That's right, I too wanted to be all I could be. So I dropped out of
high school as soon as I turned 17 and said sayonara to my abusive
drunk of a father.
In basic training I kissed the drill sergeant's ass the way he liked it
so he made me a "squad leader". I got a special arm band and got to
order 30 year old men around. I also got PX privileges which allowed
me to start a lucrative cigarette ring. $1 per cigarette and I could
never fill the orders fast enough. A can of copenhagen was $25 and
didnt leave the telltale smoke smell. This was in 1987 when I could
get a tax free carton of marlboros for $7 I got another armband for
something called "300 PT Score" which is maxing out the physical
training scores. In AIT which follows basic, I was distinguished honor
graduate. That is where my army highlights end.
The lowlights started after I got assigned to the 7th Corps in
Auschwitz, Germany. Lowlights from a career perspective, not
sociall
and now... for the rest of the story
y. You see, (West) Germany circa 1987 was pure socialism. Legal prostitution and if you could reach the bar you could buy a drink. The Enlisted Men's Club had slot machines and blackjack tables. From the post you could hit any number of babe filled bars with a rock.
Speaking of babes... We Americans may think Mercedes, Porsche and BMW are the shit (over there they are like Dodge, Chevy and Ford - even the taxicabs are Mercedes) but in Germany they think America is the shit. And, I kid you not, dead ringers for Darryl Hannah were prowling those bars, hoping to make some unsuspecting G.I. fall in love with them, marry them, and get them a Get Into America Free card.
It was all too much for me. I received counseling statements and/or Article XVs for the following:
missing formation
dereliction of duty
missing field exercises convoy
harboring a foreign national
impersonating a doctor
impersonating an officer
drunk on duty
destruction of government property
unsanitary behavior (urinated someplace they didn't appreciate)
failure to obey a command
disregard for hygiene standards (let my hair grow over the ears)
+ more, probably, its been 14 years
Luckily i got off without a court martial. I was given a General Discharge under Honorable Circumstances (which reverted to full Honorable Discharge six months later). The code cited was Chapter 13: Unable to Adapt to Military Conditions (aka Unable to be a Robot). I got to keep my veteran status, my VA loan, etc. Lost the GI bill because I didn't last a year.
I also had to take a bus from New Jersey outprocessing (Ft Dix, is that right?) all the way to California. But I met this chick who got on in Albuquerque and ended up shackin up for a while with her in Phoenix... but thats another story.
I learned a lot in the army. How to stand in line for hours without knowing what I'm waiting for. How to eat powdered meatloaf floating in cold water while bypassing the body's auto-puke feature. And... I learned that I had made some of the best friends that I would ever have.
The end. BTW, I liked your site. The flash intro was cool but not too long, the java mouseovers (once you figure out that those medals were in fact the navigation buttons), and the overall tone was friendly. I enjoyed my visit. The only suggestion I would make is: get rid of the pop-ups. I hate those things. I know, it comes with the free site. I have a server and domain registrar license, so I'll get you a domain name and host it for free if you want.
