January 15, 1973, Monday

Last night didn’t end at the last entry in the journal. Right before taps the CC comes back to the barracks. He is smashed. He is a drunken Baby Huey. He gathers us all around him for a meeting. We are in our boxer shorts, standard sleeping attire for boot campers. This is why I freeze at night. Taps is playing as he speaks.

He has us spread out on the floor in front of him, like the first day. CC tells us he got his ass chewed out because of his behavior today. He didn’t give a fuck, because he is a better person by knowing us he tells us. “Because I have been given the opportunity to know some of you I am a better person.” He looks at Rodger. “And I’m better off not knowing some of you.” He looks at me. If only I knew what I did to scare this hulking man, I would use it to get the hell away from here. CC tries to continue, he was interrupted by Pepper. Pepper was equally as drunk as Salt.

Pepper tells Salt they need to get the fuck out of here. CC tells Salt. “No! This is a rap session. We have to rap. Isn’t that what people do these days? Let’s rap.” He looks over at us. Pepper knows this could be a losing battle. The CC asked us, “Do any of you have something you want to rap about?” We are dead silent, not a sound to be heard. After a gracious pause I stand up. “Sir, I was wondering what are your thoughts on the Vietnam conflict and how do you think it will affect our future, sir?” His jaws dropped; I slowly sat down. You could hear a pin drop. Oops.

Pepper grabs Salt by the arm and drags him to the front door. “Come on let’s get out of here!” The CC didn’t put up much of a defense. When they were out the door we laughed our asses off. Nobody could believe what just happened. We were tired. We hit the racks, shaking our heads in disbelief and laughing. I welcome lights out. But it didn’t end there.

I was in a good sleep. The commotion that followed ripped right through that good sleep. The CC made his way back, it must have been 2:00 a.m. He is carrying the top of a bird bath. Without any fanfare without paying attention to us. He walked over to the window behind my bunk bed. He threw the concrete bowl through the window. It made the most horrific crash.

The whole 6ft. by 6ft. window frame collapsed. Most of it was carried through to the front yard. Broken glass, shards of the wood frame were scattered everywhere. A gaping rectangular hole was all that was left. The CC took off running. He ran out the front door and disappeared into the darkness.

We were cleaning up the mess in side of the barracks. The outside was somebody else’s problem. Two SP’s drove up to the barracks in their jeep. They entered and looked at the damage. They questioned us for two hours. To a man we didn’t see anything. We were asleep. They didn’t believe us. They didn’t care. They said it was somebody else’s problem. Then they left. We crawled back into our racks about the time when we can hear Revile. I was so tired all day. I don’t remember much of what we did. Later.