1969 and the Importance
of Personal Hygiene
1969
was a seminal year for me and a signature year in America and it was
following a rather notable 1968 where we saw the Martin Luther King
Jr and Bobby Kennedy assassinations, the Democratic Convention
protest debacle , and the Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised fist
salute at the Olympics.
1969
was at the peak of the anti-war movement. It was the year of
Woodstock, Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong's “ giant leap” on the
moon. It was the year of the Beatles last live performance (London
Rooftop). The year the draft lottery was established. It was the
start of PBS and Sesame Street. It was the year of Chappaquiddick
and the Charles Manson murders. It was the year Richard Nixon became
President, and the trial of the Chicago 7, from the Democratic
Convention the previous year. It was the year of Hurricane Camille,
the fiercest hurricane to ever hit North America It was the year of
Muhammad
Ali's conviction of draft evasion. It
was also the year of the creation
of ARPANET,
the predecessor of what's now called the Internet. It was the year of
the Miracle Mets and Joe Namath's Superbowl victory guarantee. And,
1969 ended with Curt Flood suing MLB over the reserve clause.
I began
the year by dropping out of school and heading to Toronto Canada to
explore options regarding the draft. I was drafted that spring. I
entered the Air Force in April and was shipped out after basic
training to Keesler AFB in June. Keesler was an AFB training base
and I would remain there for the rest of the year. While stationed
at Keesler, I experienced Hurricane Camille, went AWOL, did LSD for
the 1st time, had an out-of-body experience, and married
my 1st wife, Donna.
After
basic training I was shipped from San Antonio, Texas to Biloxi,
Mississippi by bus. It was just like a school bus except it was
painted Air Force blue instead of school bus yellow and instead of
carrying kids it was carrying full sized adults. The air conditioner
was the traditional school bus type - open the windows. It was a
long ride made longer. When we arrived at Keesler we learned there
was no room for us so they put us up in temporary barracks. There
were also no spaces available in the training classes.
It was
summer. It was hot, humid, and we were on the Gulf Coast. One day
while standing in formation I felt it lightly raining on me. I
looked up and there was not a cloud in the sky. This would happen
every now and then. I grew up on Long Island and it was very humid
but this seemed to top even that. They had big cockroaches in
Biloxi. Did I say big? I meant giant, when they came into the room
and asked you to move over you did it.
It was
clear to those in charge that we all needed something worthwhile to
keep us occupied. Since the base was overflowing with airmen
trainees, who all needed to have worthwhile activities as well, these
were at a premium. This called for new and inventive work details.
One of my personal favorites, and I might add would especially appeal
to the OCD types, was raking straight parallel lines in the gravel
parking lots. Most of the parking areas on the base were unpaved and
topped with gravel. Taking a rake and making nice neat lines in the
parking areas was borderline genius since any time someone walked
through the parking area or drove a vehicle into or out of the
parking area those neat lines would be corrupted and need an airmen
on the spot to fix the damage. This was pretty much a non-stop job
that lasted the entire day as those areas had people walking and
driving through all day long. Another important worthwhile job was
“the guarding of the trash cans”. I was never quite sure if we
were guarding the trash in the cans or the cans themselves. I did
not really understand why trash and their containers needed guarding.
Were there military secrets in that trash? I never saw any hint of
the enemy or for that matter much of anyone hanging around the trash
can area. It was evidently important enough stuff as we needed
non-stop trash guarding. I am happy to report that there was
absolutely no trash pilfering during any of my shifts! I considered
inquiring as to why this trash was of such vital importance but
figured the reason was probably one of those “need to know”
things and was above my current security clearance level.
After 2
weeks of getting all those things that needed doing done, we all got
assigned to our permanent barracks. Training classes were something
like 5 or 6 hours a day and there were 3 shifts, morning, afternoon
and evening. I was assigned to “B-shift”, meaning that I
participated in work details in the morning and attended class in the
afternoon. “B-shift” was also the accelerated shift meaning that
I would complete the training in a shorter time then the other
shifts. How I was lucky enough to be selected for “B-shift” was
never disclosed to me but obviously someone wanted me out of there as
fast as possible.
The 1st
class was, as you would expect, orientation and about the structure
of the training we were about to embark on. They proceeded to tell
us we were being trained in one of the more advanced career fields. Lastly we were informed that the Air Force was the superior branch of
the military. We were the best of the service organizations. I was
impressed and maybe even feeling a little proud for having chosen so
wisely. I asked for further clarification. I wanted to know just
what it was that made us so good. They told me how the other
branches of the military were somehow lower class. I didn't quite
get that so I asked in what way we were better. I was not
understanding this mysterious Air Force “better class”
designation. They went into some big spiel about how we did things
and cleaned up and cleaned our hands and how we treated our latrines
better or something. To be honest, I was having a little trouble
following but from what I could tell it seemed it had a lot to do
with our behavior and particularly our personal hygiene. I was not
hearing much about anything of substance but I bet it was those
rotten lower class non-Air Force service guys who were messing up
those gravel parking lots. All in all the explanations seemed a tad
thin. I was rather sorry I asked.
The
classes themselves were not bad and not really hard but they were
after lunch. I am not at my peak in the afternoon so as exciting as
those classes were I was often fighting to stay awake. One afternoon
I gave into temptation, and fell asleep right in the middle of a
class. This, as it turned out, was a rather large offense. I was
pulled out of class and taken to a small room with a couple of
Sergeants (Just realized I have likely been spelling this wrong in
previous blog posts, that's me, can't spell for shite). We proceeded
to have a nice friendly, if loud discussion. Well, discussion may
not actually apply here as they were doing all the talking and me all
the listening. They were pretty excited about what they were saying.
While I might have had a few suggestions on their presentation
style, I learned a few things. It was very un-military like to sleep
in class or at any time other than the officially designated sleep
times. I was disrespecting and letting both my fellow airman and my
country down. I had bad parents and hence my bad behavior was a
result of their failure to raise me properly. The 1st two
seemed somewhat reasonable but the 3rd caught me off
guard. I was unreliable, disrespectful and letting my country down
because I had bad parents? Now I was not in a good place with my
parents at that time but this was the first time I learned I had had
faulty parenting. I had been under the illusion that in spite of our
differences I had really good parents. Damn! These guys were good.
They were able to quickly figure this out. I don't think they knew
my parents and I didn't share much about them. I guess they just had
an innate ability in that area. I thought about it and as tempting
as it may have been, I decided to skip the opportunity to tell my
parents how they'd done me wrong. I wanted to ask a few followup
questions but I could see that I had already taken up too much of the
Segeants' time and I now realized the more time I spent away from my
training the more I was letting my country down and I didn't want my
country to suffer anymore that it already had on my account.
I tried
hard to be a good soldier and never got caught falling asleep in
class again. I did however, have an out-of-body experience in class
one afternoon. I don't think this was related to bad parenting but I
can't say for sure as I neglected to ask. I was just sitting there
trying to pay attention when all of a sudden I felt something in me
lift up. I was up above the class but my body was still down sitting
in a chair. I could see the top of my head and my backside as well
as the rest of the class that was in my row and the rows in front of
me. I tried to maneuver to see my face but I could not figure out
how to do it. I stayed there for a little while and then drifted
further up somehow seeing the whole class. I started to think about
some other stuff and I felt like I was going to leave the building
when suddenly I returned to my body. The experience was rather
short, just a few minutes. I felt very light during the experience
and when I returned I just felt like I always did. I have had a few
minor para-normal experiences but that was the only time I have
actually left my body.
I
eventually completed my training and became an Inertial Navigation
Repairman. Whenever I see a gravel parking lot I think of Keesler
AFB and although I may be a victim of bad parenting my personal
hygiene is Air Force approved.
As I
mentioned at the top, I had some other significant events in 1969 but
those will have to wait for another story to come around.
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