| The next day, the new boots were taken to Main Side buildings for two days of written tests. "I scored 110 on
the General Military Test," recalled Sarno. "Those who got a score of 120 were asked to go to Officer’s School."
In the afternoon, the men took a basic radio school test, and many of those who scored high later went on to be in
the Communications Section. The recruits were allowed to list their preferences for a military specialty. Chris
Sarno’s preferences were tanks or artillery, although he knew very little about either. When making his choice, he
said that he just used common sense. As an usher in the Boston movie theater, he used to see numerous
documentaries after World War II. "Tanks always caught my fancy with their brutish appearance, speed and fire
power," he said. During one afternoon of testing, he not only happened to chose a preference that sealed his
fate as a tanker in Korea, he also had to pass a very unusual psychological test. "I remember that we were asked
to draw a side profile of a woman," recalled Sarno. None of the boots knew exactly why they had to do this. The
one boot who dared to ask was verbally berated by the DI for so much as questioning "why". Everyone just assumed
that the drawing ended up with a Marine Corps psychiatrist. "Self expression does reveal personality pluses and
minuses," Sarno noted. |
