Americas Army was in complete disarray after the Viet Nam war. Broken equipment, no supplies, alcohol, drugs, crime, race riots and a complete lack of discipline. To fill the ranks the government lowered the mental qualifications to the lowest possible level and allowed criminal convictions to be waived and in some cases, they went directly from criminal courts to basic training. Many of the young men who enlisted in the Army had IQs below 65 and scored so low on aptitude tests that they would be considered mildly mentally retarded by mental health standards. The Army enlisted over 300,000 of these low mental category young men, mostly black and poor white men from large inner-city ghettos and the back roads of America. The Army called these young men "McNamara's 100,000, the soldiers called them the "Moron Corp". To add insult to injury the Army created their own special version of the "Scarlet Letter" they assigned all these low mental category soldiers serial numbers that began with US67. To further identify them drill sergeants at basic training posts created additional methods of tracking them. One such method was to place white dots on their helmets and hats. This is the Army that existed when America fed up with war ended the draft and began the All-volunteer force. This is the story of a young man and twenty of his friends from high school who volunteered to become part of this force. They didn't volunteer out of a sense of duty. They volunteered for the cash bonus that was being offered to entice young men into the service. More specifically they joined for the opportunity to own what every male teenager in America desires above all else, new cars. These were intelligent young men with high school degrees some had even taken and scored high on college exams. But because they decided to get drunk and raise hell the night before their entrance testing, one of them Roger Berlin, probably the smartest of the bunch slept through the exams and got tagged with US67. It was going to be a battle of wits. The bureaucracy of the U.S. Army against a smart young man from the woods of Northern Michigan. No one could predict what was going to happen.
About the Author: Danny G.I. Pummill was born to a military family and raised around the world and spent his last three years of high school in Northern Michigan (The U.P.). He enlisted in the Army and rose to the rank of Colonel. His military duties took him to over 33 countries and all 50 states. After his retirement, he served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army and Later the Acting Under Secretary for the Veterans Benefits Administration. He and his wife Paula reside in Northern Virginia, but both still call Northern Michigan home.