I served in ARNG as an armored recon scout, as did my BIL. I was in graduate school and he had a beer truck route and we both were unable to attend summer camp with our unit in July. His boss had requested that he be allowed to run his route cos of beer sales during July 4 and I was in graduate school and taking exams. We were detached to another unit and another date for our summer camp. Summer camp was at Camp Shelby, extremely hot and humid, and tank trails ground to 3’ of fine silt by the tracks turned to deep mud. The Scouts still had open jeeps and BIL had misplaced much of his field gear. No poncho, canteen, nothing and thunderstorms every afternoon and thru the nights. The skitters are our state bird. BIL discovered that they had a shortage of tankers and excess numbers of scouts. Volunteered us to be tankers, thinking the tanks would be warm, dry and skitter proof. I received 2 minutes of driving instruction before going on an 18 mile road march in the night, no lights, on roads 3’ deep in mud during severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Googles were useless and my face and eyes were covered in gritty mud. I was told not to touch anything metal in case of a lightning strike. Water dripped all night resembling a Chinese water torture and it rained all night long. The other 2 tankers had hammocks strung and were moderately comfortable. Skitters love dark places like the interior of a tank. What a damn miserable night. Every surface was hard metal and no no way to get comfortable. I had scrapes and bruises all over. I had to see a medic to get grit rinsed from my eyes. I have no desire to ever be a tanker. Too much misery
