In The Navy (BE&E), Part 1

This will not be a long chapter, but there will be a few interesting parts, at least. BE & E (that is Basic Electronics & Electricity) only lasted 3 or 4 weeks, but I had some time both before and after where I was assigned to barracks duty, which I will go into. It’s a lovely option the Navy uses when someone is too early to a post to start the next available training class or assignment that they have to take. It’s usually not a long period of time though. It lasted a few weeks typically.

After boot camp I was temporarily assigned to a barracks there on the main Great Lakes Naval Training Center (it’s separated from boot camp physically). It was not terrible duty, but it was tedious. We would have a gang of guys that would meet every morning for an informal muster (sometimes the Chief in charge would have a hair up his ass and make us line up in ranks).

From there we would be assigned the morning’s duty which could vary greatly from day to day. Some days you would be stripping wax off a floor and re-waxing it. The next you might be randomly “policing the base” picking up trash. The next you might be dusting and cleaning the common areas. It was always random, but you would certainly become an expert at removing and applying wax to a tile floor and then be able to buff it to a fine shine once it dried. It was pretty much mandatory for enlisted men (I can’t speak for the women, but I expect the same).

The barracks itself was a fairly new brick building and didn’t smell at all. It was cramped in the small room that you shared with one other person, completely at random. Roommates came and went often throughout my time in Navy barracks. I was actually alone in my room for most of the 2 weeks before I went back to school, which was fine by me. The lack of distractions left me plenty of time to investigate the base, especially on weekends. I was creeping into every building that I could get into and some you shouldn’t, they were guarded because of classified documents most likely. Others were pretty much abandoned and I could wander long halls in silence, except my own trotting.

I found an excellent secluded spot in a cubby on the roof on one seemingly abandoned building that was shielded from the weather, but had a perfect view of Lake Michigan. I would climb up there any time I could and just sit and clear my head. I was soaking in the beautiful view like I did when I lived on Lake Erie when I was much younger. Staring at a large body of water, I find, to not be a waste of time, as it will almost always find some way to surprise you and show you something you have never seen before. Try it sometime.

The silence was always broken by some commotion on base big enough to echo up through my spire. Only once did I bring some friends up to see the location. More than once, I was almost nabbed by security who swept the building randomly. They were not too hard to evade.