Fred Kendal - May 25, 1983
Anti-Semitism After the War II
And at that point I grabbed my rifle was apart and I grabbed the butt of my rifle and I was swinging at him. And a friend of mine--four guys that got a hold of me and, and quieted me down. We went down to the officers club, yeah--no, he reported it to our commanding officer. His name was Lieutenant Yancey. It so happens that when Lieutenant Yancey was taking Russian and he knew that I applied because I wanted to be a Russian interpreter. So I--he got me to help him with, with his lessons when we walked in there he wanted to know what happened I told and he looked at the sergeant and he said to him, "Both of you are wrong," and, you know, and it was very unusual because you know this is basic training and we all--and Lieutenant Yancey was a very nice man. He was regular army, he was airborne and the sergeant was big and fat. And we all went double-timing. He said, "Let's all go double timing." We went double-timing and the service club number one and that was like about three miles one way. While the sergeant, of course, dropped out and Lieutenant Yancey and I came back because I, I was into physical--I was a good soldier--and from that time on that sergeant didn't like me. I wonder why. You know, and the nick...the troops nicknamed him Double-Time Sergeant and he didn't like that either and he was tough on me from that time but that's an experience that I wouldn't forget. It wasn't good.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn