Tuesday, March 12, 1968, 155 days.
Don Williams, the CQ turned on the lights at 0500, like they do every morning, but instead of waiting until just before reveille to get up, I jumped out of bed. Rublay, Balfor and I were authorized early breakfast, and permission to miss reveille, since we’d be leaving by 0545 to go to the motor pool to get a jeep and chain it up. It snowed nearly a foot overnight, and it took us nearly a half hour to trudge to the motor pool, with two snow shovels and a flat type coal shovel that we picked up in the supply room. By the time we checked the jeep out and chained it up, it was almost 0640, and we still had to drive out to LTC Alford’s place, which was located off base.
I drove, and it was like being back in Michigan. I grew up with snow four months of the year and icicles hanging off the traffic lights, but still don’t really enjoy it. When we arrived LTC Newman and one of his teenage sons had some of the driveway clean. Together we finished it in around half an hour. His wife invited us in for breakfast, and we accepted, since we didn’t want to piss the colonel off. Besides all that work had burned off our earlier breakfast. We left at a little after 0800 hrs. but the colonel already left, since he was due at the block house at 0800 hrs..
I dropped Rublay and Balfor off at their jobs in personnel, before I drove back to the barracks. I decided to keep the jeep, at least until I checked in with Top. When I got there Smart was shoveling snow.
“Grines.” He said when he saw me. “Ask Top if you can help me. I’m never going to get done otherwise.”
When I walked into the orderly room Top was sitting in his desk like he’d been waiting for me. Then he told me. “Grines, I need you to sweep the hallway. After that go outside and help Smart shovel the snow. At the rate he’s going, he won’t get done until July 4th.”
While we were shoveling snow, the mail truck came, so I had to stop for that. When I passed out the mail at the Block house Colonel Newman asked me if he got a letter from his girlfriend yet.
“No sir.” I told him, but I’ll keep my eye out for it.
After lunch Smart and I smoked a joint before we started back on the snow shoveling. Before you knew it, we were throwing shovels of snow at each other, which escalated into snowballs. This brought Top out on the porch telling us to quit behaving like children, and finish the snow shoveling. So we got to business until the afternoon mail came. Then I left Smart by himself while I sorted it out and delivered it all.
When I got to the block house, I had a letter for LTC Newman and it was from The Post Commander.
As I walked in, I announced. “Letter for LTC Newman, from Raquel Welch.”
He immediately answered, “But I was expecting one from Jill St. John.” Grines, you’re making me mad.
After I passed out the rest of the mail, I went to the PX to buy the latest issue of MAD and when I got back to the barracks, Smart wasn’t around and the snow shovels were just laying there.
“Where’s Smart?” I asked Top.
“He thinks that he has a hernia.” Top said. “So we went on sick call. You need to finish shoveling the snow by yourself, but when Sampson gets back I’ll have him help you. The BC wants it completely done by the time that the workday is over.
I wanted to go to the gym tonight, because I’m training for the 1st Annual Ft. Sill Powerlifting Championships. I decided to do it, since it will help me to get more motivated in training. I’ve gotten lazy. This snow shoveling is a workout in itself. Every year people drop dead while shoveling their snow back in Detroit. I decided to approach it as an exercise to help me build up endurance. I wanted to answer the letter that I got from home yesterday this afternoon as well but I don’t think that it will happen. Sampson started helping me at 1500 hrs. and we knocked it all out before 1600 hrs.
“Top can I have off?” I asked and continued – “To go train at the gym, since I finished the snow shoveling?”
Top let me have it off, and after I got my gym bag packed, I drove the jeep that I still had checked out to the motor pool and checked it in. Then I caught a bus to the other side of Ft. Sill, where the gym is located. I had a good workout, in spite of feeling exhausted when I arrived. I think that the snow shoveling loosened me up. I got up to 8 reps with 315 lbs. on the bench, and squatted 415 lbs. for 10 reps.. After I finished all my arm work, calf and abs, I did the deadlift. I pulled 455 for 8 reps., I think that I can do 500 lbs. easy by the meet. Howard came up in the middle of my workout and he spotted me on my last bench set.
His demeanor is so funny, the cynicism and all that it’s hard for me to concentrate but somehow I managed. It’s interesting the way that some people are able to communicate so much by saying so little verbally, while speaking volumes with their body language. We got something to eat afterwards at the snack bar. He paid for both of our meals. He’s loaded. Both his parents were killed in a car wreck when he was ten years old and he inherited a house, company and life insurance policies that he would get full control of when he turned 25. At the age of 18 he started receiving a monthly interest payment, which amounted to more than a full time job in a Detroit auto plant. He had six months worth of un-cashed Army checks in his locker drawer.
We finally made it back to the barracks on the 2100 hrs. bus. I actually wrote the letter to my parents, so it can go out with the morning mail. The Monk went on TDY for a week at some undisclosed location, after telling me goodbye.
The Monk is an unusual person and we hit it off the first time that we met, as if we were somehow connected together. He was born in Hong Kong to a black American missionary and his Chinese wife, who then moved back to America and San Francisco, after a 10 year absence. Larry was 8 years old when they arrived in the states and since he was homesick for his home in Hong Kong, he liked to hang out in Chinatown, especially at the Buddhist temple, which is how he acquired his nickname.
At the same time he was a mathematics genius, who was offered scholarships to Stanford, Harvard, M.I.T. and a host of others Ivy league colleges, but he said that he wanted to gain life experience before he went to college, so he would have a better understanding of why he was studying his particular discipline. Everyone said that he was crazy, but he spent his time after high school tripping on LSD, smoking pot and listening to music, until he got his draft notice, which didn’t even phase him, it was just another life experience he said.
When he was drafted into the army his test scores were so high that they wanted to send him to West Point, but he refused, saying that he was in the army for life experience and wasn’t ready for college yet. When they tried to put him in OCS he refused and said that he wanted to serve as a common grunt like all draftees. They ended up sending him to military intelligence school, where he was given a top secret clearance and trained in cryptology. He’s attached to 3rd Group, but he spends more time on TDY than at Ft. Sill. I finally made it to bed by 2200 hrs. and fell asleep almost immediately.
♪Jesus♬Rocks♬The♬World♪ 
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