I See You Everywhere...

Life never runs true to course, the best-laid plans and all that. It's been my intention to continue this story but things have intervened. For one thing its summer and it's my busy season. For another things have changed in my life situation that may release me sooner than expected, just not the way I had expected. Time will tell who leaves this behind first...

Sept.84-Apr 86

Randy's arrival at Ft. Campbell was just one of the thousands just like it every year with the 101st. Soldiers come and soldiers go and slots get filled in unit rosters. Randy was assigned to the headquarters company of the 311th MI BN, which at that time was located at Ft. Campbell and supported the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Div. specifically he was assigned to the TCAE Plt.

Within a week Randy had managed to demonstrate his usefulness in the motor pool and found himself as the E-5 in charge of maintaining the sections vehicles and generators. He forgot a truism for any branch of service, namely never demonstrate a useful out of MOS talent. Randy was ok with this. His talents as an analyst were recognized but he was just one of many there.

The main road outside of post was Hwy 41. the 20-mile stretch that ran outside of Ft. Campbell had a bar to all other business' ratio of 3-1. All of the bars catered to soldiers wants, all of them tended to be meat markets and all of them tended to treat the troops poorly. It didn't take Randy long to find 5 or 6 of them that he preferred. They all had cold beer, happy hour specials on food and a good female to male ratio.

Randy did ok with the ladies for a time, didn't date any particular one for nearly 6 months until he saved Iris. Randy came rolling into the parking lot of the Wagon Wheel and parked his Sportster near the other motorcycles in the lot. As he removed his helmet he heard a girl yelling "stop", the sounds of a fist striking flesh, her screaming, a guys voice growling "shut the fuck up cunt" and her begging and saying "please". Besides being a functioning drunk, Randy had always been an overgrown boy scout. He may have hesitated 1-2 seconds but by the time the girl was begging "please", Randy was rounding the corner as the asshole was lining up another punch at the blond. The asshole was looming over her, had grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head, pulling her up to a near-seated position from where his earlier blows had laid her flat on her back. Her nose was bleeding and her left eye was already turning purple. The asshole was wearing a leather jacket and cowboy boots, he also had a high and tight haircut so he was most likely a troop. Randy was trying to move quietly, the blond was making a lot of noise and she had assholes full attention. Asshole didn't know Randy was there till Randy's full face helmet was bouncing off the side of his head. Asshole dropped the blond, bounced off the van behind and slightly to his side and hit the ground. Randy stood over him debating on whether or not to hit him some more but he wasn't moving so Randy made sure he was still breathing. He was so Randy turned his attention to the blond. She had made it to her feet and said "oh holy shit. We've got to get out of here. His friends are coming."

Time to un-ass that AO. Randy and the blond ran to his bike. Randy put his now cracked helmet on and handed her the spare half shell helmet he kept with the bike. Randy fired the Sportster up and they hit the road. Unsure of where to go he headed to the park by the river in Clarksville.

Randy found a secluded spot and it took a bit but he managed to get the blond's name, Iris and he found out what was going on in the lot.

Iris was a single mom. Her baby daddy had lived with her off post until he was posted to Korea. He left her with a 9-month-old son and a promise to send money to help her out. He didn't keep that promise. Her son was now 13-months-old, she was being threatened with eviction from her apartment, the lights had been turned off for non-payment and she was broke. She had gone to the Wheel hoping to find a guy either for the night or for a longer term who'd be willing to pay for the privilege of sharing her bed. She was up against the wall. Her folks had disowned her when she had run off with her boyfriend. They'd told her not to call or come home cause she was a disgrace to her dad's position in the LDS church in Butte.

The reason the GI was beating on her was she thought she had negotiated and evening with him, he wanted it to be him and his 4 buddies and for the whole weekend. He took exception to her saying that wasn't the deal and trying to get away from him.

Randy took her home and forgot the whole boy scout thing when she invited him into the apartment and then her bed. This was the start of Randy living with her for the next five months. It started as acquaintances with benefits but Randy started having real feelings for Iris and particularly for her toddler son Dave. Randy really enjoyed being Dave's step-dad. He spent more time with the boy than Iris did. Shortly after Randy came on scene Iris found work in a bar as a waitress. She started her shifts about 7 pm which gave her some common time with Randy after he was done for the day. She wasn't hard to look at and got hit on constantly, but didn't feel the need to stray. this period was also the driest time in Randy' life since Carol's passing. Being a dad agreed with him and was turning his life around.

About 2 months after he started living with Iris he talked her into calling her mom, Violet during the day while her dad would be at work. Iris' mom was at first very angry that Iris had the nerve to call home. That changed the moment Iris mentioned that she was a grandma. Violet then took her to task for not calling a lot sooner and for not sending pictures. Iris started calling once a week, but it wasn't long and it was every day. Her dad Bruce wasn't having any of it till the first pack of pictures arrived at his home. Then he morphed into Grandpa. Nothing melts the hearts of disapproving parents like the face of the grandbaby they didn't know they had.

Randy wasn't on the lease, he gave money to Iris to pay the bills, so her folks showing up the week before the first of March 85 with a U-haul trailer came as a total surprise. Randy came pulling up and saw the Suburban with the trailer behind it. He was a bit shocked when he saw Iris' folks come out of the house carrying boxes. Bruce deposited his and walked over to Randy, holding out his hand. For the next 5 minutes he did his best to reasonably explain to Randy that it was best or everyone that he and Violet take Iris and Dave home with them to Butte.

Randy had no clue this was coming. When Iris came out of the house she was visibly scared and crying. She knew her folks were coming for 3 weeks and had kept that from Randy. She didn't want to hurt him but wanted to go home. Randy didn't react like she thought he would, he didn't get angry, he just started sobbing. Dave was outside walking around and Randy went to him, picked him up and hugged him, put him down and went to his bike. He went to the Wagon Wheel, bought a beer that got room temp and flat in front of him and went back to the house. Most of the furniture was still there, but all of Iris' and Dave's stuff was gone. Iris left a note on the table with the keys to the beater car Randy had bought her. The gist of the note was that she was sorry, but she didn't think she and Randy were going to be long-term and the offer to go home was too good to turn down.

She promised to stay in touch, and she did send a letter every once in a while, but those stopped when Dave's bio-dad got discharged and came home to Butte. She thanked Randy for all he'd done for the 2 of them but she was re-starting a relationship with Mike, Dave's bio-dad. The last contact with Iris and her family came in Sept 85, when Bruce sent the newspaper announcement of Iris' and Mike's wedding and a note that said: "I'm sorry son, Bruce".

Randy cleaned what he wanted out of the house, had a yard sale, gave a bunch of stuff to charity and let the house go. His 1SGT gave him an NCO room in the barracks and Randy did his thing again, he got drunk a lot.

Randy dated Brenda off and on for several months but broke it off when he found out Brenda got around, a lot. Being one of many with a girl wasn't Randy's thing so he just stopped seeing her. last he saw of Brenda she was out of uniform, medical discharge for being pregnant, and was married to a guy named Bill who liked to share.

Randy met and dated Mary, who was a lot of fun, if not too bright. Mary had a pretty big scar on the back and side of her head where she had been hit with a softball bat during a brawl over a mixed league softball game. She had joined the army to "see the world" after she had healed up from her head injury. She had symptoms of a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) namely a significant personality change. Randy didn't know this at the time, but hindsight is 20-20.

Mary was very open to suggestion. Didn't disagree with anything if she liked you and she liked Randy. One of Randy's favorite things was to take her for a ride on his bike, where once they were out of town he'd tell her to go topless and she would till he told her to put her shirt back on. The 2 of them had a good time together until Randy went TDY for 45 days. When he got back he found out that he had been replaced in Mary's affections, that new "boyfriend" whored her out, and that she was being given a bad conduct discharge for being arrested for prostitution.

Randy went back to his best bud, the bottle.

By Apr 86 Randy's drinking was affecting his health, and the senior NCO's in his life were becoming "concerned" as they put it. It was coming to a head, get a handle on his life and quit drinking or have his world crash and burn. It was the third week of Apr. 86, the Saturday of that week. 1600 hours or so in the early evening. There were very strong thunderstorms in a line from the Gulf clear to the great lakes moving to the east. Lightning coming down so often it was almost a continuous light source. Randy was staggering drunk, feeling so sorry for himself, wandering around the parade field near the aluminum bleachers carrying a 7-foot walking stick with copper caps on both ends. Lightning struck the upper railing of the bleachers about 100 ft from Randy.

When he came to, Randy was stone sober. He looked at his watch but the crystal was cracked and the liquid crystal display solid black. when he sat up he saw that his walking stick was blown to toothpicks and he could only locate one of the end caps. It was burned black. The lightning had cut a swath down thru the bleachers like some kind of huge plasma cutting torch, 5 inches wide at the top tapering to about an inch at the bottom. The lightning had tracked across the ground towards Randy then had spiraled in on itself like the inside of a snails shell.

Randy walked back to the barracks with sore feet. When he got to his room he took his boots off. The balls of both feet were bright red as were the heels. They were tender as if they had been sunburned. Randy laid down and didn't get up till the following morning. For the first time in years, he didn't crave a drink. His need for booze was gone.

Over the next few weeks, he slowly remembered a dream he had while he was knocked out. It had been a long conversation with Carol. He never remembered exactly what was said but his Carol was crying while she spoke to him. Randy always credited his new found desire to make things better to that dream. It changed the course of his life.

The options for re-enlistment didn't appeal to Randy and because he was within 90 of his original ETS (Enlisted Termination of Service), he was discharged early as part of a reduction in forces that was going on at the time. It took less than a week for Randy to out process and get his discharge papers. it took less than three hours to pack his stuff and load his bike in the back of his F150.

Randy dreamed of Carol every night. She was still ahead of him in the dreams but oh so close. Based on his dreams Randy didn't go home, at least not right away. He spent the next ten years of his life trying to help those in need of his skills, but we'll get to that shortly. Randy left Ft. Campbell on 042886 headed north on Hwy 41A. He was sober now for nearly 2 weeks, the driest he'd been in years.