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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 |W 1 4’ “ JiH ■! i ♦ On Truly Quality Home Furnishings OPEN ALL DAY ♦ ♦ If One ° f the 4 SaleS We haVe a year sth 9 A.M to 9 P.M. : ♦ WBg£cw|K TotlffiL / J j//^/JjjM Ay \k * ♦ Jv feiiife | Savings in every Dept. As } ♦ -jMjr II K ♦ t a Grand Opening Os Our Additional 25* ♦ ♦ Ar discount on ♦ 5 J # Greatly Enlarged \X Every Accessory J J„ , „ c . B Carpet De P ar,ment Vx. in our Store t | Bank Rate Financing Featurin g Famous J | i* ;l =i.i,i i WUNDA WEEVE. Free Delivery ♦ ♦ v MM IM A M» w»m A W < 100 IVlilcs ♦ : CULLER’S HALF ACRE : f Famous For Fine Furniture At Low Prices 5' * ♦ Short Drive Store Located Between Aiken & Augusta On U.S. No. 1 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 MR. 4 MRS. GOLPHiN PAGE, OWNERS FOR QUICK DEPENDABLE SERVICE CALL US AT -722 9102 OR STOP BY AT 1626 SAVANNAH ROAD 852 GWINNETT STREET Page 7 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.”