 Basic training at Fort Ord
(Note: click on images to see larger view of the picture)
Before the filming of Season One began, the network suggested that the cast of Combat!
go to Ft. Ord army base for a crash course to familiarize themselves with the military.
Since all the stars attending this basic training had already served in the armed forces,
the ten-day trip served more for a photo opportunity than a learning experience.
 The
training was bally-hooed in the pre-press for the series.
The actors went through the same training as new recruits, with the only exception
being that they could leave the post at night. They would arrive at 7:30 in the morning
and work until evening.
Pierre Jalbert remembers Fort Ord fondly. “It was your usual quick indoctrination
into the military and the feeling of it all. It was pleasant and the military was very
nice. We got the uniform. We went to a few training sessions and learned to handle the
guns.”
 Rick Jason was not as enchanted with the trip, thinking that basic
training is something one should go through only once in a lifetime. While walking to the
PX, Rick Jason had a run-in with an officer, who chewed him out for not saluting.
Instead of proper military remorse, Jason just responded, “Yeah?” Unlike
run-ins Jason had had with officers in his real military career, this time he knew he
couldn’t wind up behind bars.
 The actors met many Army officers while at Fort Ord. They were looking
over the new actors and new series with great interest, to see if this was a show they
wanted to support.
They decided to support it wholeheartedly.
 Georg
Fenady recalls that, “We got incredible cooperation from the army. We always had a
cavalry officer with us — no less than a major, and maybe a colonel — for the
years that we worked, as a technical advisor and liaison. Whatever we needed, I’d
just call whoever was the colonel at the time and say we’d need ten tanks on this
day, two half-tracks, and so on and so on. Everything we could get from the army was
delivered and they were incredible.”
 The advisors made sure the actors and actions
remained true to military life. “It wasn’t objections, as much as keeping us
honest, in a sense. They didn’t say ‘Can’t do that.’ It was just,
‘We wouldn’t do that,’ and ‘It didn’t happen that
way.’” [. . .] One of his pet peeves, which I still hear every day, is on a
radio transmission. Over and out. Over and out. He would cringe. You never say ‘Over
and out.’ ‘Over’ means you’re going to continue the transmission.
‘Out’ means it’s out.”
 
At Left: Shecky Greene, Vic Morrow, Rick Jason, Pierre Jalbert, and Steven Rogers
coming out of the Close Combat Course. The motto above the gate reads: If you
fail here - you fail in combat. If you fail in combat, you die.
All photos on this page scanned from the private collection of Rick
Jason.
 Related Reading:
To
Benning and Back: The Making of a Citizen Soldier
Subtitled: My Journals of Daily Life in U.S. Army Basic Training and Officer
Candidate School, from Private to Second Lieutenant, from First Call to Lights Out, and
Yes, Everything in Between.
by Monroe Mann
Book Description (FROM THE BACK COVER):
You have in your hands the true, daily, blow-by-blow, journal entries of the author as he
went through Army Basic Training and Officer Candidate School, concluding with his being
called to active duty for the first time on September 11th, 2001. If you have ever
wondered what basic military combat training is really like, and what it really does to
you physically, mentally, and otherwise—or simply just want to relive it—read
this book. It is probably as close to feeling the real thing as you can get (short of
doing it). Most books about such events are either written after the fact in the past
tense by someone who went through it years earlier, or written in the third person by
someone tagging along who has no idea what is really going on. This book is different.
It’s all in the present; it’s all in the first person; little has been cut;
everything is true; the adventure is real. Enjoy.
From the Publisher
"To Benning and Back: The Making of a Citizen Soldier" recounts the daily,
blow-by-blow journal entries of NYC-based actor Monroe Mann, as he completed Basic
Training and Officer Candidate School, became an officer in the Army National Guard, and
saw duty at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. Written in the style and language of
today’s youth, "To Benning and Back" speaks to young Americans on their own
terms, offering a refreshing new view of duty, honor and country for the 21st century.
Paperback: 424 pages
Dimensions (in inches): 0.94 x 9.00 x 6.00
Publisher: Unlimited Publishing;
ISBN: 1-588-32069-3; (November 2002)
List Price: $19.95 Check Amazon price... |
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