littlek15

Navy Stories of old...

My new(ish) SG friend, MercuryRae, has a boyfriend who recently joined the Navy (poor bastard!!! ) This turn of events has her both curious about Navy life and also stressed out by the prospect. Somewhere along the way, she asked me to tell her a little bit about my experiences, and I told her I would share.

But to anyone who is reading this, please take the time to read my blog from 17 April, 2009. It's a story inspired by my (I guess former - though I dispute that!) girlfriend, LoveBug, and a recent cancer scare we went through. To the best of my knowledge, only one person (Punkie) has ever read it, and due to recent drama with Bears & LoveBug (not with each other - just with me), I may be forced to take it down soon. Before that happens, I would really appreciate some more feedback on it. Thanks.

For those who are returning from that blog entry to read about my Navy career, let me just say I think I have lots of stories to (possibly) share, but today, I am mostly going to tell you how it all got started...

I moved around a lot as a kid. I had three years of high school - each one at a different school. My last (junior) year, I went to live with my father in Milwaukee, WI. What a shitty place, Milwaukee. I had gone to suburban schools in the Chicago previously, and even though I was a fairly shitty student, up until then, I still had a pretty decent education. Coming to the hood and living across the street from the projects in Milwaukee was a completely different ball game! I had nothing I could learn from the Milwaukee Public School System (MPS). They only had one math class above the level that I was at, they had basically no science curriculum, and I guess you could say that the quality of teaching was just what you might expect from an urban decay-type school. Trying to avoid gang members and pushers on a daily basis was a new experience for me. Plus, everyone was black, whereas everybody I had previously known was white. Personally, I'm 50/50, so I didn't fit in anywhere, but I had grown up (mistakenly) thinking I was white. As you might imagine, "moving to the ghetto" was quite a shock to the system.

Adding to my problems was my dysfunctional family. My mother had kicked me out when my (then)girlfriend and I tried to commit suicide - which is how I came to the quaint town of Milwaukee. When I got there, I quickly found out why my mom had left my dad when I was a baby. My father was a complete alcoholic ass, who regularly got drunk and beat his wife (whomever it was at that particular time). His then-current wife was also crazy - though we would go on to become very close. Regrettably, she died a few years back. BTW, my dad is still a drunken, womanizing ass!

My girlfriend's family was a gem too. I had met her when I was a freshman in high school. I moved away at the end of the year and promptly forgot about her; but she looked me up the following year, and we started dating. She was my very first girl. When her parents found out she was dating a black kid though, they flipped out.

Now this is rather ironic, considering Bears is half white, half Japanese. Her parents met during the Korean War at a POW camp in Okinawa. Her dad was stationed there as a prison guard, and her mom worked in the commissary. I guess it was okay to marry a Jap - still generally considered the enemy by most Americans, who were still sore about Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Saipan, Guadalcanal and countless other still recent horrors. But having your (mixed) daughter dating a (mixed) Nigger, well that was another story!

Now, Bears was two years older than I, so when I moved away to Milwaukee, she moved even further away to go to college at Champaign-Urbana (IL). Her parents were actively trying to keep us apart, and so were mine; and in 1985, long distance phone calls were still very expensive. Consequently, communication was hard. Letters had to be courried through an intermediary, and we eventually had to start writing them in code - lest our parents discovered them. But that's another story...

The key point is, Bears was the first girl I had ever kissed, and I wasn't going to let that get away from me without a fight. I still had (at least in theory) two years of high school left, and absolutely no prospects of going to college (it had been made clear that nobody was willing to pay for such a thing), it wasn't hard to see the writing on the wall. If I was going to keep this girl, drastic action would be required - which is what brought me to the Armed Forces Recruiting Station, in beautiful downtown Milwaukee.

I was still 16 at the time, and was skinny as hell (5'9", 112 lbs!), so I had a hard time getting them to give me the time of day. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, depending on your point of view) for me, the recruiter was very interested in my best friend Greg, who was one year older than me, and on the high school football team. The problem for the Army, was that Greg was having trouble passing the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Test (ASVAB) - I'm afraid poor Greg wasn't all that smart, even after you take into consideration that he was the product of MPS!

Now, Greg & I had a mutually beneficial relationship. He protected me from gang members, and I got him through his courses. When I told him that I couldn't get an appointment at the recruiting station, he told his recruiter that I could help him study for the ASVAB, but first they had to let me take the test - next thing I knew, I was taking it! They were surprised when I scored a 97/100, and suddenly I was their new best friend. Apparently, nobody in living memory could remember anyone ever scoring that high in the city of Milwaukee. I didn't know it at the time, but the recruiters had a quota they had to met, and some recruits were worth more than others. I was a minority, I was very smart, and I was eligible for every program they had to offer.

Seemingly, I was a recruiter's dream. But there were problems. First, I still had two years of high school left. Second, I was five pounds under the minimum weight limit of 117 pounds. My recruiter set his sights on me though. First, he got me to agree to go into the sexiest program he had - Naval Nuclear Power. Second, he went and talked to my HS principal, and found out that the graduation standards were so much lower in Wisconsin than they had been in Illinois, and that after my junior year, I would only be four credits short of what I needed to graduate. Third, he got a tutor for Greg, so I didn't have to worry about it. Fourth, he got me a weight waiver, with the only stipulation that I meet the minimum requirement before I got out of boot camp. Finally, he convinced my parents to sign on the dotted line to let me join when I turned seventeen - Actually, that didn't really take very much effort!

My recruiter was worried that I might change my mind, so he had one more thing to offer. Once a year, certain new recruits from Wisconsin are selected to be in a special "Ball Company". This company gets to carry a special company flag throughout boot camp, and is singled out for special attention and responsibilities. The best part though, is that we get to be sworn-in on the field at half time during a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game. All of the families get free tickets, souvenirs, etc. It was a big deal, and it was supposed to be an honor to be chosen. I was pretty excited about it.

And so it was that I went to night school in the spring semester to pick up three credits, and then I went to summer school to pick up the remaining credit. I turned 17 on April 2nd, finished summer school and graduated (no ceremony for me) sometime in August. On August 19, 1985, I shipped out the ballgame, and then on to Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, for the beginning of a six year hitch. As for my parents - they didn't even bother to get out of bed...

I don't remember all that much about Great Mistakes - except what happened at the chow hall (mess hall)! I was made squad leader of 'Ball Company-280' after the first week, which meant that it was my job to lead the company in all of our activities. Consequently, I was always the first in line to do everything. Now, one of the little things that they did to make our lives as miserable as possible was that they gave us very little time to eat. In fact, we were not allowed to eat while we were standing in line, and as soon as the last person in the company sat down to eat, we were immediately ordered to stand up and take our trays to the scullery (the place where uneaten food is thrown away and the empty trays are cleaned for reuse).

Now, as I mentioned, I had to gain five pounds before I got out of Boot, or I'd wash out. Well, as it happens, our company had no less than five recruits with the opposite problem - they were overweight, and had to loose poundage in order to graduate. Now, there were other company commanders in the mess hall with their own companies, and any company commander could come down on any recruit for breaking the rules. Consequently, my CC's were constrained in what they could do, but they did devise a plan...

I went through the line first, so I got the most time to eat - but my CC's weren't going to leave anything to chance. They especially needed to make sure I succeeded, but they also wanted the fat kids to graduate too (they had a name for recruits who were in a special program to loose weight, but I can't remember what it was). So what they did was, I was the first kid to go through the chow line, but instead of being the first in line for the scullery, they secretly moved me to the back of the line, so that I was the last one to turn in my tray. Then, the fat kids, who were at the end of the chow line, but at the front of the scullery line, would pass their desserts (which they were ordered to take, but forbidden to eat) down the line to me. Then, the tallest recruits would crowd around me so nobody could see as I stuffed all of these desserts down!

By the end of boot camp, I had gained not just five pounds - but seventeen, thus ensuring that I was able to lead my company in our graduation procession.

Our company also managed to achieve every pennant (acknowledging exceptional performance) there was - the only company to do so that year. It was a pretty proud moment for me. My parents showed up for the ceremony, but I refused to acknowledge them. In fact, I didn't speak to them again for several years.

And that is the story of how I joined the Navy!

One last thing. That girlfriend of mine, Bears - the one for whom I joined so she wouldn't leave me - we got married in 1986,

and have been married ever since!

LittleK15