Question

[frisco-kid]

Never heard of Camp Crockett. I took AIT at Ft. Gordon, GA, and they told us that it stood for Airborne Infantry Training. We knew that that wasn't the official name of the school, but it sounded good. 99% of us had volunteered to go Airborne. 95% of us would go on to Ft. Benning for Jump School. The ones that didn't go hadn't volunteered to begin with, or didn't pass the Airborne PT test to go to Jump School.

All of the cadre were Airborne qualified. My platoon sergeant had been with the 101st in Nam. All of the pt was geared to jump school. We were constantly told that if we couldn't do it here, we weren't going to make it through Ground Week at Benning. As we went through the infantry training we were often told "This is how it's done in the 101st," or "the 173rd," or "the 1st Cav." Part of the 1st Cav was all-Airborne at that time. When I got to the 101st and went through P-Training, alot of the AIT training was pretty much what we were being taught there as far as patroling, walking point, or slack. Talked to guys that went through Ft. Polk, Ft. Jackson, Ft. Ord, etc., and said they weren't taught alot of the stuff.

Packo: What the hell is "Toccoa?" Never heard of that either. But you have to remember, this was '66. Alot of changes between you and Bill, and me. The Cav no longer had an all-paratrooper unit; the 101st was changing over to AIRMOBILE and had as many legs as paratroopers; I'm sure alot of the tactics changed; etc..Airborne