Sixteen Scandals
Copyright© 2026 by Zappedfan
Chapter 2: The Pendulum Effect
“If we’re going to make this Pre-Camp effective,” Edna Jackson said into the conference call phone in the Fordham ROTC office, “We’ve got to get these cadets motivated!” Major Hodges, Edna’s Professor of Military Science was impressed with Edna’s enthusiasm.
“We’re just the Cadets-in-Charge of Quarters,” the voice of Cadet Brad Falk from Hofstra came across the speaker, “I thought we were going to talk about fire guards, police calls, taps and reveille.”
Edna leaned forward, “But there are things we can do to support the mission beyond that,” Edna answered. Then she hid her alternate agenda in a laundry list of suggestions. “We can hang motivational posters in the halls. We can hold military competitions after dinner. We can play fired-up music at reveille. We can give out six certificates a day for best made bunks. We can even fill the dayroom with training aids for practice.”
The only item on that list that Edna cared about was the music. Four years in the Army fully prepared her for what happened next. It was the voice of the Regional Professor of Military Science, Colonel Eaton, “Okay, Cadet Jackson, those all sound like good ideas. And since you came up with them, I’m putting you in charge of making sure they happen.”
This is what Edna wanted, but she had to pretend she didn’t. “But sir,” she protested, “There are five Cadets-in-Charge of Quarters and five tasks. We could each do one.”
Actually, Edna couldn’t be sure she would get the music task unless she did them all. So she set herself up. She heard the laughter on the conference call speaker.
“Haven’t you heard the Army rule?” Mike Driver of City University said, “Keep your eyes open, your mouth shut and never volunteer for anything!”
Edna smiled broadly. Major Hodges thought she was acknowledging her misstep. But actually, she was remembering that Mike Driver was one of the third floor male cadets.
“Okay, Cadet Driver” Edna said, “I guess you’re all too smart for me.”
Edna enlisted the help of the three other female ROTC Cadets for the other four tasks. They were reluctant to help, at first. But then Edna explained her air-chase scheme. They were all intrigued but a little scared.
“Oh, by the way,” Edna said nonchalantly, “Greg Williams will be one of the third floor male cadets.”
That did it. Edna wasn’t the only female cadet to notice Greg’s charms. Edna was glad to have three other female cadets in on the scheme before they got to Fort Dix. It would make it easier to convince the other twelve.
While her female classmates were collecting motivational posters, ordering training aids, planning military competitions and printing out 24 “Best Bunk” certificates, Edna concentrated on making the “Motivational Mix-Tape.”
There would be half an hour to fill with music between reveille and first formation. Edna wasn’t going to do anything unusual with the first two songs. It would take the male cadets that long to just get out of their bunks, make them, grab their shaving kits and towels and head for the latrine’s and showers.
So she selected “The Ballad of the Green Berets” and “The Battle of New Orleans” to start them off. But, by the time those songs were done, some male cadets should be in the showers and some others would be lined up naked waiting a turn. That’s when the music would transition.
At first the transition would be subtle. The next song, “Billy, Don’t be a Hero” still had a military theme. But it was dance music. With any luck, some of the naked male cadets would begin to sway and create the pendulum effect.
Then she would drop the military theme altogether and play another dance song to get them swaying more, “Don’t Stop Believin’” That’s still motivational, right? Then Edna would introduce a different kind of motivation with a couple of songs that would, hopefully, get a rise out of the male cadets.
When Edna finished the tape, she felt a little guilty about those poor boys. They were all around twenty-one years old. At that age, they were probably all suppressing morning wood, already. She wasn’t going to give them any chance to get through the gang showers dignified.
Then again, her experience with male cadets was that they were so homophobic that none of them would admit that they were looking down to see what was happening with their neighbors.
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