on crutches for graduation [picture extreme left]. When I arrived the place was empty, and once again the mattresses were rolled up. I was to wait in the barrack…It was pouring rain and very bleak….Then a jeep came up to my barrack, and guys got out in full gear and rain ponchos. They  came barreling up to the second floor. There were some of my friends!, and looked at me in astonishment! “Where the hell have you been?!!” They said to me. All they knew was I went on sick call so many weeks ago and disappeared! They were never told what had happened to me, but the Drill Sergeants used  me to threaten the other solders saying if they went on sick call they would end up like me, and they would have to do basic training all over again which they said I had to do….That was a big lie. I told them everything that happened to me… going to the hospital for x-rays….the laundry detail, the fractured hip, and the solder with out hands. After I told them the story about the guy without hands I thought I really shouldn’t have told them that part, because some of them were going to Vietnam. My company had a mix of men….some were drafted into the Regular Army, some were drafted into the Army Reserve, and some, like me were in the National Guard. It was very sure the Regular Army guys and the Army Reserve guys would be sent overseas, and most to Vietnam,….On graduation day from Basic Training we all got out new assignments. Most went off to Advanced Infantry Training…the fast route to Vietnam. some went to Appropriations, and would probably be going to Vietnam too, but they wouldn’t be fighting, and a few others like me went to Secretarial School….Jim and Joe went on with me to Secretarial School. It was sheer luck that we were together…even though they were both in the National Guard….For me Graduation was a sad day. I had to say goodbye to close friends I had made….never to know what their fate would be. I was sure many would perish in the war….We gave each other tight hugs and wished each other good luck. To a special few I gave my home address hoping to hear from them…..but I never did…….Over the years I have often wondered what happen to these incredible men……………….To be continued