Graduation from Primary and transfer to Ft. Rucker.

By the time graduation came around, we were very pleased with what we had accomplished and what we were about to do at Ft. Rucker. We knew about the instrument course and the transition from piston powered helicopters to the turbine powered Huey and everybody was key to get on with the mission.

I was very lucky to have Diable as a tac officer and Chapman as an instructor pilot. Despite that, we really hadn't experienced much of anything in the killing and being killed department but one day, the old sgt. I had mentioned earlier, decided he would give us a taste of what it was like to be in combat. We had a moment of relaxation available as all of our flying was completed and the opportunity to catch up on some rest wasn't going to be missed by anybody. The entire Flight was in the barracks that afternoon and there wasn't a Candidate there that wasn't asleep on their bunks. That's when the proverbial shit hit the fan.

The old man walked in the barracks, found everyone asleep and started making noises like a machine gun and, as he passed each and every bunk, followed each shot with a very loud version of "You're Dead, You're Dead and You're Dead". As it turned out, he was in a unit that saw the first action from the Chinese when the came into the Korean War. It was a horrible story about the number of men he knew who were killed in their beds but he damn sure made his point. We never had another example of anything like that but I decided to ask Diable about it and heard stories of "Dinks in the Wire" that described what it was like to wake up to the sound of machine gun fire as his guards were shooting the VC that were sneaking into the camp at night. I only hoped that I wouldn't be stationed where ever he had been.

After that, it was time to plan our graduation party. We already had a number of students that were married and they were going to bring their wives to the club where the party was scheduled to be. Since I didn't live far from Ft. Wolters, Diable asked if I intended to get a date to fly over from Shreveport. I thought it was a great idea and agreed to do exactly that. He invited me to spend the night at his house and actually let me borrow his car to drive to Love Field and pick her up.

That was unheard of but Bernie Diable was a different kind of tac officer and I immediately got on the phone and called a girl I'd met during college and asked if she would like to come over for the graduation party. She agreed and I drove to Dallas in Bernie's double bad ass Mustang to pick her up. It was the nuts! I hadn't had a date in 8 months and I was ready to do some serious partying. Thanks again to Bernie for the hospitality and the help in pulling that one off. Thanks to Joyce for a night I'll never forget.

When all that was finished, Bernie asked me to stay over and become a "Super Senior" and take part in a two week program to receive new Candidates and prepare them for the Warrant Officer Candidate Program. Several of us agreed to do it and we moved back down the Hill and awaited the buses as they brought in the new arrivals. When the first bus load arrived, I walked up the stairs of the open door and a hush came over the bus. You could have heard a pin drop. I introduced myself, explained that I had already graduated and was about to ship out to Ft. Rucker. When I finished with that, at the top of my lungs (as instructed) I screamed "Now you got about ten seconds to get your gear and get your ass in formation, so MOVE, MOVE, MOVE'. That wasn't the same as being ordered to make love to a water cooler but I had to improvise.

James Miles, one of my classmates, asked me to drive his car to Ft. Rucker because he was going home to spend a week with his wife before reporting for duty. I agreed and for the first time, I had wheels. Diable helped us get the students ready and one night, one of the new arrivals left his wallet out and we found it during bed check. Talk about the shit hitting the proverbial plan, it hit and we woke up everybody. They probably didn't appreciate Diable's first lesson in "Attention to Detail" but I sure did. It was great and I'm sure that many of them had additional doses of that when they reported to 5th WOC and discovered that "Little Patton" was their tactical officer.

When all of that transpired, I said my good byes to Bernie, thanked him for HIS attention to detail and drove home to Shreveport for a short Christmas vacation before leaving for Ft. Rucker. That's another story altogether but I wanted to make the point about Diable's influences on my life and how it almost certainly made my tour in Vietnam one that put me in the category of "One of the lucky ones". More coming from my Christmas vacation and learning stuff about Vietnam.