Our Army company was a unit called permanent party, which meant that the company\u2019s headquarters were stationed permanently at Fort Lee.\u00a0 Most of the companies at Fort Lee, while I was there, were teaching units, and they taught quartermaster and cooking.\u00a0 Our company was a quartermaster (supply) company that supplied petroleum.<\/p>\n
While I was there, our mess hall was named \u201cBest Mess on Post\u201d for eleven out of thirteen months.\u00a0 Record-keeping, cleanliness, dining hall ambiance, and, of course, the taste of food, plus a few other criteria, were the determining factors.\u00a0 I was proud of my record-keeping.<\/p>\n
As the mess hall clerk, I had told the mess sergeant, Sgt. Bush that I had difficulty working during the day when everyone wanted to sit in the mess hall office and talk.\u00a0 The office was air-conditioned (I got that AC from the supply sergeant Gonzalez, as well as the one in the dining room, each for a 30-lb can of coffee).\u00a0 Eventually, Sgt. Bush agreed that it might be easier for me to work nights and get some paperwork done and give up my seat in the daytime to one of the assistant mess sergeants.\u00a0 We had so many of them, and they didn\u2019t do anything.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have to do anything; we had two E-6 cooks who were chefs in real life.\u00a0 One was a chef in Boston; the other in Baltimore.\u00a0 So, I worked nights with the night bakers \u2013 Jack and a guy who reminded me of Louie Armstrong.\u00a0 I remember him only as Sarge.<\/p>\n
Sarge was a short black man with a noticeable limp and a continuous smile.\u00a0 I doubt it was a war injury, but he really waddled more than limped anyway.\u00a0 He could bake some amazing pies, cookies, and cakes.\u00a0 Jack was more of a bread expert.\u00a0 Both could bake with their eyes closed.\u00a0 They did \u2013 figuratively.\u00a0 Jack was stoned most of the time, and I think Sarge was waiting to get off work so he could mix the milk he took from the mess hall with his Scotch at home.\u00a0 That\u2019s the first time I had ever heard of that concoction.<\/p>\n
Jack and I would give Sarge a ride home after we shut the place down.\u00a0 Sarge would sit in the back seat of Jack\u2019s car and smile, holding on tight to his milk.\u00a0 Jack and I would sit up front and smoke a joint.\u00a0 Jack was, without a doubt, the most professional pot smoker I have ever seen.\u00a0 He could roll a joint with one hand, drive with his knee, and fiddle with the buttons on the dash.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t let me roll the joint.\u00a0 He actually did better with one hand than I did with two.\u00a0 He was also one of those drivers who have to look at you while talking.\u00a0 I hated it when he turned to talk to Sarge in the back seat,\u00a0 while still rolling that joint, or smoking it.\u00a0 Jack and Sarge were the two happiest people I have ever known.<\/p>\n
Jack was from Omaha.\u00a0 He spent part of his time in San Diego before being drafted. He married a Southern California blonde, both with heavy dependencies on drugs.\u00a0 I had smoked pot before, but Jack introduced me to hashish, LSD, Ecstasy, methamphetamine (yes, in 1970), THC tablets, black beauties, mescaline, reds, phenobarbital, magic mushroom, Quaaludes, and probably several other narcotics that I can\u2019t remember.\u00a0 Jack could only get little amounts and if we were getting addicted, there was no more of the particular drug to keep up with the addiction.\u00a0 It was after Jack was discharged (honorably as a sergeant) that I was introduced to heroin.\u00a0 I snorted it once and had a doobie laced with it another time.\u00a0 I refused to shoot anything into my veins.\u00a0 I did not like heroin one bit.\u00a0 Notice that I have never tried cocaine.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible that someone knew we were a disaster waiting to explode, so Jack and I were sent out to the edge of the post and told to clean mobile cooking equipment in a Quonset hut.\u00a0 For the first few weeks we didn\u2019t clean a thing.\u00a0 We smoked some pot and drank some Boone\u2019s Farm Apple or Strawberry Hill<\/a>.\u00a0 Occasionally, we would Ripple<\/a> wine (87\u00a2) instead of the more expensive Boone\u2019s Farm ($1).<\/p>\n One morning, we drove into town to get a bottle of wine.\u00a0 When we got back there were all sorts of vehicles surrounding our Quonset hut.\u00a0 The area where we were located was also a place where soldiers were taught to drive all kinds of vehicles.\u00a0 A trainee drove a deuce and a half (a two-and-a-half-ton vehicle that looks like a truck, but technically, there is only one truck on base, and that\u2019s on top of the flagpole at headquarters) straight through our Quonset hut.\u00a0 Had we not gone to town; we would have been killed.\u00a0 The Quonset hut was demolished and there was field cooking equipment scattered over hundreds of square yards of the area.\u00a0 At this point, no one could tell if the equipment had been cleaned or not.<\/p>\n Jack\u2019s time in the service had run out and he was sitting for a week or two to transition out of the Army.\u00a0 I was sent to the commissary to learn how to cut meat.\u00a0 I still had about 10 months before my discharge date came around.\u00a0 I just know that they tried their best to hide me, and I didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n Previously posted related blogs:<\/p>\n https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1816<\/a> Order Up; <\/strong>May 3, 2020<\/p>\n Our Army company was a unit called permanent party, which meant that the company\u2019s headquarters were stationed permanently at Fort Lee.\u00a0 Most of the companies at Fort Lee, while I was there, were teaching units, and they taught quartermaster and … Continue reading https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1700<\/a> \u00a0A Pattern Begins to Develop<\/strong>; August 28, 2019<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"