Let me introduce this by saying that all of this did happen. 1965 was the first year of Texas A & M University. Prior to that in was the College of Texas A & M. Classes thru 1968 had the option of having the old name on their diplomas and wearing the AMC brass. The University has about 10,000 students total, which was almost all Corps with the exception of a few hundred non-reg former cadets, about 10 women, profs daughters mainly.
The main campus was a One square mile west of the railroad tracks. It had thirty one outfits in the Corps, with about 13 aircraft units, and 16 ground pounders and 2 Band Units which were treated as one unit for marching competition purposes. My outfit had 74 members in it.

My unit, Sqd 1, or Huslinone was commanded by the future Colonel James Sluis (Deceased, Virginia) and had as its guidon bearer a cadet who was the Air Wing Commander in 1968, James R. Baldridge Jr. (Deceased, Vietnam 1969). We won the marching competition in 1965 by a last review comeback over the band by a clever tactic planned by Mr. Sluis and executed by Mr. Baldridge. It was a skip half step execution performed after a non verbal upward jab of the guidon during our march in review. The band had several times been a half beat off during the playing of a certain song. Mr. Sluis had noticed this in a prior year so we had been practicing a way to match their musical mis-tone for several weeks by skipping a half step during the silence. High risk if they did not try to play this trick on us, but we had been a close second three times running and figured it was due. Final review and all.

Well, we were marching with our usual fine pace. Came to the 3 second pause in the music, and Butch did his thing with the guidon, we all skipped foward at the same time and our heads stayed in sink. Not one bobble and then the music started matching perfectly our adjusted marching stride. Perfect. A Lt. Colonel in the Army dropped his clipboard at the reviewing stand. We scored First Overall, and won.

Next Post I will discuss the Fall of 1966 and "Lurch" the Louisiana Alligator that Butch Baldridge brought back with him from his fathers place of business, being the Base Commander of Barksdale AFB.

Thanks. But we wore the cord in 1966. Did not win it again as the outfit did not perform as well under Woods as Mr. Sluis. As for Butch Baldridge, he was the first Sophmore in the Corps that I met. It was fish orientation an the CO, Mr. Sluis broke us down in units of four fish each. We were on the outside hall way of the "new" dorms on the North Side of the Campus. They have been torn down now but were the newest dorms on campus at this time, being located next to the parking lot that led to the North Gate Theater. The other side of the building was Cain Hall the Athletic Dorm for the football players. The open hallways went up all four floors on both sides of the dorms. Huslin One had the inside of the north wing and Squadron 3 had north side. The South Wing was other scholarship athletes, such as golf, track and field (including Shot putter Randy Mason) and other non football sports.

Any way, there was this short fit neat and intensive cadet who said that his assigned mission was to take the four of us fish and get us squared away. He said look to your left and look to your right. Only half of you will graduate. Well he was half right, only two of the cadets finished four years in the Corps but all four of us did graduate, just little later than the original four year time frame. I graduated in January, 1970. My fish old lady Tom Hester did a stretch in the US Army flying helicopters before he returned to A & M to school and to Graduate. He had been shot down three times in Nam. The last time he bailed out in midair, and the largest piece left of his copter was about six inches long. He passed away about ten years later from Agent Orange Cancers (34 of them).

AgSpirit581 said:

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Why are you posting this stuff on a public forum? Are you presenting our school and our Corps in the best possible light? All of us have "old army stories". But I'm not sure this is the time and place for some of them. People who weren't in the Corps don't have the ability to put these kind of stories in their proper context. Food for thought.

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Our Corps is not the same as today's corps, and this story being shared is over 50 years ago, and it's enjoyable to read.

I have no idea what class you are, so until you provide that you can REST

Love these recollections.

Two true stories. For the sensitive, please remember this was from half a century ago in a different world.

Silver Crapper. A parody on Silver Taps to help a fish get over being dumped by his girl. At midnight, all fish fall out and line either side of the hallway wearing only combat boots, jocks and helmets. After appropriate ceremony decrying the girl's poor judgement, the fish who's been dumped parades down the middle holding a long piece of crapper paper on which his classmates have written suitably horrible comments about the girl in question. The paper is then ceremoniously flushed down the crapper along with, supposedly, all memory of the girl.

Except this time, us geniuses decided to actually mail the crapper paper message to the girl........who then showed it to her Dad........who was a Baptist preacher.......who promptly bawled out the Corps commander (thank god not Trigon)........who then dressed-down our CO........who then made our lives a living hell for a solid week as only the Corps in those days could before telling us with a smirk, "Good bull, you utter dumbasses".

Homecoming Game. Back then, mostly male A&M was informally twinned with TWU and much of the Corps trekked up north for a big dance once a year we called the "Pig Push" and, as we later learned to our dismay, the girls called the "Goon Grab". For our homecoming, the Corps Staff hosted TWU's all-female student council at A&M including them dining with the Staff for Friday evening chow at Duncan Dining Hall. The Staff was immaculately dressed out in Class A's and the blushing girls were escorted to their seats turned out in beautiful dresses, gloves and heels. The entire Corps had been repeatedly reminded to be on their best behavior.

Welp, my fish year, right after the usual whooping following the speaker system call of "Tonight!!", reminding all of Midnight Yell, dessert didn't go quite as the Staff planned. In the sudden subsequent quiet, a lone fish paraded stiffly down Duncan's long, wide center aisle, taps clicking loudly on the floor, holding a small plate high above his head. With the entire chow hall watching with bated breath, the fish arrived at the Corps Staff tables, paused dramatically and then ceremoniously took the single red cherry from the plate he held, raised it up high in two fingers, shouted "Tonight!!" and popped the cherry. Duncan went wild! Cadets up on their chairs cheering, the outraged Corps Staff bellowing "What outfit are you in goddammit!!', and the lone fish wildcatting like crazy back down the aisle and out the double-doors into the dark night, his outfit never to be identified by the subsequent manhunt as far as I know.

.......and that's the way it was back in the dark ages.