The next morning, I awoke with my face planted in SSgt. Hugh's carpet. I looked around, then tried to wake Ron. He was in no mood to wake up. Tim said, "Let's go. Ron, get up!" We groggily made our way to the "Pukemobile" for a ride to the base. No one said a word until we got to the front gate where I thought for sure the guards would stop us. To my relief, we were let in. No questions. Just a normal Friday morning at Eielson.
Tim drove us to the dormitory (a.k.a. barracks for you old timers) where Tim looked at both of us and said, Ron, you look like shit. Go back to your room and get some sleep. Robert, you come with me to the office. We arrived and got busy with the work day. Having missed breakfast, I was hungry and couldn't wait for chowtime at 11:30. At this point, Dane had arrived in a VERY hung over state and walked past us all the way to the back of the office to hide out in the last cubicle where our only personal computer was kept.
Tim was going over some of my training materials called CDCs or "Career Development Course". This is the most boring stuff I have ever had to work on. You see, It's not enough that you go through 6 weeks of basic military training followed by technical school, 12 weeks for my particular specialty, but you have to repeat everything you learned in technical school plus new material in a self study project that takes about a year to complete. Then you have achieved what they call 5 level. After tech school, you are a 3 level recruit. Why they only use odd numbers I'll never know. There is also something called 7 level school but I wasn't in long enough to attend. While we were working on this, one of the engineers came into the office and we hadn't noticed. Major Tom, yes, we actually had a Major with the last name Tom, came in. He didn't see any of us, mainly because Tim and I were in Tim's office, Ron was at the dorm, Sherry and Ken had the day off and Dane was asleep in the last cubicle. Now, normally, we work with a lot of officers. Architects and engineers mostly, who come in from time to time to have us go on a survey or create some drawings or maybe have some blueprints printed. These are lieutenants and captains or civilian employees. When a Major or higher in rank comes into the room, the first person to notice the flag officer is to call the entire room to attention. This means everyone stops what they are doing and stands at attention until the officer says "at ease" or "as you were" so you can go back to work. Since Major Tom didn't see us in Tim's office, he started looking around and made his way back to where Dane was "resting". I didn't see what happened but I think Dane noticed or Major Tom gave him a little nudge because I hear "Room Ten Hut! Good morning Major Tom.". Major Tom was cool and really didn't care for all of that ceremony but I thought it was really funny to see Dane standing at attention with little impressions of squares on his face where he must placed his head on the computer keyboard.
Now, lunchtime is here and I'm all ready to hit the chow hall when sergeant Hughes announced that we, meaning Dane, Ron and I were all going to the Auto hobby shop to wash his wife's car and try to rid it of the beer-halibut-bile mixture that had decorated the ceiling the night before.
So I am cleaning out this car, hungry for lunch, and thinking, "I am never drinking again." Then I thought, wait, I didn't drink, they did and I am cleaning up the mess. I can only compare the frustration I felt to the scene in Pulp Fiction where Samuel L. Jackson is in the back seat cleaning up after John Travolta had accidentally blown a guys head off inside the car.
Even though that was a disastrous first weekend up in Alaska, I made great friends, had unique experiences and forged memories that will forever hold a special place in my heart. I miss all of them very much.
