Now it can be told, continued

Boot Camp
We reached our destination – Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Once again we were herded along, straggling as best we could in columns of two. It was a bustling place, with a couple of companies marching in formation over the parade ground. The recruits were all in summer khaki uniforms, and I was heartened to see how fit and well fitted out they seemed. We didn’t get much chance to gawk around, though. We were hustled into a large, old building that clearly was to be our home for the next four weeks, our barracks. The entire room was filled with two-tiered beds, most of which were already occupied. We were given the last beds down at the end of the room and once again, told to wait. Now we knew what that meant. We sat down on any available bed and waited. And waited. And waited.
Fort Oglethorpe was founded in 1902 and had been active ever since. It was to be a training base for the next two years, and in 1946 was closed down for good. It was not the lush, green land I had expected, having read “Gone With the Wind”, but instead a dusty, weed-swept area where my allergies blossomed in full force. Dry, dusty, wind-swept, and enclosing rows of unpainted, run-down wooden buildings, it resembled a frontier fort, which indeed it was. I looked around while we waited, scanning the interior of the long, bare room with its rows of beds, and wondered what I had gotten myself into.
The room, though containing only beds, seemed crowded. I suppose there was room for about forty recruits, though now I don’t remember exactly how many there were. The beds were double tiered, what today would be called bunk beds. The floors were unfinished wood, but clean and well scrubbed. Later I found out why everything looked so tidy.
While we waited, another group of enlistees entered the barracks, and we were all lined up again, our names were read from a list, and we answered “Here”. The sergeant, a different one this time, seemed a bit more inclined to view us as human beings, and actually seemed amused at our appearance. “You will take the bed to which you are assigned,” she announced. “You will not be able to exchange it for another. No arguing. That’s the way it is. You won’t fall out of the top bunk. You won’t be here long enough to develop likes or dislikes so get used to it.” I, to my disappointment, was assigned to a bottom bunk. No view here, only the bottom of the bunk above me, just a couple of feet above my face.