Gerald A. Corwin, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Winston Erickson, October 9, 2000: Saving the Legacy tape no. 119

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ERALD A. ORWIN B R 9, 2000 WE: What would possess you to want to go from the job you had int th infantry? GAC: I wanted to see this damn war. Here's a nice war going on out here and I'm missing it. I'm sitting back here with a job that any smart WAC can do in fact even a dumb WAC can do it (laughs). I'm just keeping somebody from doing something probably they can do better than I can do. I was dumb (laughs). I make no case for myself. I'm not saying that was among my brighter moves in this uncertain world. Volunteering for the infantry, that doesn't classify as bright, I'm sure. WE: I was interviewing a Navy guy this morning who had a desk job in Washington and he kept trying to get out to sea. I said, "Why? Why?" He said, "There was a war there. I wanted to be there." GAC: My sentiments exactly. WE: I can't figure that out. GAC: I had quite a suspicion that it was not bright, but there were a helluva lot of people right beside me. And, of course, when you went to the infantry, the first thing they want you to do is learn how to handle troops. So what did they do? They send you to a replacement training center. So you train troops. I remember I was at Camp Gordon, Georgia, and had a firing range. It was a big army post, don't pretend to be small. It had a big old range road, they called it, which was a big old circle and I've walked every mile around that range road one time or another and all the firing. You'd be firing small arms and they'd just fire towards the center of the damn thing. You don't let soldiers point their rifles where the hell ever they want to; you tell them where you want them pointed and if they have ammunition to go with those arms you're particularly careful they don't fire in directions you don't control. So they just had firing ranges all around there. 17