Dedicated to OMM
I was pissed, pissed at everything when I went to join the navy. I was given a free college ride from my parents and was excepted to a commercial arts program... but... the old man really pissed me off when he informed me the free ride ended if I deviated from his vision. Fuck That. I had my own vision, I wanted to see shit blow up. I went down to see the Navy recruiter, a crusty old fuck of a Senior Chief. He took one look at me and said "what are you doing here?" I replied "I want to be in the Navy, and I want a contract" He looked me over, a wild haired leather wearing crazy looking kid and told me "You would be better suited in the Marines, it is two doors down. Have a nice day" ... I sat there and slumped back in my fuck you style and said "I guess you didn't hear me right, I want to join The Navy" ... "today". He looked at me close this time, in a Senior Chief way, sizing me up. I looked at him as another asshole in my way. He said "It doesn't work that way" pause "If you want to be in my Navy you have to take a test" ...
and so it started
Senior Chief – and how this story becomes deeply intertwined in our favorite plant
Somebody handed me the phone. “It's for you”. It was the Senior Chief, holy shit, I actually stood up. He asked if I was still interested in “A career in the Navy” The “career” part made me pause but the drive to be free (“free” what a cruel joke) of my current oppressor made me ask “Are you willing to give me a contract?” I knew this was the only way not to get instantly f'ed into some suck rate. His response was weird. He told me he had a LOT more to offer me than ordnance. He wanted me to consider the nuclear program... he wanted to put my ass in a sub. I asked him if he remembered what I wanted, he grunted, then and laid on him what I really wanted “I want to be a SEAL” There was a long pause I could hear him thinking. He said “Can you swim?” I told him I had been training since first grade and was a junior Olympic swimmer. That was it, he invited me to sign some papers! So I went down and we got it all drawn up and he said I have a few questions. One of the questions was “Have you ever smoked marijuana?” I smoked every day. I had no intention of ever stopping. So I said what ultimately saved my ass “Absolutely” He looked at me like I just kicked him in the nuts and got up and shut the door. He asked again about me smoking, I told him the truth “I smoke it every day” He said “Are you willing to quit to be in the Navy?” while nodding his head up and down. I got the drift and since I knew I would be dry in boot camp I said “Sure”. So he said “We are going to need a waiver” and with a stroke of a pen I had “A waiver” and was in for a long strange trip.
My parting chat with the old man.
After I signed and there was no turning back, I told my father. He paused a long pause then asked “Are you in the officer candidate program?” he being an ex-Army officer knew full well I would not qualify without college... prick. So I calmly said “You can't do that without college, I am an enlisted man” He took a long pull off his drink and said “Good luck son” and gave me a sarcastic toast gesture.
Yeah, you may be thinking my old man was an asshole but I put him through a lot and I just told him I was not going to fulfill his dreams for me... I have much respect for my father.
Finally my orders came, Orlando Florida, boot camp.
Boot Camp
What a head trip.
This story is primarily about... well that stopped me from typing for a while.
I am going to make this story primarily about my experience with marijuana during my military service. A sad thing is that when I went in marijuana was well tolerated in the Navy as was alcohol. In time through this story you will see how both came to 0% toleration.
It was nearing the end of boot when I was first offered marijuana, from a prisoner.
First a funny thing. Our RCPO ( a recruit that was picked to assist the company commander) was such a prick and suck up he pissed everyone off. One night as he slept a group of like minded individuals took their dental floss and in stealth tossed them over and under his rack until he was completely bound. He did not wake up. We all went to sleep. In the morning our Company Commander came in and as usual screamed and shouted and woke us up. I looked over at our asshole RCPO and he was squirming like a caterpillar in a cocoon Well the Commander spied the struggle and instead of cutting him out he started screaming at him to get up and “pop tall” (stand at attention) The RCPO doubled and tripled his efforts to break free to no avail. The Commander kept screaming till I thought I was going to crack up... that would have been bad. Finally he cut him out and then we paid dearly with sweat... it was worth every drop.
Second thing changed my life, or most likely saved it. We lost a “flag”. These “flags” were won by the company that performed best on whatever the flag stood for. Since we lost we were made to stand at attention while our company commander screamed at us. I watched as the time to leave for my SEAL swim test came and went. When the rant was over myself and a few others approached our company commander and told him we missed the test and asked if we could re-schedule. He told us we sucked and would never make it as SEALS if we couldn't even win a flag and that the next test was in A school. “Dismissed”
I was pissed off, again. I almost said fuck it.
I was a good recruit and as such when work week came around I was made a “chaser”. We were trained for about 5 minutes on how to be a prison guard and then made one. I was in charge of a company of misfits for the most part but we had one “bad one” a “never turn your back on” type. The only thing I was told about him was that he had been through trials for months and was “dangerous” … oh and on every third shift you have to sleep in the barracks with your prisoners, What!? On the third day I was in to “sleep” yeah right. Our rack was right by the manned night desk and there was a roaming watch too but I still slept with one eye open. That night before lights out Mr. Dangerous approached me. We were both the same size, big, so I did not stand down and prepared myself to attack. He could sense this of course and told me to stand down he had an offer of peace. Hmm. He said you want a drink? “Ahh no I don't want a drink” He said oh OK, you smoke pot then? I got some killer red weed... OMG f'ing “killer red weed” daaaang. I got right up close and got in his face and told him I was going to forget he ever made those offers but if I ever laid eyes on anything he was going down for it before I was. After that he hated me. He would sing cadence on our way to chow. On the first trip to the chow hall he started singing some shit about me and got my boys to drag their feet.”HALT!” they halted. “ABOUT FACE!” They all turned and he started yapping. I walked over and got in his face and told him that this is going to be bad but it is going to get a whole lot worse if he did not shut the fuck up. They all heard me. “March!” back to the barracks we went. I dismissed them and Mr. Dangerous and a couple of his thugs got in my face and demanded food. I explained that they already ate once today and that is all that is required. If they wanted to fuck with me any more I would have them on bread and water. They never fucked with me again. You should have seen the barracks chiefs face when I marched them in. He called me in his office and said wtf? I told him that they fucked with me and that I told them they would be on bread and water until I left unless they stopped fucking with me. He got a big shit eating grin and said “Dissmissed”
It was another week or two before I actually smoked in boot camp.
It was the end of boot. Since we were in Orlando, Disney made some deal to steal all the recruits money. We had a couple days so I asked if I had to go to fucking Disney world...wtf? The answer was “No.”
Cool!! I had a plan. I was a smoker. Where do all smokers eventually end up? At the head shop!! I asked if there was a big mall we could get some civilian clothes, there was. Myself and a couple other like minded individuals headed for the mall. We got some clothes and changed but there was no hiding those fucking haircuts We went to the mall head shop and tried for and hour or more to convince stoners to get us high. These folks were already freaked to be in a big mall buying pipes and shit and here come the three stooges to ask them for pot. Yeah, we failed.
On the sad walk back to base I spied a kid coming towards us. I “knew” < (I will tell you about that in time) this kid had or knew where to get pot. I said I would do the talking. When we were about to pass I chucked out a “Hey, How ya doing?” and he responded “cool” I said “Hey you don't know where we could score some weed do ya?” He said “Sure, my brother has some killer weed” Yeeeha!
So we followed the kid to a little spot in the woods between the mall and a housing development. It was a party spot for kids. Hell I was only 18! So I gave the kid $40.00 for a zip and off he went. As we waited I wondered if he would actually come back but again I “knew” this kid would come through so we waited. Just about the time we had to leave the kid popped through the trees! Cool.
He pulled out a bag that I to this day have not seen anything like. The buds were all colors!!! Red, yellow, green, brown, dark brown some buds were a mix of those colors. It was awesome, I called it “rainbow pot”. We bent up a soda can and popped a few holes and we were smoking!!! Damn it was good!! well the can tasted like shit but damn!!! we were smoking. Sweet we got baked and headed back to base. I had a bag and a plan...
To be continued
Getting high on base... freaking boot camp base!!
PS I am using the language that was in my head at the time... I have mellowed. A little.
As I neared the base I was on high alert. I thought we would just score a couple joints. Instead I had a four finger bag of sweet bud! I could not keep a giant freaking bag of pot in boot. Even at the end we never knew when our shit would be gone through. The plan was to involve a select few who were tight with my boys and had watches to get us, the bag and a can... up on the roof that night For you folks writing the movie it was like a fucking mission impossible thing to do this. We did it though. We put our folks in place, gained access to the nice large flat roof and smoked our brains out . The watches were not allowed to smoke... foolish on many levels, but they were granted access to the bag that would be left on the roof for all involved who could arrange a night visit while not on watch. I was able to arrange two more visits and to this day I wonder how many folks got a chance to get high, there were a lot
Next stop would be Millington Tennessee. Yee-Ha
But first a couple weeks leave, a big bag of cactus and ill will back home.
I got back home from boot on a short stop. It may have been a holiday my memory is “tricky” I went to the local pub a little early and no one was there. A few of my friends started to show and while there was a greeting from them, something was off. A very close friend showed and I asked what was up. He told me things were and have been strange. He told me that another friend had gone “south” and was seeing things and feared for his life...wtf. That friend showed up, I went over and sat with him at the bar and asked what was up. He told me what I heard was true. There were folks that lived in the woods behind his house that were out to kill him. He told me everything was OK though because he had guns and ammo at home and felt safe. (we all had guns and ammo, we hunted and shot for fun) That was the last time I spoke to him... I will tell his story in time.
So people were being weird, standoffish if you will...wtf? Then a good friend but not one of my tight buds showed up and greeted me like I thought they should have... oh well we sat and had a brown soda and talked. I asked if he wanted to go out and smoke and he said “sure” While we were smoking I asked if he knew what was up with my boys. He told me one of them told the rest that I said something like “I am getting out of here (navy) and the rest of the boys are loosers for staying in this town” or what ever bullshit he had spewed. WTF I wanted to go find him and start kicking some ass. JQ (the friend I was with) said “Calm down man, you can't fix it tonight” I was also pissed at my boys for believing that bullshit... man was I pissed. JQ said “Listen you can fix it tomorrow, check this out.” and he tossed me a big silk bag that looked and felt like a sack of potato's only smaller. I pulled out a nice dry button They still had fuzz so we got to work cleaning and consumed many. We might have eaten them all. We smoked a few joints and went out and about to a few more night spots. After a technicolor power puke I was way gone. I did not see my boys that night. I did manage to talk to some before I left but to this day I think they believe the asshole that was saying shit. After all why would he lie? WHY? Tell me WJ why did you lie? … FU WJ (yes I have never seen him to this day) I don't understand people.
On to “A” school and my first barracks room... where I learn what racial prejudice is really all about.
Millington Tennessee … dang.
Before I go on I have to explain how naive I was. I grew up in upstate New York and lived in a rural town. Out of about 500 kids in my class 2 were black. I was taught that it was bad to be prejudice and shown examples of white folks being prejudice against black folks. That is all I knew and that is how I thought it was, I held 0 animosity towards black folks... why would I? A couple of the guys I sat with on the roof in boot were black
When I met my first room mate I had no problem he was black, in fact we would become friends. We talked and told brief histories, then he told me this was going to be a tough room to live in. What? He went on to tell me my other three room mates were also black, I was like so? He said that two of them were not “cool”. I had no idea what he meant but I quickly found out. Another room mate showed up he was quiet and kept to himself, he was also “cool”. Then “they” rolled in. The mouth of the two took one look at me and said “Fuck no!, I knew they were going to put a fucking white boy in here and fuck us all up” The other one said some agreeing rump swabbing comment.
Holy shit... my mind was reeling, this did not even make sense. These guys were prejudice against ME! What? WTF? I prided myself in not being prejudice. I had no problem what color you were, as long as you would burn one with me I don't know if I said anything, I think I just stood there stunned. To make things worse “the mouth” was my top bunk mate, yay. For the next week I suffered every nasty slang you could call a white guy. The mouth would physically try to intimidate me getting in my face and so on while calling me a ration of shit. This was fucking awesome (sarcasm)... holy shit.
Then it happened, the mouth bought an 8 track and one tape, the Commodores Oh it gets better. He starts to play the tape 24/7. This lasts for two sleepless days for me then I delivered... “the ultimatum”
I did not go out at first and just did the work at hand. I would have been smoking every day if I had it. I started to make some light inquires and would soon find something to smoke. I was all about sleep. I realized in boot camp how valuable sleep was, not just as a commodity to make you well rested, oh no, sleep was escape. Sleep came like wonderful vacation every day. We all had to do “mess duty” at first … long hours of hard work, I loved sleep.
When the mouth came in with his new 8 track player I thought “cool we will get some tunes” My favorite music was jazz, some of my friends played back home. They introduced me to all sorts of music. One of my close friends played trumpet and I was exposed to and really dug the likes of Miles Davis and Chuck Mangione. I was always way out there and my all time favorite was Zappa . So when the 8 track walked in I was hopeful. The mouth pulled out one tape (the only tape he ever had) it was the Commodores. That was cool with me, a little commercial but easy to listen to. He popped in the tape cranked it and sang along... Oh yes he loved to sing So the tape played and played... and played.
Eight track tapes are in a loop, there is no end. I was tired that night and crashed even though it was pretty loud (I never sleep with music) but I woke up in the middle of the night and the music was still playing and I could not get back to sleep. The next night was much the same. I was so tired from lack of sleep I just crashed... only to wake up a short time later with everyone including the mouth asleep and the Commodores and I stayed up all night. As I laid awake I began to formulate a plan.
This was not going to be pretty. I knew I might have to fight and started to mentally prepare myself to fight two... maybe four. After work/school that day we all arrived back at the room (oh how I longed for 4:20) the tape was still playing. As I sat resting to the Commodores, I laid out “the ultimatum”. “The ultimatum” was actually a request but since the mouth felt the way he did towards me it was taken as an ultimatum. I told him I had not slept for two days because of the music and asked him to turn it off tonight at ten. Turns out the two “cool” roommates were down with this and when the mouth started in they backed me up... cool. Now I might have to only fight two. I had drawn the line in the sand and I was ready to defend it.
That night as I lay wide awake and ten approached I was fully prepared. I ran it through my mind, I would ask him to shut it off and if he did not, I would back my request with action. At ten I asked him to shut it off. He was half asleep but managed to tell me to “fuck off and kiss his ass” I was just about to get up and take the tape when I realized the plug was right next to me... so I pulled it. He lit off telling me I better plug that in or he was gonna get up and kick my ass. That was the threat I was prepared for, I flew out of bed, grabbed him by the scruff of his t-shirt and hauled him off the top rack and pinned him to the ground (I wrestled in high school) my mouth was close to his ear when I told him I was the craziest white boy he had ever met and I don't know what I am capable of if he does not comply with the “the ultimatum” He could not move and his buddy was so stunned and scared he stayed in his rack. He said he would comply. That was it, it was over. He knew I was crazy... no one can deal with crazy he gave me wide birth and the room became almost peaceful by the end.
Meanwhile I had made a connection in mess duty and would soon be smoking...
PS The mouth changed me, taught me and made me understand how bad racial prejudice really is.
After the showdown things became almost normal in the room. The mouth hated me even more but no longer called me names and it stayed like that till I left. I had to do work details prior to starting school. I lucked out and got mess duty. I had a past in food service from pot washer to cook and bus boy to waiter. I was asked by the first class if I had any past food service so I told him I had been a prep cook (an easy job in the kitchen with status above most and none of the pressure of being a line cook, I had been both ) so he put me in charge of the salad bars, cool. I had a couple of co-workers and together we had as good a time as we could while busting ass. We had a good job with none of the serious shit cleanup work. One of my co-workers was small and more “citified” northern type and the other was a big proud red neck from the deep south. I found out both smoked North had a bong! He and south had been smoking at lunch and invited me along. The weed situation sucked. I think we were all smoking hemp I don't recall one decent bag of weed the entire time I was there. I remember being broke all the time, the three of us even sold our blood for $15.00 each just to get some shit weed Then school started.
I wanted to do well. I found a lot of what they taught came easy to me and I was doing well. I was still partying with my mess hall friends. We went out a few times in Memphis to party and one day I asked my “cool” roommate if he wanted to join us. He agreed and out we went to a “neutral” club. The ladies were interested in my roommate like he was from another planet (for you folks just starting to read he is black) they were all over him and the local boys were not happy. We ended up leaving early but no trouble. “Cool” decided to teach me a lesson. He asked me if I wanted to go out with him. I of course said yes! He told me to go to the liquor store and get the biggest bottle of Brass Monkey I could find. I asked him what it was and what it tasted like and he replied “Your not gonna drink it fool! It is for the ladies!” I got a giant bottle and out we went. When I entered the club the music actually stopped like you see on TV. Cool raised his hand in a “it's cool” gesture and we were “allowed” to enter. He had some friends already there and they had a big table.. no ladies, yet. The ladies were much more aggressive than I had ever been used to... they wanted to find out about this unusual folk who had entered their domain. A whole group of ladies came right over and started grilling me “where you from?” “what are you doing here?” and so on. Before you know it all the guys at my table had a lady taking to him and I had about 5 This pissed off the locals. I am not sure how the word came to Cool but he told me we were asked to leave!.
The cool thing was we got to experience each others environment.
School wore on. I did well.. So well I was third in the class but the top Navy guy. There were two Marines that were first and second (there would have been three but the poor bastard dropped a fake missile warhead during loading and washed out.) At the last day of school we were brought in and sat down in front of a giant board of orders. All kinds of duty... I had no fucking idea what I was looking at. We were given our rank in the class and told we would be able to pick orders based on that rank. I realized I was number one and I was getting dizzy trying to figure out all these orders, holy shit. Then they ordered a smoke break, that smoke changed my life...
I was totally fucked, I knew there would be no touchy feely explanation of orders, it would be you are called on and pick. Fuck.
I lit a smoke and tried to relax, then I saw him eyeballing me. I did not know or party with anyone in class so I did not know this guy. He was practically staring me down. I, being me, said “What the fuck are you staring at?” he replied “You.” after a pause he said “You are one lucky son of a bitch, there are only two P3 orders and you will for sure get one cause you are picking first.” I replied “What the fuck is a P3?” His face went about white when he realized I had no idea what gold P3 orders were and that he fucked himself out of chance to get one... “Cats out now” he said “P3 orders are the best in the Navy, you never go on a ship and you get awesome deployments” … I lucked out again. He further explained there were a set of orders for Florida and a set for Brunswick Maine. I debated taking orders close to home but I already knew I hated Florida (sorry Floridians but this northern boy likes 4 seasons) it was hot and humid and not my style. When we went back in I picked the orders to Maine and was happy the fellow who had wanted the other set so badly got them!! I did not even notice the orders read “aircrew” ordnance until I was called up the office. There was a big stink... I had come in on a waiver for marijuana and my orders required top secret clearance, they did not give top secret clearance to folks on marijuana waivers. I sat while pow-wows were conducted on my behalf. It got pretty animated and there were muffled raised voices. I think if I were not top in my class I would have been booted to a cabin boy!!! After a long time I was called in to speak for myself. I told them I had decided to work hard and get ahead in the Navy and I would appreciate the opportunity to show them.
Dismissed...
I was pissed, pissed at everything when I went to join the navy. I was given a free college ride from my parents and was excepted to a commercial arts program... but... the old man really pissed me off when he informed me the free ride ended if I deviated from his vision. Fuck That. I had my own vision, I wanted to see shit blow up. I went down to see the Navy recruiter, a crusty old fuck of a Senior Chief. He took one look at me and said "what are you doing here?" I replied "I want to be in the Navy, and I want a contract" He looked me over, a wild haired leather wearing crazy looking kid and told me "You would be better suited in the Marines, it is two doors down. Have a nice day" ... I sat there and slumped back in my fuck you style and said "I guess you didn't hear me right, I want to join The Navy" ... "today". He looked at me close this time, in a Senior Chief way, sizing me up. I looked at him as another asshole in my way. He said "It doesn't work that way" pause "If you want to be in my Navy you have to take a test" ...
and so it started
Senior Chief – and how this story becomes deeply intertwined in our favorite plant
Somebody handed me the phone. “It's for you”. It was the Senior Chief, holy shit, I actually stood up. He asked if I was still interested in “A career in the Navy” The “career” part made me pause but the drive to be free (“free” what a cruel joke) of my current oppressor made me ask “Are you willing to give me a contract?” I knew this was the only way not to get instantly f'ed into some suck rate. His response was weird. He told me he had a LOT more to offer me than ordnance. He wanted me to consider the nuclear program... he wanted to put my ass in a sub. I asked him if he remembered what I wanted, he grunted, then and laid on him what I really wanted “I want to be a SEAL” There was a long pause I could hear him thinking. He said “Can you swim?” I told him I had been training since first grade and was a junior Olympic swimmer. That was it, he invited me to sign some papers! So I went down and we got it all drawn up and he said I have a few questions. One of the questions was “Have you ever smoked marijuana?” I smoked every day. I had no intention of ever stopping. So I said what ultimately saved my ass “Absolutely” He looked at me like I just kicked him in the nuts and got up and shut the door. He asked again about me smoking, I told him the truth “I smoke it every day” He said “Are you willing to quit to be in the Navy?” while nodding his head up and down. I got the drift and since I knew I would be dry in boot camp I said “Sure”. So he said “We are going to need a waiver” and with a stroke of a pen I had “A waiver” and was in for a long strange trip.
My parting chat with the old man.
After I signed and there was no turning back, I told my father. He paused a long pause then asked “Are you in the officer candidate program?” he being an ex-Army officer knew full well I would not qualify without college... prick. So I calmly said “You can't do that without college, I am an enlisted man” He took a long pull off his drink and said “Good luck son” and gave me a sarcastic toast gesture.
Yeah, you may be thinking my old man was an asshole but I put him through a lot and I just told him I was not going to fulfill his dreams for me... I have much respect for my father.
Finally my orders came, Orlando Florida, boot camp.
Boot Camp
What a head trip.
This story is primarily about... well that stopped me from typing for a while.
I am going to make this story primarily about my experience with marijuana during my military service. A sad thing is that when I went in marijuana was well tolerated in the Navy as was alcohol. In time through this story you will see how both came to 0% toleration.
It was nearing the end of boot when I was first offered marijuana, from a prisoner.
First a funny thing. Our RCPO ( a recruit that was picked to assist the company commander) was such a prick and suck up he pissed everyone off. One night as he slept a group of like minded individuals took their dental floss and in stealth tossed them over and under his rack until he was completely bound. He did not wake up. We all went to sleep. In the morning our Company Commander came in and as usual screamed and shouted and woke us up. I looked over at our asshole RCPO and he was squirming like a caterpillar in a cocoon Well the Commander spied the struggle and instead of cutting him out he started screaming at him to get up and “pop tall” (stand at attention) The RCPO doubled and tripled his efforts to break free to no avail. The Commander kept screaming till I thought I was going to crack up... that would have been bad. Finally he cut him out and then we paid dearly with sweat... it was worth every drop.
Second thing changed my life, or most likely saved it. We lost a “flag”. These “flags” were won by the company that performed best on whatever the flag stood for. Since we lost we were made to stand at attention while our company commander screamed at us. I watched as the time to leave for my SEAL swim test came and went. When the rant was over myself and a few others approached our company commander and told him we missed the test and asked if we could re-schedule. He told us we sucked and would never make it as SEALS if we couldn't even win a flag and that the next test was in A school. “Dismissed”
I was pissed off, again. I almost said fuck it.
I was a good recruit and as such when work week came around I was made a “chaser”. We were trained for about 5 minutes on how to be a prison guard and then made one. I was in charge of a company of misfits for the most part but we had one “bad one” a “never turn your back on” type. The only thing I was told about him was that he had been through trials for months and was “dangerous” … oh and on every third shift you have to sleep in the barracks with your prisoners, What!? On the third day I was in to “sleep” yeah right. Our rack was right by the manned night desk and there was a roaming watch too but I still slept with one eye open. That night before lights out Mr. Dangerous approached me. We were both the same size, big, so I did not stand down and prepared myself to attack. He could sense this of course and told me to stand down he had an offer of peace. Hmm. He said you want a drink? “Ahh no I don't want a drink” He said oh OK, you smoke pot then? I got some killer red weed... OMG f'ing “killer red weed” daaaang. I got right up close and got in his face and told him I was going to forget he ever made those offers but if I ever laid eyes on anything he was going down for it before I was. After that he hated me. He would sing cadence on our way to chow. On the first trip to the chow hall he started singing some shit about me and got my boys to drag their feet.”HALT!” they halted. “ABOUT FACE!” They all turned and he started yapping. I walked over and got in his face and told him that this is going to be bad but it is going to get a whole lot worse if he did not shut the fuck up. They all heard me. “March!” back to the barracks we went. I dismissed them and Mr. Dangerous and a couple of his thugs got in my face and demanded food. I explained that they already ate once today and that is all that is required. If they wanted to fuck with me any more I would have them on bread and water. They never fucked with me again. You should have seen the barracks chiefs face when I marched them in. He called me in his office and said wtf? I told him that they fucked with me and that I told them they would be on bread and water until I left unless they stopped fucking with me. He got a big shit eating grin and said “Dissmissed”
It was another week or two before I actually smoked in boot camp.
It was the end of boot. Since we were in Orlando, Disney made some deal to steal all the recruits money. We had a couple days so I asked if I had to go to fucking Disney world...wtf? The answer was “No.”
Cool!! I had a plan. I was a smoker. Where do all smokers eventually end up? At the head shop!! I asked if there was a big mall we could get some civilian clothes, there was. Myself and a couple other like minded individuals headed for the mall. We got some clothes and changed but there was no hiding those fucking haircuts We went to the mall head shop and tried for and hour or more to convince stoners to get us high. These folks were already freaked to be in a big mall buying pipes and shit and here come the three stooges to ask them for pot. Yeah, we failed.
On the sad walk back to base I spied a kid coming towards us. I “knew” < (I will tell you about that in time) this kid had or knew where to get pot. I said I would do the talking. When we were about to pass I chucked out a “Hey, How ya doing?” and he responded “cool” I said “Hey you don't know where we could score some weed do ya?” He said “Sure, my brother has some killer weed” Yeeeha!
So we followed the kid to a little spot in the woods between the mall and a housing development. It was a party spot for kids. Hell I was only 18! So I gave the kid $40.00 for a zip and off he went. As we waited I wondered if he would actually come back but again I “knew” this kid would come through so we waited. Just about the time we had to leave the kid popped through the trees! Cool.
He pulled out a bag that I to this day have not seen anything like. The buds were all colors!!! Red, yellow, green, brown, dark brown some buds were a mix of those colors. It was awesome, I called it “rainbow pot”. We bent up a soda can and popped a few holes and we were smoking!!! Damn it was good!! well the can tasted like shit but damn!!! we were smoking. Sweet we got baked and headed back to base. I had a bag and a plan...
To be continued
Getting high on base... freaking boot camp base!!
PS I am using the language that was in my head at the time... I have mellowed. A little.
As I neared the base I was on high alert. I thought we would just score a couple joints. Instead I had a four finger bag of sweet bud! I could not keep a giant freaking bag of pot in boot. Even at the end we never knew when our shit would be gone through. The plan was to involve a select few who were tight with my boys and had watches to get us, the bag and a can... up on the roof that night For you folks writing the movie it was like a fucking mission impossible thing to do this. We did it though. We put our folks in place, gained access to the nice large flat roof and smoked our brains out . The watches were not allowed to smoke... foolish on many levels, but they were granted access to the bag that would be left on the roof for all involved who could arrange a night visit while not on watch. I was able to arrange two more visits and to this day I wonder how many folks got a chance to get high, there were a lot
Next stop would be Millington Tennessee. Yee-Ha
But first a couple weeks leave, a big bag of cactus and ill will back home.
I got back home from boot on a short stop. It may have been a holiday my memory is “tricky” I went to the local pub a little early and no one was there. A few of my friends started to show and while there was a greeting from them, something was off. A very close friend showed and I asked what was up. He told me things were and have been strange. He told me that another friend had gone “south” and was seeing things and feared for his life...wtf. That friend showed up, I went over and sat with him at the bar and asked what was up. He told me what I heard was true. There were folks that lived in the woods behind his house that were out to kill him. He told me everything was OK though because he had guns and ammo at home and felt safe. (we all had guns and ammo, we hunted and shot for fun) That was the last time I spoke to him... I will tell his story in time.
So people were being weird, standoffish if you will...wtf? Then a good friend but not one of my tight buds showed up and greeted me like I thought they should have... oh well we sat and had a brown soda and talked. I asked if he wanted to go out and smoke and he said “sure” While we were smoking I asked if he knew what was up with my boys. He told me one of them told the rest that I said something like “I am getting out of here (navy) and the rest of the boys are loosers for staying in this town” or what ever bullshit he had spewed. WTF I wanted to go find him and start kicking some ass. JQ (the friend I was with) said “Calm down man, you can't fix it tonight” I was also pissed at my boys for believing that bullshit... man was I pissed. JQ said “Listen you can fix it tomorrow, check this out.” and he tossed me a big silk bag that looked and felt like a sack of potato's only smaller. I pulled out a nice dry button They still had fuzz so we got to work cleaning and consumed many. We might have eaten them all. We smoked a few joints and went out and about to a few more night spots. After a technicolor power puke I was way gone. I did not see my boys that night. I did manage to talk to some before I left but to this day I think they believe the asshole that was saying shit. After all why would he lie? WHY? Tell me WJ why did you lie? … FU WJ (yes I have never seen him to this day) I don't understand people.
On to “A” school and my first barracks room... where I learn what racial prejudice is really all about.
Millington Tennessee … dang.
Before I go on I have to explain how naive I was. I grew up in upstate New York and lived in a rural town. Out of about 500 kids in my class 2 were black. I was taught that it was bad to be prejudice and shown examples of white folks being prejudice against black folks. That is all I knew and that is how I thought it was, I held 0 animosity towards black folks... why would I? A couple of the guys I sat with on the roof in boot were black
When I met my first room mate I had no problem he was black, in fact we would become friends. We talked and told brief histories, then he told me this was going to be a tough room to live in. What? He went on to tell me my other three room mates were also black, I was like so? He said that two of them were not “cool”. I had no idea what he meant but I quickly found out. Another room mate showed up he was quiet and kept to himself, he was also “cool”. Then “they” rolled in. The mouth of the two took one look at me and said “Fuck no!, I knew they were going to put a fucking white boy in here and fuck us all up” The other one said some agreeing rump swabbing comment.
Holy shit... my mind was reeling, this did not even make sense. These guys were prejudice against ME! What? WTF? I prided myself in not being prejudice. I had no problem what color you were, as long as you would burn one with me I don't know if I said anything, I think I just stood there stunned. To make things worse “the mouth” was my top bunk mate, yay. For the next week I suffered every nasty slang you could call a white guy. The mouth would physically try to intimidate me getting in my face and so on while calling me a ration of shit. This was fucking awesome (sarcasm)... holy shit.
Then it happened, the mouth bought an 8 track and one tape, the Commodores Oh it gets better. He starts to play the tape 24/7. This lasts for two sleepless days for me then I delivered... “the ultimatum”
I did not go out at first and just did the work at hand. I would have been smoking every day if I had it. I started to make some light inquires and would soon find something to smoke. I was all about sleep. I realized in boot camp how valuable sleep was, not just as a commodity to make you well rested, oh no, sleep was escape. Sleep came like wonderful vacation every day. We all had to do “mess duty” at first … long hours of hard work, I loved sleep.
When the mouth came in with his new 8 track player I thought “cool we will get some tunes” My favorite music was jazz, some of my friends played back home. They introduced me to all sorts of music. One of my close friends played trumpet and I was exposed to and really dug the likes of Miles Davis and Chuck Mangione. I was always way out there and my all time favorite was Zappa . So when the 8 track walked in I was hopeful. The mouth pulled out one tape (the only tape he ever had) it was the Commodores. That was cool with me, a little commercial but easy to listen to. He popped in the tape cranked it and sang along... Oh yes he loved to sing So the tape played and played... and played.
Eight track tapes are in a loop, there is no end. I was tired that night and crashed even though it was pretty loud (I never sleep with music) but I woke up in the middle of the night and the music was still playing and I could not get back to sleep. The next night was much the same. I was so tired from lack of sleep I just crashed... only to wake up a short time later with everyone including the mouth asleep and the Commodores and I stayed up all night. As I laid awake I began to formulate a plan.
This was not going to be pretty. I knew I might have to fight and started to mentally prepare myself to fight two... maybe four. After work/school that day we all arrived back at the room (oh how I longed for 4:20) the tape was still playing. As I sat resting to the Commodores, I laid out “the ultimatum”. “The ultimatum” was actually a request but since the mouth felt the way he did towards me it was taken as an ultimatum. I told him I had not slept for two days because of the music and asked him to turn it off tonight at ten. Turns out the two “cool” roommates were down with this and when the mouth started in they backed me up... cool. Now I might have to only fight two. I had drawn the line in the sand and I was ready to defend it.
That night as I lay wide awake and ten approached I was fully prepared. I ran it through my mind, I would ask him to shut it off and if he did not, I would back my request with action. At ten I asked him to shut it off. He was half asleep but managed to tell me to “fuck off and kiss his ass” I was just about to get up and take the tape when I realized the plug was right next to me... so I pulled it. He lit off telling me I better plug that in or he was gonna get up and kick my ass. That was the threat I was prepared for, I flew out of bed, grabbed him by the scruff of his t-shirt and hauled him off the top rack and pinned him to the ground (I wrestled in high school) my mouth was close to his ear when I told him I was the craziest white boy he had ever met and I don't know what I am capable of if he does not comply with the “the ultimatum” He could not move and his buddy was so stunned and scared he stayed in his rack. He said he would comply. That was it, it was over. He knew I was crazy... no one can deal with crazy he gave me wide birth and the room became almost peaceful by the end.
Meanwhile I had made a connection in mess duty and would soon be smoking...
PS The mouth changed me, taught me and made me understand how bad racial prejudice really is.
After the showdown things became almost normal in the room. The mouth hated me even more but no longer called me names and it stayed like that till I left. I had to do work details prior to starting school. I lucked out and got mess duty. I had a past in food service from pot washer to cook and bus boy to waiter. I was asked by the first class if I had any past food service so I told him I had been a prep cook (an easy job in the kitchen with status above most and none of the pressure of being a line cook, I had been both ) so he put me in charge of the salad bars, cool. I had a couple of co-workers and together we had as good a time as we could while busting ass. We had a good job with none of the serious shit cleanup work. One of my co-workers was small and more “citified” northern type and the other was a big proud red neck from the deep south. I found out both smoked North had a bong! He and south had been smoking at lunch and invited me along. The weed situation sucked. I think we were all smoking hemp I don't recall one decent bag of weed the entire time I was there. I remember being broke all the time, the three of us even sold our blood for $15.00 each just to get some shit weed Then school started.
I wanted to do well. I found a lot of what they taught came easy to me and I was doing well. I was still partying with my mess hall friends. We went out a few times in Memphis to party and one day I asked my “cool” roommate if he wanted to join us. He agreed and out we went to a “neutral” club. The ladies were interested in my roommate like he was from another planet (for you folks just starting to read he is black) they were all over him and the local boys were not happy. We ended up leaving early but no trouble. “Cool” decided to teach me a lesson. He asked me if I wanted to go out with him. I of course said yes! He told me to go to the liquor store and get the biggest bottle of Brass Monkey I could find. I asked him what it was and what it tasted like and he replied “Your not gonna drink it fool! It is for the ladies!” I got a giant bottle and out we went. When I entered the club the music actually stopped like you see on TV. Cool raised his hand in a “it's cool” gesture and we were “allowed” to enter. He had some friends already there and they had a big table.. no ladies, yet. The ladies were much more aggressive than I had ever been used to... they wanted to find out about this unusual folk who had entered their domain. A whole group of ladies came right over and started grilling me “where you from?” “what are you doing here?” and so on. Before you know it all the guys at my table had a lady taking to him and I had about 5 This pissed off the locals. I am not sure how the word came to Cool but he told me we were asked to leave!.
The cool thing was we got to experience each others environment.
School wore on. I did well.. So well I was third in the class but the top Navy guy. There were two Marines that were first and second (there would have been three but the poor bastard dropped a fake missile warhead during loading and washed out.) At the last day of school we were brought in and sat down in front of a giant board of orders. All kinds of duty... I had no fucking idea what I was looking at. We were given our rank in the class and told we would be able to pick orders based on that rank. I realized I was number one and I was getting dizzy trying to figure out all these orders, holy shit. Then they ordered a smoke break, that smoke changed my life...
I was totally fucked, I knew there would be no touchy feely explanation of orders, it would be you are called on and pick. Fuck.
I lit a smoke and tried to relax, then I saw him eyeballing me. I did not know or party with anyone in class so I did not know this guy. He was practically staring me down. I, being me, said “What the fuck are you staring at?” he replied “You.” after a pause he said “You are one lucky son of a bitch, there are only two P3 orders and you will for sure get one cause you are picking first.” I replied “What the fuck is a P3?” His face went about white when he realized I had no idea what gold P3 orders were and that he fucked himself out of chance to get one... “Cats out now” he said “P3 orders are the best in the Navy, you never go on a ship and you get awesome deployments” … I lucked out again. He further explained there were a set of orders for Florida and a set for Brunswick Maine. I debated taking orders close to home but I already knew I hated Florida (sorry Floridians but this northern boy likes 4 seasons) it was hot and humid and not my style. When we went back in I picked the orders to Maine and was happy the fellow who had wanted the other set so badly got them!! I did not even notice the orders read “aircrew” ordnance until I was called up the office. There was a big stink... I had come in on a waiver for marijuana and my orders required top secret clearance, they did not give top secret clearance to folks on marijuana waivers. I sat while pow-wows were conducted on my behalf. It got pretty animated and there were muffled raised voices. I think if I were not top in my class I would have been booted to a cabin boy!!! After a long time I was called in to speak for myself. I told them I had decided to work hard and get ahead in the Navy and I would appreciate the opportunity to show them.
Dismissed...
