CHAPTER 7
THE PHOC ROC TOC
The big soldier sat alone at the bar brooding. Except for Molino and himself the Phoc Roc TOC was empty. The Phoc Roc TOC was not the official name for the enlisted men’s club of the 7th of the 402d however the phonetics expressed an essential emotion all infantrymen bore about those 90 to 100 pound rucksacks carried on their shoulders and backs. Normally the last portion of the name, TOC, an acronym for Tactical Operation Center, was eliminated and a soldier would say to his buddy, “Let’s go get a beer at the Phoc Roc.” After a time the name lost its meaning. No one remembered its origin or thought about its phonetics. Even the battalion commander referred to the EM Club as the Phoc Roc.
The Phoc Roc was typical temporary hootch construction, wider, a single
