Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

66 Silvio E. Petricciani
I said, “Yeah, what is it, Sarge?” You know,
I’m resigned; I know that if there’s a problem,
I’m it.
So he said, “Strangely enough, all the guys
dumped everything in one garbage can today.”
I said, “Yeah, I know it.”
He said, “Well, you know it has to be
separated.”
And I said, “Yeah, I know that.”
He said, “Well, you’re the guy.” I said I
knew that, too. My wife was there, so I got
myself an orange crate and got one for her, and
sat on the orange crate, got two other garbage
cans, and I’m up to my elbows in those
garbage cans, all this slop and everything
that’s in there, separating all this garbage. So
finally the mess sergeant looked out, and he
says, “You meant it, didn’t you, when you said
we couldn’t break you?”
I said, “That’s right, Sarge. This is what I
have to do, and you tell me to do it;” I said,
“I’ll do it,” I said, “but you can do this to me
every day, and I’ll still be the same old Pete.”
So, he said, “Okay.”
From that day forward, I was never troubled
again. Wasn’t too long after that I got my PFC
stripes, private first class. And after that I went
to corporal and from there to sergeant, and
never once was I ever bothered again. And then
I became one of the guys. But if I had rebelled,
why then it would have been a different story,
no doubt. But in those days the military was
very, very strict, very tough. And you know
the old story—you’ve heard the stories about
people having to break bricks with a little
hammer; I saw this. They had one fellow in
there that just—I mean he just wasn’t adapted
to military service whatsoever. Every night for
four hours after everybody else was through,
he was in the shower room breaking the brick
with a hammer. And he finally became a mental
case; they shipped him out. But I saw this. And
these are the little vignettes of life, as it were.
One time, there was a guy—they had us
again on KP, and that day we had to scrub the
mess hall floors on our hands and knees with a
brush and a bucket with GI soap that had a lot
of lye in it, you know. So we started scrubbing
floors, and this other fellow’s scrubbing next
to me. I start scrubbing and singing. Well, the
guy looked at me, and he says, “How can you
be here on your hands and knees scrubbing
a floor,” he says, “and singing?”
“Very simple, it helps you pass the time,
number one; and number two, we’re going to
be here ’til it’s done any way, so you might as
well relax and enjoy it.” I said, “It’s a job; we
have to do it.” I said, “You can stay there and
grumble all you want,” I said, “it’s not going
to change it.”
He said, “I never thought of it that way.”
So he starts singing too. Before we knew it the
job was done, and we were both very happy.
It’s just the way you look at things. You
know, you can make yourself miserable or
you can make yourself happy on a deserted
island or in the midst of the biggest city in the
world. I mean it’s all in your mental attitude
and outlook on life. So, that was it.
So, but going through basic training was
really a dull thing, but I found out how the
Army regulations worked and so on and so
forth and I didn’t have a bad life at all, really. It
was very rewarding because, you know, once
you get into the know of things and you get
to knowing people, it was very rewarding. I
learned a lot. I’ll say one thing, that when we
went in there the cadre that was in there at the
time had come from Fort Blanding, Florida;
and the average IQ—not the average—the
lowest was around thirty-nine, and the
highest was around—well, as a matter of
fact Sebben had the highest IQ which was a
hundred and ten. He had the highest IQ of
all the noncommissioned officers that were
in the outfit when we went in there.