Late 60's Army boot camp radio flyer wagon?

[blickcd]

I was looking through some old photos that belonged to my step-father-in-law, from when he served (was drafted) in Vietnam in the late 60's.

One that stood out is of his graduating class from Army boot camp, all the men lined up in front of the barracks, and oddly enough in front of the group was a small Radio Flyer wagon. You know, a "little red wagon" in pristine condition.

There has to be some significance to that, but the story may be lost, as the man would never talk about his time in the Army and Vietnam, and I respected his silence on that. Also, he recently passed away.

It had occurred to me that maybe at the beginning of boot camp, the group of men was given the wagon for safe keeping and it was to be returned upon graduation as intact as possible. Perhaps there is a veteran here that can enlighten me.

[McDave]

I was also in Vietnam in the late 60's, although in the Marines. My guess is that the wagon had significance only for that particular training platoon at that particular time. Basic training doesn't last very long, in actual time, although it lives forever in the minds of the participants, because that was the single biggest upheaval to that point in most of our lives. New groups of boots come in, along with new drill sergeants (DI's in our case), with each new platoon. The platoon is just a number at that point, until they make something more out of it. The next platoon inherits the number, but nothing else. My guess is that someone in that platoon found that wagon somewhere, probably early on, and it became a part of the tradition of that platoon until they graduated from bootcamp. They probably invented rituals around it, which helped to relieve the monotony of bootcamp. I would imagine that sergeants and boots alike had fun with it, or it would not have occupied a place of honor in their photo.

In the end, your guess is as good as mine.