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Guard Duty A Fact Os Life
By PFC Tom Humphrey
Guard duty is a fact of life
for most soldiers at Fort
Gordon -a tiresome, dull,
sometimes physically
uncomfortable and
occasionally dangerous fact of
life.
Each evening slightly over
100 soldiers on post are pulling
guard duty, either with the
Interior Guard, the
Southeastern Signal School
Guard, or the 4th AIT Brigade
(Military Police). That’s
enough men to provide a police
force for a medium-sized city.
Those men face a practically
sleepless night and lots of
walking, , not to mention
exposure to the elements and,
perhaps on some posts, a touch
of loneliness. If they are
permanent party, they are torn
away from their regular duty
section, sometimes hampering
operations there; and if they
are trainees, they may miss
some training that will have to
be made up.
Too, the sentinel must stay
alert. If caught leaving his post
or sleeping on duty, he can
face stern disciplinary action.
Such incidents are rare at Fort
Gordon, however.
Almost nobody likes guard,
but the prevailing view has
always been that it’s something
that somebody has to do. And,
to some extent, that’s probably
true.
“In general, guards serve as a
deterrent to some crimes and
meet a requirement for
security,” said Maj. H.A.
Dority, the post’s Deputy
Provost Marshal. “There’s no
way to remove the physical
element from security.”
Guards may also spot fires
earlier than they would be
spotted otherwise and
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occasionally a guard may
actually prevent a crime.
According to Lt. David M.
Eberhardt, former
administrative officer at
Headquarters Command, a
guard will occasionally netice
that a building has not been
secured and report it to
authorities who in turn secure
it.
But, by and large, nothing
much happens.
Guard duty is something
that every military post has,
and has had as long as there has
been a military. And for the
foreseeable future, there always
will be guard duty.
All guard duty is basically
the same -a man or men
walking through a given area
with the mission of preventing
crime. But v there are some
differences in the functions of
three guard areas on post - the
interior guard, the Signal
School guard and the 4th AIT
Brigade (MP) guard. For
example, some men carry
weapons; some don’t. Men in
some headquarters command
units may pull guard almost
once a week; some trainees in
the 4th Brigade may never pull
it at Fort Gordon, and almost
all other permanent party
personnel E-4 and below are
exempt from guard duty.
Recognizing guard duty as
an “irritant” the Department
of the Army recently
instructed commanders to cut
out sentry and guard duty for
troups by one-third, pointing
out that soldiers should no
longer be used to guard
commercial activities on
military installations. A study
with those goals in mind has
been initiated at Fort Gordon,
and some other posts have
already trimmed guard duty by
a third.
Capt. James C. Cantrell,
present administrative officer
at Headquarters Command,
says there appears to be room
for improvement in Fort
Gordon’s guard. “We’ve
already made a few permanent
changes in the posts for center
guard,” he said. “Other
changes - perhaps a reduction
in the number of guards - are
being studied.”
So, there may be some
changes in the wind for guard
duty at Fort Gordon perhaps a
change in the number and
locale of the posts; perhaps a
reduction in the size of the
guard force. But, of course,
there will always be guard
duty.
In addition to their value in
preventing crime, there are also
some who feel there is valubale
training in the act of pulling
guard. Remarked one first
lieutenant in charge of the
center interior guard recently:
“Flag detail (performed by
guards) is educational. It
teaches the men involved
something about military
tradition. And walking guard
itself is good if the men are
later sent to a combat area
where they have to pull guard.
At least they’ll have some idea
of what they’re doing.”
Even so, no one will claim
that guard duty is one of the
benefits of Army life, least of
all the lower-ranking enlisted
men (E-4 and below) who are
stuck with actually walking
guard.
In most cases, these men
trudge along for two hours
each time their relief comes up,
then have four hours off. A
tour of guard duty on center
guard lasts 24 hours on
weekends and holidays and for
about 15% hours on weekdays.
The sentinels are not
allowed to leave the guard
house during their off hours
except in cases of emergency.
“And you can’t even sleep,”
lamented one private. “Every
time you’re close to dozing off,
somebody will come through
yelling for the next relief to get
up. Naturally, they wake you
up in the process, even if you
aren’t on the next relief.”
The sentinels, predictably,
also doubt the necessity of
guard duty. “I think burglar
alarms, in most places, would
be a lot more efficient,” said a
Specialist 4. And few, if any,
feel there is much valuable
training involved. “Guard duty
here is nothing but rinky-dink,
nothing at all like pulling guard
in ‘Nam,” proclaimed another
SPec. 4, who has served in
Southeast Asia. “You can learn
all there is to know about
guard duty in one tour,” said a
PFC, “and everybody’s already
had one or more tours in basic.
I’ve pulled guard six times
since I came here a couple of
months ago and you can’t tell
me I need that for training.”
The largest of the three
guard areas on post is covered
by the Center Interior guard,
the center guard consists of 39
sentinels picked for duty, plus
one supernumerary and one
colonel’s orderly. The
supernumerary serves as a
stand-by sentinel, and normally
does not walk guard, while the
colonel’s orderly is given the
day off. Supernumerary and
colonel’s orderly are selected
by the officer of the day on
the basis of appearance and
military knowledge.
In addition to the sentinels,
all E-4 and below, there are
three commanders of the relief,
all E-5 or E-6; one E-7 sergeant
of the guard; and the officer of
the day, a first or second
lieutenant.
In contrast to the Signal
School and 4th Brigade
sentinels, every man on the
Center guard carries a weapon.
Most of the guards carry
Ml6’s, though some posts,
including four at the
ammunition storage area, carry
12 guage shotguns.
The center interior guard
sentinels are armed, according
to Lt. Eberhardt, because of
the nature of the posts which
they guard. Many -for
example the finance area,
“amo dump” and areas where
weapons are stored -- could be
considered high risk areas.
Only one post in the SESS
guard area has an armed guard,
according to SFC James Lowe
of SESS. The rest carry
nightsticks. The Signal School
guard consists of 33 sentinels,
three commanders of the relief,
one E-6 or E-7 sergeant of the
guard and one lieutenant,
commander of the guard. Their
area covers 11 posts.
No one carries a weapon in
the 4th AIT Brigade guard -
not even commanders of the
relief. The men do carry an MP
club, similar to the billy stick
carried by civilian police. The
4th Brigade guard area consists
of five permanent walking
posts and one temporary post
at present. There is also a
“motorized patrol” in a
radio-equipped jeep.
Altogether, there are 31 men
on 4th Brigade guard duty,
including three radio operators,
24 guards, three commanders
of the relief, a dut officer
driver, a sergeant of the guard
and a supernumerary.
Os the 42 sentinels in the
center interior guard, 26 are
detailed from SESS and 15
come from lower-ranking
enlisted men in Headquarters
Command.
The Signal School, according
to SFC Lowe, aims at having
each trainee pull guard twice
during his training period at
Fort Gordon, no matter how
long his course lasts. “That’s an
average,” SFC Lowe adds,
“some, of them may pull it
only once and some may get it
three times, but we try to keep
it at two times.” The two times
would include both SESS
guard and center guard.
At the 4th Brigade, a lucky
MP trainee will never have to
pull guard, and when he does
the tour of guard, on
weekdays, is a few hours
shorter. MP trainees are used
for guard duty during their
fifth week of training in any
given week. Since each
company has an average of 180
men (the number fluctuates
from cycle to cycle,
occasionally dropping to 125
and occasionally rising to as
many as 300) and only 221
men are required for sentinels
during a week’s time, only
about one-half of the trainees
will have to pull guard during
their two-weeks stay at Fort
Gordon.
In striking contrast,
headquarters command
personnel can expect to pull
guard from four to eight times
during the same eight-week
period.
There simply aren’t enough
men E-4 and below in
Headquarters Command to
make the burden any lighter,
despite the fact that many men
normally exempt from duty
because of their jobs are on the
guard roster.
This has prompted a lot of
complaints. Says First Sergeant
Donald E. Carpenter, first
sergeant of Headquarters
Company, Headquarters
Command: “I feel that
permanent party personnel
should not be pulling center
guard and stockade guard due
to their section duty
requirements. This fort has
adequate trainees to fill all of
the guard committments at the
News—Review - July 1, 1971,
present time.”
Lt. Eberhardt says that the
present center guard
requirements are currently
being reevaluated and there
will possibly be a “significant
reduction” in the size of the
center guard. This could reduce
the number of times
Headquarters Command
personnel pull guard.
The former administrative
officer also said the possibility
of expanding the number of
posts guarded by trainees
“needs to be looked into,” He
added, however, that perhaps
men with more experience are
needed on posts where
weapons are required. At
present, though, many posts
requiring weapons are manned
by trainees; and many of the
men of headquarters command
are fresh out of basic training
themselves.
Also, there are hundreds of
permanent party personnel E-4
and below on post who never
have to pull guard duty. Os all
the units on post, lower
ranking permanent party
personnel in Headquarters
Command alone pull guard
duty, though a few Signal
School personnel serve as guard
drivers occasionally and
higher-ranking NCOs may pull
sergeant of the guard.
Not only do the sentries
dislike guard duty, but the
sergeants of the guard,
commanders of the reliefs and
officers of the day - as could
be expected -- are also
disgruntled with guard duty,
though perhaps more resigned.
“I can sum up my reaction
to guard dutv in two words -
“necessary evil,”said SFC Jack
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Collins of the DPT section of
headquarters command during
a recent tour of duty as
sergeant of the guard. “I don’t
like it anymore than anyone
else, but it’s something that has
to be done.”
“At Fort Gordon, there are
probably some places they can
cut down on the number of
guards,” he said, “but then I
haven’t had a chance to really
study the situation and that’s
an unstudied answer.”
Lt. Mark Aldridge, who has
served as officer of the day on
center guard for times since
February, said guard duty is
“necessary but an irritant.”
“It does establish some
security,” he said, “but the
regulations they slap on the
guards about the use of ammo
defeats their purpose if
anything serious comes up.”
Guards are instructed not to
fire except in defense of life or
government property and then
fire to wound, not to kill. They
are not permitted to have a
loaded magazine in the weapon
and are told to yell ‘halt’ three
times and fire a warning shot
before firing to wound.”
Sps Joe Moore, who
estimates he has pulled
commander of the relief seven
or eight times in five months
he has been assigned to
Headquarters Company, said
he doesn’t particilarly like
being commander of the relief
but sees it as “ a means of
keepingthe entire post secure.”
“I know the post needs that
security because I’m aware of
human nature,” he said.
“However, I think there should
be new methods of security
devised -- maybe civilian
security forces.”