Chapter 1: Impure Thoughts

Every year, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) of the U.S. Army conducts an “Advanced Camp” between Junior and Senior year of college for its cadets to prepare them to be commissioned officers. In 1980, the cadets from the New York City area colleges performed so poorly at Advanced Camp, they were deemed unprepared. Each individual college attempted to improve their own programs before sending their cadets back in 1981. However, they were still deemed unprepared. So, in 1982, the New York City area colleges decided to pool their resources and run “pre-camps” during the spring breaks of Junior year at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The trainers there agreed to fit them in during the weekdays. So cadets would arrive on a Monday afternoon by bus from their respective colleges, stay in one shared barracks building, and leave that Friday afternoon. That would be three full days of training and two half days. Since the colleges didn’t all have Spring Break at the same time, there would need to be more than one pre-camp. Attendance would be voluntary for cadets UNLESS they were receiving full ROTC scholarships. They would be required to give up their Spring Breaks and attend.

Sadly for Edna Jackson, she was a scholarship cadet. She was a couple of years older than her fellow Juniors since she served two years as an enlisted soldier before starting college. She didn’t believe she even needed “Advanced Camp” much less “Pre-Camp.” She had been “Trainee of the Cycle” in her Basic Training at Fort Dix. She had been promoted quickly to Specialist and then Sergeant in her two short years between Basic Training and Freshman Year of college. Her obvious knowledge and leadership skills resulted in her being the first ever African American female cadet in the Fordham ROTC program to be selected as Cadet Captain of her class. The three other ROTC Programs that shared Fordham’s Spring Break week, City University of New York, St. John’s University and Hofstra University, week agreed that Edna should be in charge of the female “half-floor.”

There were one hundred male cadets going to the pre-camp and only sixteen female cadets. The three story barracks they had been allowed to use could not accommodate one hundred male cadets on two floors. Each floor was designed to hold forty men, one platoon. And so, it was decided to split the third floor in half giving one side to twenty male cadets and one side to the sixteen female cadets. A temporary, but STURDY, wall would be installed in the middle from the floor to the ceiling in the hallway between the two latrine/showers entrances in case any male cadets got ideas. Since each floor was symmetric around the middle, the male cadets on the third floor would have as much space as the ones on the first and second floor. The female cadets on the third floor would have a little more room since there would be only sixteen of them sharing the latrine and showers instead of twenty, but that wasn’t their fault and nobody resented them for it. Also, none of the other cadets resented Edna’s position of authority, either at pre-camp or back at Fordham, not even the male cadets.