The Infantry Adventures of Sgt William G. Altenhofen

When I Was Assigned An Infantry Mos In Spite Of Having A Profile I First Thought About What The Psychiatryst Had Told Me. He Said I Lost My Temper Very Fast And It Was Uncontrolable. My First Reaction Was To Get Very Angry My Mind Seemed To Blow Up I Wanted To Scream At Him That He Was Wrong. Than I Realized That Was Just What He Had Just Told Me. So I Always Worried That I Would Get Into A Situation Where I Would Need All My Facilities About Me And I Would Loose It And Cause One Or More People To Get Injured Because I Was Not Thinking Properly. I Found It Easy To Operate In The Infantry. The Operating Manuals Were Written So They Were Easy To Understand. I Passed All The Schools I Had To Attend And I Was Considered Very Efficient. However I Was Not The Loud Screaming Bully That Was Typical Of The Infantry Sergeant. I Was Often Critized Because I Did Not Scream At The Troops. I Found That If You Talked To Them Using Good English I Got More Done. So I Did Not Use Curse Words Or Degrade People In Any Manner. I Learned When I Went To My First Infantry Unit That If I Told Them I Had A Profile And That I Could Type I Would Be Put In A Dead End Job That Earned No Rewards So I Would Just Be Marking Time. I Could Not Operate That Way. As Soon As I Could I Got Rid Of The Profile. I Got A Few Breaks And Considered Myself Very Lucky To Accomplish As Much As I Did In The Army. I Wrote Mostly About Myself But I Did Include Bits About People Who I Considered Outstanding Good Or Bad. I Hope You Enjoy Reading This As Much As I Enjoyed Living It. Sfc (Ret) William G. Altenhofen