Overpaid, Over-sexed, and Over There

Biographies & Memoirs

By Chris Holloway

Publisher : SilverWood Books

ABOUT Chris Holloway

Chris Holloway
Chris Holloway spent ten years as a resident in the United States, where, apart from two years' reluctant service in the armed forces, he worked at Cunard Line's North American head office in New York. Transferred back to the company's UK head office in 1966, he later worked in other secto More...

Description

Scarcely had we fallen into bed and closed our eyes after 'lights out' than we found ourselves being shaken awake and bawled at by a sergeant to "Moooove your asses …. NOW!"
I looked at my watch. It was 3.30 a.m. Feeling that some dreadful mistake had been made, I rolled over to get back to sleep again, a practice that failed to engender the NCO's sympathy.

A bemused Brit who served with the US Army in the 1950s recalls some of the humorous highlights of a life among the GIs: the 330lb New York Giants football hero with whom he shared a double bunk... the Polish asylum seeker who knew the Uniform Code of Military Justice by heart... the short-sighted and excitable Greek... the Virgin Islander who made a habit of dropping live hand grenades... the company master-sergeant who tended accidentally to call out his own name in morning assemblies...

And of course there's the author himself – who got the best job in the Army, complete with a Colt 45, eight rounds of live ammunition and permission to shoot anyone who got in his way.