1982
PFC Danishman, B Co (Bushmasters) 4/10 Light Infantry Battalion, 193rd Infantry Brigade, Republic of Panama (CZ). Danishman was in a real bind. He had about 3 months left of military service, then he was doomed to be discharged, thereby completing his 2 year enlistment in service to Uncle Sam. It would be an honorable discharge, one that even included a few certificates of achievement. He had to get out. He didn’t want to get out, but he had to. In order to reenlist, he had to hold an E4 grade. Private First Class is only E3, and there was no way he could make E4 in the short time remaining. Danishman was in a real bind.

Danishman was not a U.S. citizen, so, along with his discharge, he would receive walking papers from the United States of America. He would have to go home. Home was Turkey. In Turkey, it is required by law that all males serve at least 3 years of active military service before the age of 22. Danishman was 24. He had signed up to the U.S. Army while his family was stationed in the U.S. His father was an ambassador to Turkey. Danishman told me more than a few stories of living in Damascus and the bombs going off in streets and in buildings. Danishman showed me a letter he had received. He would be going home in a few months, was to be tried as a draft dodger. Danishman was in a real bind.

We spoke with the re-up NCO across the quadrangle at the small post’s shopette/commissary/education center, but he wasn’t much help. All he could do was repeat the fact that E3s do not reenlist. He did go on a little about how they used to be able to, with even E1s grandfathering their way through to a 20 year retirement, but this was today. E3s cannot reenlist. Danishman was in a real bind.

We went to see the chaplain, who was very concerned about the whole thing. The lieutenant suggested we take it up with the post reenlistment NCO, so Danishman remained in a real bind.

Eventually, the first sergeant got wind of the trouble. Danishman had about 2 weeks remaining then. He had just picked up his clearing papers from personnel, and he and the first sergeant passed each other on the sidewalk from battalion. Danishman stopped to speak with him, but the first sergeant strode right past him, not even batting an eye. Dejected, and still in that real bind., Danishman wandered on back to the barracks.

2 hours later, Danishman was called down to the orderly room. Looking sharp as ever, he approached the first sergeant’s desk.

“Good afternoon, Top,” he greeted.

“Been going over your records, Danishman. Seems you’re due to leave us.”

“Yes, first sergeant.”

“I don’t like that.” He slid a DoD form across to the young man. “I’ve decided to extend you here for six months. ...You don’t mind, do you?”

“...Top...?”

“Well, it’s just until we can get you promoted and, who knows, maybe a reenlistment?”

Danishman/unbound/one each,
Dan
“Joey -- have you ever been to a Turkish prison?” -- the incomparable Peter Graves, as the ever-capable Captain Clarence Oveur