The Barracks by Richard Seltzer

(from Saint Smith and Other Stories)

Synopsis --
At basic training during the Viet Nam War, all-white, reservist trainees who will never be in combat and will soon go home are paired with four black trainees facing immediate shipment to Nam, who deliberately fail the course repeatedly to delay the inevitable. Tensions of the war (which none of them support) and race relations (which the reservists have never faced) come to a head over a minor incident that looms large symbolically.

Novella, 11K words

The complete text is available for free at
http://www.seltzerbooks.com/barracks....