My Army Physical
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Fifty some years ago I was called to participate in an army physical. I was going to school (college) that summer and had to travel down to my home town. The morning of the test I went to the county seat of the county in which I lived. There were several of my fellow graduates from high school. There were several young men from the years below me in high school. The bus filled. Most I did not know. But being fifty years ago in Texas the bus was filled white boys and brown boys.
We traveled to the big city of San Antonio and there we were introduced to the way the Army did things. Several things stand out in my mind when I try to remember that day. One event had hundreds of young men sitting in a big room. Papers were handed out and a sergeant from the movies stepped up and started shouting. He could have been in the comics. We were told to read the papers and then sign them. I started reading. It was a list of all the “subversive” organizations in the good ole usofa. The list covered several sheets and was in the smallest print I had seen up to that date. In those days we were not governed so much by the fine print at the bottom of the page. I was reading and I heard some of my friends whispering my name. They were telling me to just sign the paper and pass it forward. My response was that I had not read the list to see if I had participated in any of those groups in any form or fashion. I looked up and that sergeant was looking directly at me. I was holding up his performance.
I had been told to never sign anything without reading it. The phrase “You could sign your life away” came to mind, but here was this huge sergeant wanting his paper passed regardless if I had read it or not. So I signed and to this day I wonder about the groups who had the honor of being listed on those sheets of paper. I had not managed to even get into the “c’s” when I had to pass that paper up the row. I often wonder if the Methodist Church was listed for in those days it stood for the poor and working class members of society. Today I know it would not be listed.
The physical came to an end and of those who I knew on that bus none of us passed. One had a heart rate that would not go down. One had a kidney ailment which was not going away. One was the sole surviving son of a veteran. One was too fat. He was told to go home and lose weight so that the Army could send him to Viet Nam. One was too thin. And yes, he was told to go home and gain some weight so that he could go and die for his country. And me - I had the privileged of returning for two more days. My blood pressure was through the roof. I had to return the next day and sit and sit and sit. Several times the good doctors would take my blood pressure and stare at me. The same happened the next day. At the end of that day they said I had some kind of heart thingy and signed off so that I did not have to return the next day.
In my seventh year I started medicine for high blood pressure. I often wonder if I would have seen my twenty-seventh birthday if I had not had high blood pressure. One important lesson I learned was to always carry a book to read. It helps to pass the time when waiting for the government to do its thing.