PLDC, VII

There's a few things you need to know about PLDC that are pertinent to the story and things to come.

Students are assigned a number, even before they get to school.  Randomly, numbers are assigned certain duties that the students will perform during the course.

The entire class body is the Company.  The Company is then broken down into 4 units, Platoons.  Each Platoon has 4-5 Squads.  Now, not that this is anything unique to the school, these are military units but for training purposes, the school mimics those units and for the duration of the course, you act as if you are in a real military until.  The Company's "boss" is the First Sergeant.  Each Platoon is assigned a Platoon Sergeant.  Each Squad has a Squad Leader.  Those positions of leadership are the duties that are randomly assigned to the student numbers and then half way through the course they change to new randomly selected student numbers. 

My particular class had very few females.  The entire class size was about 180 and we had 10 females.  That had its own challenges.  Normally, in a barracks males and females are separated by floors, all females on one floor, all males on another.  Because our class didn't have enough females to take over one complete floor, it was decided we'd get two rooms at the end of one male floor and it was explained to us under no circumstance were we allowed in each others rooms.  It was also explained to us that we'd be sharing the bathroom that was about midway down the hall.  Remember that.  Its important.  Aside from going to the bathroom, we females were not allowed any further down the hall than where our room was.  That also included for cleaning purposes (GI parties) and whereas that might sound like good news to us females, I was slightly disappointed I'd not be buffering those long halls.

Soldiers are assigned by their student number and it just happened that I was the only female that was in my platoon. 

Having so few females made it all the more difficult to train and we had a large number of males soldiers from a CAV (Calvary) and Infantry units --hardcore front line soldiers.  Part of what we were going to learn these guys did every day as their job.  It was like teaching ABC's to a student that already knew how to read.

I think it also, perhaps even subconsciously, made the females all the more competitive, having something to prove the to guys.  The Army often preached and pushed Equal Opportunity but the bottom line was, male attitudes to the contrary were the norm.  Remember that.  Its important.

Each Platoon was divided into two classrooms, for instructional purposes.  Each class room had two instructors.  In the first half of the course, we spent a majority of our time in the classroom, later we'd get to more hands-on training.  The classroom was set up with individual desks in a U shape with a desk in the front center for the instructor.  Each of the two instructors would take turns teaching a block of instruction.  I was assigned, per my student number, to the first seat in the classroom.  So I was the top left of the U, so to speak.  We'd have an hour of lecture/discussion and then a 5 minute break.  We were able to leave the classroom, go to the bathroom, smoke break, etc.

Once we finished one unit of instruction we had to take a written test.  You had to pass the test before you could go on to the next unit.  You got three chances to take the test and pass, if you failed all three times you were sent back to your company --a failure.

Our days were long and busy.  Each day began with PT -- yes, I had to run in formation with my platoon of big strong Infantry soldiers.  No, it never worked out very well for me.  After PT we had to prepare our rooms and the barracks for daily inspection, get dressed and report for formation again, this time to be marched down the street to the Mess Hall er --I mean, Dining Facility for breakfast.  The rest of the day was spent in the classroom, breaking only for lunch.  After dinner time we'd be "free" but we had GI parties every night and a good deal of studying had to be done.  In  addition to that, you'd have to shine boots, straighten your wall locker, prepare uniforms, etc.  So our "free" time wasn't like were were sitting around shooting the breeze.  There were not any common areas --it was the classroom, hallways, offices and barracks rooms.  That's it.  So it wasn't like we could all go down to a TV room and hang out or anything.  There was one place we could go to hang out -- the basement hallway.  It really wasn't intended to be a hang out place but it was where we were allowed to gather for the purposes of studying together and helping each other get through the course.   At first I didn't go down there but as the situation with my roommates began to quickly deteriorate, I found myself going down to the basement more and more to get away from them.  Granted it was mostly male soldiers that were down there but HELLO --females compromised less than 10% of the entire student body AND there were other females (none of my roommates though) that frequently went downstairs too.  Remember that.  Its important.

"Free time" was also used if you needed to retake a test, meet with the instructors and discipline problems were usually handled during this time --getting called to the Commandant's office, etc.

We were not allowed to have any civilian clothes with us.  We had our uniforms and our PT (physical training).  You may be familar with the grey PT uniform that is quite popular now with the branch of service written across the shirt in large black block letters, ARMY.  But back then, we didn't have a specified PT uniform --we just wore whatever work out clothes we had.

We were not allowed to leave the school unless we had a weekend pass, and those had to be earned by doing extra jobs, which was tough considering the work load we already had.  The first two weeks no passes were allowed and thereafter, passes could be earned.

Sorry to bore you with all these details but as the PLDC story unfolds, you'll see how all of these details play and important part of the story.