![]() ![]() Why was Pryor speaking Spanish? He never explained. It’s way up near the top of the profanity list. “Chingada madre!” If you don’t speak Spanish, you’ll have to translate it on your own. He faced discipline for missing reveille in January 1960, but got in his first serious trouble when he started screaming at a colonel. He was transferred to Baumholder and assigned the task of guarding a Nike missile at a remote part of the camp. Black troops weren’t welcome in the local taverns, and the base was staffed predominantly by officers from the American South. Pryor was assigned to Kaiserslautern, a base in the former Nazi stronghold of the Rhineland. The glowing reports from returning soldiers came from men who were stationed in relatively open-minded areas of the country. ![]() Things got worse when he shipped out to Germany. His romantic ideas about Army service weren’t going well. The young soldier’s luck didn’t improve when he was assigned to train as a plumber. Unfortunately, the base had a reputation among Black troops as being one of the most racist in the Army. They described more freedom and less racism than they faced at home, and the young Pryor saw military service as a way to escape his chaotic home life.Īfter enlistment in April 1959, Pryor was shipped to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for Corps of Engineers training. When Pryor was growing up in Peoria, he heard stories about Germany from returning Black soldiers that made the experience sound like a dream. Pryor’s career is just getting started, and Griffin keeps telling the audience that his show was the comedian’s first national exposure. The above Navy bit is from a January 1966 appearance on Griffin’s late-night show. ![]()
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