<\/a><\/p>\nAs we neared the end of our training cycle, as the weather turned colder in mid-December, the recruits were starting to look like soldiers. In fact, having been given Korean War vintage weapons (M1s) and fatigues, we looked exactly like the soldiers who appeared in newsreels a nearly decade earlier. <\/i>Certainly sitting in pouring freezing rain under soaking panchos and wet boots. It was no wonder that I caught the pneumonia bug. But with all that behind us, what had been an obstreperous collection of reluctant military trainees, dozens seemingly too old to have to listen to instructing sergeants, most of whom were career \u201cshort-timers,\u201d noncoms mustering out of service after doing their 20 or 25 years. This was their last stop; the final notation on their long resumes of military postings. After having fought in WWII, then the Korean Conflict, after shepherding Airborne School advanced trainees to becoming Paratroopers and Rangers, after the responsibility of Squad Leader and Platoon Sergeant in combat conditions, after receiving their Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, here they were, babysitting a bunch of crybabies with Masters Degrees. Papa Company was loaded with regular guys from the financial world, publishing, college instructors (my best friend, John Medici, was a 24-year-old English teacher), there were cops and firefighters with three or four years experience. This was a group that didn\u2019t take to being shouted at or threatened. This was a group who laughed at the sometimes ridiculous circumstances they found themselves in and laughed at the tantrums of the frustrated training sergeants who after four or five weeks, gave up trying to bend us into soldiers and laughed with us. Again, informing us that we were the absolute LAST collection of deadbeats they would lead into combat. That their safety in wartime could never be guaranteed by the men of Papa Company. And, they were probably right.<\/p>\n
By the graduation ceremony, on the 16th<\/sup> of December, 1961, to the surprise of the officers, noncoms and most of all, the collection of military misfits, the so-called \u201cdeadbeats\u201d of Papa Company marched with pride of accomplishment, off to the rest of their tour of duty. I would be given the MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) 841\/photographer, and assigned to HQ Company, Fort Lee, Virginia. I was to report to the Public Information Office.\u00a0 Not the Pentagon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SIXTY STRANGE DAYS (October – December 1961) \u00a0 \u00a0 It didn\u2019t take much to convince Don Moser, or his bosses, at Life to invest in the Basic Training project. It wouldn\u2019t cost them any money so they agreed to supply the film and to process it. I brought with me … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[87,82,60,88],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/icrapoport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Basic-March.jpg?fit=1020%2C680&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7l09O-bp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":743,"url":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/marilyn-from-the-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":0},"title":"Marilyn from the Window - March 1961","date":"June 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"MARILYN\u00a0 MONROE (March 1961) From the moment I arrived back in New York, Mary and I were never apart (with the exception of my travels away on assignments). In early March, Paris Match had me visit Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in upper Manhattan. Marilyn Monroe was a patient there and no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photojournalism"","img":{"alt_text":"Marilyn1 copy","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/gotobenjamin.com\/icrapoport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Marilyn1-copy-300x195.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/santa-maria-san-juan-pr-and-mary-feder-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":1},"title":"Santa Maria, San Juan PR, and Mary Feder Part 2","date":"June 14, 2016","format":"image","excerpt":"THANKS TO CAPTAIN GALV\u00c3O and THANKS TO RICHARD STEEDMAN Part Two \u00a0 (January, 1961) When I rang up Dick he was excited to hear that I was down on the island and we made a lunch date to meet at my hotel. He was curious as to what it looked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photojournalism"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/icrapoport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/MARY-PR-1961-13-72.jpg?fit=1200%2C744&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":790,"url":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/first-published-photos-jubilee-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":2},"title":"First Published Photos - Jubilee Magazine","date":"April 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"SOMEBODY UP THERE BELIEVES IN ME (1958) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Before going to join Mike Amberger in San Juan, I had the presence of mind to contact the editor of Jubilee Magazine, a slick Catholic publication that was making a name for itself by giving a head start to several soon-to-be-great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photojournalism"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/icrapoport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Father-Landry-PR006-e1461992307418.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/nightmares-of-a-disaster-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":3},"title":"Nightmares of a Disaster, Part 3","date":"May 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"ABERFAN The Days After (Part Three) The nightmares began a few weeks into my assignment. I had spent the first ten or twelve days immersed in the \"story\" I was about to tell with my photographs. As a photojournalist, my task was not merely to wander the village looking for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aberfan"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/icrapoport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Children-dancing-with-Dad-1.jpg?fit=623%2C386&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1078,"url":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/nightmares-of-a-disaster\/","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":4},"title":"Nightmares of a Disaster, Part 1","date":"May 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"ABERFAN The Days After Part One (November 1966) It was on all the news stations that October morning. First reports: A mountain had fallen on an elementary school in Aberfan, Wales.\u00a0 Hundreds of children were dead or missing along with some of their teachers. It was Friday, 21 October 1966.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aberfan"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/icrapoport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Moy-Rd-Banner.jpg?fit=1003%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1299,"url":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/fateful-introduction-to-sports-illustrated\/","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":5},"title":"Fateful Introduction to Sports Illustrated","date":"June 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"MARBLE CHAMPIONSHIP (July 1961) My photographs of Fidel Castro and Marilyn Monroe for Paris Match gave me entr\u00e9e into the prestigious Time-Life Publications. LIFE and TIME were particularly choosy as to who should represent them out in the world, and it was well known that working for LIFE magazine was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"Marble tournament SI","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/icrapoport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Marble-tournament-SI-300x198.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1335,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/1335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icrapoport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}