ROTC Basic Camp - Fort Knox 1978

[OH58D]

This picture is from July 1978 at Army ROTC Basic Camp. I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. I am seated looking at the camera. I have a watch on my right wrist. I was issued a Colt M16A1 and the serial number was 2035582. It was two-tone with a lighter color on the upper receiver. I was with a group of 1000 Army ROTC cadets, most were in the summer after their sophomore year of college. I was enlisted in the Army Reserve under the Early Commissioning Program, first opened to 4 year Universities that year. The second photo is from a road march of 5 companies of the 13th Battalion, and an M60 tank rolling by.

ROTC Basic Course was 6 weeks long. The month following these photos I did 3 weeks of Jump School at Fort Benning, then started as a Freshman at the University of Arizona. That summer when I was at Fort Knox, there were 5 companies of cadets. We were housed in the Hammer Head Barracks on Eisenhower Road across from what is now Human Resources Command at Knox. Hope you like the pics. I may scan more. The cadet standing behind me also went Army Aviation. I commissioned two years later in May 1980: