The Story of Class 39-53

Charley Battery

On the night of February 16, 1953, a passing duty officer was heard to remark, " Good Lord". Battery C, OCC 39 had been introduced to Officer Candidate School. The next morning 72 soldiers fell in to begin the long march which was to find half of us remaining to step forward to receive our coveted gold bars. What constituted the obstacles we worked so hard to conquer? Let's go back 22 weeks and look again at C Battery as it begins its first week of standing tall and dressing right.

After the seven days of concentrated spit shining, patch sewing and general "GI"ing, Class 39 received its first boon in the form of Materiel, our first chance to make up for the sleep lost during zero week. Each morning, (after a short two mile run during which a TAC officer was heard to gently remark, "Candidate, close those big, fat lips over those ugly teeth!") we arrived fresh and alert to begin our day's study of the mysteries surrounding Materiel. Here we met our first great test of reasoning of leadership ability; "To carry or not to carry" --- Field Jackets. Then at noon, after another refreshing two mile run we were permitted to enter into the pageantry of the formal entry into the mess hall. Some of us developed the calibrated eyeball which was to allow us to pin point gunnery targets within two grid-squares while others of us were solemnly warned of the tale of the "Flying Candidate" who was doomed to forever make short pivots off a hungry-eyed platoon leader.

Next we entered "ABSOP," where we received the mistaken impression that OCS was composed of 90% training films. Here we first encountered the problem of keeping our neighboring candidate awake so he could arouse us when time for the break came around.

The fourth week we embarked upon our most important subcourse; Motors. Here we learned that TAC officers were not the only example of a prime mover. It was during this period that C Battery's greatest fiasco occurred--the confused moving mass of men and machines known as the tactical motor march. The march was further complicated by Candidate Rogers' reluctance to move out which resulted in the candidate Executive Officer losing two-four trucks.

With Gunnery came our introduction to the meat of the Artillery. Armed with GFT's, slide rules, map pins and the miscellaneous paraphernalia peculiar to our trade to do battle with the most formidable obstacle to graduation. Our fight was successful even though we suffered a few casualties. At this point in our history, Charley Battery had been whittled down to half the number we possessed in Zero Week. More of us escaped the board by a determined jerk on our bootstraps during the last week. With time, memories of the classroom will disappear but no one will ever forget the sound of "Candidate Panic, your mission." It seemed that when we saw our data blown away in the distance by the Oklahoma wind and hadn't the faintest idea of what or where the target was, it would be a sure sign of being invited to the "hot seat." In such cases the Charley Battery candidate, always cool and collected, was able to construct an ideal solution after a 10-second surveillance of the situation, though it sometimes placed him in the next county. Some O/C, in a slack period during a gunnery shoot, formulated the fire command of all O/C's dream, "Az 7325, From Base Point, right 1800, Add 1500, TAC Officers in the attack, Fuse Victor Tare, Fire for Effect." Our FDC experience proved invaluable and in spite of a tendency to plot the coordinates of the orderly room on our charts, we usually managed to put the rounds in the proper grid-square. It was in Gunnery, however, that we realized the great amount of technical knowledge necessary to put a round on the target and how much we had to learn.

It was at the completion of gunnery that we finally realized the importance of the mountains of snowy-white sheets we came to know as DAF's to a battery officer. Here we learned that the mass of forms we had regarded as so much red tape during our General Subjects course were very necessary aids to controlling and correlating the mountains of supplies, which ranged from corn flakes to VT fuses. We still maintained, however, that a pair of red-tape scissors were a very valuable asset to the young officer.

Then came, as the combined arms department would refer to it, our intermediate objective - "REDBIRD." Behind us now, were the crossed wires and blown fuses which resulted from our attack on the Communications Department. Gone were the days of struggling with an SSI-SOI, trying to determine who in the name of Heaven was Blue Dog 26-1.

Our last and final course, Combined Arms. Here, the brilliant tactical minds of C Battery exercised themselves to the ultimate. Our SOP's for RSOP's frequently amazed the combined arms instructors. But, as time must pass, RSOP's and motor marches flew by. And then the great day was here - July 28, 1953.

OCS for Class 39 is finished and our mission as candidates completed, but we hear a new call to duty, "YOUR MISSION, LIEUTENANT."