Expert: Rod Powers - 7/9/2006

Question
Rod--I am a writer working on a novel I have sold.  I am setting some of the flasbacks in the late sixties in my local area.  Can you tell me where I could look or how I can find out where someone from York, Pennsylvania drafted into the army would have been sent for basic training and also stationed after basic training before being sent to Vietnam?  Would basic training have been the same for someone who was college educated versus someone who was not.  (The draftee would opt out of Officer's School.)

Thanks,
Karen Rose Smith

Answer
Hi Karen,

The Army currently has (and had during the Vietnam era) *several* basic training locations.

These days, basic training location is primarily based on the particular job one enlists in for many jobs, and for those jobs which don't have a specific basic training location, it's based on available slots, often (but not always) closest to the soldier's place of enlistment.

During the draft, however, soldiers did not get to pick a particular job.  The often didn't find out what their Army job was going to be until just prior to graduating basic training.

College had nothing to do with it (except for officer training).  The location would have been selected based on (1) available training slots and (2) cheapest cost to the Army (ie, assuming training slots were available, the closest Army basic training facility to the place of enlistment).

All things being equal (assuming available training slots), someone enlisted or drafted from PA would probably have gone through Army Basic Training at Fort Dix, NJ.  Following basic training, the soldier would probably have gone through AIT (job training), which would depend on the actual job he/she was assigned.  Upon completion of job-training, his/her assignment, would depend on the job they were assigned (ie, if they were "infantry," they would have been assigned to an Army base that had an Infantry Division assigned.  If they were trained as Combat Engineers, they would have been assigned to an Army base that had a Combat Engineering Company assigned to the base, etc.)

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com