SLPAD - 49 - a puzzling enlistment

[Michael Bailey]

Field manual for signal corps:

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=usarmyfieldmanuals

Can’t seem to copy/paste, tho’.




The first paragraph recounts a typical fruitless and frustrating attempt on
the part of Pierce to get Levine interested in advancing in the ranks.
Pierce eventually gave up.

“Now he said, “You’re in the army, Levine. Leave isn’t
 a right, it’s a privilege.” Levine stuck his hands in his back pockets.
“Ah,” he said.
               “Well, okay.”



We learn that Levine enlisted - so, not a draftee. Korean War was over in
1953.

In 1957, some advisors were in Vietnam. Also, that fall, the 101st Airborne
Division had duties in Little Rock assisting integration of Central High
School.

Why the heck, one asks with Pierce, would Levine enlist? Is he lovelorn but
the French Foreign Legion didn’t pay enough? Were there no jobs in NYC for
a college graduate? Is he crazy?

Lazy? The Army - even a peacetime Army - doesn’t seem like anyplace a truly
lazy person would choose.

Is Levine’s puzzling enlistment at all reflective of the author’s choice to
interrupt his life with time in the service?

(Nah, that choice was probably part of the “wandering scholar” vibe, right?)

It’s, as Sarah McLachlan might say, building a mystery
https://youtu.be/_QUq72fla3o



Beetle Bailey, possibly a relative of mine:

“Beetle was originally a college student at Rockview University. The
characters in that early strip were modeled after Walker's Kappa Sigma
<https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Kappa_Sigma> fraternity
brothers at the University of Missouri
<https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/University_of_Missouri>.
On March 13, 1951, during the strip's first year, Beetle quit school and
enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he has remained ever since.” (Wikipedia)

Unlike Beetle, Levine graduated. But, like Levine’s expressed desire,
Beetle has made a career of being an enlisted man.



Unsurprised, Levine gets some stew, eats with Picnic, and then the pair set
out for a mile trek in the heat to the motor pool.

Wouldn’t one think the motor pool could drive the vehicles to them? Hmm -
how would they get back, I guess…