Great thanks to my editor Dr. Bob80 and for the insights of leftyloo and lancerval.
This is the continuing story of Chris Peters, a young man who is beginning his life. If you are joining the story now, you're gonna be lost. I'd suggest starting a little earlier.
Just a reminder, this story is based on my brother's life. It is fictionalized; however, the progression is much as his life has gone. I have taken liberties to make the story flow more smoothly.
For those who have been following along; thank you and welcome back.
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Holy shit! Those were the longest fucking ninety days of my life. I had just graduated from basic training and was on my way to O'Hare Airport with all the guys that were left from my company. There had been about ninety of us when we started. Now there were about seventy-five of us. Some guys got hurt, some guys couldn't take it and the Navy washed them out and civilian law caught up with a couple of others.
I was headed to Memphis for training, AT-"A" School. Let me explain that AT means Aviation Electronic School with "A" meaning Primary School. Technically, I was headed to Naval Air Technical Training Command in Millington, Tennessee. (NATTC Millington, TN)
The trip was uneventful. We were just a bunch of dumb, raw, shaved-headed "newbies". Trust me; we stuck out like proverbial sore thumbs. Everywhere we went, our slick, shiny heads stuck out, in the airports, and even on the base. We arrived on base early on a Friday afternoon and I found my room assignment. I found I was assigned to a six man room, which, after living with as many as ninety guys for the previous three months seemed to be the lap of luxury. Naturally, the guys that were in my room were all my age, or close enough. They all greeted the "newbie" with good-natured ribbing about my general lack of hair and body weight. They were Stew, Rodney, Mel, Dave and Ron. (If these are their actual names it's a complete accident, I have no memory of their names...fuckin' memory.)
I should say that I was never overweight as a kid, but I was healthy and thought of myself in reasonably good shape, considering all the swimming I had done and the physical nature of the odd jobs I had been able to secure throughout high school. However, the Navy had a completely different idea of "in shape" than I did. I lost about thirty pounds in basic and was downright skinny.
NATTC Millington, TN, was a training base. There was no club, there was a small base exchange, a liquor store and there was really nothing to do, other than drink. The first night there, my new roommates decided that we needed something to drink, so we walked to the exchange and liquor store. We came back with Everclear, eight twenty-four ounce bottles of Mountain Dew, a couple of limes, lemons and a shitload of ice. They cut up the fruit and poured everything into a cooler with a clean trash bag liner lining it. If anybody wanted to go outside, they had to put the stuff (it had a name but I don't remember it) in one of the Mountain Dew bottles since there were regulations prohibiting open containers on the base. I had experienced my share of drinking and normally could hold my own with anybody, but this shit just kicked my ass. I was completely hammered in no time whatsoever. Later, we walked to the mess hall and ate. I have no idea what I ate and then we just walked around the base, the guys showing me everything I needed to know.
When we got back, I was barely able to give the sentry the password to the barracks. He grinned and shook his head. "Fuckin' newbies."
I slept face down on my rack in my dungarees. Remarkably, I didn't have a hangover. I didn't feel great, but I wasn't hung over. I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the base during the day, eating at the mess and drinking with my roommates at night.
I got up with everybody else on Monday at about 0500. At that point in my life, getting up that early was just the norm. I went to mess with them for breakfast and then they went off to their various schools. I wasn't scheduled to be at the personnel office until 0800 so I went back to our room. I had already made my rack, so I grabbed a book and sat on a chair reading, until it was time to go.
I reported to personnel at 0755 and the female E6 barely looked at me while she read my orders. She was the first woman I had seen, up close, in over three months and though she wasn't pretty, she was attractive enough, I suppose. The thing that got me was she was wearing perfume and it smelled of strawberries, which made me think of Joni and my dick got hard. She glanced up at me, standing at attention,
all of me,
and she just smirked. She probably saw this all the time, was not impressed, and just gave me my orders.
I was to report to the galley for kitchen duty. No, I wasn't being punished. The personnel clerk explained to me that this rarely happened, but my recruiter had screwed up and sent me to basic a month early.
My school didn't start for a month and the Navy couldn't allow a newbie to be unassigned for a month, so I was assigned to kitchen duty.
The only sign of sympathy I received from her was a tiny smile. "I know, it sucks, but hey, we all gotta follow orders, right?"
I sighed, "Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am."
I reported to the Chief Petty Officer who was in charge of the galley and handed him my orders. He laughed, "Fuckin' recruiters. Personnel told you that this was rare, right?"
"Yes Sir!" I nodded also, not sure what he expected.
"Yeah, rare!" He snorted. "About half of my staff are always guys that had a 'recruiter screw up'. Really, I think it's planned."
He slapped me on the back. "Welcome to the galley kid, I'm Chief Stanley Kowalski. If there're officers around, call me chief, otherwise call me Stan or Kowalski."
I snapped to attention, "Yes, Sir!"
He chuckled, "Fuckin' newbies. I just told you, Chief, Stan or Kowalski, none of the 'Sir' shit, got it?"
"Ye...uhh, Ok, Chief." I mumbled.
"That's better, kid. Have you worked in the galley before?" The Chief asked.
"Yes, Sir." I answered. (It was drummed into our heads in basic; I couldn't simply turn it off.) "In basic, I cleaned plates, took out the garbage and cleaned tables and the floor. I also fed the Dragon." (The Dragon was the giant dishwashing unit. It was called the Dragon because it belched steam non-stop.)
"So, you've done all the nasty stuff before?" The Chief continued.
"Yes, S..uhh Chief." I answered, again. "I really don't mind, I got used to it."
"Well, Peters, since you've done all the shit work before; we'll see if we can't get you some easier duty. Maybe, we'll even teach you to cook a little." He concluded. "How does that sound? For today though, go see Bobby back at the Dragon and he'll show you what to do, OK?"
"That sounds really good, Sir, uhh, Chief." I said. "Though, I'm happy to do anything that you want."
The Chief had given me respect for the work I had done in my service week at boot camp. It felt like, aside from the 'fuckin' newbie' thing, that I was being treated as an adult, for the first time in my life, that I had something to offer that was valuable. It felt really good.
After a couple of weeks in the galley, I truly understood why they sent guys here for punishment. It was some of the most exhausting work I had ever done in my life. It wasn't difficult, it was just physically demanding. Something always needed to be scrubbed, washed or just moved. You didn't pick up a tub with five plates in it, you picked up a tub with one hundred fifty plates in it. You didn't pick up a ten pound bag of potatoes, you picked up a sack with one hundred pounds of potatoes.
Everything
was like that. At the end of my duty every day for about two weeks, I would go back, take a shower and fall into my bunk. I'd get up the next morning and do the whole thing over again. But, by the end of the third week I had become accustomed to it and was interacting with the other guys in my room a little more.
Then, one morning I walked in and there was a new face in the galley. I came to find out that she wasn't new; she'd just been on leave. I went to my duty station and got to work. I felt someone walk up behind me.
I turned around and there she was. "Hi, I'm Marianne Johnson." She stuck out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Chris Peters." I took her hand and she demonstrated a surprisingly firm handshake.
She was an MS3, Mess Management Specialist Third Class, and a Petty Officer 3
rd
Class. She stood there smiling at me. "Are you permanent, or are you a recruiting gift?"
I smiled, "I guess I'm a recruiting gift. I'm waiting for Aviation Electronic School. I've got about a week to go before it starts."
She grinned at me, a nice smile. "Ok, so I can only abuse you for about a week, huh?"
"Well, that depends on the abuse, I guess." I teased. "We could
always
find time for more after I start school."
"Oooh, someone's full of themselves this morning." She laughed and slugged me on the shoulder before walking away.
I watched her walk away. She was a little chunky with fairly good-sized boobs and a nice firm butt. She wasn't pretty by any means, but she had a nice smile and what seemed to be a fun personality. She was someone who I thought would make a nice friend.
Bobby Douglass, one of the permanent members of the galley staff came up to me as I watched her. "Forget it newbie," he chuckled, "she's fleet and doesn't date guys like
you."
"Whaddya mean, 'guys like you'?" I asked.
"Fuckin' newbies." He laughed. (I actually had begun to think of that term as one word, fuckinnewbie.)
I went back to work and didn't think much of the exchange. Later in the day, she was back in the back of the galley by where I was working.