Just drove by. Big place. I’m sure many .mil folks have trained or have been there. I do know Dick Winters went to officer training school there. Any good personal stories?

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How about a story from the 80s? Contracted cadet goes to Benning for an FTX. She’s ready to graduate with her degree in whatever and proudly serve her country. She manages to fall off the horizontal bars at the confidence course, and find the only rock in the sand. Busted elbow later, she’s damaged goods and BigArmy doesn’t want here any more.
How about the Cadet who supposedly took so long to graduate that he “allegedly became a 1st lieutenant with no duty station to report to”? He bought a pistol and had to keep it at a buddy’s house, because his wife wouldn’t allow it in the house?

https://www.citizenofeastalabama.com/news/local_history/history-general-patton-spoke-to-local-civic-leaders-in-1940-later-threatened-to-flatten-city/article_1e1dd7c0-d4e6-5c25-833f-c7d89ca04228.html

How about General Patton driving a tank across the Victory Drive bridge into Phenix City Al.and threatening to flatten the court house if they didn’t quit f’in with his soldiers.

Got hit on the back of my head with a nightstick. Woke up handcuffed to the wrought iron stair rails along the river walk.

Army guys who started the shit were no where to be found, just had us cuffed.

Fuckers.

Other than that, seemed like a nice area.

I think I've posted this before but, in June 1998 I saw a guy jump off the roof of the barracks at 30th AG.

I built a bunch of cool shit up there.

That’s all I got.

Victory Drive was wild in the early 80's.

In flight school in 1979, during UH-1 tactics phase, we did a formation flight from Lowe Field over to Lawson Field, refueled, then took Ranger candidates on missions. We were kindly advised to hit the px up for pogey bait and insert into our helmet bags hanging from the back of our seats. Everything was consumed on board and all evidence of wrappers were returned to the helmet bags.  I figured those guys needed the energy burst, especially from the way we flight students were flying tactical formation flying.

We had a guy complain about his leg the first week of OSUT. Always limping, couldn't keep up or carry weight. He sucked it up and went weeks without going to sick call while barely meeting the standard. Finally, the drill sergeants forced him to sick call.

He had fractured his femur and did every requirement to that point with a passing grade, including The Eagle Run and PT tests. We felt bad after his diagnosis for making fun of him lagging behind.

Got to see a School of the Americas protest...

Best I've got is leaving after basic and airborne lol

Heartbreak hill was not fun to run up wearing kit or carrying your buddy

OSUT on 05.  Young Captain got in big trouble for throwing practice grenade in Drill Sgts quarters while he was asleep.  Sgt looked like he was about to kill him. They ended up moving that Cpt. To a different ITB for his own safety.  What a retard.  

There was a Cajun kid in our company who was built like a brick shit house.  He was in the 18X program with a few of us.  He went crazy and made threats at the range.  Not sure what happened to him. MPs came and took him away.  Rumor was he went to another barracks near processing where guys waited while being medically discharged.  

My first jump in Airborne school I manged to scoop up & cover myself in ants. Hit the ground like a ton of bricks(lol) & tugged on the release, everything good up to this point. Retrieved doing the figure 8 move, stuffed the parachute & tossed it over my head & onto my back. Was running off the DZ, I had some adrenaline flowing so I figured thats why my skin was crawling & all tingly... Nope, covered in those red ants that bite the shit out of you. Ah, good times...

On my 4th jump, my glasses and kevlar came off....

No worries, I landed ok. Some guys later told me they were gathering their chute and heard like a boom!!! It was my kevlar

Oooh... I hate those ants.

My boy is there now in OSUT.  8 women is his platoon and not enough of them for fire watch so the men have to do it.  DI caught a pair fucking about 4 weeks in. I think both got recycled for it.

it's hot in the summer time

Got called into the Commandant's office while at 30th AG.

I was the platoon guide for my platoon while at reception. This would have been late June of 1989. It was taking about two weeks to go down range to a unit. We were overloaded with men and I did not have enough bunks for everyone. I had eight or nine guys sleeping on the floor with no blankets or pillows in the laundry room.

Anyhow, I had one jackass that would not make up his bunk and was constantly late for every formation. I was getting my ass chewed constantly by the DS so I was like fuck this. I took the guys bunk away and gave it to one of the guys who had no bed.

Jackass got mad and went to the Senior DS and complained. We were both called into the Commandant's office. He asked if it was true what I had done and I replied yes and explained my reasoning. After about ten minutes, he commended me and sent me on my way.

Jackass ended going AWOL at 30th AG and we never saw him again. I guess he got tired of sleeping on the floor.

Tons of funny stuff through OSUT.

The story of Pvt. Arnez who called DS. Payne "momma".

My 1SG making me shit in cadence in a latrine at our first FTX.

Our first field shower at a FTX on 2nd Armor Division Rd. Two hundred and twenty swinging dicks standing in formation with a towel in your right hand and your bar of soap in your left. Shower shoes on. Everyone butt ass naked as every car going by honking and hollering.

The list goes on and on.

I followed another Bradley on a tank trail on the way to an ftx.  He hit his brakes, I hit mine, then heard a loud crunch behind me.  After a minute or so, I got out of the hatch to see what the fuss was about.  The Bradley behind me had hit his brakes pretty hard and the track behind him slammed right into his ass.  We were hauling lieutenants and captains around.  They were told to keep their k-pots on while riding in the tracks.  They didn't listen.  Both tracks involved in the collision had blood all over the dismount area.

My bunk was right outside the drill Sgts office and I thought I was gonna die of fucking cancer. Those guys chain smoked bad.

Amen

I had a great time at Benning. Basic, AIT, Airborne, Ranger School, etc....I remember at Sandhill in 1979 there was a little place next to PX that had the best milkshakes. Remember a tittie bar off post called the Aztec lounge. Ranger Joe's. I thought the history there with all the WW2 barracks at Ranger School was really cool. I walked down the road, dividing the barracks several times. You felt like you were being watched by ghosts from the past. Remember the Ranger Rock you had to hold above your head if caught sleeping in the classes. My second jump was out of a C-123 a baby C-130, using an old T-10 chute lol. I was kinda in a daze during jumps. My dad pinned my Ranger Tab on me. Just went out door. Hookers were everywhere off post. I was 17 when I enlisted right out of HS with my parents' signature. Great days.... It all seems like a dream now man I'm old......

Lived in the sticks near there as a child and the train line going into/out of Benning went through the back yard.

Got to watch all the armor that went in and out of Benning roll by my house.

So, there I was, at the Day's In on Victory Drive. It was early 1997 and I was there for Jump School. After I dropped from class, I spent a few weeks in holdover, waiting for orders. Several of us got a room and spent a weekend drinking and hanging out.

Friday night, a couple of us are standing outside our room when a skinny old  white dude runs past us wearing nothing but a pair of socks. Seconds later, a black chick in a bikini comes racing after him, screaming that he ripped her off.

Saturday, we spotted a dude from the holdover platoon who was AWOL. The platoon sergeant told us to keep an eye out for him, so when we spotted him, we went to grab him up. He ran out into the road and we tackled him as a tractor trailer stopped suddenly. The Columbus cops came by, scooped him up, and turned him over to the MP's.

More Airborne holdover stories:

Parachute riggers go to Airborne School before they go to AIT. Well, if you drop out of Jump School, you get sent to holdover while you wait for the Army to decide what MOS is short and you get new orders. There were several females in the platoon who found themselves in that situation. Most of the people in Airborne School have already passed AIT, so they wait for orders to their duty station if they get dropped from Jump School.

So many couples, usually made up of a female rigger who was moving onto a new AIT and a male soldier who was waiting assignment to a duty station, ran off to Phenix City and got married that the Platoon Sergeant put out an order that nobody could get married without getting permission.

Several couples were also caught mid coitus in the dark stairwell furthest from the CQ desk.

The platoon sergeant moonlighted as a loss prevention person at the shoppette just down the road from Jump School and that bit of info was widely known to us. Yet, he still frequently got soldiers from the holdover platoon shoplifting there.

One weekend afternoon, a soldier decided to build an MRE heater bomb with a Gatorade bottle and toss it into the quad between the barracks. When it detonated, part of the lid stuck itself in a glass window. The MP's and CID were called and he found himself not having to worry about orders to a new duty station, as he was confined to the stockade awaiting court martial.

A different night, at least 10-15 soldiers got into a running fight which started in the second floor day room, went down the hallway, then down the stairs, past the CQ desk, and into the downstairs hallway. The MP's were called for that, too, and at least a couple soldiers didn't come back to the barracks while I was still there. The fight resulted in the day room being off limits, too.

The holdover platoon was part of HHC, the Headquarters and Headquarters Company. I started to refer to it as the Hookers and Hoodlums Company.

That doesn't even get into the stories from my time at Fort Benning for OSUT my first enlistment as an 11B. Or my stories from Ft Sill when I reenlisted after a five year break in service and had to go back through Basic and 13F AIT (that was right before I went back to Benning for Jump School).

I could write a book. LOL

Try going to Airborne school in the middle of it...

Not Ft. Benning but I have a good one story from Ft Hood. In the early 70’s I was on a cross country flight in an Huey and we stopped at Ft. Hood for the night. The pilot registered me in at the BOQ so they didn’t have to pick me up at the enlisted barracks in the morning.  I laughed when I saw the vending machines in an alcove behind burglar bars such that you had to stretch to reach the machines. This was in the fucking Bachelor’s Officer Quarters. I razed the officers I was traveling with because I had never seen that at a Marine Corps enlisted barracks. I kept referring to officers and gentlemen in conversation until my Captain told me shut the fuck up.

I was there in 90-91. Still pretty wild.

I got several of my tattoos at a nice parlor on there....one of the tatts is my biggest one. Took two 4-hour trips to get it done.

Harmony Church and log drills.

First time there was for my son's AIT graduation.  As soon as we got on base my GPS screen turned all red.  I thought it was weird.  It still showed the streets but everything on base was shaded red.

That's all I got.

Benning in 2007.  My company was "fast tracked" due to the surge.  

Fuck those ants and fuck doing PT on the "grass."

Our Gomer Pyle, day 1 getting issued our gear, one guy forgot his ID.  At the time, he couldn't just grab a battle buddy, go across the street, get his ID, and come back.  So one of the smart ass NCOs grabbed a piece of broken concrete, and wrote "PFC Pyle ID Card" on it, and told our guy to carry it with him at all times.  I noticed but never put it together that PFC Pyle always had scratches on his leg right where his cargo pocket was.  Fast forward to week 4-5, we were allowed to run the battalion AO with a buddy but you had to turn in your ID to the CQ.  I was pulling CQ downstairs with a friend when PFC Pyle comes downstairs to go run.

Me: "Hey fucker, where's your battle buddy?"
Him: "... fuck you."
Me: "Get your fucking ID card too!"

Upstairs he goes to grab someone to run with.
Him: "Happy?"
Me: "Yeah, but give me your ID card.  You know the drill."
Him: "Fuck you and your made up rules."
Me: "Want to talk it over with the DS and tell him his rules are stupid?"

He went back upstairs for about 15 minutes and came down looking smug carrying this piece of concrete.  He tossed it on my desk

Him: "Happy, asshole?"
Me: "You've been carrying it this whole time?"
Him: "Of course, it's my ID card."
Me: "... ok then, enjoy your run."

DS came out, saw the rock, shook his head and walked away. PFC Pyle carried it throughout all of basic.  During his AIT, he got busted sitting on a towel, naked, picking his toes with one hand, and jerking off with another.  

We were throwing practice grenades over the wire one day, and I made a really nice throw, so I stood there to admire my work and to see how far my dummy grenade went.  Next thing I knew, my feet were above me in the air, and I couldn't breath.  As I came crashing down like Beatle Bailey, the RSO stood above me, knife handing my face, and screaming things I couldn't here.  When I threw my dummy grenade the second time, I made sure to hit the ground before that big fucker could clothes line me again.

Went to a going away party at the Platinum Club with docs from the hospital, we're sitting stageside, drinking beer and depositing singles in garters (in 1991), one of the docs looked up at dancer on stage and drunkenly yelled "she's one of my patients" RIP my friend.

Aztec Club?

I did the same thing, but because I was a safety risk, they wouldn't let me throw live.

Thanks to Afghanistan and multiple recerts, I got to throw live grenades, but that was a real bummer for young me.

Coming off of the range you had to have bolt locked back & they measured w/ an "L" shaped rod... Rod goes down, youre good to go. My worn ass rifle if it got knocked, the bolt slams home. Hand my rifle off & I hear it slam shut. Shit storm ensues...

Making sounds like wild boar on the land nav course at night sending people running in every direction.

Manipulating the MILES gear(it works on recoil of rifle when blanks are fired), just smack the rifle & the laser would discharge & & they would start squealing. In the field or in formation, it caused trouble, lol.

Many many more & I wouldnt change a thing...

Little Richard's
Andy's
Traffic Light
Steffi's Place
Al Who's (not on Victory Dr.)

And a few other bars/strip clubs I can't remember.

Got into a fight at Chickasaw club.
Got into a fight at Al Who’s
Met my second wife at the powerhouse gym in Columbus

My buddy and I went dowm to Victory Pond to watch guys get Baptised on a Sunday. I swear the Chaplian had to be Combat Diver and knew guys were there so they didn't get stuck doing Police Call.
He kept those guys under water to the point they were seeing St. Peter opening the gates.

Look before going prone. I wore Fireant bites on my left hand and arm for a long time.

As a civilian needing to bring firearms on post due to a shooting match trying really really hard to be sure all of my paperwork was in order.

Also had a good time at the petting zoo a year or so ago with the Tigers, Panthers, Hellcat etc in the tank collection on open house day.

Shot the All Army matches there in 1991 and 2004.

I remember that!!!  I didn’t see it but I thought it was some bullshit the DS’s we’re trying to put out.

Jan-Apr 1988 OSUT

I sold weed the whole Basic Cycle.
Friend from HS was stationed at $1.97 Brigade.

They called me Little Bull.

Harmony Church. Fall/winter 1980. One platoon was nothing but Puerto Rican National Guard trainees. One guy we called rat face as he looked an Island of Dr Moreau hybrid. He would never make it to Gate guard duty at night once it turned off bitter cold in the winter months. He was always 15-20 min late.
A guy from Chicago I think it was, beat the shit out of him for being so late at one of the 2 or 3 am guard shifts. He was never late after that.

We had the old WW2 wooden T barracks with the open bays. We had one guy that all would talk about was how big his cock was. A guy from Texas stood in front of him and in that hard Texas drawl said "Well whoop it out By God and let's just see it", guy whips it out, Texas guy grabs him by the dick and takes off running. The grabee starts screaming at the top of his lungs while Texas is running him up and down the open bay. We are all screaming from laughing so hard. Drill Sgt comes out of his office screaming "WTF is going on!" Texas is still running big dick through the barracks, the entire 2nd floor is laughing hysterically. We get dropped for so many push ups it isn't funny. Any time someone starts laughing again, we get more push ups. We did a lot of push-ups 25 at a time that night.

After about a week or week and a half in of Basic, we had a guy that said he couldn't take this anymore and was going to fake a seizure to get medically discharged. Next day at one of the classes where we had to sit on top of the tables, he flops out onto the floor and starts "seizing". 2 Drill Sgts run over, another starts screaming at us to get the fuck out side in formation.  One of the Drill Sgts tries to put a wallet or something in the guys mouth to keep him from biting his tongue or some such reason. The faker bites the Drill Sgt's hand hard enough to draw blood. A lot of blood.
They haul off faker. We see him in the company area about a week or so later.  He is getting that medical discharge.  No one says a word about his faking it as everyone wants him gone because he's such a shit bag.

Airborne school. Jan '81. One guy lands with feet and knees not together. Breaks both legs.his screams on Fryer DZ could probably be heard in Phenix City. Never knew what happened to him.
In the Rigger shed getting JMPI'ed. A bunch of us have already gotten our inspection and are sitting in the shed waiting to board the aircraft. Riggers are walking through, each has one of those long aluminum paddles in hand tucking loose pack trays back in. One of the riggers calls another one over and they are fucking with one of the students about his pack up possibly not functioning correctly and they are poking and prodding the guys chute. Kid jumps up and starts trying to take the chute off. He has already hit the "dial of death" in the center of his chest as we were jumping the T-10 chutes then. Black hats coming running over yelling at the kid to stop what he's doing. Kid is adamant he is not jumping now. Terminates right there. Black hats get the 2 riggers and they go towards the offices at the end of the shed. We are all looking around wide eyed like "WTF is going on". That ends the riggers going up and down the sticks after JMPI during our Jump Week.

We had a family reunion at Uchee Creek. Does that count? Lol

Sand Hill 2010. Drill sergeant comes stumbling into the bay in the middle of the night while everyone is sleeping. He’s in civis and absolutely hammered. He’s yelling at us demanding us trainees give him a phone charger and that one of the other drill sergeants is probably passed out or dead in some ditch somewhere. Fire guard goes and gets the drill on duty that night and takes him outside. That drill sergeant is gone for the next week. That drill sergeant was also drill sergeant of the year or some shit. My first introduction to PTSD.

I would have joined Army infantry, but I knew I would have ended up punching the drill sergeant in the face.

Sand Hill. Fall/Winter 1980.

Yep remember that place really well