Birth of the Lion

By Joseph W Gadbois

Because of the problems with juvenile delinquents, the government came up with a policy to take into the military some of the delinquents and see if they could straighten them out. The hard core delinquents right to reformatories from the different courthouses.
After training some of the delinquents had the opportunity to go to South America and fight communist rebels at the request of certain governments. A group went to Guatemala, both to fight and to rescue two pilots that had crashed. Those that went were all volunteers.
Once the mission was over a few of the Rangers were recruited by the Government to help stamp out the individuals who believed they were above the law.
So, was born the LION and with his recent inheritance has plenty of money to help exterminate those above the law. This was done under the direction of the CONTROLLER and backed by the government.
Behind the CONTROLLER was a group of Senators, Representatives and some very rich influential business people that had gotten together to make sure justice by our laws was handed out and the guilty punished accordingly no matter how.
It seemed that in the center of Massachusetts at the time had some real problems that needed such an individual.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483630090

Joseph W Gadbois

Started writing short stories as a hobby about what I had been involved in, what I had seen and what I had read about. Live in Central Massachusetts and at one time worked for different Detective Agencies, and did Insurance investigation and inspections on a part-time basis. Spent 32 years in the military. Most of it in the Army Reserves, Air Force Reserves and the Massachusetts Army Nation Guards where I retired in 1988 as a Platoon Sergeant E-7

Book preview

GUATEMALA RESCUE

As a juvenile delinquent it didn’t take long before the authorities had had enough of our mischievous and troublemaking deeds before they would round us up and prosecute us. It was just a matter of time. We had been warned but I for one didn’t believe it.

The police were waiting for the right moment and the right incident to round us all up from every corner of town. What we didn’t know at the time was that this was going on across the state and country. The state had just finished a juvenile delinquent home or reformatory on Rt.2 and was talking about a few more.

I never worried about getting arrested because my godmother’s husband was the chief of police. I thought that would be in my favor from being picked-up. I was wrong. When the Chief put the uniform on, he was all cop. He didn’t care who you were. If you messed up, you went up, no matter who you knew.

At the time, the military was taking in juvenile delinquents as an experiment for training and possible help to re-educate and straighten out the individuals. The real hardcore of the juvenile delinquents went straight to reformatory right from court where they had to stay until they were twenty-one years of age.

One warm, quiet evening, two young college women were raped on the common of the town near the college.

That was all the police needed to round us up and haul us to court even though the police actually knew who the rapist were and they had the two already in jail. This didn’t stop them. It was a chance to clean up the town and show the townspeople that we would either be forced to straighten out, move out of town, or go to reformatory that was just completed and was waiting for inmates to show up.

The judge, just for our benefit, held night court. The sooner we were out of town the better. About thirty-five juveniles were rounded up from the three gangs that were active at the time and causing trouble in town. As it turned out, we were part of individuals that was rounded up in at least fifteen communities in central Massachusetts.

The judge gave us no choice. Either leave with members of the Armed forces or be transported to reformatory. Not one of us could leave town on our own. In the courtroom were members of all the branches of service Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. If they didn’t want us, or refused to accept us at whichever base we were going to, then we would be returned to our state and sent to reformatory until we were twenty-one years of age.

Myself and eight others and were told we would be going with the Army Sergeant and his four men and would be transported to Fort Benning, Georgia for our training. Because of our ages, we would have to stay on active duty for a minimum of four years or be returned to Massachusetts and be incarcerated until we reached the age of twenty-one.

Those that were under the age of seventeen were sent right to reformatory. They would remain there until they reached age twenty-one or as soon as they reached the age of seventeen, they could ask for active duty within the Armed Forces which depended if they would be accepted.

Handcuffed together, we were taken out to a waiting vehicle that would take us to the train terminal in Springfield.

As we were led out of the courtroom, I noticed my father was smiling for the first time in quite a while. I was definitely a hellion and always in trouble. As I walked by my father, I heard him say, You won’t make it and will be sent home in a casket before too long. It’s true. I hate being told what to do and always did what I wanted to do.

At the train station, we met another group of juvenile delinquents, also handcuffed. There was a special passenger train with several cars just for us. Once inside the passenger cars, we were cuffed to chains that were bolted to the floor, installed just for us. The cars were also full of juveniles.

Four cars were dropped off on a siding next to Fort Dix, New Jersey. On the trip down to Fort Benning, we had stopped at least five times to drop off some cars and pick up a few more. These cars were also dropped off on sidings near a military base as we headed south. Waiting for the cars were armed military people.

When we finally arrived at Fort Benning, we were met by more Army personnel that were well armed. After we had the handcuffs taken off, we were herded onto 2-1/2 ton Army trucks for the rest of the journey to the area that we would stay until either accepted or sent home.

It was early morning, and I believe it was at least two days later. But in reality, it wasn’t. Inside the base, we were joined by the rest of the juveniles that had been rounded up throughout the United States and slated for Fort Benning. All together we were told that there were about 3000 of us.

The processing into the Army was long and tedious. Around half of us were accepted by the Army. The rest were sent back to their individual states and the courthouse that had sent them, then to be locked up. Only 1,600 were accepted.

Those of us that were accepted was then broken down into thirty-man groups and assigned to large tents that was under guard by MP’s and seasoned Rangers. Surrounding the tents was a ten-foot-high chain-link fence.

Most of the accepted individuals were too tired to try and run away, but a couple of dozen individuals tried. They were all caught and placed in a stockade. They would be processed out of the Army and then escorted back to their states and confined until they were twenty-one.

It had been almost forty-five hours since any of us had been in a bed. It really felt good even on metal Army cots. We only got catnaps on the train.

About five hours of sleep, we were rudely woken up by individuals who were practicing on how to play the drums and bugles. They marched through the tents to make sure we were awake.

Once dressed, we were marched to breakfast in fifteen-man groups, then to a large field where we were told to sit on the ground and pay attention. Each group had three armed guards to make sure we went where we were supposed to be and not sneak off somewhere.

When everyone was assembled, they started by telling us we were an experiment to see if the military could form us into a fighting group and be able to take orders and work together as a team. We hope we can send you people back to society as good productive individuals." With that we all laughed out loud.

They went on to explain how we were going to become Rangers even though we didn’t volunteer for such training. Then again, we didn’t volunteer for anything to do with the military.

They explained the steps leading to, Ranger training:

A. Basic Infantry training

B. Advanced Infantry training.

C. Then preliminary Basic Ranger Training.

D. Ranger Advanced Training

If successful, you will graduate as a Ranger.

Some of us would be selected for OCS. It turned out I was one of them.

E. Training included the following

Advance weapons training

Running everywhere we went. They didn’t believe in walking.

Sniper training with the Springfield rifle.

Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (which is now called LRRPs).

Intensive map and compass reading.

Escape and Evasion.

Air to Ground assault teams. (You jump from Copters that are flying slow, about ten to twenty feet off the ground.)

Pathfinding.

Hand-to-hand combat, with and without a combat knife or bayonet.

And whatever else they thought of throwing at us.

Some of the instructors we had were from the original Rangers of WWII that had stayed in the Army and some had gone to Korea. They had been in the thick of combat and had no mercy on us. They had survived everything the Germans, Japanese, and Koreans had thrown at them. So our training was hard. They wanted us to also survive in any combat situation.

We either learnt what they were teaching us or the individuals who failed that particular segment of training were sent back for retraining; some had died in training because they didn’t follow orders or committed suicide.

Some delinquents stated they would not participate in any form or manner and would not fight. They were weeded out and sent back under armed guard to their individual states for confinement.

Out of the 1,600 who were accepted by the Army from the original 3,500, only 900 graduated to become Rangers and 680 of us had volunteered to go to South America and help the Guatemalan government under the SEATO Pact to help eliminate the communist rebels and some of their own people who had joined the rebel cause. We were then down to 136 teams, addition to20 Medics. My group had five teams, thirty men, and three Medics. I had graduated from OCS and was a 2nd lieutenant.

The other 220 individuals became instructors to help train the new incoming juvenile delinquents, and some transferred to other units within the Infantry.

Some of the original 3,500 that were not accepted went back to their home states; some were killed in training, some committed suicide, and about 125 were committed to mental institutes in their own states as being totally out of it and could never be released into society.

As we were getting ready to deploy to Guatemala, one of our brand-new fighter jets went down in the mountains while taking pictures on a recon mission and to check the aircraft out for combat.

My group of five teams was chosen to go into the mountain and make sure that the