encore Demerit Blunder
A strict Coast Guard platoon commander shocks one company by almost giving a seaman an unusual — and insulting — gig during an inspection at boot camp in Alameda, Calif.
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I enlisted in the Coast Guard in July 1958, believing the draft notice was soon to come. Reporting for boot camp at Govern- ment Island in Alameda, Calif., in the fall, I went through the usual initial harassment, including a balding haircut, uniforms that didn’t fi t, and shoes that needed to be bro- ken in during the endless marching. During our 13 weeks at Alameda (yes, boot camp was three months long then), the movie Onionhead (Warner Bros., 1958) was fi lmed. In the movie, our Alam- eda boot camp played the part of a recruit training center on the East Coast. If you watch this movie, you might see me as one of the massed troops in our dress whites, cringing at the yell of Lieutenant Junior Grade Fernald. He was the real deal and is portrayed in the movie doing what he always did. For an E1, a junior grade lieutenant was God! Our company included 80 souls and comprised just about every kind of man, from every part of the nation one could imagine. It was one of 13, making up about a thousand men, training at the same time. We polished shoes until they were like
mirrors. We wound masking tape on our hands to remove lint from our wool dress blues. We did everything to make our uni- forms perfect, but our platoon commander, an old curmudgeon of a chief boatswain’s mate, always could fi nd something amiss. Uniforms were inspected daily, some- times hourly. Every little thing wrong was a gig — shoes not shiny enough, lint on our
88 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2012
uniforms, uniforms not pressed, or any little thread hanging anywhere it should not be. These little threads were called “Irish pen- nants.” If we accumulated enough gigs, bad things sure were to happen. The morning of the fi lming, our platoon commander was in a particularly foul mood. He strolled through our squad bay yelling at everything he could fi nd wrong. “McDonald, your blanket has a wrinkle — one gig.” “Koralewski, your hat is not white enough — one gig.” Yelling from across
the room, he accosted a particularly skinny seaman, Kennedy. “Kennedy, what are those Irish pennants hanging from your shorts?” We were stunned.
Kennedy was a meek soul who always took great pains not to be noticed. The chief strode closer with rage in his eyes. But when he got near Kennedy, his tone took a more forgiving note. “Oh, those are your legs.” Poor Kennedy never lived that down, though he completed boot camp with no more Irish pennants.
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— Warren G. McDonald is a retired Coast Guard Reserve captain. He lives in Menlo Park, Calif., and is a member of the Alameda County Chapter. For submission information, see page 6.
Tell Your Story Submit your service- related adventures (or mishaps) of approximate- ly 450 words by email to
encore@moaa.org or by mail to Encore Editor, 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314. All submissions will be con- sidered for publication.
ILLUSTRATION: ELWOOD SMITH
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