It was our fifth week of basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Echo 6/10 was on bivouac. Basically, four days of playing war in the woods. One of the things we had to do was walk the perimeter at night as roving guard. We did it for an hour, then woke the guys relieving us, and as soon as we were properly relieved, crawl into the shelter half pup tent and catch up on sleep.

One night, my battle buddy, Private Caton, and I woke the guys who would walk the beat around the camp after us. Privates Dearinger and Reid got dressed, got their weapons, and went off to walk their tour.

In the morning, at stand to, the drill sergeants were talking amongst themselves, and at chow, Dearinger and Reid were looking very embarrassed.

After we had relieved them, Dearinger and Reid had started their patrol of the perimeter, and in the dark woods, had gotten lost. The sergeant of the guard had gotten supicious when he had not seen them in a while. The assumption had been that they had gone AWOL-Absent Without Leave.

What had happened was that Reid and Dearinger had realized they were lost, and had tried to find a road or someplace where they could let someone know what had happened. And they came out of the woods-and found themselves on one of the firing ranges! Lucky for them, it was not the night firing range!

They made their way to the road, and were found by a drill sergeant passing by. He gave them a lift back to the bivouac site.

Until we graduated, those guys were known as Lewis and Clark.