A Night At Parris Island STS046
One of the perks you get in boot camp, after you have been there for a few days, is to stand guard duty. I did one night in our squadbay. Not sure if that is one or two words. Now, I have to tell this story and do forgive me because it loses it's effect if I don't use the curse words that i did say at the time. The time in the squadbay was a bit dramatic but not as dramatic as the one walking around the slop shoot. The slop shoot (sp?) is a combination of a barber shop, small hamburger joint, post exchange/drug store, or, a mini walmart that would have been on a military base in 1961.
This slop shoot of sorts was more available to the rank and file of the boot camp, not the raw recruits that were going through boot camp. We did get the privilege of standing guard duty at the slop shoot at night when it was closed. Now mind you, you walk arounf the equivalent of a small 7-11 store with your M1 rifle on your shoulder for two hours. Sounds exciting, right? After you walk around the mini slop shoot a few times, life starts to get to you, and you start to think a bit.
The thing that you start to think about is the assorted machines that are outside the slop shoot for the convenience of the enlisted poeple and civilians assigned to train the boots at boot camp. This is solely for their enjoyment. Now you walk around the building a few times and only a few minutes have passed and that soda machine is still there, looking at you.
You start to think, did the sign really say that a drink is five cents? You walk around the building again and spot the sign on the front of the soda machine and it says, five cents. You put your hand in your pocket and feel a few pieces of change and you go to the back of the building and take a look around. You do have a quarter and this should make change. Cool!
You walk around the building again and play with the quarter in your pocket. You take another turn around the building and it's like 1:30 AM in the morning and not a fucking soul around. It was so quiet that you could literally hear a pin drop. It was time to make the turn around the building and drop the quarter in the soda machine. I got close to the soda machine and took out the quarter and dropped the coin in the machine. I'm going to get a drink of a Coke. The excitement was building. So close.
I wasn't expecting what was coming next but the machine responded with a loud mechanical noise like an air conditioner does when it turns on but this was 1961, and it was a real, fucking noisy machine. I thought the whole world was going to wake up. I made a fast walk towards the back of the building and stopped and looked back at the street to see if anyone was awakened from the noise of the machine. I was lucky. Not a fucking soul was out there.
I quietly walked in front of the building and took a look up and down the road to see if anyone was coming. It was still silent and I opened the section to remove the paper cup full of this Coke that I was dying to try. I was lucky because I had a canteen on my belt and I would pour out the water in the canteen and fill it up with all this five ounces of soda. Things were going so good at this point, that I made two more trys on the soda machine and filled up my canteen.
When my relief came at 2 o'clock in the morning and I was off to my barracks with my canteen full of Coke and not a soul caught me. I was so happy and would cherish that canteen of Coke for the nexy few days, flat and all. Next time, I'll tell you about the time that my drill instructor thought that I was trying to kill him.
Marty Dougherty