Chapter 7

My three roommates were all new to the Corps, like me; and from all over. Thompson had not been promoted yet and was still a Private, E-1; he was going through jet mechanics school and always smelled faintly of jet fuel; which is high-grade kerosene. A nice enough guy, he was almost through his training and left us a couple weeks later, I don’t remember where he was from. Chapman was from Texas and a PFC like me; he was going to be an air frames mechanic, a metal worker; he had another couple of months training to go. He had gotten into boxing as a young teenager, and had been a 145-pound state champion before joining the Corps. He was heavily involved with the USMC boxing club on base; and was always trying to get me to go there with him. I went a few times; he taught me the basics of boxing, mainly self-defense and blocking punches; it was always a good workout.

The third guy was JB Brooks; he and I became close friends then, and eventually friends for life. JB was a Lance Corporal, E-3; and was going to the advanced avionics course also; he was a month ahead of me in the training schedule. A tall, lanky, blond guy from Nashville; he had been a star on his high school basketball team and loved the game. He usually took me to the big Navy gym after supper 4-5 nights a week to play pick-up basketball there. I liked playing basketball but had never been coached or played on a team, initially I didn’t know how to move on the court with the other guys. One-on-one I was excellent; very quick, and due to all my running, lots and lots of stamina; I usually just wore my opponent out and left him behind, especially the sailors. There was a dozen or more Marines that went to the gym regularly to play basketball; we weren’t really a team but if we all ended up in a pickup game together, we were almost unbeatable. We usually played a single-point-a-basket game to 11; after 3 wins in a row we had to relinquish the floor, break up that ‘team’, and start all over. It was a good way to spend an evening; lots of aerobic exercise where I could easily get my running in.

That first weekend Chapman and JB took me under their wings, showed me around, and explained the daily routine. I called Kelly and Irene from the pay phones to let them know what was going on and promised to write every week or so, and call once a month; I gave them the barracks phone number so they could call if they needed to and leave a message, I’d call back as soon as possible. There were enough guys in the barracks, and not that many additional duties; so that there were 8 duty sections, usually we had to stay in and around the barracks only one day a week. The barracks were incredibly nice; almost brand-new brick and concrete, air conditioned and very comfortable with mostly 4-man rooms. The central lounges had large color TVs, lots of upholstered couches and chairs to relax in. It was carpeted so it didn’t echo much, a ping-pong table and a couple pool tables; if you didn’t want to spend any money, it was a nice place to hang out after class. The base had a bowling alley, a big indoor pool, a movie theater, and several softball fields and tennis courts; the gym had all kinds of sports equipment available to temporarily check out for free. The gym also had 4 racquetball courts; a sport I knew nothing about, but eventually became very good at.

The other big recreational place was the enlisted club; serving alcohol to everyone (no age restrictions) and a small, nice restaurant. The bar with dance floor was huge and had a jukebox that took a nickel a song; they brought in bands or a DJ every Friday and Saturday night. I rarely went there; the music was too loud for conversation, the food at the chow hall was excellent and free, and there were roughly 30 guys vying for the attention of each woman. I wasn’t interested in meeting new women right then; nice to look at and heavenly to smell, but I was going to concentrate on my classes and staying in shape. Also; there was at least one fight every night at the club; more of a shoving match really, but not much fun. There were several hobby shops on base too; the one I used several times was the auto shop. Every type of automotive equipment and tool was available for free to use, and manned by several retired mechanics with lots of free advice and assistance if you needed it. My old Buick was a big hit there; I did all kinds of routine maintenance there, and a couple minor repairs.

The Buick was a big surprise to my roommates when I finally admitted it was mine after a few days; we weren’t restricted to the base, but the town of Millington was only 2-3 miles away and not really much there for a single guy; not even a fast-food joint. Memphis was only 20 miles away, but there was no public transportation back and forth; the Marines and sailors rarely went there much; but I had WHEELS! We could go wherever we wanted within reason, with a couple major conditions. Weeknights we were supposed to stay within 50 miles of the base, weekends the range extended to 250 miles; JB’s hometown of Nashville was only 200 miles away. We made a deal, the first part was that if they bought the gas, we’d go exploring; the second part was not to flaunt it, or I’d be asked for rides everywhere, all the time.

I got pretty good a telling almost everyone no, and I was not going to lend or rent the car out. There were some bruised feelings; but after Chapman quickly dismantled one irate, very demanding, intoxicated Marine with his fists, we weren’t bothered much. If you had a real need I was available for a ride, girlfriend coming in for a visit for example; but I was not interested in barhopping, even though the off-base drinking age was 18. Chapman, JB, and I did go into Memphis a couple times and had a blast; checking out the river, visiting Beale Street, and going to Overton Park; there was a very nice college near the park and we could usually talk to a few girls there.

The first week of school was interesting, with a couple new factors to contend with. As the Gunny had predicted; I was the most junior rank in my class of 20, and the only Marine. There were a couple minor incidents early with the class ‘leader’, a Petty Officer 2^nd Class; once he ordered me to go get him some coffee, I told him a flat ‘no’ and the class instructor, a Navy chief, backed me up in no uncertain terms. The other bigger deal was that there was a female sailor, a Navy Wave, in our class; Petty Officer 3rd Fields, a very cute, petite blond that ended up sitting next to me. We were seated in alphabetical order at several large two-person tables; the books we shared had lots of fold-out schematics, in many cases 4-5 foldouts; each student needed a lot of room. I didn’t pay much attention to her the first week, which I found out later bugged the hell out of her; more on that later, too.

Everyone else had been on base for months, most of them knew each other from earlier, and I hadn’t gone through the basic avionics course; I was definitely the odd duck on the pond. The instruction wasn’t that hard; there was a test every Friday afternoon, if you didn’t pass you got to spend Saturday back in the classroom with a different instructor ‘catching up’. We ended up losing three classmates over the course of instruction, I have no idea what became of them. I saw several students with briefcases, which made sense to me; I bought a nice one and used it to carry all the materials back and forth. We were expected to do some studying in the barracks every night, I ended up doing a little, but not much.

After the first week, class settled down pretty quickly; I had no problem with the material and was at the top of the class standing. That bugged the hell out of the PO2 class leader, and the Navy chief loved to rub his nose in it; that guy was just an asshole, no one liked him. The one time I wasn’t at the top for the week, my desk mate was; PO3 Fields was very smart and determined. She initiated chatting with me after the first week on our hourly breaks; I didn’t give her much information at first but I thought we were friendly enough. I had been writing everyone I needed to, and was starting to get return mail; the mail was delivered to the barracks but ended up in my briefcase; lots of times I would write or at least continue writing letters on our 10-minute breaks. PO3 Fields commented on it, especially when she realized I was writing at least 6 different women, and getting mail from all of them. I gave her a little more of my background almost every day; and I found out about her.

She had an enchanting deep southern accent, much like JB’s. I told her about JB after he stopped by one afternoon on a break; to confirm we were playing basketball that evening, and were going to kick somebody’s ass. It turned out she lived about 50 miles east of Nashville, and knew about JB’s basketball skills; his high school team had destroyed hers, and they were mortal enemies, at least at the time. JB had a fiancé back home, she had a boyfriend back home she wasn’t sure about, and I had all these women writing me; there was a lot more she wanted to know about me. Pretty soon she let me know her first name was Rebecca; it was another week before I called her Becky; and I was Carl in our few personal conversations. After a week or so JB and I usually took our breaks together with Becky and a couple of the other Waves in the school; which annoyed the class leader for some reason, my other classmates really didn’t care. The issue with the PO2 class leader came to a head a week later when we came back from a break to find him going through my briefcase, and reading one of my letters. I immediately confronted him about it in very loud terms, my Drill Instructors would have been impressed. The Navy Chief came running; when he found out what the guy was doing the Chief was livid; my DIs would have been impressed with him. Within 10 minutes the PO2 was gone, and I mean gone; I never saw or heard about him again.

I always wore the military, black-rimmed, BC (Birth Control) glasses in uniform, JB wore them too; that’s all Becky ever saw us wearing, when JB and I were in civvies we wore our civilian glasses so we wouldn’t look quite so bad. About two weeks after class started Becky and 3 of her friends, and JB and I; agreed to meet at the club to try out the restaurant. It was a little funny; JB and I got there first and had taken a large table waiting for the ladies; they scanned the restaurant 3-4 times without spotting us, it wasn’t until we both stood up that they recognized us. I’ve got to say the ladies also looked much different in civilian dresses and their hair down; damn, they all really looked good, and I told them so. We had a nice dinner, chatting and learning about each other, that’s when Becky found out I had a car; JB had started talking about he and I going to Nashville the next weekend so he could see his fiancé; she seemed to be a little stunned I hadn’t told her for some reason. JB and I paid the bill for all of us; when we tried dancing in the club next door, she kept asking why I hadn’t told her about it, and what was the deal with all the women I was writing. There was no way we could hold a conversation in all that noise; after I’d danced once with all the ladies in our group, she told me she wanted to go back to the barracks, and asked me to walk her back. I know I’m in trouble with her about something; I might as well find out why now; I agreed.

We had gotten less than a block away when she started talking; “We’ve been sitting next to each other in class for going on three weeks now, and I hardly know anything about you. I didn’t know you had a car here; you didn’t mention it and I’ve never seen it. Why all the secrecy, aren’t we friends?”

“I guess we’re friends; I hadn’t really thought about it. And I didn’t know you wanted to know about the ladies writing me; I don’t really want to know about your boyfriend. My car’s an old Buick cruiser, nothing special; I don’t use it much. I don’t go off base often, and everything on base is within walking distance.” I told her. “Why are you so upset; what’s bothering you?”

“I like you, at least as a friend; you seem to be so different from all the other guys here on base. All of us girls get hit on all the time; from the time we leave the barracks in the morning to the time we get back; it was three days before you said anything to me at all, and I was sitting right next to you. You barely looked at me!” she exclaimed. “Look at us, you’re not even trying to hold my hand, don’t you like me?”

I had to laugh; “I’ve been accused of being clueless about women before, more than once; this is just me. I haven’t been around that many women all that much; I don’t know how to tell what a woman wants by just looking at her, less than most guys, I guess.” I reached over, took her hand, lifted it to my lips, then kissed it as we walked. “Yes, I like you, you are so cute it hurts to look at you; and I knew you had legs, but my goodness woman, you’ve got legs. I figured you’ve been approached all the time; I didn’t want to be one of those annoying guys.”

She laughed as she tucked her hand under my arm, walking close at my side; “Okay; I’m starting to understand a little, and feel a little better about it; but you’ve got 6 different women writing you all the time; what’s going on with that?”

“That’s a little complicated; they are close friends for the most part, or want to be. Two of them lived with me for 6 months before I left for boot camp...” I was abruptly stopped in the middle of that sentence, and the sidewalk.

Becky turned to me; “You lived with two women before you joined the Corps! Seriously? Is one of them your girlfriend or something?”

This was not going to go well, I could tell. “We didn’t think of each other as boyfriend and girlfriend; either one of them. I mean, I loved them, and they loved me, and still do for that matter; but it was never going to become a permanent thing. I’ve been encouraging them to get real boyfriends now that I’m gone; they are both incredible women, and deserve to be happy. We just took care of each other, the 3 three of us.”

Becky is speechless, but only for a couple moments. “Taking care of each other how, exactly? And what about the other four, do you have a girl in every port?” she laughed, but at least we’re walking again, slowly.

“It’s not like that; it’s hard to explain. They are comfortable with me, and I’m comfortable with them. We don’t make any demands on each other, and I liked taking care of them while we were together. Becky; it would take hours to explain, are you sure you really want to know?

“Right now; more than anything else in the world. Here I was thinking you were shy, or completely inexperienced; when I’m the one that doesn’t seem to have a clue. I’ve got a boyfriend I’m not sure about, and you seem to have a harem somewhere; at least tell me a little bit about the other four.”

“Come on Beck, it will take hours to tell you properly; and we don’t have enough time tonight. Some other day, okay? And don’t tell anyone else about this, please?”

“You don’t want to tell me right now, and you don’t want anyone else to know about all your ladies.”

“Alright, I know this is like waving a red flag at a bull for you; I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just pick the time and place.”

“It’s only 8 now, we’ve got a couple hours.”

“That’s okay with me, but we need a quiet place; I’m not going to try to tell you in one of the lounges, they are always loud and crowded.”

“Carl, you can be such a dummy sometimes. You’ve got a car; take me for a drive, and you can talk while driving.”

I had to grin at her; “I didn’t think about that; the car’s just transportation to me, getting from one place to another. We can go for a drive, at least it’ll be quiet and private.”

We were almost to her barracks; “Okay, let me go in and freshen up a bit; you go get the car, and come back and pick me up.”

“Alright, but don’t put on any more makeup, okay? It’s one of my things; I hate it when girls put on a lot of makeup; especially a woman as beautiful as you.”

“Okay, you’ve got 10 minutes. And you’re forgiven for calling me cute, earlier.” she squeezed my arm as she turned away.

I was back within the 10 minutes; she must have been watching because she walked out the door as I stopped the car. I hustled around and opened the door for her; then got back behind the wheel and drove off.

“We’ve got plenty of gas; I can just drive around, or we can go park somewhere.” I told her.

“You want to go parking somewhere with me?”

“Not like that, just to talk!”

“Why not parking with me?”

“You’re just messing with me now. You said we’re friends; do you want to hear this or not?”

“Yes, we’re friends, and yes, I want to hear all about this.” she giggled. “And, by the way; yes, maybe I’d like to go parking with you sometime.

“Now you’re fucking with me.”

“Maybe; maybe not. Tell me about your ladies, and I’ll tell you about my boyfriend.”

I drove around for an hour; telling her a lot about my life up to that point. I’ll give her credit; she didn’t ask many questions right away, though she did scoot over and held my hand after the first 15 minutes. I didn’t tell her everything; but enough that maybe she’d start to understand.

“Okay, now tell me about your boyfriend; then you can ask some of the thousands of questions I’m sure you have.”

She told me about her boyfriend; how they’d been together off and on while in high school, and since. She vented for quite a while, and I just let her; while she was finishing up, I headed back for the base; she was surprised when I drove through the gate.

“I can’t believe we’re back already; and look at the time, I’ve got to get ready for tomorrow!” she exclaimed, as I pulled up in front of her barracks. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow in class.”

“I’ll be there; wouldn’t want to disappoint the Chief.”

She waited a second; “You’re not going to kiss me goodnight?”

“No, kissing is pretty special for me,” I told her. “I’ll walk you to the door tonight, but that’s it;” opening my door and getting out. I walked around the car and helped her out, then started walking her to the door of the barracks. “When I kiss you, if I kiss you; I want to do it right, see if I can make your toes curl,” I try to joke.

“You are the strangest, and most frustrating guy I’ve ever met,” she laughed. “We are definitely not done talking; and now I want to see if you can make my toes curl. This has been a very good night, not what I expected at all; I will see you tomorrow, and we’re going to talk some more;” she said as she walked through the door.

I drove back to my barracks and parked the car; once I got in my room Chapman just said ‘Hi’ and went back to his studies, he was about a month from graduating and moving on. JB had a bunch of questions; where I’d been, had I gone with Becky, etc. I gave him a very abbreviated story of Becky wanting to vent about her boyfriend; she had done that. We talked a bit more about going to Nashville over the weekend; then I got ready for the next day, and went to sleep.