Scumbag: The Education of an American Officer, (Paperback)

Ft. Benning and the Infantry School produced thousands of officers for the Vietnam War as it did in World War II and the Korean War. Scumbags, the Making of an American Officer recounts the experiences of John Oreskovich in Ft. Benning's Infantry Officer Candidate School Class 4-72. This class, which graduated 12 July 1972, sent 126 commissioned officers into the United States Army. He would later return to Ft. Benning to go through Airborne School, after attending Air Defense Officer training at Ft. Bliss. This book recounts those days of intense preparatory training, written with a touch of humor and sometimes distain for what was endured: the countless push-ups, running everywhere for six months in combat boots, and the attention to detail piled on by the ever-present tactical officers. Attention to detail was a course in verbal harassment applied by the TACS of 51st Company: "hey you, Scumbag" or "you Scumbag..."