When we arrived at Ft. Sam Houston, some of us were offered an opportunity to take a 2-week Leadership Preparation Course before starting our training. Those who completed it would be made squad leaders for their training class. I thought "Why not?", and volunteered. It consisted of some classes, conditioning, and harassment, just like Basic Training. I was used to that, so it was easy. As squad leaders, we wore purple helmet-liners (our classmates called us "Grape-heads"). We also slept in 4-man rooms, instead of 55-man squad bays, which was nice.

Medic training consisted of 10 weeks of combined field medic/hospital corpsman training, with the majority of the time being slanted in favor of hospital duties. We learned how to make beds with patients/without patients, learned about the intricacies of bedpans and urinals and many other skills needed in working on a hospital ward. Since the majority of medics went to non-combat roles, that made sense from the Army's point of view. The field and emergency parts of the program were brief and uninspiring. The fact that not a single member of the training cadre had seen combat and that the films and other instructional aids were all from WWII/Korea didn't help.

The uniform looks shiny because the Quartermaster Laundry starched them so heavily. After pressing, the layers were literally stuck together and you had to peel your uniform open. That's where the term "breaking starch", for putting on a fresh uniform, came from. I was convinced that all they did was to dip the uniforms in starch and run them through a press, which doubled as a button-crushing machine.