In The Navy (BE&E), Part 4

Most weekends were filled with journeys and the most boring yet memorable, was a car ride up to Milwaukee. Why go into Wisconsin from Illinois in 1981? The drinking age..you dummy. We got a few cases of the cheapest real beer we could find, because we were idiots and on a tight budget. Each of us chipped in the cash we had so we could load up a full case.

We didn’t wait to get back “home”, we started drinking this piss water called Red White and Blue beer while it was still warm. We collectively had never been so sick in our lives. We were sick from both ends, if you know what I mean? It was awful and the sickness lasted about a full day. I have never been able to touch a corn based beer again, like Milwaukee’s Best, which is just as crappy tasting. I guess my taste buds grew up a bit after that.

We went to see the first Indiana Jones movie one night and we all loved it, it still stands up today. It made us feel more like regular people to go to a theater and later dinner in our “civvies” (civilian clothes). It always made you feel like less of a “sailor” when you could go out while out of uniform. A bit more of a part of humanity.

In school, we had gotten up to something requiring some serious Algebra, triangles and I faltered (I hate Math). About 5 of us from our one class and the same from 3 others were all assigned to do a Saturday Math refresher. We went to a building on the very south part of the base right on the water. It seemed to be a lodge type location where they would have private parties. It was a strange place to have a class, but there was a room there with desks and we did our assignments. I got it eventually, but ask me about that crap today…well, good luck.

Transistor Logic was next and everyone in the class (even the instructors) knew this was just about the pinnacle of what we had to learn about. Apparently a lot of guys had real trouble with the concept. It was all review for me because I had learned it in High School. I was back at my room by noon that day and I pissed off a few of the guys in my class by doing so. They took days to get through it. I tried to help one of the guys I would hang out with, but he was having some real problems and had to ask the instructor for help.

School wrapped up and a few of us were again assigned to barracks duty. I will run down some of the more humorous things I witnessed while on the tail end my time at The Great Lakes Naval Training Center next.