About this time—and I can’t remember the reason—a prissy master sergeant in battalion headquarters

became upset with me. He had the power though and I was selected to originate and run a live ammunition

exercise for a 10-man squad.

            Although I was angry at first, I suddenly recognized that I was in my element. No rules—just come

up with something new. I came up with an exercise with two parts. I also decided to use loaded rifles

instead of saying, “You’re now under fire.”

            The first part concerned a hinged dummy in a tree. A rifle, pointed down range, was tied to the base

of the tree. I would tell the lead scout privately to drop when the gun went off. We would then check the

reaction of the second scout. The hinged dummy would drop and it was up to the second scout to shoot the

dummy. We never had a problem in running 40 squads through the first part.

            The second part was a little more complicated. A pillbox was built in a hole in the ground surrounded

by rocks. There was a 12-inch square window in the rock wall. A loaded rifle was tied inside the pillbox

with a long string on the trigger. Fortunately, I had two helpers to keep me out of trouble.

            The “school” solution was when the squad would hear the gunfire, they would start firing at the pillbox.

The squad leader would send two men with hand grenades around the flank. When they were in position, the

firing would stop and the flankers would stick the grenades in the window and release the lever. The grenades

would go off and the squad would rush the pillbox. I would jump in the pillbox and put the safety back on the rifle.

            I decided, for safety reasons, I would accompany the flankers. Each time I would caution them,

“Don’t throw the grenades, you can’t hit that little hole.” We had run 20 squads through the exercise without

incident. Unfortunately, I may have become complacent. On our twenty-first run, both flankers threw the grenades. Both grenades hit trees and bounced back. Somehow, nobody was hurt, but I tightened up my lectures.

            On the thirtieth run, things were going smoothly. The grenades went off successfully. I jumped in the

pillbox, put the safety on the rifle and stood up just in time to hear the squad leader yell,

“Assault fire on the pillbox.” Fortunately, my man down below jumped in front of the men and stopped

the threat of violence. I have never felt so naked.

            From here on, things moved fast. A “highly secret” move by train to Brooklyn and a cruise on a former

Italian luxury liner to Marseilles. This highly secret move by train became a farce when Jim McCormick

stepped off the train at Lima, Ohio and was greeted by his entire family. Call it American ingenuity.