Chapter 15

Tuesday morning; a new year, welcome to 1974. I finally woke up around 9; it had been a while since I had slept in so late. I eased out of the bed and went to brush my teeth; I got a couple glasses of juice and headed back and climbed back in bed with Trish. She snuggled back in against me and gave me a hug; then tilted her head up to give me a kiss. “Good morning beautiful,” I told her; I brought you a glass of orange juice.”

“So thoughtful,” she murmured; “I need to find someone just like you. Let me up so I can go to the bathroom; don’t you dare move,” she told me. I straightened out the sheets, covers, and pillows while she was gone; then scooted over to make room for her as she got back in bed. “This is so nice,” she said, snuggling in close; “I’m really going to miss you when you’re gone.”

“Well, we’ve got a couple days yet. I really need to leave fairly early Friday morning, so I can get checked in off leave. It’s about 600 miles, but the last couple hours aren’t highway so it will take all day; until then, I’m yours.”

“I’ve some ideas about what we can do,” she giggled; groping me and stroking me to a full erection.

We played around for a half-hour; then she rolled me onto my back, straddled me, and eased down on my cock. We made mostly gentle love for another 30 minutes before she reached an almost quiet orgasm; then a more active 15 minutes before we both peaked together. We got up afterwards and I made breakfast for us; then with a smile she led me back to the bedroom. We never did get completely dressed that day; we made love 4 more times, the last three in various rooms of the apartment; it kept getting easier and easier for her to climax. I didn’t finish again; but by the time we went to bed that night we were both tired and a little sore.

Wednesday morning; we got up early, had a light breakfast, then dressed casually and headed for the professor’s classroom studio. We got there at 08:30; the professor was getting everything set up and several students were already there; mostly younger women, but also a couple guys. She had me sign several releases; then explained that there would be two photographers taking pictures, one black-and-white, the other color. She assured me none of the shots would have my face showing; they would just be used for reference later on. The dozen or so artists were in a circle around a small platform, obviously that’s where I would be; she directed me to a small locker room where I could remove my clothes, and don a robe. I got myself ready, wondered just how exactly I had gotten talked into this; and went out and got on the platform. The professor gave the students a little talk, and some instructions; I took off the robe and she got me onto the first pose.

It was actually pretty interesting. She had several minor props, and a high stool and chaise chair for me sit and recline on; there were several lights that she directed to be moved around, high-lighting different parts of me. I would get set in a pose, the photographers would do their thing, then the artists would make some sketches. She would alternate me between flexing and relaxing; she did comment on how good my body was and asked what my body-fat percentage was; I told her probably around 4%, she just laughed a little. It was warm enough in the room; once I relaxed a little, I was pretty comfortable. It ended up being a bit of work; by the time we broke for lunch I was ready to stop for a while. The professor had ordered pizza so we didn’t have to go anywhere; I put the robe back on and had one piece and a little water with Trish and a couple of her friends.

The afternoon session went pretty quickly; there were several moderate weights available so I could ‘pump-up’ and show some more definition, mostly I just used isometric exercises for that. I used a couple props; there was a fake spear and sword that I posed with, and a loincloth I wore for a while. It seemed to go pretty well; we finished up a little after 3 pm, I got dressed and we arranged to do it again the next morning.

I talked Trish into letting me cook for us that night; we stopped at the grocery and picked up a few things, then went back to the apartment and I made my seafood lasagna; then we relaxed for most of the evening. We went to bed a little early and made love again, slowly and tenderly this time; it was incredibly nice, sleeping with her.

Thursday morning, I was up early and did my exercises and run before we headed for the college; the second day of posing went about the same. The only thing new was that the professor wanted me to oil myself down; she explained it would make it easier to highlight the various muscle groups as I posed. Trish helped me do my back; that got a couple comments, and volunteers to help her which she laughingly declined. We had a nice light lunch at noon, then finished up at 3 again; the professor thanked me in front of the students and I got a nice round of applause for my efforts. I needed to take a quick shower this time to get the oil off me, after everyone left; she thanked me again, gave me a check for $250, and hoped I would be available to do it again sometime. I explained it wasn’t likely, but thanked her for the opportunity; Trish and I got out of there as fast as we could.

Since it was still fairly early in the day, we decided to go see another movie; we saw American Graffiti and pigged out on popcorn and snacks. That night Trish was a little subdued; we ordered in some Chinese food, talked for a couple hours, and watched some TV; then went to bed early again and made love one last time.

Friday morning; I was up early, Trish fixed us a light breakfast; told her I would write and gave her a loving kiss; I loaded up the car, then headed east and south. I was on the road a little after 8 am; traffic wasn’t too bad, though I did get delayed a bit going around Washington DC. I got past Richmond in the middle of the afternoon, ran into a little bit of rush hour traffic in Goldsboro NC, and got to Havelock and the base as it was getting dark. I stopped at the main gate and got a temporary pass for the car; I was directed to the receiving barracks, got checked in and assigned a room, and settled into my new home.

I checked into the receiving barracks early Friday evening and got settled; the barracks were a little old but not bad. The weekend duties were already set, so I didn’t have anything I had to do Saturday or Sunday; I explored the main part of the base on foot. The chow hall was very nice, the base gym was huge, and there were plenty of recreational activities available. Sunday afternoon JB flew back from being on leave in Nashville; I picked him up at the New Bern airport and we drove around New Bern and then Havelock, the small town right outside the main gate. New Bern was interesting; it had been the colonial capital of the North Carolina colony in the early 1700’s, and had a couple very old churches and buildings that looked interesting. Havelock was quite small; no fast-food places and not many places that would interest a couple young Marines. JB told me he had heard Atlantic Beach was the place to go, about 25 miles away; we put that high on our list of places to check out in the future, now that I was there with the car. We were in the same barracks but in different rooms; we spent Sunday evening getting caught up and ready for the next day.

Monday morning, start of a new year and everyone is dressed in the utility working uniform; we went to chow early, then attended the morning formation to see what we’d be doing. JB was sent off to do OJT at the unit he was going to be assigned to; I was going to be spending most of the week getting checked in to the base and going through orientation. We were told that most of the new Non-Commissioned Officers would probably be attending a 4-week NCO school, starting the next Monday; as new Corporals, that included JB and me. Since there were over 50 of us ‘checking in’ the process was pretty streamlined; instead of all of us trapsing all over the base; medical and pay records were collected, and a couple Marines were selected to deliver them where needed. Just like at NAS Memphis, our personal record book was reviewed in one-on-one interviews to make sure it was accurate and up to date. We were given passes for the chow hall, and assigned to duty sections; my first day was pretty short and simple, I was back at the barracks well before JB showed up just before 5. After chow that night we just drove around the base getting familiar with it; most of it, JB hadn’t seen. Over 13,000 acres, 20+ square miles; about 9500 Marines, 500 sailors (mostly medical personnel) and another 20000 civilians worked there; many of the civilians were former Marines and retired military. The 2^nd Marine Air Wing (MAW) was the biggest tenant activity, with all its supporting units; there was also a huge Naval Aviation Depot Repair group, which I became quite familiar with eventually; also, a Naval Supply Redistribution Center, more on that much later.

Tuesday morning; I had my individual interview concerning where I was going to be assigned, and details about what I was going to be further trained on. I was a little surprised the Marine Sergeant interviewing me gave me a couple choices; they needed two inertial navigation techs; JB was going to be one, so I volunteered to be the other. That meant that JB and I would both be going to NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach for training the end of February; the bad news was that JB was slated to join Marine Air Group Fourteen (MAG-14) after training, while I was going to be assigned to MAG-20, a unit setup to train new bombardier/navigators. More bad news; we both would also be attending the month-long NCO school, starting the next Monday. Tuesday afternoon my pay record was reviewed and I was paid up to date; I took that check and my others to the local credit union and opened up a saving account; the teller commented that not many Corporals had close to 5 grand in the bank, I was doing something right.

That night I gave JB the news of where I was being assigned and that we would be attending the NCO school the next week, we spent most of the evening reviewing the details of that. It seemed to be set up similar to boot camp; all the mostly new NCOs would be housed in a separate barracks, and we’d be required to be there from 0600 to 2000 each day. The instruction would be focused on us learning how to give orders, how to march formations around, and how to develop and give training to junior troops. A focus was going to be on our uniforms; make sure we had all of them, and that they fit us and were in good condition; and physical conditioning. We were both pretty much ready, though JB needed to buy some new military underwear, and label them with his name.

The rest of the week was fairly simple; we were used as a temporary labor force for various things that needed to be done around the base; I ended up taking a group of junior Marines to supply and moving stuff around, not very demanding. JB finished up the week doing his OJT; Friday afternoon we were dismissed until Monday morning, when those of us going to the NCO school would change barracks. By the time we ate supper it was dark; no sense driving anywhere, we went to the gym and played basketball for a couple hours.

Saturday morning after a late breakfast JB and I headed out in the Buick to explore the area. The weather wasn’t bad, I had picked up a NC DOT road map; west of the base was national forest, miles and miles of pine trees, not much out there. To the north the base backed up against the Neuse River, which dumped into Pamlico Sound; the body of water that separated the NC coast from the Outer Bank islands; you could take an hour-long ferry ride out to them. East was more of the forest and a lot of marsh land, and some farms; not much there either. South was the way to go; about 5-6 miles down the road was the small community of Newport; another 10 miles brought us to Morehead City, a typical NC coastal town with several businesses and a small community college. Another 5 miles brought us to Beaufort, a small, charming fishing village; we noted a couple small bars and restaurants advertising live music; JB took note of them. We saw signs saying the ferry to the outer banks was another 30 miles, on the map it didn’t look like there was much out there. Back to Morehead City; we took the bridge over to Atlantic Beach, this was obviously a seasonal, beach community. Hundreds of small cottages, several smaller mom-and-pop motels and hotels, lots of bars and seafood restaurants, and many tourist stores for beach stuff; mostly closed now. We did get out and walk the beach for a little bit, though it was a little cool and windy; we could see where this would be the place to visit during the summer.

We got back to the base in time for supper at the chow hall; then back to the barracks for the evening. Sunday was cold; we just relaxed most of the day, but did go over to the gym in the afternoon, and went to the base theater that evening to see the movie ‘White Lightening’ with Burt Reynolds, for 50 cents. That evening we packed up most of our stuff, preparing for the move to the NCO school barracks; most of our civilian stuff we stashed in the car.

Monday morning; after chow and the morning formation, a couple dozen of us were transferred to the NCO school. The morning was spent getting settled into the new barracks; all the corporals were in 4-man rooms, there were a few Sergeants in 2-man rooms. The barracks housed about 100 of us; it had one large classroom for all of us, and 4 smaller classrooms to handle smaller groups. First big surprise; well over half of the men were married, they weren’t required to sleep in the barracks; but had to be there from 0600 to around 2000 (8 PM), and maintain a rack and wall locker with all of their uniforms displayed. It took most of the morning to get us settled, then the afternoon to get organized and have the daily routine explained. Training would start the next day, and go 6 days a week for the next 4 weeks; every morning would start with an hour-long PT session, then chow, then classroom instruction and drills.

It was a very laid-back version of bootcamp; without all the screaming and hassle. It was still hard work; we were learning how to give orders, how to train and handle junior troops, how to march a platoon around, how to prepare and conduct personnel and equipment inspections, how to prepare a formal lesson plan and conduct a class; dozens of subjects, some of which didn’t really apply to the air wing’s daily operations. I was the most junior man there, having reached Corporal in under a year; several had been in the Corps a couple years already; the few Sergeants, 3-4 years. It wasn’t very hard for JB and me; we were in great shape and our uniforms were mostly new; and we didn’t have any distractions. The most challenging part was learning how to drill a platoon, using ourselves as the platoon. The drill instructors in boot camp had made it look so easy; doing it without making the platoon look like a drunken mob took lots of practice; giving the command of execution on the wrong foot caused major stumbles. The second most difficult thing for most was giving a class; that was primarily public speaking, standing up in front of a group of people and talking; many of the guys had problems with it. Many of the older guys needed new uniforms or tailoring of their old ones so they fit properly; and many weren’t in the best physical condition.

The four weeks went pretty quickly; most of the subjects were in the NCO handbook that I had bought and read months ago. I ended up helping JB a little, and we helped our roommates and others in our squad and platoon. There were some competitions to keep us motivated, and everything was graded; JB and I didn’t go anywhere on our free Sundays, we just prepared for the next week. There was a bulletin board that was updated weekly with the current individual class standings, and showed those that needed additional training during what was supposed to be our free Sundays. I was near the top after the first week, and led the training during the rest of the school; JB was in the top 10 all the way. We graduated the 15th of February, just before the President’s Day 3-day weekend; I ended up being the honor graduate and was awarded an NCO sword in lieu of a plaque; that was pretty special. We loaded all our gear back into the Buick for the short move back into the receiving barracks; once there we were told we rated a 4-day pass after graduating NCO school. It took maybe 15 seconds for us to decide to go to Nashville; no sense staying at Cherry Point just sitting around, and JB was going to take over his family’s van for his personal use; he needed his own vehicle now. JB’s idea was that we could use the van to store and move our instruments and equipment; if and when we decided to try our hand at performing in the local clubs in our spare time.

It’s not quite 700 miles to Nashville on mostly highway roads; we left around 11 am and made it by midnight, even with the national 55-mph speed limit; thanks to being in uniform we were able to get gas, though it was obviously in short supply. We had a nice three days in Nashville; we spent most of Saturday unloading the Buick and getting our musical equipment organized; we ended up with enough equipment to set-up either one or both of us somewhere and perform, with or without electricity. We also practiced a couple hours together, and Saturday night did a couple hours at one of the ‘open mike’ clubs downtown. Angie and a couple of her girlfriends went with us and we all had a great time; we didn’t make much money, but it was fun and JB and I got to refine our performance. It was very well received again; it surprised me how many remembered us from the previous winter; I think they liked that we didn’t stick to only country music.

Sunday and Monday evenings we did it all over again, every night making a little more money in our tip jar. We ended doing more and more requests; it became a bit of a challenge, someone would request a song; could JB come up with the tune, and could I come up with the lyrics? We tried inviting a couple people up from the audience to help us sing a few of the songs, that went over big also; but we were going to have to figure out a way to tactfully get the mike away from the ‘musically challenged’. It was a good weekend; we figured we’d possibly come back the 4^th of July, then headed back to NC on Tuesday morning, JB in his van following me in the Buick; we got back to the base without any trouble.

Once we were back, we had the rest of the week pretty much to ourselves, just helping new arrivals get settled in; then the weekend to prepare to drive to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. We decided to give the Buick a rest and take JB’s van; Saturday we put everything we weren’t taking into storage or in the Buick, and parked the Buick in the long-term storage lot. Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast; then headed for Virginia.

It’s a little less than 200 miles from MCAS Cherry Point to NAS Oceana; JB and I dove there in about 4 hours; we arrived early Sunday afternoon. It took a little bit to check in; since we were to be there for almost 3 months, we were given a 2-man room in one of the Navy barracks; we were the only Marines there at the time. We were given a map of the base, and told where we needed to be on Monday morning; we spent an hour moving what we immediately needed from the van into our new room; then drove around the base getting oriented. We took a quick trip up and down Virginia Beach, definitely a resort/tourist town. Dozens of large and medium-sized hotels, and lots of smaller motels; hundreds of shops, bars, restaurants, and clubs; with an amusement park right in the middle. On a cool February day almost everything was closed, many promising to re-open in the spring; there was a nice boardwalk along the beach, which was large and very nice, stretching for miles. We stopped in one of the seafood restaurants for supper; then headed back to the base, 3-4 miles away. The barracks had a small TV/rec room; we hung out there for a couple hours talking to the sailors, then hit the rack for a good night’s sleep.